all ireland football qualifiers 2017.

[From the Bunker]

If I was Meath I'd convert mobile Half backs into forwards! What they need is faster forwards.

[AZOffaly]

Why in the name of Jaysus is the Offaly-Cavan game and the Armagh-Fermanagh game on at half 6 on a SUNDAY evening? I can't ever remember an inter county game at that time...

[J70]

Why in the name of Jaysus is the Offaly-Cavan game and the Armagh-Fermanagh game on at half 6 on a SUNDAY evening? I can't ever remember an inter county game at that time...

Says something about the GAA's attitude towards these games. Must not care too much how many supporters show up.

[AZOffaly]

Why in the name of Jaysus is the Offaly-Cavan game and the Armagh-Fermanagh game on at half 6 on a SUNDAY evening? I can't ever remember an inter county game at that time...

Says something about the GAA's attitude towards these games. Must not care too much how many supporters show up.

I was looking forward to going to it but I don't think I can now. I wouldn't be back in Tipp before 10pm on a Sunday night with a young lad with me.

[Cearnog Liathroid]

Féile Peil na nÓg is taking place this weekend in Fermanagh, Cavan & Monaghan this weekend. Many clubs will be hosting matches & teams until mid Sunday afternoon, and supporters would be unable to attend until Sunday evening.

[tonto1888]

Its Cemetery Sunday in St Colmans in Lurgan at 5 this Sunday. Leaves some supporters with a difficult choice to make

[magpie seanie]

Sending off for Antrim was a turning point for 2 reason

1) Antrim down to 14
2) give us a chance to. Ring on a fast player Kyle Cawley to replace a injured Mark Breheny.

I hope Mark is okay. It I think he should be a sub for the next day, once sligo played fast direc football they were unstoppable.

Don't know why Kevin McDonnell didn't start .

Absolutely no defensible reason for this. And the ongoing joke selection of keeper almost cost us. Thankfully Antrim shot themselves in the foot with the sending off. Frustrating to have this going on because I think we could be decent of the team was picked properly with some sort of tactics and gameplan.

Mayo in Castlebar the next day, wait till you see.

It beggars belief, let in a ridiculously soft goal and was damned lucky not to give away another in the first half, our best keeper is beyond in the States and probably the next best walked off the panel, mind you if you were sitting on the bench for that clown you'd wonder why bother. It almost makes one pine for the somewhat more moderate hopelessness of Fizzy.

No need for the personalised attack Owenmoresider. The lad makes the sacrifices to play for his county like all the others. He has a well documented weakness under the high ball but is a good shot stopper and his kickouts are decent. Its hardly his fault that the Coolera keeper is in the States and the backup keeper decided to go travelling.

Meath the next game will be a very difficult assignment. They looked very poor against Kildare especially at midfield and fullback line. If we can keep Graham Reilly quiet like Kildare did we may a chance.

Yes lots of players make those sacrifices no more than him, but surely after 3/4 years it's obvious he is still a liability, whatever about the one he let in, standing and looking at that ball bouncing up and off the post in the first half was ridiculous, luckily one of the backs (Donovan?) got in the way of the Antrim forward pouncing on the rebound. Making one or two heroic saves are all well and good when you're then giving away such sloppy goals, Greene used to make a few of those saves too but it hardly masked his other failings. And saying the kickouts are decent is a little generous, better than 2015 maybe but that's hardly a bar you'd want to be setting. Naturally he doesn't but the manager might well have some culpability about the absentee keepers you refer to.

No need to call the lad a clown though

Yeah, you're right but I understand the frustration. It's an obvious one that's been going on for a long time. Carew is the clown.

[magpie seanie]

Carew will be on the phone to Ronan Sweeney right away to get whatever tactical advice he can ahead of the Meath game. If Meath aren't up for it they will get caught.

Tactics? What are they?

If we had a gameplay and our team picked correctly I'd give us a good chance of winning this game. Unfortunately we haven't got anything resembling the first and the evidence thus far wouldn't inspire confidence in the second.

[Jinxy]

If I was Meath I'd convert mobile Half backs into forwards! What they need is faster forwards.

