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Agree with Syf here to a point with regards to the UFC needing names to sell fights rather than the best MMA exponents.

If all they are interested in is making money then they need to suspend/ban Khabib for as long as possible. He is and will be completely dominant in this division and no one will touch him. However we wont make the money for the company that other fighters can clearly make. He doesnt sell PPV. Its pretty simple.

McGregor is a good fighter and a great promoter and he will bring the cash to the company. It is in their interests to keep him at the top of the pile

So instead of getting the best in the sport to the front they should get the best promoters to the front.

It then is no longer a sport!

It never was a sport, it was/ is a business.

MMA isn't a sport?  You're kidding, right?

MMA is a sport - UFC is a promotion business

The thing that drives me crazy at u8 or u10 blitzes is that the manager a lot of time seem to think they must win at all cost or they will be shamed in the parish forever.  Not only do some of the kids rarely get on but the one or two dig hairy lads for that grade who can beat the whole other team or there own are given free licence to do that.  Most of the other young fellas are standing around getting cold and have gained nothing at all from coming and the good ones are getting really bad habits that is going to be hard to correct when they get older.

If every team was given a random coloured jersey at an u8 blitz and I walked in without knowing which teams where which I could almost certainly tell within 5 minutes which team was Kilcoo.  They aren't any stronger than anyone else at that grade but they are already getting the young fellas to play as a team, look up, pass, move etc.  They may even be losing matches at that grade because of this team first mentality but winning big time in the long run as all their players are involved in the game, improving and learning the correct way to play.

100% agree with this. In our club we mostly play small non competitive blitzes/games throughout the year for 8s especially but got invited to a couple of tournaments with cups at the end of the year. Needless to say normal enough fellas lost their minds on the sideline. Managers telling lads to take players out, managers not making any subs, wee lads and girls upset with not getting playing, parents losing their shit because their lad didn't play every minute and men challenging refs decisions. Don't agree with it all.

I have helped out at the hurling this year too and it's completely different.

On Kilcoo - say their U8s and they are brilliantly coached. Although our lads kept with them it was the way they played with the ball that stood out. Conor Laverty is a fantastic coach

Problem here is that Moyes was Fergie's choice. If you can't trust the opinion of the club's most successful manager, therefore greatest "football man", who the f**k should you turn to?

Fergie worked a miracle that last year. How he won a league so commandingly with one player was astonishing. Anyone taking over was fcuked.

His second last season with United they finished on 89 points without Van Persie so it was hardly miracle work to gain the same points total the following year with a in form striker added to the squad.

But he was using an aging team at the time. A lot of class players with the clock running down. Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Giggs, Scholes, even RVP and Rooney. That's not taking away from the achievement but there wasn't a long term solution there. Signings in the last couple of seasons, apart from De Gea, didn't do much either. Moyes could of steered that ship much better though.

Neil Collins
Kieran McKeever
Darren Fay
Tony Scullion
Paul Curran
Glenn Ryan
Sean Og DePaor
Anthony Tohill
John McDermott
Graham Geraghty
Greg Blaney
Ja Fallon
Mickey Linden
Peter Canavan
Maurice Fitzgerald

It is easier to pick a 90's team, as generally, players can be picked in their positions, or certainly in the same line that they operated in!
Neil Collins was the best keeper in Ireland in the first half of 90's - ironically John O'Leary was getting the All-Stars he probably didnt deserve, and Cluxton who has set the bar so high currently struggles to get them.
Although Derry only won Ulster/All Ireland in '93 and Ulster '98, they were consistnetly a high performing league side as well, hence 3 for them - hard to think of 2 better corner backs.
Curran was a Rolls Royce of a player, and for me deserves to be mentioned alongside O'Se, McCaffrey etc as great half backs.
Midfield picks itself.
Forwards for me also picked themselves. Giles was excellent, but not in the same class as Geraghty. Toss of a coin between Fallon/Donnellan, but for me Fallon was the consistently high performer in the 90's.

From a Down point of view Neil Collins is a great shout. Disgrace he never got an all star. The one other Down man pushing for a place that no one ever mentions is Barry Breen. He was class and if you talk to any of the Down forwards of the era they'll all name him as the player who made them tick. Saying that there was some serious footballers at centre half back in the nineties - real leaders too.

Such a load of shite.

Most teams are playing the same way (or are trying to), or have the basis of their play in that defensive set up - the difference is the bigger counties have mastered the defensive part and are able to break at speed which makes it a different game to watch. Other counties have more laboured forward play, but it too will develop. Compare donegal 2011 with 2012 - the foundations were laid in 2011, and built on in 2012.

