Messages

[shocked]

Having watched Cassidy on numerous occasions I am simply shocked that he has been the dominant factor in this game 

There's a reason why he's only had 3 Ulster Championship games before now & is better known as a linesman in the bigger games.

On a side note, heard Slaughtneil are flying this year and are almost a formality for the Derry championship?

I'd say the break they had last year will have made a big difference to them having not had a proper offseason in 4 or 5 years.  There are a couple of teams that could challenge them this year (personally like Swatragh and Glen) though it would be a huge shock it they didn't cruise to the title this year now that Coleraine are gone.

Nice clip of the Glenullin v Newbridge game doing the rounds. Dirty low blow from behind a man. Real manly stuff. No doubt the fault will be with whoever took the footage for some people.

Can you stick it up please.

https://twitter.com/okanedarrell/status/1159739454850064384

Cowardly act, but will no doubt be match by the cowardice of the disciplinary action meted out.  Have seen some disgraceful incidents on the field in the last couple of years and yet nothing is done.  Only a matter of time until a serious incident occurs if players are allowed to get away with actions like this (including bites, eye gougings and attempted castrations along with mass brawls and assaults on officials) without any proper consequences.

I did think I may have misinterpreted your point Keyser as you're generally one of the more sensible posters, but I still don't agree that there is any necessity for those clubs (or indeed any club) to produce several players of county standard.  Rarely will a club have a conveyor belt of talented players coming through into the senior age group that we can rely on them having several players up with the county team.  Instead it's much more cyclical with the likes of Slaughtneil and Coleraine currently enjoying a generation of excellent players

There may well have been a proposal brought in over the last couple of years aimed at promoting the county team (the current league structure being in the 2nd year of implementation) but in what way has this been a detriment to the clubs?  They have their full panel of players available for ALL league games, leagues are being run off before the championship starts so no longer running into October and November, clear "holiday periods" in July are laid out at the start of the year and additional competitions were set up to ensure regular club players would still be getting games even when the county are competiting in Ulster or the qualifiers. 

How does this represent no respect being given?

A strong county team needs players from strong clubs in order to be successful. Clubs with a strong tradition of supplying top class players to the county e.g. Bellaghy [0 players last year]  Lavey [1 player last year], Dungiven [0 players last year], Glenullin [0 players last year], Ballinderry [0 players last year,] Screen [1 player last year] etc haven't been supplying these players in the same numbers as they used to, if at all, and for me this is part of the reason why Derry are so weak at the minute. [* put a question mark after my number of players from the listed clubs as i have a poor memory lol]

And this is not in any way a slight on the great work by clubs who maybe have not been traditional suppliers of county players in big numbers eg Slaughtneil and Coleraine, who have done brilliantly to be at the top of the Derry club tree, who are supplying players

A complete and utter nonsense of a point to try and make.  None of those clubs listed in the first paragraph (with the exception of Ballinderry) have had any modicum of success in over a decade yet we should still be relying on them to make up large numbers of the county panel because they used to be good?

I'd bet very good money that a team made up entirely of Slaughtneil and Coleraine players would beat a team derived from those clubs you mention at this current time.  It's about the best 25-30 players we have in a county as a whole and whether they come from traditionally big clubs, clubs enjoying current success or indeed clubs that have very little going for them makes absolutely no difference.

The bottom line in my opinion is that you can't have it both ways; either the county is prioritised and clubs accept that their best players will be with Derry for large parts of the season or we can focus purely on the club season with the aim of producing more talented footballers further down the line as a result of regular competitive football against other clubs.  At the minute we have neither.

[It's actually the Top 3 Div1B teams along with the Intermediate winner. If the winner also finishes Top 3 then 4th place will play senior as well.]

It's the 10 surviving teams + 2 relegated and the top 4 teams in Div 1B
It's actually the Top 3 Div1B teams along with the Intermediate winner.  If the winner also finishes Top 3 then 4th place will play senior as well.

The senior league is heating up, we have lost our early form, Loup v competitive yesterday, but we are still playing well. But their is nothing between the middle 6/7 teams. Ballinderry have put together two big results and performances going by the score board. Bellaghy going by Mals report destroyed Magherafelt, unexpected. Topsy turvy performances everywhere. Banagher and Dungiven in big diffs now, with Glen possibly being the real threats to the Snail in the championship 🤔. Coleraine keeping their powder dry for the championship?

