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Have Mike's got any new players in recently??

Who's the facourites for this year Quinnie?

Sounds like Mike's won't have it all their own way this year!

Why would he want to go from one team of chokers to another team of chokers? Take off the oak leaf tinited glasses, Derry currently dont have the quality required to win the All Ireland - they have yet to beat a quality side at the business end of the championship. They have some fantastic players namely Doherty, Bradley and McCloy but after that they are at much the same level as a handful of other counties.

Aye dead on! I'll chat to you this time next year

My guess is he's played a blinder and put himself in a position of strength to take whatever steps necessary against non-performing, maggot-acting primadonnas and Donegal will be a force next year as a result.

People said that last year after the Cassidy and Boyle fiasco... better off out of it if you ask me. Unless he's in a position to get more money but from what I gather he isn't about the money so he should just take the Derry job with McGuckin and win the AI next year... easy!

First of all I thought that your incinuation was ludicrous seanie but having checked the rules it is in fact true... I'm gobsmacked as I was convinced there was no difference between an open hand handpass and a fist pass. Obviously there is!!!

I would put my house on the fact that if you tested all the referees in the country at least 85% wouldn't know this rule!!!

OOH AHH G AH AH
It's played in Cork and Kerry
They futter with the ball in Donegal
But the real thing's up in Derry!!!

Going by your post the biggest difference between Derry and Tyrone is that Tyrone see an AI quarter final as failure whereas Derry are delighted with it.

Not too many Derry supporters 'delighted' on Saturday evening or since I can tell you. Personally I was gutted but at least we showed some of our undoubted potential which helps to ease the disappointment. It'll be a different story next year

Derry missing Kevin McGuckin all season! McGuigan was the top no. 11... 2 seasons ago, as was SO'N player of the year then too, a lot can change from then! As for Dooher he only missed one half of one match! 

If you want to talk about players missing what about Kevin McGuckin missing from our team all year? Joe Diver for a large portion, Eoin Bradley as well!

Just remember that every team has their problems to deal with and even with Tyrone's supposed "conveyor belt of talent". You still struggled and failed to achieve your goals!

Screenexile, decisions went against both sides, your starting to look like a bad loser with posts like that.

It probably did come across like that... the facts are that too many of our players played poorly and Dublin completely deserved their victory. The supporter in me wants to contest every single thing that could have swung the game in our favour but even with that I still think Dublin were just that little bit too strong. What also pisses me off is that people are going to say this was a relatively easy game for the DUbs which was certainly not the case and I firmly believe that had Paul Murphy not had to go off we would not have gotten steamrollered in the first 15 mins of the 2nd half like we did.

All in all I think we'll learn from this defeat though and IMHO we can bounce back and become genuine All Ireland contenders next year. Good luck to Dublin anyway although personally I would like to see Meath winning the AI.

Would it not be the case that Derry were a bit rough with the tackles and got called on it? as for moving the ball forward, if a player is gonna complain thats what the result is.

Can't argue with that but all we're looking for is consistency. Watched the match again on TV and there were instances where the Dubs players were giving abuse to the ref and there was nothing done about it!

Also have to say that some of the ref's decisions in the first half yesterday were crazy... I counted at least 4 Dublin free's that should never have been and for the last 45 of the half SML was blatantly pushed over the end line.

But the thing is that it is widely reconised that Dublin have placed one of their worse games of the year and they beat a Derry team playing at their best! would you agree?

We were not at our best for the 2nd half... Lynch had a shocker McGuckin having his first game back from injury struggled where usually he wouldn't and we were missing Murphy for the entire 2nd half. We'll see over the next 2 years if that was us at our best and I can safely say that we can do better!

I havent seen any All - Stars in the Derry team, but they pick up a pitty one!

If Dublin don't get past Kerry they'll be lucky to get 2 Alstars!!!

I picked Henry, Cullen, Whelan and Keaney for Allstars before the Derry game... did any of them do anything to justify this on Saturday??

Possibly Cluxton has pushed himself closer but that would be it IMO!

Hang on, who were the nominations for MOTM?

Well from the game I saw Derry had the outstanding performers in P. Bradley, Doherty, and McCloy. After that you had Murphy who was another outstanding performer in the first half who took a probable all star winner in Cullen to the absolute cleaners.

From the Dublin team B. Brogan was good in the first half but faded in the 2nd. Alan Brogan had a decent game without being overly spectacular which is indicative of the DUblin team. In short Dublin have more players playing to a consistently good level whereas Derry have 4/5 outstanding performers but maybe 3/4 of the team play poorly.

Barely beating a Derry team who lost their best player from the 1st half is hardly a level above us!!!

If ye'd lost Brogan for the 2nd half it could just as easily have been the other way around.

Anyway nobody said that Derry would definitely win the game, in fact pretty much everyone agreed that the Dubs would win as they had been together longer... were better prepared... etc. and that is exactly how it panned out. To say that Dublin are 'a level if not 2 above Derry' is nonsense!

Also it was evident from yesterdays match that indeed Derry have better footballers than Dublin, but as a team Dublin perform better.

Very very diasppointed with the match today... I think we'll never have a better chance to beat them!

Personally I think that starting McGuckin was maybe a mistake (hindsight's a great thing eh?). It disrupted our line slightly and he was defintiely a but rusty. McCloy was an absolute collusus... the man was simply immense today. Lockhart struggled, but it was clear to see that he was trying his best and to be fair A. Brogan is a quality player. I thought G. O'Kane played pretty well and was good on the break. McGoldrick at CHF was OK but I think he would have been better utilised in the corner. Francis McEldowney also struggled with Brogan and to be fair (with hindsight again) I thin kB. Brogan mightn't have done as well if Hinphey had 'saftnened' him early on as he likes to do.

Midfield, Doherty was simply immense. Against CIaran Whelan, your side down 5 points, to take a one handed catch like that is just courage and skill of the highest order. He was my man of the match. Conway struggled on Whelan in the first half and then Ryan in the 2nd half. Diver could have came on earlier IMO.

Half forward line, Lynch had a stinker, Murphy was awesome in the first half, and unfortunately Muldoon went a but missing at crucial stages although he did win some good primary possession at times. Full forward line were very good, Bradley and Devlin when they got ball looked very dangerous but we didn't get enough good ball into them. Gilligan was excellent first half but struggled 2nd half.

As for our subs well i think all has been said about E. Bradley. His introduction IMO disrupted the flow of the team. I thought we left it a bit late to bring Diver also.

All in all I enjoyed the game and the better team definitely won. The referee was dodgy for us in the 1st half with Devlin's apparent 'double bounce' and that push over the line for Vaughan's 45 at the end of the first half.

For DUblin, I'd be very worried as we showed up a lot of weaknesses which were being argues over the past week on here. Cluxton kept them in the game and whenyour goalkeeper is your best player you're in a bit of trouble. However the Dubs can still win the All Ireland and it will be an interesting last few games from now on in... anyway Derry have a good foundation there and if Muldoon and Lockhart can be persuaded to stay on we have a definite chance next year... Monaghan for SAM!!!!!