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Pure gold for RTE. the whole country will be tuning in to see what Joe says next.

+1. and he wasn't wrong in what he said either.

It was classic stuff.

In Fairness it doesn't matter what size Gallogly is - McHugh is not exactly a giant either. It was a poor tackle.

It wasn't even a foul.

And re-scheduling club games definitely harms the club game in the long run when other sports can guarantee players regular games in high summer.

Apart from the League of Ireland, which sports can guarantee games in high summer? Junior soccer and all rugby are not played in high summer. Cricket?

Donegal are worse than Kilkenny for getting favours from refs. The amount of fouls and pick-ups he missed was embarrassing. Then if a Down player did the same they were penalised. 16 against 15 there today.

How there was only 2 minutes added, I'll never know.

Gaelic Football is not such a skilful game that good coaching and preparation can't enable teams to compete. There are plenty of counties out there that have talent but for whatever reason are not competing properly.

That's simply incorrect. Football is like every other game in the world, preparation and tactics can help teams but skills ultimately dictate who wins titles. Dublin are where they are largely because they are producing skilful footballers, Donegal's 'system' wouldn't work without the few exceptional player they have. Football is a hugely challenging and skillful game.

Were Wexford, Sligo and Fermanagh even in the top 10-15 most skilful teams in the country when they were challenging at the business end of the championship?

Talent and skills-wise, I'm not sure I'd have Donegal in the top five in the country. Don't forget that this largely the same panel of players who were annihilated by Armagh in 2010. But their coaching, tactics and preparation have enabled them to develop their talent and skills a level far above that of other counties.

I didn't suggest that weaker counties should be winning All-Irelands by the way, just that the perceived unbridgeable gap between the strong and the rest can be at least significantly narrowed.

You mention other games. Were Greece the most skilful team in Europe in 2004? Were Liverpool in 2005?

Fact is that the gap between the top teams & the rest is now so wide that the championship proper won't start until the quarter finals.
It's been like this for years in hurling & football is now going the same way. Sad but that's the way it is.

But yet Wexford, Fermanagh and Sligo have all genuinely competed at the business end of the All-Ireland championship in recent years. Westmeath won a Leinster title for the first time ever. Laois won one for the first time in countless decades. Limerick reached the quarter-finals in 2011. Wicklow had a good run a few years ago and beat Down who came out of nowhere to thrash Kerry and almost win the All-Ireland the following year. Donegal and Mayo were both humiliated in 2010 but yet within two years they were contesting the All-Ireland final.

Gaelic Football is not such a skilful game that good coaching and preparation can't enable teams to compete. There are plenty of counties out there that have talent but for whatever reason are not competing properly. 

Ok so we're all sick of these one sided games but we don't want to send teams into weaker competitions meaning we wont see any shocks in the championship. Some would like an open draw for championship but we don't want to lose the provincial championship. We want to go back to old fashioned knock out competition but we also want teams to get extra games.
Bit of a conundrum. How do we keep everyone happy?

You can't keep everybody happy and that's both the beauty and the failure of the GAA system.

Some people say you could have a league system which abolished the Division 1-4 groupings and gives weaker counties more games against stronger teams but that's been tried before and lots of people didn't like it. But if you stick with the current league system the gap between the strong and the weak will probably continue to widen.

Some people in Ulster will complain about the easy run to the quarter-finals that Kerry and Cork have but most people in Ulster don't want the Ulster Championship scrapped.

Some people say that having an open draw will give weaker counties a better chance to compete but other people will say that will mean weaker counties will have no possibility of ever winning any silverware and discourage them.

Some people want a Champions League-style championship structure but other people say that will damage the club game. Some people want to return to straight knock out but other people will say "what's the point of training for six months and only getting to play one game?"

Some people want a divisional championship where only eight teams compete for the Sam Maguire but others would say that will be the death of inter-county football.

Some people want less TV matches saying that they damage attendances at club matches but other people say that you need as many live TV matches as possible to maximise media exposure.

Some people think that counties should merge to enable them to compete better but other people would rather die than see their county team disappear.

Some people think that negative tactics are killing Gaelic football but others think it's great to see new thinking in terms of tactical preparation and systems of play.

Some people think Dublin should be split into two to stop their dominance in Leinster but others think that would be a total disaster.

Some people think it's great that so much money is being pumped into developing the GAA in Dublin but others moan that they can't compete with them as a result.

Some people say matches like last night's shouldn't be played in Croke Park but if they were played at provincial venues others will complain about their county never getting to play there.

Some people think that players should be paid because of all the effort they put in but others think that would be the death of the GAA as we know it.

Repeat for any number of other issues.

What puzzles me about the Indo article is McGuinness's claim that Bogue hadn't done his research. Where else would you get research for this subject matter but from members of the Donegal panel or management? Is McGuinness now implying that Bogue should have got the views of more players, despite having thrown the one player who did give his view off the panel?

I think Jim was just right, it was Donegals and his day yesterday, if he was uncomfortable with someone being there then why should he continue (as a lot of you point out he is not a professional sports coach so he has no reason to).

Didnt half of the intercounty managers refuse to speak to RTE cause some guy didnt get a commentating job, now this too me was a lot more serious, since when did the inner workings of a broadcaster have anything to do with county managers

Indeed. And Mickey Harte and others were completely wrong in that stance.

'untruths' was the word McGuinness used, more diplomatic than saying lies. If he believes Bogue was telling lies, be it about McGuinness himself, his players, his setup, preparation, whatever,  then he has every right to not entertain him. Fair fcuks, i would have done the same

Exactly what "untuths" was Bogue telling? Or are you too diplomatic to imply you think it was Cassidy telling the "untruths"?

And if so, exactly what untruths were these?

Utterly pathetic stuff from McGuinness and pathetic from the rest of the journalists who should have walked out in support of their colleague.

He's proved himself to be an extremely vindictive, petty small-minded individual.

Each final is a 50/50 at best.

You imply that the maximum chance any team can have going into an All-Ireland final is 50%, but also that a team can have a less than 50% chance. Let's say for argument's sake Mayo have a 30% chance tomorrow. Does that mean Donegal still onlly have a 50% chance? What happens to the other 20%?

 

With 2011 the tensest finish to an All-Ireland final I've ever experienced, and I'm not from Armagh, and I wasn't even at it. The greatest, most spine-tingling scenes I've ever seen after a final, and I only watched it in Quinn's.   

I suppose the general consensus now among GAA authorities would be that the pitch invasion took away from the occasion. 

The lads on Off the Ball last nite were taking this piss out of the RTE lads claiming it was all about hunger. They rightly said that was just lazy journalism and that the team that prepares better wins

It's a cliche but it's true - hunger is a massive deciding factor in such games. Lack of hunger means your training is not as good, your frame of mind is not as good, your willingness to go in for that 50/50 ball where you risk getting smashed is not quite the same. The hungrier team will almost always prepare better. Good preparation is a function of hunger.