Messages

Hard luck Omagh, losing to a last gasp point is difficult to take. Will look back on lots of small incidents as this game came down to fine margins........Omagh will know it is an awful long road back to this stage. At least they had time to celebrate winning the Tyrone championship.

Best Tyrone forward line ever:

Dooher  E McKenna    S Cavanagh
O'Neill    F McGuigan    Canavan

Thats 6 all time greats in Tyrone........two from the same club!

I said if Omagh were within striking distance with 15 minutes to go they could do it and to be fair to them they finished very strongly. A lot of things went right for them on the day: sickness in the Cross camp, 2 sendings off at a crucial stage, O'Neills attempt at a point ending up in second goal, Jamie Clarke not getting a free in...........however they also got a brilliant goal from O'Neill, a solid display from MacAnulla, real graft from Meyler and A Grugan, a strong second half in midfield and held Cross scoreless for last 30 mins so they have to be highly commended. They now have as good a chance as anyone left to win Ulster.......

The Clarkes came up short against a reportedly strong Warrenpoint team. It could be good in the long run as this will give them time to prepare for senior. It could be a tough year in 2015 and they will do well to stay in division one as they will come up against teams like Warrenpoint every week!

Rock won handy enough and with the Monaghan and Cavan champions out they will be expected to keep progressing. I am hearing that Keady are good and they could be the fly in the ointment for them.

Omagh v Cross - Omagh can make life very difficult if they avoid getting blitzed at the start. Given the run they have had in Tyrone they should retain their belief if they can stay within 2/3 points with 15mins to go. Conversely Cross have had it easy up to now and are not as battle hardened this year (though they are over a 20 year period!!!!!). Omagh played very defensively in the County Final and i think that is their best chance. If they REALLY believe an upset could happen..........looking forward to attending this.

Clarkes v Warrenpoint - this has the makings of a cracker and i wish i could be in 2 places at once. The Clarkes were really impressive against Trillick and it will take a good side to beat them if they turn up like that again. Warrenpoint may be that team however. Like Truagh last year they seem to be a good standard senior team who have found themselves in the Intermediate championship. This one is 'all on the day' and the result could be a big indicator on how the Clarkes will fare in senior.....

Rock v Moneymore - Rock were not very impressive in either game against Derrytresk but maybe they were too familiar an opponent. With that monkey off the back they would be very much expected to be too good for Moneymore.

If all 3 teams made it through it would be an amazing day. Just a pity that 2 of them are not at the same venue!

Its very clear that something radical has to be done and hopefully the new president is the man to do it. But when is this going to happen? Fixtures have already been made for next year, if something was going to change for say 2016 would counties need to know now in case league performance could have a bearing?
The further this can is kicked down the road the more players we are going to lose to other codes, the more bitterness is going to build in the club v county debate, more liberties are going to be taken by inter county managers and the mess is going to be harder to solve!
This is the REAL problem for the GAA.
Just one more thing though. How many recently retired inter-county players bring these sort of issues up in their columns? Could they not see the harm being done to THEIR clubs when they were away with the county all year? To give them the benefit of the doubt players play, managers manage, and adminsitrators administrate....so it up to Croke Park to come up with a solution QUICKLY.

International football is in a terrible state - WORLD CHAMPIONS GERMANY were lucky to beat SCOTLAND, got beaten by POLAND and drew with IRELAND..............it was an awful World Cup apart from a couple of good games in the early stages............Sterling is too tired to play for England..............at this rate Norn Iron might win the bloody thing!!!!!!

Omagh should win but Carmen probably will win!

Dromore have responded well to their championship defeat, fair play to them. Looks like league is between them and Coalisland. As usual the race at the bottom is much more interesting and a lot of teams are still involved in terms of escaping the play-offs. Donaghmore are the form team in the league, could they push on next year and make a bid for honours?

Division 2 much more clear cut. If Trillick win the championship, they will go straight back up with Greencastle and at the bottom looks like Newtown and Killeeshil will go straight back down. Fair play to Lough who really consolidated this year.

Division 3 very straightforward with Rock and Derrytresk back up. Much stronger teams than Killeeshil and Newtown and it will make Division 2 a minefield next year!

Billabong, i always thought Brockagh had a lot of promise if they could keep all their players in the country. Maybe next year will be the year! As i said could be a great opportunity for a team to come form relative obscurity next year!

Billabong, perhaps Rock and Derrytresk are doing so well because they have the best teams in Division 3! Derrytresk beat the Clarkes a couple of years ago in junior championship and look where the Clarkes are now while Rock have beaten Moortown, Strabane and Moy in the last 2 intermediate championships and all of those clubs are in Division One. The one team to disappoint is Clan na Gael especially with O'Neill and Dooher both playing! It look like Newtownstewart and Killeeshil are going down so next year could be the time for a new team to get a bit of glory. The Junior section looks like it would be very open and lots of clubs could make a real push for honours, Owen Roes, Tattyreagh, Aghaloo, Fintona, Brockagh..........what do you think?

Watched the 2011 final on All Ireland Gold last night. Joe McQuillan was like a 16th man for the Dubs, surely if Donegal are to get close he will have to swing the other way!!!!!!!!

Back to the football - the senior games are difficult to call - neither Ardboe or Carmen have been up to much so far but either would fancy winning the O'Neill Cup at this stage. I take Ardboe narrowly.
Dromore have been dealt a huge blow with the accident to Eoin McCusker, while Omagh got beat by Donaghmore at the weekend......going to go for Omagh.
In intermediate Trillick look strong favourites to win it but will get tested by Pomeroy if they turn up!!!! I am shading for Dungannon to have too much pace for Urney, though Urney have a lot more experience.
Everyone is expecting a Derrytresk/Rock Junior final and that will motivate the Derg and Owen Roes. Both semi finals could be close but will take the favs to progress.

Not goin near another Tyrone match.........

This is very boring - anybody want to talk about the football this weekend? Ardboe should beat Moy by 3/4, Carrickmore will beat Augher even though they are not setting the world on fire at the moment. 2 great games in Intermediate and both could go either way. Pomeroy and Dungannon are capable of playing very fast football but will come up against tough teams in Greencastle and Gortin. Just fancy Greencastle and Dungannon to shade it. In Junior will go for Derrytrek, Clan na Gael, Owen Roes and Rock.

With no protection and without the oxygen of publicity...............