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Can anyone please kindly confirm what the craic is with the venue plan for Derry's first Ulster Championship game ?

Derry will play the winners of Donegal vs Cavan.  I was under the impression that regardless of whether Donegal or Cavan win that Derry would have an away tie.

I'm now hearing* that if Donegal beat Cavan, that Derry will play Donegal in Celtic Park, does anyone know if that's correct ?

*The person was basing it on the following - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Ulster_Senior_Football_Championship

Cheers

Did a search for it Shawshank but couldn't find anything on google.  Any chance of a brief summary please ?

I'd imagine it echoed his mate Brolly's article a while back - Derry GAA is in a bad state, money has been squandered with a wee touch of "no games in Celtic Park" thrown in for good measure.  He might have a lot of valid points but i'd say he will come across as bitter as he apparently got overlooked for the minor gig.

[bit of respect too but a lot of what went on has been cringeworthy.]

Khan has fought and beat some excellent fighters but then again has been badly beaten 3 times.  Donaire is not as good as he was plus has been better at lower weights.  It is nice to see a bit of respect too but a lot of what went on has been cringeworthy.

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You'd much prefer McGregor's approach?

Carl has never been a trash talker as such and thats his nature.. As for the fight its was a step up from the last fight and while in control for most parts he di take a few punches, Donaire fought better at lower weights, as did Carl, so i dont see your point, yes he's older but not by much.

Needs a good title fight, he seems happy with his training program and the set up so far, hopefully that continues. I was unsure of the partnership at first but things looking good, If Carl wins another title that be some achievement..

Father in Law and my daughter were there and he was telling me they were drinking during the fights at their seats! This has to be a first I'd assume as Ive never seen it done before.. dodgy in the extreme

Drinking at the seats is new, in fairness there is restrictions around it MR and i think the management thought long and hard about it before it went live.  Drinking at the seats was allowed at Carl's last fight as well.  You are not allowed to purchase more than 2 pints at a time and they properly enforce this.  I ordered at the bar and I had a dribble left in a pint glass while ordering, the girl was only prepared to serve me 1 pint !!  I quickly finished the dribble to take my full quota of 2 pints and proceeded happily to my seat !

I know there are dangers associated with it but i'm in favour of it as long as the safeguards are there ...  If it wasn't for beer during the Tete fight, I don't know what I would have done lol  !!

Carl was looking as sharp as he has been since his first Santa Cruz fight and seems in a good frame of mind.   He will need to be at his best for Selby (don't mean to be disrespectful towards Warrington, he's tough and gritty but only one winner between him and Selby) or Valdez should they materialise.

Agree with Square Ball - Very hard to see where Cummings goes from here.  He must have been heart broken at that result but put on his support face to be in Carl's corner straight after it.  Fair play to Luke Keeler, completely outboxed Cummings. 

@Omagh_Gael -   Great to see Tyrone winning (being a Derry man he's the only Tyrone I will ever support ;-)   ), next fight will be a massive one for him !

James Degale scrapped through a fight last night against Caleb Truax, had the decision not gone his way I really think he would have been forced into hanging up the gloves.

Poor performance from the referee.

Led with his head in both the first round and second round, resulting in head butts to Truax. He should have been warned about it.  He reaped what he sowed in the third round as Truax, came off the better in another clash of heads and it resulted in a nasty cut to degale's right eye which hampered his vision for the rest of the fight. 

Took him a few rounds to come to grips with the cut and despite a point deduction in the latter rounds for use of his shoulder in a clench which seemed dubious enough.

Still awarded a unanimous decision with two Judge score cards having degale ahead by the minimum while another went to the CJ Ross school of judging awarding the fight to degale 117-110.

Groves or Smith would not be too scared about what they would have seen from last nights performance.  Degale would need to up it considerably if he is to meet the winner of the World Series of boxing final.

Following Joe Brolly's article last Sunday, the Sunday Irish Independent issued a "clarification" at the end of his article today in relation to the two Derry minor footballers in Australia were not there for AFL trials but there for an ongoing "coaching and education partnership between GAA + st Patrick's college, Victoria.

