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[But that's a discussion to be had next month when the inconvenience comes to life of people from the Ards having to drive over an hour just to watch their team play the parish that is normally 5 minutes down the road]

Páirc Esler has been chosen as the venue to host the return of the hurling-shinty International Rules Series between Ireland and Scotland. An unexpected but welcome surprise. Was expecting to have to trek down the country, something just not as enjoyable in the winter months, so great that it is on the doorstep. Wouldn't know much about composite rules hurling, but whatever way you look at it, it's either an honour for Down to act as the home pitch for the national team playing the national sport of Ireland, or it's a great novelty and something to talk about. Either way, no bad thing.

Will be hopeful for an Irish victory- been nearly ten years apparently since Ireland last won a series.

Wonder how much of a feature Down players will get. Assuming that the competition will draw from players at the McDonagh/Ring level, as opposed to the MacCarhy level, surely you would expect to see a few Down heads in the mix? 

Great to see Páirc Esler getting a bit of use for stuff outside the purposes of Down GAA. Would be unreasonable to expect Newry to be treated like Clones or the Athletic Grounds, but it is a good location; where north meets south. Would never expect it to be used for Ulster or National League finals, but for stuff like All Ireland Club Semi Finals, matches between teams from down south and teams from Antirm/Derry, it could be a good choice.

Also glad Newry has been chosen and not McKenna Park in Ballycran. Ballycran is an absolute great club, and I'm sure it was never going to be considered, but more hurling needs to be showcased in Newry. I'm sure a lot of lads from the Ards will disagree, but it's great to have the hurling finals in Newry. It would be great if Down played more hurling games in Newry. I completely understand that people in the Ards will wonder where the wisdom is in moving 2 clubs across the county to play a game, but I think the more hurling is showcased in South Down, the better the effect for Down Hurling overall.
A lot of people in Down either view hurling as a minority game and underestimate the County's  standing, or view it as something those ones on the Ards Peninsula get up to so leave them at it. We simply cannot keep relying on 3 small, rural clubs to uphold the County Scene. Keeping hurling confided to the Ards, whilst handy for most, doesn't do anything to help the game.
If Bryansford were to play Kilcoo in the football final, we wouldn't expect the game to be held in Castlewellen. We'd expect it to be held in the county stadium. Hurling has to become of a similar mindset. Hurling has to spread beyond the Ards in order for Down to flourish, and opportunities like this are great for that.

But that's a discussion to be had next month when the inconvenience comes to life of people from the Ards having to drive over an hour just to watch their team play the parish that is normally 5 minutes down the road 

In the meantime, it's great to know that Down GAA is playing host to an international hurling event, and hopefully plenty of Down Gaels take a notion to see what the craic is and go have a look.

Is it too early to start telling the Scots that the home of hurling isn't Thurles- it's Newry?

The last two, maybe three senior hurling finals have been played in Newry and whilst the ferry boat is an absolute pain in the hole, not to mention additional expense there's been no complaints for the Ards teams in relation to this.

As for the Shinty thing, it's great to say you've represented your country for any hurler but the game itself is utter písh as well as pretty dangerous for the Irish lads.
We'd a lad played over in Scotland, got the ankle well mangled when hit full belt with a shinty stick which is far longer and harder than an ash hurl.

ffs sf they're well conditioned yes but they're fantastic hurlers. If you're just putting this down to s&c then you're missing quite a bit here. Have you noticed as well as anything that they also shift their tactics round that time when they notice how the opposition is playing?

It's the combination but the key difference is the power boost. And it's like a multiplication. Some other teams are skilled but they don't have the power.
I also think that Limerick's power peaks in the championship endgame. They were just as skilled in Munster

It's hurling not a video game 

Some of the KK lads are a bit off on the S&C though, take Tom Phelan, I thought he was a young lad, 21 or 22 or so, but he's 27.

A fine hurler but was bounced about and lost possession twice in the tackle in the second half that I can remember. Now he'd have been better off not going into those tackles although a lot of the time with Limerick those tackles come to you..

On the flip side, take Cathal O'Neill or Adam English, bit part players, 20 to 21 years old and far better conditioned for this type of hurling.

Kilkenny do have a bit of catching up to do in terms of S&C, no doubt but it starts in the youth teams and not when they're adults.

[they know it will hurt them long term with the electorat]

I don't think so tbh. They wouldn't care about going nuclear with or without the cover of that. They always have their default fallback of but what about the ra.

They're slippery enough they'd have found some "reason".

One thing I learned back in the '80's during Drumcree, is you should never underestimate the willingness of hardcore DUP voters and loyalists to cut off every appendage to spite their face. Even if it causes them to lose everything they own.

Oh so true.

The DUP, Donaldson to be precise is still wrangling for a win of sorts to allow them to save some face and get Stormont up and running as they know it will hurt them long term with the electorate, but he's being undermined by the more vocal in his party but the absurdity of creating these 7 tests and the likes which they're bound to have known the UK government would never meet ranks of stupidity and arrogance of the highest level.