Our forwards are plenty fast.
They're too bloody small though.

[seafoid]

If I was Meath I'd convert mobile Half backs into forwards! What they need is faster forwards.

Our forwards are plenty fast.
They're too bloody small though.

Unbelievable modesty

[stevecw]

This weekends qualifiers, which include 2 at 6.30 on Sunday for some mad reason!

Limerick v Wexford
London v Carlow
Offaly v Cavan
Armagh v Fermanagh

Predict:
Wexford
Carlow
Cavan
Armagh

[omagh_gael]

Thought i'd fire up some of my observations on the Ulster/Leinster side of the draw/qualifiers:

Ulster/Leinster

Winners

Meets round 4b qualifier in the quarter final on the 05/08/17 alongside the Leinster champions QF who also meet a team from the 'B' side of the draw (more than likely will be a double header with Dublin in Croker).

(teams in the 'B' side include Leitrim, London, Carlow, Wexford, Westmeath, Offaly, Clare, Limerick , Tipperary, Down, Armagh, Cavan, Monaghan, Fermanagh)

As the winner of the Ulster final can't meet their Ulster final opponents in the QF they will meet the Leinster runner up (assuming they win their round4 qualifier). The form book at this stage means the Ulster QF could be Tyrone/Monaghan/Down v Kildare.

Losers

The loser of the Ulster final will be out again on the 29/07/17 against a round 3b winner from the teams above. The Leinster loser will also fall into the 'B' side of the draw. Therefore, the loser of the Ulster final (assuming they get through round 4 of the qualifiers will more than likely meet Dublin in a QF as they can't meet the Ulster final winner).

My prediction is:

Ulster final - Tyrone v Monaghan (Tyrone to win, of course!)

Leinster final - Dublin v Kildare (Dubs to win

R4 Qualifier

Kildare v AN other (Kildare to win)

Monaghan v AN other (Monaghan to win)

Quarter finals

Tyrone v Kildare

Dublin v Monaghan

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Connacht/Munster

Winners

Winners of this side of the draw will play R4 winners in the QF on the 29/07/17. This is definitely the harder side of the draw in that these teams will meet qualifier 'A' teams which already include the big guns of Mayo and Donegal. The teams in the provincial finals will be hoping to see Mayo and Donegal pulled out to play eachother in round 3 of the qualifiers (assuming they both win, of course) so at least one big threat is eliminated. The rest of the country will want to see them avoid eachother so they can set up some tasty QFs.

Other teams in (or potentially in) the 'A' side include Sligo, Laois, Longford, Meath, Galway, Roscommon, Mayo, Donegal, Derry, Cork and Kerry.

Losers

The provincial final losers will be out on the on the 22/07/17 against a 3a winner. Looking at the 'A' side there could be some real clinkers coming up over the next number of weeks. A huge difference in quality between both sides of the draw. I remember this happening last year too.

My predictions for the 'A' side of the draw as follows:

Munster: Kerry v Cork (Kerry to win)

Connacht: Ros v Galway (Galway to win)

Round 4a

Roscommon v Mayo

Cork v Donegal

Quarter finals

Mayo v Kerry

Donegal v Galway

On a slightly different note there would be some games if this was the 2018 championship and the super 8s were as follows:

Dublin
Tyrone
Kerry
Galway
Donegal
Mayo
Kildare
Monaghan

[cornetto]

I see malachy o rourke saying they will regroup for the qualifiers, easier said than done.Monaghan are one of those teams that just don't do qualifiers,it's definitely a mental thing,Galway negotiated the qualifiers route in 2001 but have not performed since.Personally I think the players are physced up for a provincial match,if they fail, the hangover from the loss just seems to get the better of some teams.could we have a repeat of Monaghan v Cavan in rd 3b? It would be cavan for me!!

[Rossfan]

Another one if the great clichés if the GAA
"Regroup for the Qualifiers".
You'd think the game was 6 months away.

Its looking like this Monaghan team has passed it's "best before" date.

[omagh_gael]

The 'B' side of the draw looking very tasty now:

Monaghan could meet either Donegal or Mayo in the next round then round 3 also throws up the possibility of either of those three big guns meeting again.