The clarification should have been an apology - the direct insinuation that the coaching county's development manager was seeking to go against the objective of the very role that he is employed to do was simply wrong and worthy of an apology.

Saw Joe Brolly on the Late Late other night, hard not to admire all the charity work he does between organ donation and helping the homeless ... but as a gaa pundit I'm getting increasingly tired of this Eamon Dunphy-esque ways, he'll use the platforms he has between tv, podcasts and newspapers to put the boot into Derry Gaa in a very personal way which isn't helping the current transition period at all.

Not sure we have ever got "good" support  ... even during the relatively good / better times ??

When was our last "good" year ?   Would some say 2014 when we got to the final of national league, beating the Dubs at home and Kerry away along the way ? Aware it was a bad Championship year.

I was a season ticket holder that year and while the attendance at Celtic Park was better than it has been in recent years, the attendance at away games was awful and I don't think the season ticket holders for that year could have been much more than the 39 that South Derry man has said exist this year.

We beat Kerry away in Killarney and there couldn't have been more than 20 Derry fans there.  The Derry team stayed on the pitch afterwards to thank the fans that made the trip.  Chrissy McKaigue made a point in his interview with the paper to thank the fans for making the trip.  You would have thought the fans were doing the team a favour the way he spoke, but it was a pleasure to be there that weekend the team were top notch that day.  The support clearly matters to the team. Should it have to wait for times when we are doing better for the support to pick up ?  Hopefully not but probably.

I was in the O'Neills store in Andytown, Belfast last weekend.  It wasn't easy to find the Derry section, it was absolutely tiny.  There were two small rows of shirts, it seemed to be dwarfed by every other Ulster county.  Antrim (as you would expect) and the Tyrone durt bags had very large merchandise sections.  To put it in context, there were more Copper Face Jacks O'Neills novelty jerseys than there were Derry jerseys.  I saw two grown men actually look at these Copper Face Jacks jerseys as if they were seriously contemplating buying them .....   

In addition to our obvious poor attendance figures. I would say that Derry fan rating would also reflect badly using the "hats, flags & headbands" stats using O'Neills sales figures as a barometer.  There seems to be feck all demand for Derry merchandise and therefore there is little in the way of supply going on what was in offer in that O'Neills store.

How do we increase support ?  I spoke to Arlene Foster on the matter and she said under no circumstances should the South Derry "crocodiles" be fed.  First give them league games in South Derry and before you know it there will be no games at all in Celtic Park   

Really don't think staging division 4 games in South Derry next year would make a significant difference to attendance but is it worth trying now, we've hit rock bottom and might as well try and put the debate to bed through trying it.  Does anyone think it would lead to an uptake in season ticket numbers.

I was at an NFL talk show in the Waterfront on Monday night.  One of the NFL players present, Alex Collins of the Baltimore Ravens does Irish Dancing in his spare time for conditioning.  So they asked for volunteers form the audience to go up and have an "irish dance off" with him.  Who stepped up ?  Emmett McGuckin.  The big magherafelt man knew his twos & threes. Wouldn't have minded seeing him dance amongst the Sligo defenders last weekend tbh, think he could have made a difference.  He was the main scorer during that 2014 game against Kerry I described above.   But it is what it is and he and many other lads I would like to see wearing a Derry shirt are currently not doing so for one reason or another.  As that Cahair O'Kane article that's been referred to a bit on here, one of the things we are crying out for is stability. How can a team grow and improve if it is constantly chopping and changing.  yeah, the league campaign has been a disaster from the point of view of being sent down to division 4 but also i'm not sure if it has been good from the point of (what should be one of the objectives of any league campaign) - having a more or less "stable" / tried & tested starting team come championship. 

Still think the management team should be afforded time.

Hopefully we will see a half decent support in Cavan or Donegal come championship ....

2015 Division 1 Final
2016 Relegated from division 1
2017 Relegated from division 2
2018 Relegated from division 3


One sad, sad day.   I guess the only way from here is up ...

