Messages

gratias tibi spike; marcus et cornelius, ante multos annos

apologies, i got confused between my scriptum scriptum and super script usage, and won't argue with the post scriptum secundum
I'd rather not be associated with the PPS (syndrome)... seems only young boys have it...

Pss we may look back in future years and wonder why anyone would want to play on the green gold

Ps2 every club should aspire to be dual, with handball during the winter 

Ps3 hows this for a thought DK, if you have nothing good to say,, ...

Ps4 threw his gumshield, missed him of(f) course

Ps5 apart from the lack of coffee, I had another complaint, the scoreboard was to(o) bright, but a little knob can fix that

Ps6 there are 2 gaa floodlit pitches in belfast

Ps7 there are no stands at antrim pitches, well, none open yet

Ps6 i salute the pro

So it would appear the leaders made the correct decision, most followers happy and everything on schedule.

Superb pitch condition
Excellent viewing westside
Standard viewing eastside
Convenient location
Ample parking
Ice cream

Good evening out with half decent fare on offer for a Wednesday, only downside was no coffee, did I miss the anthem ? 

The was some nonsense talked prior to this match...


Ps some odds on the jonnies for the hurling, because they were fair saving themselves for it last night.

Pss anyone a link to where it explains what warrants yellow cards instead of black, and vice versa ?

psss I completely disagree with boys wearing tights, but would make an exception there, maybe even get the old rollerskate knee and elbow pads out... bet a few boys had the knee skin slicking to the bedsheets last night

Bogieman how did you guess I was a ref🤔, if I blow my whistle and signal for a penalty I have my hands out wide, and unless I'm an octopus I surely can't have my hand up in the air for advantage 🙋‍♂️,but you obviously know the rulebook, one for the Johnnies and one totally different for the other team

what does it matter what you are doing with your arms, the whistle is the only unquestioned signal, but questioned many times...


ps Most referees seem to blow the whistle and then have a little time to make up their mind why they blew it and raise an arm or two in a certain direction whilst being questioned.

pss back to the ould days, when the gentlemen players couldn't agree on an incident, they "referred" to a neutral, which probably didn't happen that often, not like the dictatorial enforcement these days. I like to think of the hurling that when the honest players hear the whistle, they mostly already know what its for and get on with it...

Ironic that the poster who initiated this whole debate would undoubtedly be permanently banned by now if the rules were followed rigidly.

As someone else said - everyone needs to lighten up a bit and take themselves a little less seriously.  It's an anonymous internet discussion forum, not international diplomacy.

Harsh, I started the thread!

A rule of thumb I think is treat it like the local pub. If you wouldn't say something there for fear of getting a well deserved box on the mouth, then don't say it here.

Good rule of thumb
what about saying it in the local pub of the boyo or club you are slagging ?

mod Q - on this thread, the latest posts come up first, on others I have to go to the end of all the pages to get the latest post, is this a default setting i can change for the threads I read ?
thanks in advance

wow, who is the moderator ?
PJ's post didn't last long...

What did he say?

he was describing what he saw towards the end of the first match when pg1 were ahead, bit like a biased match report, but he seemed to break a few rules, so all evidence was wiped...
belfastsaff saw it before the cleansing...

I made a balls of the first match, and you can't get the replay Anyway 😏,there is no one down for it so there maybe a chance that it's not on🤷🏻‍♂️

maybe you can answer something i am curious about:
whistle is blown, signal made to show penalty, most stop playing, and pearsie bangs the ball into the net. The goal stands.
Is this part of a new advantage rule ?
Play to the whistle ?





ps thanks again for advice on the pictures

wow, who is the moderator ?
PJ's post didn't last long...

"we don't want..."
I'm reading this expression in nearly every post, it's wearing a bit thin now; the leaders are there to make most of the people happy most of the time, again, you voted for them. Snowflakes come to mind.

It's 9:30am, the only big decision to be made now, is to finish all games "on the day" going forward, now that would be leadership.


As regards the divisional boards, most do an exemplary job
NA have the hurling well organised, with many non-NA clubs participating
SW had the football well organised, with some non-SW clubs participating
The football was deteriorating in the big smoke, so the county took the SW structures and started all county underage football, to try and improve the level and participation of the lesser division. This vision does not address the root cause of the issue, so the problems will manifest themselves again shortly. The root cause has been discussed many times before.

ps enjoy tonight, it favours fast football for the teams with the skills

pss will it be finished tonight ?

You guys voted in the board, you must back their decision making now, maybe all the facts aren't known...

As regards match tomorrow night;
Suck it up, buttercup - both clubs

Ps Next year, play to finish.

Pss. If it's got a 65m line, then it's a proper pitch

Psss parking ? It's held bigger events than this, get on with it

Referees aren't allowed to send off county players; the other officials must be suppressed, especially in champo. The chairman must lead the charge...

Cup games should always finish on the day; one shot one kill, clean.

Ps good luck to Lenny.

Pss there have been many wee men doing a fine job in casement over the years; most who are sore now have probably been on the wrong side of a correct decision. I'll not talk about some of the big men in casement, if you have nothing...

