Messages

Proper brawls are few and far between at inter-county level.
Along with '96, this is probably the only other true brawl at that level.
A brawl has to include actual fisticuffs for me, none of this pulling and dragging nonsense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=N1s6JY_ey6o

I hope the ref gave them a stern ticking off after that.

Semi finals are
Cavan v Monaghan
Tyrone v Derry

Fracas? Bit of handbags?

Looks like the word has got through to the players.........get involved in a melee and you will see red.

There has been a distinct lack of melees in the games to date.

There has also been a lack of atmosphere of atmosphere in games. Linked perhaps? Its always good to get the blood boiling in the mucksavage supporters

There was zero athmosphere at Cavan v Donegal, about 500 travelled from Cavan, Donegal fans only cheered when yer man played his bagpipes. Really sad to see what the Ulster championship has become. Thankfully seemed to be more life in Clones yesterday. Bit of a row should be compulsory to liven things up.

The statistics I've seen from Paul Fitzpatrick regarding player turnover are pretty stark. I think we were all aware of a fair amount of personnel churn but that really is jaw-dropping and some of those names there would be a massive boost to the team.

Hard to know, in a way, what to say about our senior team performance at the minute. We exceeded expectations by getting to Division 1 and felt maybe McGleenan was getting his act together, coupled with some ok displays in Division 1 the year before. On the positive side, the players he had there in the league were really pulling for him and the jersey and things looked to be progressing, albeit with significant flaws. But the nature of the loss in the final to Roscommon seems to have revealed those flaws to be deep structural fissures and the whole thing crumbled embarrassingly against Donegal. I didn't expect us to win there but the nature of the display was fairly indicative of both schoolboy type management and perhaps a lack of the player drive and spirit that was there in the spring - have the wheels come off entirely since the league final?

Anything less than a significant renaissance in the qualifiers and I honestly think Mattie should go. I'm never one for knee-jerk/manager merry-go-round stuff but going into Division 1 under the current setup, with no championship 'bounce' behind us, quite simply we'd be slaughtered and it might be better to have another man there in advance of that. Who that might be would be anybody's guess.

Personally I think we need a manager with a connection to those u21 players, the best of them need to be coaxed back into the panel. There are a few men that stick out for me and that is Peter Reilly, Ronan Carolan and Terry Hyland. Now we can rule Terry out I am sure as he has been there. I think Peter and Ronan together would be a step in the right direction and maybe try and get access to a progressive forwards coach from somewhere.

The alternative is to try and land a high profile external manager that would energise guys. Like when Paidi went to Westmeath etc. But the last time we tried to get a new manager when the dust settled we were left with Mattie vrs Banty. So we are not attracting big names. The only one I think that might be interested is Pete McGrath but things haven't been going so well for him lately.

I'm inclined to agree with your assessment on Mattie. He has done very well in some ways with what he has at his disposal but I do think he has some massive gaps as a tactician. No point getting rid until we are sure there is someone better we can get in.

What a score from McManus on the right wing. He's a Special talent.

From my own point of view, my intention to referencing the cynicism of Fermanagh was simply to present it as an observation on my part - not a complaint. Armagh last night have too many concerns of our own to worry about what others do.

Our great team of the noughties had a reputation for cynicism, but my feeling would be it was not for trash talking or feigning injury, or indeed disrupting the opposition kick-outs by pinging a second football onto the pitch. Maybe others will disagree and point to some specific incident from 2007 that totally undermines what I said. Ho hum.

The behaviour yesterday from Fermanagh was no surprise given that McMenamin is in the management team.  it would have been poor enough with Gallagher in charge but McMenamin bring things to another level, to that previously was the preserve of his Tyrone teams.

In general the squad from 1999 to 2008 played a hard game and while blocking off the running player was a tactic and not against any rule, the players with the possible exception of Marty O'Rourke didn't bother with the trash talk that was so evident yesterday from the Fermanagh team.  They have taken the feigning of injury to a level that Tyrone have set since 2003.  While Grimley was stupid in swinging his arm, Quigley, who has serious form for cheating, fell to the ground instantly holding his face. 

Owen you need to take the orange glasses off.
The 'treatment' that both Quigley brothers got yesterday was very noticeable.
I watched it and they didn't react.
Daniel Teague came off the bench and was immediately subject to the same 'treatment'.

Sean received a forearm in the face.  That's a red card.
The Armagh tackling was shocking.  Made it easy for the referee.
Armagh went out to be physical and try and bully Fermanagh.
Armagh didn't score from play after the 16th minute.
Armagh were completely cleaned around midfield as well.
That's why Armagh got beat.

Armagh are always the victims.

I said it for a long time, mcgeeney is a a spoofer. Surely his more ardent supporters can see this now.