Doing the Carlingford Half marathon this weekend.  Was due to be last weekend but got postponed on account of the weather.

Has anyone ever done it before ? any advice would be appreciated.  Understand that it's a fairly flat route.

I've no big target in mind, just signed up to try and shift a bit of Christmas timber and haven't done as many practice runs as i would have liked but will give it a go.

I did Carlingford couple of years ago and it's an enjoyable event. Undulating is the word I think; lots of small hills, no really tough climbs and a nice run along the shore with great views of the Mournes towards the end. They provide tea and sarneys in the Four Seasons hotel afterwards. They could have provided more water points but maybe that's been addressed. They also donated the funds to worthy projects in North Louth.

Cheers for that Dubh, tea and sarneys for starters followed by a few pints of guinness will do me 

Doing the Carlingford Half marathon this weekend.  Was due to be last weekend but got postponed on account of the weather.

Has anyone ever done it before ? any advice would be appreciated.  Understand that it's a fairly flat route.

I've no big target in mind, just signed up to try and shift a bit of Christmas timber and haven't done as many practice runs as i would have liked but will give it a go.

Fight is confirmed as going ahead, i think WADA's verdict on the tests supported Alvarez in that the amount of the PED in question was consistent with what would be found in contaminated meat.

His training camp has now been moved to the States.   It's not the first time a Golden Boy fighter has been victim of Mexican contaminated meat, Erik Morales was also the same.  I think next time someone is found to be guilty of it they won't be treated so leniently.

Speaking of drugs cheats (and i'm not saying that Alvarez is one) ... Luis Ortiz put up a great show against Wilder at the weekend.  In light of past indiscretions he was rigorously tested in the run up to the fight.  He bossed a lot of the fight and I thought he had Wilder gone in the 7th, Wilder's legs still seemed to be very unsteady at the start of the 8th.  But fair play to Wilder he took all the shots and rallied.

Wilder vs AJ makes for an interesting fight, if Ortiz jab caused Wilder problems then I think AJ's jab will be a nightmare for him.  He's lightning in comparison to Ortiz and won't tire like he did.  Having said that Wilder only seems to need that small window of opportunity to do some damage but i can't see AJ granting him that.

Eddie Hearn will be rubbing his hands at the prospect of that bout.  Been a long time since there was a buzz like this round the Heavyweight scene.  If that's fight made, it will probably be a Wembley job.  Unless you can afford the expensive seats, going is a waste of time.  Any of the cheaper seats you will just spend your time watching the fight on the big screen.

Khan vs Brook is likely to happen before the year is out as well, looking forward to that one.  I've probably called him a bell end once or twice on this board but in fairness to him Khan is rarely in a dull fight.

["Doesn't it make you proud to be from Derry ?"]

Disappointing to not have them involved but fair play to them,  they don't have a long window to have those sort of summers and don't think anyone can begrudge them their decision.  Two key players and hopefully they will be involved for the long term.

Do you think players read some of the nonsense posted on here ?

I'd imagine the decisions of both lads were not set in stone and management hoped they would change their minds and gave them time  ... could be wrong about that but if their decisions were in the balance then it wouldn't be helped by going on this thread  .... fans can't be bothered leaving South Derry to watch a game being played in Celtic Park (even if the game gets called off because of the weather they still like to moan about it) .... it wouldn't exactly inspire most players to start putting the head down for training from November onwards ? it's a big commitment with not much reward / thanks / support at the minute.

The team no doubt is going through a big transition period at the minute and hopefully it will come good but I don't think the necessary time will be afforded to the current management unfortunately.

This year is probably going to take a bit of patience and "support"*

*This strange word entails travelling to games to watch your team and back them when things are not looking great.  Not that I can talk, I've become a bad fan and come this May will probably be symbolized by Fan 2 in the below hypothetical situation.

South Derry Man 1 (while this is a hypothetical situation, this man actually exists - he is from Moneymore, any Derry game being played, no matter where it is at, he is guaranteed to be there):
"Doesn't it make you proud to be from Derry ?"