If that's correct what a complete clusterfuck.  How are teams playing intermediate opposition all year supposed to compete with teams playing senior all year. it just shows that the county board do not give 1 flying f**k about clubs, other than when they need 16 of them to line their pockets at championship time.  Other than that it's all right to fob them off with 2nd rate competitions and telescope their league into as few weeks as possible.

Yeah i thought that was the whole point of the league restructure this year was for it to be even out again next year meaning you play in intermediate league your in intermediate championship also.

More less top 16 teams play senior champ.

The leagues restructured because clubs refused to play games without their county players which made it difficult / impossible to run off all required league games.  Therefore, they reduced the number of teams in each league so that we can make sure all games are played before championship begins and we're not left with the scenario of games with relegation / promotion implications being played in November.  (To counteract the reduction in games they introduced the League Cup, played during the county break). 
Note: I disagree with the current proposal but just wanted to clarify for others that may not know the thinking behind it.

Obviously a 12 team championship wouldn't work as some teams would need to be given bye's for the draw to work out so it's been kept as a 16 team competition, with the best solution being to take the top 12 teams from Division 1A and the next 4 top teams from Division 1B.  If teams playing intermediate opposition all year want to compete with teams playing senior all year then that's an added incentive to gain promotion from Division 1B, and without being facetious, the reason they are playing intermediate teams all year is because they weren't good enough to compete with senior teams (i.e. they were relegated from the senior league).

What was the black card for???

Third man tackle, hit the Kildare man after he passed the ball off. Hasn't shown a replay of it but almost certain that'll be why it was given. Harsh enough given that it happens constantly in games without action being taken.

Banagher v Mullahoran match had gone to a free kick competition. Follow Unit Updates on Twitter for live updates. Incredible.

Championship Final Week 
Whats the predictions?
Will the experience of Coleraine see them over the line?
Will Brennan and Downey outfox Sean McGoldrick?

Were originally I thought Coleraine would when this match by a couple of points, I'm starting to swing the other way and think Lavey could very well win this game by the bare minimum. Will O'Boyle start? I think he will and will score a couple of goals which will be the difference. The only time Coleraine looked under pressure in the semi was when the high ball went in. In Toner and McGill they have maybe the 2 standouts this year.

Lavey by 1

I really don't see this myself. Coleraine have been the most dominant team in the championship this year and are a much stronger team than Lavey. I'd expect them to be fairly comfortable tomorrow unless Lavey can get those couple of goals you mention.

Hi ! What's the story with next year's club championship??? Is it twelve teams in each championship or the 16?

Top 4 in junior play intermediate championship, so I'm guessing the same for intermediate / senior? Not sure though if that means the top 4 in the league at the time of the draw or the 4 semi finalists this year

top 4 in 1b league playing senior championship next year, sure what would the purpose be of Banagher V Newbridge play off if otherwise

Change Joe toe to Joe know 

Maybe not, as he's wrong. Senior Championship next year will be the same teams as this year with the exception of Claudy being replaced by Banagher. From 2020 onwards it will be Division 1A teams along with top 3 from Division 1B and Intermediate Championship winners from the previous year.

Hopefully we get through last 3 C'ship games without any such incidents or we'll end up with no referee's that should be near a GAA pitch for next season.

Regardless of which referees are adjudged to be good enough to be "allowed inside the grounds of a GAA pitch", we surely can't be far away from a situation whereby the whole lot of them go on strike and we're unable to have any games played.  The old question of "who'd want to be a referee" always seemed a light hearted dig at the officials and the abuse they'd put up with from certain sections of the crowd but now it looks to be a genuine question and something that urgently needs addressed with officials being physically assaulted at the drop of a hat.  For Dan Mullan to be met by a mob of Slaughtneil supporters in the tunnel last night is nothing short of disgraceful. Anyone that tries to justify that because they feel aggrieved about a few decisions he made (or indeed didn't make) needs to take a long look at themselves. 

Onto the game itself and it was another fantastic evening of championship football served up by two very evenly matched teams.  Both have come under fire in recent times for playing a negative brand of football but I've always felt that a lot of that stems from how the opposition set up rather than their own styles of play. Against Magherafelt, Slaughtneil had no option but to play keep ball whereas last night gave them opportunities to maraude forward and create some wonderful scores. It seemed like they couldn't miss in the first half last night and like many others I thought the game was done and dusted in the first 20 minutes but credit to Coleraine for coming back into it.