Sitting beside Michelle O'Neill as first minister also doesn't help, but that will be for ELP and not wee Jeffrey if he's still around in the next few months.

They really are badly led ever since Robinson exited the stage for them.

Will it hurt them with their electorate? I'm not too sure.

There seems to be a hardening of attitudes....as in..we'll dig ourselves into a bigger whole. We don't care.

It won't hurt them with their electorate, no, but their electoral pool is dwindling, they've maxed out the hardline vote and they're still play second fiddle to SF.
They've fended off the TUV to their right, but Alliance are still making gains to the middle on what is perceived to be small u unionists. The likes of East Belfast could well fall to Alliance at the next GE.
In a recent poll it is thought Doug Beattie is cutting through to young unionists, how that plays out in the polls in the next election we'll see.

There is but I don't think a few good days here is part of that data!

It's the extreme's that are the concern.

We'd a very warm June to be followed by one of the wettest July's on record, August was meh, and now we've days in September well into the high 20's...

The spud crop was fecked down our way with the July rain, blight and poor growth...

https://twitter.com/EwenDCameron/status/1699463138247069984?s=20

Loads of videos about Fred on YouTube, well worth a watch.
He was some character.

Randomly watched one of his shows last month were he felled two 100 metre chimneys to collapse in a straight line. Cutting out a hole at the bottom of each with a hammer and chisel, then setting a fire at the bottom of each to expand the brick and bring down. Amazing

He normally took out the bricks and stayed them with old telephone poles then set a fire round them so that the stays would burn out and it would fall where he wanted it to.

He invented his own pulley system with two big buckets on a pulley/brake system where he's fill one at the top, let it drop with gravity doing it's thing and when the full one was dropping the empty one was flying back up the chimney..

Smart man as well as having balls of steel.

I don't think so tbh. They wouldn't care about going nuclear with or without the cover of that. They always have their default fallback of but what about the ra.

They're slippery enough they'd have found some "reason".

One thing I learned back in the '80's during Drumcree, is you should never underestimate the willingness of hardcore DUP voters and loyalists to cut off every appendage to spite their face. Even if it causes them to lose everything they own.

Oh so true.

The DUP, Donaldson to be precise is still wrangling for a win of sorts to allow them to save some face and get Stormont up and running as they know it will hurt them long term with the electorate, but he's being undermined by the more vocal in his party but the absurdity of creating these 7 tests and the likes which they're bound to have known the UK government would never meet ranks of stupidity and arrogance of the highest level.

Sitting beside Michelle O'Neill as first minister also doesn't help, but that will be for ELP and not wee Jeffrey if he's still around in the next few months.

They really are badly led ever since Robinson exited the stage for them.

I hate to break it to you but Galway have plenty of beasts in there too. They do plenty of strength and conditioning. They just don't do it as well and probably don't have hurlers of the same level.

None of the other teams are anywhere near Limerick's S&Clevel
We don't know how the others would perform hurlingwise because we never had a  level s&C.

S&C had very little to do with Peter Casey's 5 points, (barring the shrug off on Mikey Butler), he'd white chalk on his boots for three of them, now from a Galway perspective who could you trust to do the same for them?

Conor Cooney would put over a worldy one minute and then miss an easy chance the next, he'd have put at best two of those over, Niland needs space, Casey was well chaperoned on three of those points and still got them over, Whelan, who I rate highly BTW would also have put at least two of those wide, Cathal O'Neill comes on and puts over one of the best points of the day while being closed in tight to the sideline on the Cusack stand side of the ground.

That is the difference between Limerick and the chasing pack, when the pressure comes on their shooting averages are far higher than anyone else.

Limericks one weakness is in dealing with high ball in on their fullback line, Kilkenny, Galway and Clare got joy from those, but couldn't sustain the effort to get the ball into positions to allow good ball to get in their.

Is TJ done?   He's now moreso a playmaker, some of his passes yesterday in the second half would have resulted in good goal chances, one due to a slip and the other to a lad just getting it all wrong after that. It will be interesting if he goes another year, I can't see another Leinster title being enough to satisfy him, but we'll know more when Ballyhale exit the club championship (or win it again)..

Casey has the facility to score points from acute angles and while seemingly being tightly marked. Limerick were freaky in their purple patch on Sunday though as everything they hit, wind-aided, went over the bar. As a team they've frequently had the propensity to hit a lot of wides in a match however, yes, even under pressure. E.g. 2018 AI final, 2023 league final, both Clare matches this year etc. Maybe the key to beating them is not to start well, like Galway and Kilkenny did in their games, but to tread water for as long as possible and then hammer the hammer by finishing strongly.

They would have to mirror Limerick's S&C. They would probably need to find a few new players. Does Evan Ferguson have any Galway links?