South Derry Man 2 (after watching Trainspotting the night before and having to travel outside of South Derry for a game with a bit of a hangover):
It's SH!!TE being from Derry ! We're the lowest of the low. The scum of the f**king Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash that was ever shat into GAA civilization. Some hate Tyrone. I don't. They're just w@nkers. We, on the other hand, are DOMINATED by w@nkers. Can't even find a decent bunch of gaels to be dominated by. We're ruled by effete arseholes. It's a SH!!TE state of affairs to be in, and ALL the fresh air in the world and all the games in the world being played in Celtic Park won't make any f**king difference!

This hypothetical conversation takes place on the way to the game.

The fairytale ending would be that we win that Championship match on the 27th of May and Derry man 2 is converted and starts to believe again.  Might not happen this year though ...

Best of luck to the team for the forthcoming year.

P.S Celtic Park moaners  - there is a separate thread to get anything off your chest relating to Celtic Park ......  ( http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=22354.0 )

I'd say that's a fair summary LB.

It can work both ways though.  I believe Ricky Burns got similar advice when he terminated his contract early, leaving Frank Warren and joining Eddie Hearn / matchroom.  Frank Warren lodged proceedings which resulted in Burns being bankrupt.

Appreciate MR2 is trying to just state the facts here but in doing so he has also been overly kind to McGuigan.

Common denominator running through this whole saga is McGuigan's greed.  Once upon a time, Eddie Hearn was Frampton's promoter.  Like him or loathe him, he's the best promoter in boxing this side of the Atlantic.  Barry got greedy and wanted to wear not only the manager hat but the promoter hat as well and so Cyclone Promotions was born.  Frampton stayed loyal to McGuigan when he could have easily stayed with Hearn. With Cyclone being a family business, one fall out with any of them was never going to end well.

Who was responsible for the fall out ? I don't know the ins and outs of it but I really can't see Frampton ending his contract with Cyclone for no reason. 

All things considered I thought Barry would have been wise not to launch proceedings but he seems to have got greedy once again and gone for it.   I don't think Barry will come out of it well as it is played out before the public eye. 

The same day Cyclone launched legal proceedings, Carl was getting ready to go to Kenya with his wife to help out with Trocaire.  Says it all really.

Barry McGuigan and Cyclone promotions have launched legal proceedings against Carl Frampton in relation to their split earlier this year.

A statement released by Frampton's legal representative, John Finucane read:

"Mr Frampton is deeply disappointed that Cyclone Promotions have decided to initiate legal action against him, however he will not only defend this action rigorously but can confirm he will be counter claiming on a number of grounds.

"Mr Frampton is confident that this process will vindicate his position and reputation, and looks forward to engaging fully in this process to present all aspects of this claim before the court.

"Therefore it would be inappropriate to issue any further comment at this time."


Bold move by Barry here, one that I think they will later regret. Boxers from here operate in a pretty tight knit circle. Not too many fighters will want to be doing business with them again.

In hindsight I think the prospect of a potential legal battle with the McGuigans was a major factor in Carl signing with Frank Warren, he's not a bad man to have in your corner when it comes to a legal dispute he has a bit of experience over the years.

I'm sure this has been posted before but could any kind soul tell me what the actual status of the proposed plans are and what the envisaged timelines involved are, please.

Last I heard, Casement was still part of the Rugby World Cup Proposal plans.

Have revised plans been submitted for approval and if so when are they due to get the decision on it ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS-l27wVU80

No wonder the Golovkin vs Eubank Jr fight never happened !  An amusing story about Eubank Snr's demands to Hearn.  Hat tip to WhiskeySteve who sent it my way.

If anyone knows of any spare Frampton fights going could they PM me please.  Was third in the queue at a ticketmaster outlet and thought i was more or less guaranteed tickets.  Not even the first person in the queue got any tickets (well, ringside and the ridiculous priced tickets were left).  Must have all went on pre-sale but thought only a certain allocation could be sold on pre-sale.  if anyone has any going spare if they could PM me please.  Cheers