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Heard there have been a number of departures from the panel over the last two weeks but no announcements made

Who all is meant to have gone? They called in a few u20's a few weeks back - wonder was that as replacements?

Whats the thoughts this weekend? Start as Monaghan below to try and match up with the attacking wing backs of Galway or will we see a McGlennon, Oguz or R Canavan? Picking up Tierney among several others is going to be tough. Assume Meyler go on Walsh and McNamee on Cormer?. Galway have an impressive spread of players and are going to be hard to control. 


Niall Morgan; Ronan McNamee, Pádraig Hampsey; Cormac Quinn; Kieran McGeary, Michael McKernan, Conor Meyler; Brian Kennedy, Conn Kilpatrick; Peter Harte, Michael O'Neill, Frank Burns; Darren McCurry, Mattie Donnelly, Darragh Canavan.

Move Harte from CHB back out to the wing where he is of benefit. Burns or Munroe to CHB.

If you were picking a team on form over last 12 months Harte could very easily find himself on the bench. He hasn't been doing enough. That could allow Burns to slot into 6.

Half forward line is a difficult one. McGeary and O'Neill like Harte should not be starting on anything we've seen over the last 12 months. Canavan could  play deeper as a play maker allowing McGleenan to go inside and try something different. Wonder what sort of shape McShane is in - probably still only an impact sub for now. Mattie and Oguz could be used as workers out round the middle sector.

Very important for confidence that we go to Galway and put in a big shift. 3 championship losses in a row now - don't want that run continuing much longer.

The two lads last night came to the conclusion that Tyrone are the strongest Ulster team left in the AI series.
The same Tyrone team that have won one championship game since 2021 and were beaten by both Derry and Armagh last year.

That was woeful stuff alright. Taking form from 2 years ago and elevating them above the 2 best current teams in the province.

Listen to a few decent podcasts for GAA analysis now. The Sunday Game is finished in terms of analysis, its shockingly bland stuff.

Tyrone see to be a jekyll and hyde team these days and are just too inconsistent.  On a good day, they can be a handful, but you couldn't rely on it.  The two guys seem to think we haven't seen them fully and they may be thinking they are going to get a bit of a run, but I don't personally see it happening.  Liable to go out and beat Galway, but fail to back it up against Armagh.

There are a few Tyrone lads like Canavan, McGinley and Cavanagh working in RTE now alongside Flynn and Keegan so maybe they are simply trying to cosy up to them. But how they rate Tyrone as the best Ulster have to offer simply doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

The biggest issue I have with the show though is the fact that it is long past its sell by date. Last night was one of the worst examples.

It's very hard to know where Tyrone are at but if they get a run together there's more chance of them going on to challenge for an All ireland than both Derry or Armagh. They're just as liable to get knocked out in the last 12 at the minute but they have the pedigree to do something if get a run going. That's what winning so many All Ireland's at senior and underage level does. Armagh struggled to cope with the pressure of winning an Ulster yesterday, imagine what they'd be like facing Kerry in a semi final. They also couldn't win in Omagh in the league when it mattered this year.

€10 would be enough for TC group games and free u16s.
It's €25 for the Sam group games, €20 would be more than enough.
A bit of marketing , 3 game packages, family and Club deals etc. wouldnt have gone amiss either.

absolutely. People won't fork out 3 weeks in row for group games I don't think

A lot of people will only attend one game. If they offer 3 games for 40 euro you could easily get people going to extra games. There seems to be no push at all in the gaa authorities to sell the games to increase attendances. It all feels very short sighted. Same with season ticket - they have squeezed every drop of value out of them for loyal fans. For any other organisation you save money using a season ticket.

If there was one in grain of truth of any single allegation I would have thought that would have been enough for him to step aside temporarily. The complete rebuttal and the reference to this having already been investigated certainly makes the County Boards position as difficult as it could be.

Nightmare scenario

What complete rebuttal?! If that statement is genuine, it looks to me that he has been very careful not to explicitly deny anything.

It's a complete rebuttal in the sense that it's an outright denial.

I didn't say it was a satisfactory rebuttal.

Just making the point that he has knocked this back to the county board and not exactly made it easy for them.

It's not an outright denial though? Although I'm sure it will follow.

