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Let's be honest, the U21s has been a joke of a competition these last few years with it either being played partly in summer and finishing in December or during the summer with boys on holidays.  There's no real room in the calendar for it either so I can't see these problems changing anytime soon.

Stranmillis students should be allowed to play for QUB IMO. Its a heavily protestant teacher training college and if you scraped a team together you'd be very lucky. I've never known anyone complain about it before? It's been a common trend and in university circles in Belfast it has generally been accepted that students have the choice of QUB or St Marys to play third level football or hurling but 99.9% (never heard of anybody bar O'Neill playing for St Mary's) of those who choose to avail of this play for QUB as its not really seen as distinct from QUB as St Mary's is.

There is a lot worse 'bending the rules' than what QUB have been kicked out for and I was nearly positive it was previously authorised but maybe its not. QUB unlike UUJ and other Unis don't offer students 'elite athlete status' which allows them to be admitted into University with significantly lower grades than the general specification. Wouldn't be massively into Uni football as its a players competition but know the craic from being up there and I thought I'd defend QUB a bit as they're getting a fairly bad rap over this when they are probably one of the cleanest Universities in terms of the whole American style recruitment that goes on now.

Monaghan could well get to a semi. IMO I don't think they/re good enough to beat Dublin, Mayo or Kerry in the height of summer. Regardless, it's a good time to be a Monaghan fan and they've a fine chance of winning Ulster.

You can change the management but unfortunately we are left with the same group of players. Other than Peter Harte that's pretty much a full compliment for us - brutal. Once again certain boys can't put two performances together. We are at best the 3rd best team in Ulster and that's very debatable. Where is the hunger in some lads though? They haven't established themselves in a Tyrone shirt, surely they are desperate to? Looking at young McAnespie of Monaghon tonight you seen that kind of desire. Monaghon were excellent in the second half! Peter Hughes first half performance the only positive for Tyrone.

Think Joe is doing a PGCE atm which could be taking up a lot of his time currently, added to his age it is perhaps not surprising. Dermy has struggled with injuries so I guess thats the reasoning behind his omission. Both these men I would have on the panel for their experience and attitude. Donnelly and Kane I think fall into the category of good players but aren't going to start and they're probably not going to kick on further so maybe its better to have younger guys on the fringe of the squad who are hungrier to develop and push on at this point in their careers. The biggest one here is Coney, but he just has dissapointed time and again. Maybe the year out will be good for him and give him a push to kick on as it seems to have improved Niall McKenna as a player. Some of the lads who were excellent underage players maybe need to feel the shock that its not a given that they're going to be in the Senior set up and if you're not playing well you're not going to be carried.

My team for NFL opener would be.(Think Harte and Tierney may both be out - Concussion and Ankle but not 100% on that.)  1)Morgan 2)McCrory 3)McNamee 4)McCarron 5)McNabb 6)Donnelly 7)TMcCann 8)C.Cav 9)McNulty 10)PJLavery 11)McCurry 12)McShane 13)McAliskey 14)SeanCav 15) McKenna/RON (McKenna deserves it on last week but RON is a special talent but don't know where to play him that he will do damage at intercounty).

Think an Ulster title would be a great achievement this year. Think we're quite a bit away from AI contention, but I'd love to be surprised over the summer.

Yeah I just meant the step up again for this fight because in interviews he had been saying he would have preferred the World title shot at the lower weight class but got the chance at middle so he wasn't going to turn it down. Lee also said he would fancy a go at Golovkin and wouldn't fear it. Would enjoy that fight while it lasted! Lee would throw the kitchen sink for the first few rounds in the hope he finds GGG before GGG finds him. But to be honest Golovkin is just to good and punches too hard for Lee (anyone in the division) to withstand.

Class win for Lee! Handled the step up in weight much bette than I expected. Why is there so little buzz in the streets about the guy though? If you compare him with say Frampton? Marketing I guess! Khan was flawless last night made a two weight world champion look bang average with his hand speed. I'll get slated for this cause most peoples opinion of Khan are warped by their dislike his personality and his earlier career but I think Khan is the only man who can beat Mayweather and has a much greater chance than Pacquiao if he keeps to how he is boxing under Hunder. Styles make fights and Khans style is all wrong for Maywesther. I honestly believe his chances of fighting Mayweather will have worsened after last night. Floyd is no mug and will realise Khans ability to take rounds with his combos and in out style is a nightmare for anyone unless you can brawl him, something Maywesther doesn't do.