In the monaghan v fermanagh game, contrary to the popular narrative, there were occasions in the game where every player, except the fermanagh goalie, were in the monaghan half of the pitch. Doesn't fit the lazy narrative tho, does it?

Agree with you 100% here

Agree too. There are slight different shades of what teams are doing but basically it is the same principle. The difference in Donegal and Fermanagh is that Donegal have the players to break with speed and power and the forwards to drive in early ball to if they can. Fermanagh dont have the same options so their counters are much slower and patient and risk adverse.

I had to laugh at the shite brolly and co were writing about the great change in Cavan from defensive football to attack. Total nonsense of the highest order.

100% right. Even the Dubs - they're just better at it. If you have the players to break quickly and 1 or 2 very good players up front it looks completely different. I saw on Twitter Brolly talking about Murphy, McBrearty and Brennan up front - Murphy is closer to centre half back than full forward.

They have a point in that if Kerry, Galway or Mayo try to be defensive they'll never beat the Dubs but if any other team goes attacking the Dubs they'll be ripped apart.

I see we have Cavan now. Hard to see how the team can get back up for that one.
There wasn't a huge amount of options the last when Burns came in but there's going to be less this time. Who'd want to come in now? That's assuming Burns has the sense to walk away.
Thought Harrison, Maginn and Darren O'Hagan were the only players to come out with any real credit yesterday. Other lads will be ok - just yesterday didn't work out for them.
I can't believe we have have had 3 different keepers in the last 3 seasons and no one has come up with a decent kick out strategy. You can blame Reid but the players around the middle aren't working hard enough to make space for him to kick into. With all the talk of possession from kick outs in todays football that's a mess. You have to have a plan B and even with an extra man Down couldn't make it work.

It's as if adults have forgotten what it is like to be a kid.
Throw a ball to a gang of 10 year olds and walk away from them.
Will they:
a) Happily pass the ball around in a circle ensuring equal time for everyone?
or,
b) Pick teams and try to beat each other?
There is a difference between healthy competition and unhealthy competition.
Unhealthy competition usually occurs only when the parents get involved.

Exactly and it's no different in any aspect of their lives. Any parents of an 11 year old will testify to the frustration of them if they lose a game online in FIFA or Fortnite or the like. They go crazy if they lose. They are naturally competitive. We hinder them in my opinion if w don't harness that. It can be extreme sometimes and that is wrong but it should not be lost either

Kids are instinctively competitive and that's a good thing.

The problems arise when the coach or parents along the line get competitive, do and say things that are beyond what should be deemed acceptable. Some coaches think they're managing senior teams at times.

I couldn't agree more with this last comment. Some parents and coaches shouldn't be near teams - roaring and shouting at young girls and boys and questioning referees decisions in U8 challenge matches.
I personally think one of the issues comes from what age kids start now. Some parents expect the kids to be at the same skill level they were when they started - which was probably under 12 - but they're telling their wee fella off for not kicking the ball over the bar. If he spend any time playing or coaching with the child he'd realise the 5 year old can't kick the ball from his hands yet. And usually the same da couldn't kick snow off a ditch.

My tuppence is that 2pm on Sundays is the worst possible time for anyone with kids, and that 2pm on a sunny Sunday is write-off completely for younger fellas who enjoy a rip. Reserve football should appeal to social footballers, but the timings just don't work for many.

Personally I'd prefer 11am throw-ins. Yep more than a few lads might still have drink in their system, but it gives everyone their Sunday back. Other than that, 6pm throw-ins are much more conducive to family men than 2pm.

I'm not sure any week night would suit. Senior teams tend to train on Mondays and Wednesdays. Tuesdays is minor football so is out. Thursday night is a possibility and would help keep reserve football for genuine reserves, as 95% of senior managers would let dare let anyone in the first 18-20 senior spits play the night before. But then again, this would cripple smaller clubs.

We tried to move games to 12 last year where possible and it worked out much better. The younger fellas actually preferred it too. Think it give them a reason to go for the cure earlier on a Sunday. The problem was that in our club you had to fight for a pitch with U12 boys, U14 or U16 girls on Sunday mornings plus other teams trying to train. I remember hearing talk about swapping time slots with the ladies on Saturday evenings but the girls weren't keen on Sundays either. It could come down to smaller pitches and 9 or 11 a side.

