The Sunday Game

[LaurelEye]

Why did Jack Sheedy start banging on about Tyrone and Donegal in his post match interview...i fail to follow what relevance that had to his team getting beat by 27 points.

It's called distraction.

[StephenC]

We had a 2nd tier before.
It was called the Tommy Murphy Cup and the weaker counties pissed and moaned about having to play in it.

It wasn't a 2nd tier competition. It was an additional competition for those in the 2nd tier. A significant difference. Make it so that the Tommy Murphy (or whatever) is the only show in town for the bottom 16 counties , and they'll soon start to enjoy it.

Were you waving your fist at the computer as you typed that?

It was second tier. Remember div 4 counties weren't allowed enter the Qualifiers?

I was certainly waving my fist and mumbling under my breath. I'm glad it carried through.

AZ - point taken, but the TM cup wasn't positioned as a parallel competition, it was a poorly thought out add-on that was doomed from the start.

[orangeman]

Why did Jack Sheedy start banging on about Tyrone and Donegal in his post match interview...i fail to follow what relevance that had to his team getting beat by 27 points.

Because he got his ass handed to him.

[Jinxy]

It all ties in with the 'Everyone should get to play in Croke Park' type of thing we heard from Paul Barden before the game today.
Tell a player from Longford that he can either take a hammering from Dublin or he can play in a 2nd tier championship and he'd probably say the latter makes more sense (especially if you asked him now).
But, when you actually put him in that 2nd tier championship how will he react?
Well, we know how he'll react, because we've been here before.
Is it not just easier to let them risk a mauling at the hands of Dublin and then play a couple of qualifier games where they actually have a chance of getting a win?

[Sea The Stars]

I found it hilarious that there was all this concern for what a result like that would do for Longford football yet not a mention of Waterford who lost by 22 points. These guys are sensationalist and produce the same analysis I would expect down in the pub. Why did Dessie Dolan not suggest an actual solution? For example how you would divide teams between tiers? Because next year Tipperary and Longford will both be Division 3 teams - should both be in a hypothetical second tier? Why did not analyse the Tipperary/Waterford game the same way they analysed the Dublin/Longford game? The Newstalk team of Parkinson, Devenney, Horan and Canavan are far superior to the majority of RTE analysts.

[Sea The Stars]

It all ties in with the 'Everyone should get to play in Croke Park' type of thing we heard from Paul Barden before the game today.
Tell a player from Longford that he can either take a hammering from Dublin or he can play in a 2nd tier championship and he'd probably say the latter makes more sense (especially if you asked him now).
But, when you actually put him in that 2nd tier championship how will he react?
Well, we know how he'll react, because we've been here before.
Is it not just easier to let them risk a mauling at the hands of Dublin and then play a couple of qualifier games where they actually have a chance of getting a win?

Totally agree.

[Sea The Stars]

Why did Jack Sheedy start banging on about Tyrone and Donegal in his post match interview...i fail to follow what relevance that had to his team getting beat by 27 points.

wandering that meself!!

Also wondering the same thing.

[Jinxy]

There's another point worth considering here.
People say, "We talk about this every year!" and throw their hands up to heaven as if this is some massively significant issue.
Yeah, we do talk about this every year, but it's always at this time, i.e. the first & second round of games where the mismatches are more pronounced.
Usually in the aftermath of Dublin mincing someone I might add.
Is this an issue for Ulster?
No.
Is this an issue for Connacht?
Not really.
Is this an issue for Munster?
Probably not, as the provincial winner is not a foregone conclusion.
So basically we're talking about ripping up the whole script and years of tradition on the back of Dublin being too good for every other team in Leinster, at this point in time.
The solution seems pretty obvious...





get rid of Dublin.

[Sea The Stars]

Jinxy where are these counties not screaming for change? These counties have delegates on provincial councils and as far as I am aware there's not been one motion at Congress to change the format and/or introduce a second tier. I stand to be corrected but that's my belief.

The reality is there is no appetite for it.