Khan might come out with stupid comments etc but he is a classy classy boxer. Yes he has a dodgy chin but that's not his fault and he shows unreal heart any time he gets caught. His skill set and his vulnerability to big shots make his fights very exciting. His fight with Maidana was fight of the year a couple of years back. Think Virgil Hunter has done a really good job so far with Khan and on the face of it Khans defence seems to have tightened. I think he will win on points, perhaps having to come off the floor. It is a bit repetitive him wanting to fight Mayweather, Pacquiao etc but in fairness to the lad he wants to fight the best and there's a hell of a lot in the boxing game without that attitude. If more had his attitude it'd be a much better sport for fans who are frustrated constantly with the politics which stop the best fighting the best.

Until Pacquiao and Mayweather are in the ring I'll not get excited about the fight as there's been too many false dawns.

Andy Lee v Korobov is a great fight, think Korobov will win but Andy will give a very good showing, hope I'm wrong.

Kieran McGeary of Pomeroy should get a look. Playing CHF in a St Mary's sigerson team that has beaten UUJ, DCU and QUB in Ryan Cup and from reports he is playing very well. Perhaps wait to see how he gets on with Tyrone U21's first though.

I think its more to do with the players rather than Harte that things have regressed. At the end of the day how many chances has a lot of these fringe players to get to they put down two good performances together. Suffocate their development?? The players aren't making it easy for him, no consistency whatsoever! Yes he probably makes it worse by changing the team regularly but boys like Kyle Coney and the forwards in general continue to dissapoint time after time and show no signs of developing any kind of consistency. They simply can't put two good games back to back. The group of the 00's was special, couldn't name 3 of the players under 28 who have the character of the men in them teams.

Fair play to Omagh, amazing victory. But I think even the most staunch Omagh supporter will know that everything aligned for Omagh today. Aaron Kernan being ill, Kyle Carragher going off after 5 minutes, the discipline of Cross going (usually the masters of the dark arts) and that free Jamie Clarke didn't get and ended up getting booked for. For them to win today they needed Cross to have a bad day like today but Omagh had to put them away and they did that with composer and aplomb. Barry Tierney should play 5 or 7 for the county next year. Mickey was at the game and he HAS to have seen that as a man marker he's okay but as a bombing half back he is superb. RON very good too but he looks really out of shape? It'll be fine at club level but intercounty where the intensity is higher he will need to be sharper and leaner IMO (Monaghan last year a prime example)

Just think Bradley may have the same problem as McCurry has to an extent - his size. He will be very small for Senior intercounty footbal but an excellent inside forward he is, no doubt in that. I'd give any defender who looks half decent a trial because other than Aidy McCrory our full back line was woeful last year. I think thats 99% of the reason McCarrons back in the fold. Drastic times/drastic measures and all that. Also would leave Ruari Sludden to focus on U21s. Don't think he's ready for intercounty senior yet and a good year with U21s would be more beneficial to him probably than being on the fringe of our senior panel. Same goes for most of our U21s, let the lads focus on their own grade and those who show up best get drafted into the panel? Seems to me a reasonable idea.

Anyone know of names Harte has approached to join the squad? Niall Sludden has to be a certainty to get on the panel this year. If he does I've not a doubt in my mind he'll be in the starting team come summer. Class act. 

You can't artificially build balls and character. You can act hard, do dirty sly hits and mouth to your hearts content but when it comes to a 50-50 and its all on the line you either have it or you don't. Maybe they'll learn if they come back up to operate with a bit of class. Pissed off so many clubs last year that everyone couldn't wait to get a rattle at them and put manners on them. Hope Cookstown can now get rid of the trash that's tainting a lot of good GAA people in that community. Fair play to Eskra, small club with a lot of heart, nothing artificial about the toughness of them fellas. Derrylaughan or Trilick (Should be Trillick although they'll be taking nobody for granted now) await them, real toss up there I think, will be an interested game.

Have a bit of wit longballin. Have you ever seen Harte throw a fist in anger at county level? Be it minors, U21s or Senior? If he didn't stand up for himself after being singled out for 'treatment' you'd be labelling him yella or soft, the fact he gave a bit back now your actually comparing him with the antics of Cookstown? Laughable. All the good players inevitably have to learn to be able to stand up for themselves or they'll get battered due to the lack of protection you are offered at club level. That's the reality, not your skewed statements.