Just one more week till this thing is over. Has there ever been a greater platform for self-righteous phoneys(on both sides)? From John Waters(and there's loads more like him on the No side), with his "how dare you interrupt me from saving thousands of babies from their black-capped executioners with your perfectly reasonable questions" outburst, to Yes voters getting outraged over phrases like "abortion on demand"(I've no issue with people voting for abortion but for jaysus sake be honest about what you're voting for), both sides of this debate have been sickening.

The only worthwhile and persuasive element of the debate that I've heard were the stories of women who've travelled full of shame and fear to England for abortions. That, allied to the laughable hypocrisy of our constitution which protects their right to travel for abortions is enough reason to vote yes.

Thank God there's another fantastic weekend of sport in store so we can escape from listening to the pontificators.

This.

The extremes on both sides of this debate are both particularly obnoxious.

Can wait until it's over.  If I had a vote I'd probably be voting yes but it's not a no-brainer for me.

Totally agree obnoxious arrogant people on both sides pointing out the obnoxious arrogant people on the other.
Best example is the sign on belbulben. No stick it up, cheap stunt. Yes moan about how outrageous it is. Yes side wreck it, cheap stunt. No side point cry about hypocritical no yes side.

What about not allowing the vice captain to captain the team when Dara was out? A disgrace and a serious insult to Ciaran Brady, a lad who lives for Cavan football.

Mattie should go lads. We're a shadow of the 2016 side both in terms of personnel and performances.

We didn't do well in the championship under Terry but we never went out as meekly as we did last Sunday.

There a reason why he wasn't captain.

Is that a question or statement?

Sorry should have read there is a reason why he was not captain.

Send me a pm if you can't say on here

Rte primetime I think showed stats on portugal showing more than 1:5 pregnancies were aborted. Obviously they didn't present a thesis on it. I just thought I'd bring it up again as Sid previously rubbished it. I believe those numbers to be accurate but im going to vote yes in any case.

What about not allowing the vice captain to captain the team when Dara was out? A disgrace and a serious insult to Ciaran Brady, a lad who lives for Cavan football.

Mattie should go lads. We're a shadow of the 2016 side both in terms of personnel and performances.

We didn't do well in the championship under Terry but we never went out as meekly as we did last Sunday.

There a reason why he wasn't captain.

Is that a question or statement?

What about not allowing the vice captain to captain the team when Dara was out? A disgrace and a serious insult to Ciaran Brady, a lad who lives for Cavan football.

Mattie should go lads. We're a shadow of the 2016 side both in terms of personnel and performances.

We didn't do well in the championship under Terry but we never went out as meekly as we did last Sunday.

Its hard to know. The question is whether the lads wont join the panel as its Matty in charge or whether the lads are a useless shower and Matty done very well to get us to Div 1. I think either way he will get another year based on the promotion.

I've just watched Prime Time and there's something I don't understand about the material they covered.

They looked at Portugal and how many abortions they had in 2008 and then how many over the next few years. They told us how many per pregnancy were aborted and then they told how many women of child-bearing age per thousand had abortions and more and more stats.

My question is, who is this type of information supposed to sway? It's anything but a black and white issue, but at the same time is anyone on this board going to be swayed either way by these numbers?

If you're against abortion then you're against one abortion, two abortions or ten thousand abortions. If you're pro-choice then you'll realise that there are currently, say for argument's sake, 2,000 Irish women having abortions per year. If you're told that this will double or treble in the next ten years, are you going to take the view that that's too many so you'll vote No instead?

Surely the decision is based on how you view life and how you view choice and not on a rising scale of abortions?

I also heard Simon Harris on the radio today fielding questions from "numerous listeners" who wanted to know if the money to pay for these abortions is going to come at the expense of other healthcare areas. People might actually vote based on how much this is going to cost?

Am I missing something here or is there a sizeable portion of the electorate that are thinking this way?

Good point I'm not at least

However this seemed to start from the yes side saying that the no side is making stuff up. Especially about the ratio of babies born v aborted. When in actual fact it seems to be higher in eng and Wales than the no side were actually saying. Seems like the yes side are crying foul when they have nothing to cry foul about.

And sorry to add fuel to the fire but Tbh I think it's all side of yes side tactic of trying to paint the no side as ignorant buffoons and to influence voters by guilt by association.

But you are right when it boils down to it this is a vote on the 99% of abortions that are carried out on healthy consensual pregnancies  which at the end of the day is a straight up choice between life of the child v choice of the mother

I think you are dead right.
This has shown me the yes side are well able to spout lies too however I'm inclined to vote yes I think when all is balanced up. I just hope the government put systems in place to properly support women thinking of having an abortion and present them with all options.

Someone rubbished 1:5 stat I mentioned earlier. Looking at prime time 1:5 seems reasonable assumption based on many countries.