Filling out teams will be an increasing problem; perhaps time to reconsider 13-a-side again. Would also help with the spectacle, make the massed defence less viable.
Unfortunately gaelic football by it's nature is so open it's harder to play on a casual basis or as you get older. In contrast, in soccer + rugby you can play into your 50s

Both the south down and east down leagues are 13 a side now. Heard it's helped a bit as far as a spectacle goes but teams are still short. They did try Monday nights years ago if I remember right but there was issues with clashing with senior hurling too, so they'd need to sort that out.
Most lads quit playing senior at 32 to 35 and are finished completely. There should be some thought put into how to extend playing days but the competitive nature of the game makes that hard to do I think. Going out for the craic doesn't work if you take a couple of hammerings or injuries pile up. There's a big mix of players in reserves too - from a fella that has never played senior football and has no hope of ever playing senior to a fella on the edge of a senior team or a good senior player in the year after his retirement - if you get the balance the wrong way it can be very one sided.

Burren have 2nds and 3rds in the premier reserve league this year. We have Reserves in premier and 3rds in EDRL, Carryduff the same

Sorry, forgot about Bredagh. Didn't realise Carryduff had 3rds. Fair play. In the last few years Rostrevor, Saval & Tullylish all had 3rds teams and pulled them.

How's that working with Burren having 2 in the league? Their 3rds wouldn't have been that strong last year to make that jump.

There seems to be more reserve games not being played due to not fielding this season. Is there something that can be done to prevent this? Is Sunday a bad day? There used to be loads of thirds teams but now they seem in the minority. Did Kilcoo have 4 teams at one point?

Sunday definitely doesn't help. I pulled the pin after last year mainly because it killed all day Sunday and the kids are running to stuff themselves now. The younger fellas were usually dying too. They tried Wednesdays for the Premier Reserve a couple of years ago but the senior managers weren't happy to let fellas on the edge of the team play a couple days before senior games and it ended up worse. Only Mayobridge, Clonduff, Bryansford, Liatroim and Burren left with 3rds teams as I know. Kilcoo went from 4 teams to 2 in a couple of years I think.
It's a pity because fellas in their mid thirties need something to keep them involved in the sport. The Bridge seem to do it best - they've a serious amount of top level footballers from 35 - 40 still playing away with the 3rds. Fair play to them.

I take it the rule is just at senior level? Probably comes from so many teams not fielding at the end of last year. There was a lot in Div 2 anyway. They can't have a stage where a lot of teams have 4 or 5 dud fixtures at the end of the year to field in. If a team is out of the championship and safe in the league (can't go up or down) it's very hard to motivate lads to play in October and November. Maybe only apply the rule for a second offence for teams with a genuine numbers issue. There has to be less rearranging of fixtures for county weekends away and stuff like that. Less games in the league overall would help.

Overall our league set up is pretty good - regular games on Friday nights mostly. This year the county team doing better than expected caused issues with fixtures. If we want to allow for something like this and getting leagues finished up before the championship, reducing the leagues to 10 teams could be a easy solution.

On the reserve leagues it's mad they're still going now but it came down to the fact there was next to no games played during the championship period. It's nearly impossible to sort reserve football out. Its the same all over the country though. Smaller league groups would maybe help next year. I think there was too many teams to work around this year in the south down league anyway. There always seems to be something on in clubs on sundays. Everything from tractor runs to fun runs get games moved.

I don't think there is many clubs in down could set up with 2 senior teams on a Friday night. It wouldn't just be a matter of the premier reserve team playing because at least 10 (if not all of it in the case of the bigger sides with 30+ togged out on a Friday night) of that side is togged out for the 1st team. We are down to only a handful of clubs now that can field a 3rds team now (only 7 that I can think of) and 2 of them are in the 2nd division. That would tell you that there's not many clubs with 45 players which is what you would need to make that work. But maybe it would encourage more players to stay on in that drop out age if they're playing div 3 or 4 on a Friday instead of reserve football on a Sunday. From my own experience Sundays don't seem to be working for young fellas now - Saturday nights seem to last longer than when I was younger.

There's also big questions to ask to how it works. If you play for the 1st team does that automatically rule you out for the 2nd team? There's the whole issue with regular football for lads too. How do you manage to name a squad of say 25 players and tell the last couple of lads on that panel they more than likely won't get a game week in week out. At the minute those lads at least can play for the 2nds on a Sunday after. Maybe that's not a issue in the bigger clubs though. It would be interesting to hear the view from the big clubs on it.