Also don't want to be too harsh on Longford who to be fair have reached 4 Leinster u21 finals since 2003 and have won a Leinster minor championship. Also knocked Derry out twice and have beaten teams like Cavan and Mayo in the last 5 years while also reaching Division 2 for a period. So clearly there is good work going there.

But they went out today expecting to be beaten like that and Dublin duly obliged. Sheedy hadn't them prepared at all and had the audacity to try and moan about the Tyrone and Donegal match in his interview.

My concern here is the sympathy being extended towards Longford. I thought many of their players were hopeless today (a few exceptions) as was their manager. I've a feeling he sent them out knowing no matter what the result, there'd be this argument to fall back on. The wider discussion of championship imbalance should not distract from a very poor performance by Longford.

[trentoneill15]

I often wonder who the lassie is on the montage with the tongue piercing, a nice lassie indeed. I am probably the only one who has noticed.

[LaurelEye]

But they went out today expecting to be beaten like that and Dublin duly obliged. Sheedy hadn't them prepared at all and had the audacity to try and moan about the Tyrone and Donegal match in his interview.

My concern here is the sympathy being extended towards Longford. I thought many of their players were hopeless today (a few exceptions) as was their manager. I've a feeling he sent them out knowing no matter what the result, there'd be this argument to fall back on. The wider discussion of championship imbalance should not distract from a very poor performance by Longford.

This.

He should have been waved farewell to last year, but wasn't. The commentary briefly mentioned that "eight players had left the panel over the winter". We might ask why that happened.

[Hound]

There's another point worth considering here.
People say, "We talk about this every year!" and throw their hands up to heaven as if this is some massively significant issue.
Yeah, we do talk about this every year, but it's always at this time, i.e. the first & second round of games where the mismatches are more pronounced.
Usually in the aftermath of Dublin mincing someone I might add.
Is this an issue for Ulster?
No.
Is this an issue for Connacht?
Not really.
Is this an issue for Munster?
Probably not, as the provincial winner is not a foregone conclusion.
So basically we're talking about ripping up the whole script and years of tradition on the back of Dublin being too good for every other team in Leinster, at this point in time.
The solution seems pretty obvious...





get rid of Dublin.

Given its status as capital, might be an option to rotate Dublin between all the provinces. Would spice things up to play in the Connacht championship next year, Ulster the year after, then Munster, then back to Leinster. Would make the Leinster championship a lot more interesting too

[mylestheslasher]

I thought Dessie Dolan was quite good last night on the Sunday game. He did some revolutionary stuff like do a bit of research on the teams he was commentating on and even if you dont agree with his opinions at least he made them in a clear and concise manner. Compare that to the lazy uninformed shite that Spillane, Brolly and to a lesser extent O Rourke spout where every team is pre labelled before a ball has been kicked and each man knows one player on each team and will "analyse" that player based on something they did 3 years ago. Well I'd have Dessie on the Sunday game and put the other 3 clowns out to graze.

[Brick Tamlin]

Sure McHugh was brutal too.
Like a wee excited beagle he was leppin about the seat trying to make umpteen different points without finishing a sentence, whilst non of them related to either the question he was asked nor the footage being shown as he spoke. Is it too much to ask for analysis instead of the shite we are fed regularly on a sunday evenin by ex-players that might have been decent on the field, but clearly cant articulate their points clearly.

[From the Bunker]

McStay is the only one I can listen to. Used to hate him for some unknown reason! But he has his homework done. He calls it as it is with weaker counties without being patronising. Spillane just stick to the safe stats stuff and looks at a county traditionally. O'Rourke is solid, not much guff, but seems to have fell into the lazy stuff aswell. Brolly is just car crash TV. Tries harder than Spilane and O'Rourke to get a real angle on things, but has just ended up the clown of the panel. Whelan is decent. My problem with him is him talking on controversial issues, it sounds so ironic! O'Shea after a good start. Sounds like a broken record. All the good sound bites from last year seemed to be rehashed and he knows little or nothing of Football in the provinces bar his own.

As for co-commentators Martin Carney (who always gets Mayo and Donegal Matches) and Tommy Carr. Sweet Jesus!