Psss has there been a suitable logical explanation why casement was closed and unable to host games this past few years ?

Pssss it would seem that any referee that blows the whistle more than once in an incident is either too nervous or insecure to be doing the game; some poor decisions this past while.

I agree, the boat has sailed.

But, after a few days, most certainly a couple of weeks, she'll be ready to go again, and good sharp lessons be learnt under these circumstances... 

Pss secure and vibration proof mounting of a camera in Semple ?
looking close - a wing nut and a bar clamp spacer








Psss viewing distance that optics and camera resolution are unlikely compensation for vibration and /or wind error








Pssss Finally, if this is the real time positioning accuracy of a fast ball before estimating inter/extra-polation for trajectory views, then I do understand why the technology is commercially sensitive...

Hawkeye may have to go to specsavers; error may be the full width of a post at HQ


The focus seems to be on the speed of the decision making to get the estimated information to the referee, but there are greater issues underlying.

The premiership uses more cameras for a smaller scoring area than the gaelic scoring area. The EPL systems has proven to better the FIFA margin-of-error requirement of +/- 30mm, that's 60mm; a sliothar just slightly larger than this, and goal posts are usually 90mm, the crossbar should be 125mm when round.
The cameras installed in croke are old technology now regarding resolution, frame-rate and imaging processing power, compared with the new premier league cameras, but the actual technical details are 'commercially sensitive' therefore private. The GAA has paid for this system, so know the installed accuracy, but have they specified the exact parameters for their specific set-up, or left that to the 'experts' ?

So underlying issue is accuracy; inclusive of the camera resolution, framerate, optical field of view, imaging processing including ball path extrapolation, camera frames synchronisation, speed of ball, target parameterisation of ball, post and crossbar diameter, how much of the ball can the cameras see, camera mounting vibration, parallax and triangulation errors, variable 'noise' like a keepers hand holding it or the ball travelling past the camera view of a white background in one or more cameras, like a white sign, or even a white post...

So what is seen on the hawkeye graphics is a statistical estimate of where the ball may be, without knowing the potential error, which would seem to be +/- a few centimeters or inches, old money. I wonder why the graphics do not show the error sphere around the ball ? Only then can an informed decision be made.

I'll leave aside the argument for who makes these decisions, there is enough debate in society regarding computers making decisions with their inherent incompetencies and abnormalities, ie self driving vehicles, finance control, medical consultation, military engagement, and hurling points.

Will the GAA provide their hawkeye calibration data (less the commercially sensitive information) for the system that can decide the result of an all Ireland in croke park ?
I'm not a betting man, but the probability, for voluntary publication, lets say, is 'nailed on'.

May have to investigate eagleye...


Ps not a one-off, but 2 consecutive matches

They weren't points going by the views available on TV, and the physical dimensions of the bar, the slitoar, and how far back a man's arm, wrist and hand can bend backwards. Then we have the claimed 3.6mm hawkeye accuracy, but this claim is only verified for tennis courts with a fluffy 67mm diameter ball.

It's too detailed to go into the size of a gaelic pitch, the position of the cameras, their field of view, and the actual resolution of the image pixels, but needless to say it wouldn't be good marketing for Sony.

Then we can go onto the statistical error introduced with the vibration of the cameras when the stands have thousands of fans in them, they can't be assumed to be rock solid...

It's oblivious that Súil an tSeabhaic was not properly calibrated for this; the gaa pays thousands of yoyos for each game that uses hawkeye for their technicians, they nor certainty not Steve Carter will admit this calibration issue. Next year we will see the graphics when it's sorted out properly... But we may not know the inherent errors.

I'm a fan of this technology, but I would like to know the limitations, the value of CV for different ball positions.


Ps. By rule, the sliotar diameter is 70.5 +/-1.5mm, the crossbar when round should be 125 +5mm, and lines should be 90 +/-13mm wide.
Boundary lines form the field of play, and the intersections shall have a flag, which is also included in the play rules.

To clarify;
A. the whole of the ball must be over the whole of the line to be a goal - not currently assessed by hawkeye, for a few dollars more...
B. the whole of the ball must be over the whole of the crossbar to be a point
C. If the ball touches a flag during play, it's a line ball.

So Croke park has a few issues to sort between their gaa rules, and their implementation, namely;
The crossbars diameter are not the correct dimension
The flags are placed in the incorrect position
Specific detail of the resolution and calibration of hawkeye needs to be released for the Croke park installation.

Pss. It has to be accepted before any sensible argument starts that hawkeye is not infallible, there are scientific and technical limitations, notwithstanding the human error. The technical detail has not been released for a reason, eluded to above...

Psss. Hawkeye only needs to "see" a fraction of the ball to work out its center free space co-ordinate position when it has the correct ball diameter parameter, so to validate a point, has the score area "vertical plane" been calibrated for a 90 or a 125 mm crossbar, or calibrated accurately at all, my opinion is the latter because up till now, the only controversies being the whole of the ball inside the posts...

Pssss I wonder if they have taken account of the 2.4 +/-0.4mm rib on the sliothar

Thanks jc