He says allegations were made against him and dealt with by the relevant authorities. That could mean anything ffs.

If they were dealt with by the authorities and then he was awarded custody to the children you could probably read something into it. But either way it's a mess of a situation and mad the way people are so quick to make their minds up on something they have a read a post on facebook on.

So, no tickets through ticketmaster.ie.
All through the clubs.
Wonder how many people will be at their first county game this year, ( or indeed many years)
But as far as the GAA is concerned F@&K those of us who travelled to Roscommon and Kerry to support our team.

I keep seeing messages like this on social media. I really don't know if putting them on general sale was going to solve the problem. That was going to give access to every bandwagoner and tout and definitely lead to loads of tickets in the wrong hands.

The season ticket is great for people who go to all the games and aren't involved with clubs. I do think the system could be opened up more to reward loyalty of fans who do attend numerous games during the year (but not necessarily every game).

Definitely wouldn't want to finish third. Probably end up getting drawn away to Kerry/Mayo and even if somehow won that then you'd be looking at playing a top seed the following week.

To be honest if you lose to both Galway and a team who lose an ulster final then the chances are the season isn't going anywhere anyway. If you are serious about competing for All Ireland's you need to be heading to Galway and giving a good account of yourself and beating Armagh/Derry at home.

Load's of people on social media giving out that they've been to every game and aren't a member of a club/active in their club and that it's not fair. Surely if you are such a big fan and know you won't get tickets through a club then the season ticket option is best?

Come third and you could be playing away to Mayo or Roscommon and even if won that would be out in a quarter final the week after with no break.

The Munster and Connaught finalists will be involved in matches the first weekend (20th/21st May). The Leinster/Ulster finalists will be involved in games the second weekend.

Obviously it's best to go into the group stages as provincial winners , but second choice is to go in as third seeds. Especially the runners up in Ulster,  after 3 hard games the loser is odds on to end up with a hot to trot 3rd seed in their group.

Third seed away to a provincial champion in first game after a 5/6 week break. That's the worst case start to a group. At least runners up are playing a 4th seed and i assume have home advantage.

Donegal were very poor for large parts of the league and have all sorts of problems. I expect Down to be very fit and well set up. Their u20's already showed this under Laverty. Definitely a potential upset on the cards.

I wouldn't totally rule out Cavan v Armagh either. Graham has a habit of pulling of big results and Armagh's record in Ulster has been very very poor since 2008. Cavan would have won more games than them in that time I'd imagine.

3 teams getting through in groups of 4 is nonsense really. Just means there will be loads of dead rubbers and even now we will likely have Sligo in one group making the group itself a dead rubber. Is it a money thing dragging it out with 3 teams going through?

The moaning will start about these sweet 16 groups soon enough! Once the knockout element is taken away there is a lack of jeopardy and edge. We will likely get 4 groups with Westmeath, Sligo and probably Clare getting knocked out.

I'm not a fan of the system but I think one of the reasons for 3 teams going through is to avoid dead rubbers. Every position in the group is important meaning nearly every game should have something at stake. First place important to avoid an extra match and get an easier quarter final. The teams at bottom will likely have chance to qualify right up to last day. And finishing second over third gives home advantage in the preliminary quarter final (and probably an easier game).

Reading back yesterday - it's almost like people are out to complain about games no matter what. There was a few negative comments during the first half. It wasn't a classic but there was 19 scores in it including a master class from Canavan. You wonder what some people want from the game now.

The funny bit about the lucky All Ireland is when people throw in covid like it was some massive advantage. Tyrone training with 14/15 players or less for 2/3 weeks in the middle of the championship and people thinking it was somehow an advantage as Kerry had to wait an extra week to play the game. Even within that match Tyrone played with 14 men for 20 minutes of the second half and only for a soft Kerry free at the end would have won in normal time. Going into the final as underdogs with all experts tipping an on form Mayo team and turning them over by 4/5 points. Not sure where the luck game from. They averaged 21 points a game playing against 4 division one teams.

Very poor start to second half yesterday when Tyrone game out with the wrong mentality cost them nearly as it was hard to recover once Monaghan had the momentum. I'd still have Tyrone as lively All Ireland contenders but lot of work to do especially defensively. Both goals yesterday were a joke from a defensive point of view.