I'm not sure Evan Ferguson would last long if Kyle Hayes lined him up with a shoulder 

[Appeal against Meath's score difference rule faces fresh scrutiny]

I see some counties have gotten themselves in a bit of bother in deciding the rankings when 3 teams are on equal points in a round robin based championship;

https://www.msn.com/en-ie/sports/football/appeal-against-meath-s-score-difference-rule-faces-fresh-scrutiny/ar-AA1ghZRb?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=e625fc709b2f4f3fa8dea3e06a3148ac&ei=10

Appeal against Meath's score difference rule faces fresh scrutiny

The application of which score difference mechanism should be used to determine which team finishes higher when three or more are tied on the same points in a championship or league division group faces fresh scrutiny in two provinces.

Meath County Board is taking a case to the Central Appeals Committee challenging a Leinster Council decision to order a refixture after Na Fianna challenged the mechanism Meath used to determine the second-placed team in their four-team SFC group.

The group was won by Dunshaughlin on six points with three other teams tied on two points, but Donaghmore-Ashbourne were declared second on the basis of score difference superiority that included games involving all four teams in the group. That was consistent with what was in Meath's bye-laws.

But Leinster hearings found "ambiguity" in the application and recommended that Donaghmore-Ashbourne and Na Fianna should play off to see who advances to quarter-finals or drops into a relegation play-off.

Na Fianna argued that the rule passed at Congress in February, put forward by Tipperary club Burgess, should apply instead whereby score difference calculated from the games between the tied teams only should apply which put them ahead of Donaghmore-Ashbourne.

This conflict is also at the centre of Sixmilebridge's case with a Munster hearings committee, after their exit from the Clare SHC.

As a matter of interest what do the various other counties do in this regard?

So ye are actually still voting for them, and if there was another Election next week ye'll go out and vote fir the same crews again.
But in Milltownland it's alright once they don't form a Government .

It's hard to change the habits of a lifetime as you lads well know, still voting in FF after they left the place balls deep in debt to be run by the Troika, bloodied their nose a bit but still in government now.
Old civil war family politics is a hard tradition to break.

That is basically the same format as old backdoor only replacing  it with a group stage   we need to forget provincials why should we be rewarding teams in unbalanced provinces does this guy not realize  his proposal is the basically the old backdoor system. also with the state of the provincials currently your practically giving kerry and dublin a bye to the quarters about 80 or more  percent of the time.

This guy realises the provincial championships have lost their value to both players and supporters and attendances have probably been impacted. Lower attendances reduces their revenue stream for coaches and staff with that county, it's nothing to do with the betterment of the sport.

wont really effect anyones lives.

I'm not so sure.

Change of these lads (and lassies) in leadership roles within the PSNI has to change and appointing from within will set back any reform that needs to happen.

The mentality within the PSNI where they're happy to walk alongside EB UVF in Newtownards and beyond speaks volumes to me.

Good living for a living;

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/agri/farmer-who-criticised-police-for-not-catching-those-behind-huge-cannabis-factory-is-charged-himself/a760397715.html

Simon Byrne has resigned.

Yep, and can't be replaced until the DUP bring the assembly back.

I wonder what is happening inside the PSNI! Are the RUC old guard pushing back on changes going by come of those stepping forward saying there's issues internally with management.

So what triggers them to do an investigation into any incident if they have the appropriate video footage?

1. If the referee's report highlights that an incident took place, which might require further investigation.

Or

2. One of the competing teams submits a complaint to the CCC and requests an investigation.

——

What people need to understand here is that it is not in CCC's interests to open an investigation unless requested to do so. By following this approach, they can be regarded as unbiased. The very moment a CCC member independently tries to launch an investigation, is the same moment that cries of a witch hunt echo out.

Thanks.

Carryduff then should 100% be putting in a complaint. That stuff there has no place on the field. Same for the Galway hurling incident.

Teams don't want to be seen as sore losers and no one is entirely squeaky clean either, but yes it's time these cheap shots are called out.

Gone are the days a lad done anything like that to a teammate and they'd be nursing sore ribs the day after!

[And to do such an investigation properly they'd need access to and then review unedited footage for several minutes either side of the incident to gauge context]

Can i ask a question, did the Kilcoo num 10 get a suspension following the video of him putting his knee unto the head of a player who was laying on the ground?

This is not how the GAA disciplinary system works.

Unless CCC are informed directly of an incident by either the referee or one of the competing clubs, then they have no business in setting up an investigation.

Think about it. CCC administer about 200 games a week during the summer months. Were they to create their own investigation into any single incident caught on camera, then they'd have to follow the same process for every incident that gets shared around the county. And to do such an investigation properly they'd need access to and then review unedited footage for several minutes either side of the incident to gauge context. And then they'd have to discipline anyone and everyone who misbehaves during that longer footage.

And then, because of how things work, either the Hearings committee or DRA would simply dismiss the suspension anyway.

You might not like it. But this is how it works. Don't blame the county board.

Do you not have to provide the full game unedited before CCC will look at an incident?