The goal was the clear turning point as it cut a 5 point lead down to 2 and Coleraine looked the more clinical over the closing stages. Slaughtneil looked very wary of taking the shot on towards the end, instead trying to work it around to better positions / players but eventually being bottled up and turned over. I definitely think there were a few instances of players being pushed in the back or fouled when carrying the ball into the tackle but that was the case for both teams with the referee deciding not to make the call.  People seem to forget that Barry Cassidy gifted Slaughtneil a point in the closing minutes of the first game when the goalkeeper was deemed to over carry when being fouled in his small square but there were no cries of corruption or bias after that.

It's a pity that such an entertaining battle between two quality teams will be overshadowed by the antics at the end, but something really needs to be done to address the problem.  However I fear the county board will simply sweep it under the carpet as it's unlikely any video evidence will surface.

One final word on the Slaughtneil team themselves. They have been an absolute credit to the county over the past few years and what they have achieved in both codes is nothing short of remarkable. The players themselves were the ones preventing supporters and others from getting at the officials on the pitch so hopefully they are not all tarnished by the actions of a few idiots in the club.

http://derrygaa.ie/fixturesandresults/?countyBoardID=7&compGroupID=51239&leagueTable=y

Is this league cup going to turn out to be a complete farce?  Looks like Lavey has conceded all their games already!?

Surely Lavey could field their fringe players or reserves if they dont want their seniors to compete in this league cup. Or is there a cup competition for reserves as well?

I wouldn't say it'll turn out a complete farce but I certainly don't think it'll go as well as intended.  Many of the club players that I've spoken with would rather have a break from action for a week or two rather than running off another 7 games that have very little meaning. 

Two solutions that I think would improve the overall approach would be to either remove the reserve fixtures in it allowing clubs to field a mix of senior and reserve players, reducing the strain on clubs that don't have big panels (county players aren't able to play in this competition) and allowing older / injured players to take a rest if needed. 
Alternatively, split the divisions into 4 groups of 4 rather than just 2 smaller leagues.  Each club then plays just 3 games which could be held every other weekend allowing players a week off in between and then the winners of each group play in a semi final and final for the "League Cup".

I can understand the thinking behind it but with a few small tweaks it would be even more beneficial to players looking extra games but also keen to have a break in action.

So do Screen have any chance on Sunday? We are certainly up against it but we'll have to perform to our absolute maximum.
Of course they have a chance albeit a small one in my opinion.  Bookies have it over 3-1 for Screen which I'd agree with

We need a similar performance to the first half against Coleraine & will probably need a couple of goals to win.
I'd say the opposite; keeping a clean sheet against Slaughtneil is more important as they are extremely difficult to beat once they're able to get a few points ahead.  They tend to get goals at crucial times so being able to prevent this is imperative if Screen are to see the game out

Chrissy McKaigue probably needs to be man-marked. He is currently their only genuine top notch player (i.e. he would make most/all county teams) but they have a plethora of quality throughout the team.
Agreed that he is their strongest player but they have several men that can carry from deep and get on the end of scores.  Not necessarily man marked but forwards need to be well aware of tracking their men as they go up the field

The defensive set up doesn't work against Slaughtneil, they've shown time & time again that they have the patience & quality to counteract it & eke out the win.
The real difference in the possession game that Slaughtneil play compared to other teams is in their ability to win the free in a scorable area

Hoping for a good game.... or I'd even take a miserable game with a Screen victory 😜
It's only my opinion but Screen won't win a good quality game against Slaughtneil.  I'd expect a fairly dour affair, but as with all finals it's only the result that matters

[the half time show]

The "well dones" are pointless, what exactly did you do well?

You managed to sit down for an hour, throw in a water bottle a couple of times, clap and shout encouragement and if you're lucky crash a few balls off the crossbar during the half time show. 
Then comes the inevitable platitudes from the captain and manager. How it was a team effort and you were every bit as important as the others and that if you weren't there at training to push the lads we wouldn't be here.

Load of bollocks.

Good article and largely agree with the points made

Good question. They've had 8 games in Ulster the last two years, plus whatever the Derry Championship is. Here's the Slaughtneil goals, which were very good, just too late - http://www.jeromequinnmedia.com BTW Conor Glass was outstanding again, and only just turned 17, I think.

Bound to be just turned 16 as he was the U16 captain this year.

I think Jimmy's correct in that he's only 16 - was a 4th year when St Pat's won the Hogan earlier this year.  As someone mentioned in the Derry thread, he could potentially have 5 county minor medals by the time he hits 18.