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Word has it some Omagh officals took a drive up to the east at the weekend to have a chat with an ex all star and a Hogan Cup winning manager to see if they where up for getting back in the club management game.
Would be sad to see them take it from my perspective.

Ending up going with this one.

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/category/bikes/road/product/specialized-smartweld-allez-elite-49939/

Got it from Edinburgh Cycles at £625.
Happy with that. 

I'm pretty sure league games weren't cancelled last year due to training weekends and that Harte stuck to the 13 day rule. A quick check shows that from the leagues started on the 10th April the county players were available for 7 league games up to 24th July. They also would have played 4 ulster championship matches during this time. I'd be pretty confident that no other top counties club players were available for more games during this time.

That doesn't mean that everything is ok for club footballers and that is the point Harte missed. There is no schedule of games and they just seem to be thrown together with too many long delays in the season and the season running too long. Club players need to play regular games when the county players aren't available and clubs have to accept games without them. It seems that the first 7 or so games with county players get played ok but its the last 3 that holds everything up.

In some ways 12 team leagues would be better as you could play 7 matches with county men and 4 starred games and have the leagues wrapped up pre championship. But then this probably isn't enough games so you'd need some form of another competition during the summer when no county players but clubs don't seem to buy into them.

Ive always thought it and now i'm sure. Redhand Santa must be Mickey Harte. You solution to the problem is to shorten the club season. Not one mention of the county season just a bit to tell us that clubs must accept to play league games without their county men. Nobody with any interest whatsoever in club football would come up with this crap. The CPA can't come quick enough

Has to be. Just looked through his old posts. Every other one about Harte and this 13 day rule. Either he is Harte or comes from an awful club so he has to support the county team.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/ultra-700-af-road-bike-105-id_8324331.html

Serious bike for the money. Check out if your work does bike to work too.

Best thing you'll do if you want to get into Tri though is join a club (after getting a bike tho obv )

Looks good. Pity, there are none available in large. Plan to join one once I can get a suitable bike.

Hi,

So I have decided to enter a Triathlon in  Sept 2017. One problem is I don't have a bike..yet.
I have been speaking to a few bike enthusiasts and they have told me to get an entry level road bike such as the Giant one in the link below.

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/au/contend-2


I am looking around the £500 mark. Willing to go more for the right bike.


Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

Kenny Clarke from Omagh appointed Strabane Sigersons manager they have it on facebook who did he manage.

Wasn't he one of the managers over their successful U16, Minor team that won Ulster?

Early days yet.
But what are the predictions for each division this year.
League Winners
Championship winners
And Relegation

I will give it a go for senior:

League Winners - Dromore
Championship winners - Dromore
And Relegation - Edendork, Strabane/Galbally

Have Carrickmore got a manager for next year or will Conor Gormley continue to do what he normally does

McKindless of Ballinderry is the name I heard for the Carmen job

Aye, i suppose he did really well at Ardboe

Not a wise move for him I think but he has won a lot of trophies in his time. Intermediate championship with Derrylaughan, not sure how many championships with Balinderry (3 or 4?) and an Ulster Club with them also. I wouldn't be turning him down on his record with Ardboe. Mick O'Dwyer in his hay day couldn't win them boys a cup. 

And as for rrhf he ain't a Goalie. Plays Midfield. Not even the best Keeper in Edendork

Suffering Christ.

Morgan is the best keeper in the county by a mile, he commands his area very well, he is a fantastic shot stopper, he has a good range of kickouts. The free taking responsibility should be taken off him, we just don't have a free taker who is reliable from 45 yards out so it's time to come up with an alternative here, these players have to be wise enough to know you don't always have to have a crack at the posts from this range.

He has had a few bad days on kickouts but this is just par the course for keepers nowadays, Cluxton had a meltdown in the All Ireland semi-final this and one of the goals he was responsible for was a kickout that went astray, Durcan the year before did the same in an All Ireland final. There is no keeper exempt from this trend and clearly it's do with management teams across the country being obsessed with retaining the ball and building from the back, it's a very high risk strategy and cost us against Kerry in 2015 but it's happened all the top keepers at some stage.

Morgan will be the no.1 next year and deservedly so, may I point to Mickey O'Neill's performance in the drawn game against Cavan and illustrate the importance of a keeper who will take responsibility and control over balls launched in on the square. O'Neill was all at sea for two of those goals and Morgan rightly got a recall on the back of it.

Id rate Fox and O'Neill both ahead of Morgan, he reigned it in a bit last year, but the year before him soloing up the pitch was a total liability. Micky had a poor day at the office against Cavan id admit that (as would he) but he certainly wasn't helped by his full back line or midfield that day.  Both sub keepers kickouts are equal if not better than Morgans, as for shot stopping from watching Micky from he was 16 hes the pick of the bunch.

Some of this I agree with, other points I don't. I would like to see Mickey O'Neill in there also. Great all round keeper. Morgan has some better attributes but just a lack of consistency. Fox has a great short kick out, but when push comes to shove and he has to kick long, it is no better than any other club keeper. I always get my heart in my mouth when a high ball comes in on him. I would trust O'Neill with that.

I find it weird when you agree with me

It is the off season and I am feeling festive.
I will probably disagree with you when the season start and that will last all of the 11 month season.

And as for rrhf he ain't a Goalie. Plays Midfield. Not even the best Keeper in Edendork

Suffering Christ.

Morgan is the best keeper in the county by a mile, he commands his area very well, he is a fantastic shot stopper, he has a good range of kickouts. The free taking responsibility should be taken off him, we just don't have a free taker who is reliable from 45 yards out so it's time to come up with an alternative here, these players have to be wise enough to know you don't always have to have a crack at the posts from this range.

He has had a few bad days on kickouts but this is just par the course for keepers nowadays, Cluxton had a meltdown in the All Ireland semi-final this and one of the goals he was responsible for was a kickout that went astray, Durcan the year before did the same in an All Ireland final. There is no keeper exempt from this trend and clearly it's do with management teams across the country being obsessed with retaining the ball and building from the back, it's a very high risk strategy and cost us against Kerry in 2015 but it's happened all the top keepers at some stage.

Morgan will be the no.1 next year and deservedly so, may I point to Mickey O'Neill's performance in the drawn game against Cavan and illustrate the importance of a keeper who will take responsibility and control over balls launched in on the square. O'Neill was all at sea for two of those goals and Morgan rightly got a recall on the back of it.

Id rate Fox and O'Neill both ahead of Morgan, he reigned it in a bit last year, but the year before him soloing up the pitch was a total liability. Micky had a poor day at the office against Cavan id admit that (as would he) but he certainly wasn't helped by his full back line or midfield that day.  Both sub keepers kickouts are equal if not better than Morgans, as for shot stopping from watching Micky from he was 16 hes the pick of the bunch.

Some of this I agree with, other points I don't. I would like to see Mickey O'Neill in there also. Great all round keeper. Morgan has some better attributes but just a lack of consistency. Fox has a great short kick out, but when push comes to shove and he has to kick long, it is no better than any other club keeper. I always get my heart in my mouth when a high ball comes in on him. I would trust O'Neill with that.

Micky Harte's back garden seems more appropriate.

Or maybe we can make it Mickys retirement home where no one ever has to retire. We could build apartment blocks for all the players to live in with their families and a chapel to have regular prayer.

**No clubs allowed**

It is not currently needed.  However I welcome this thought from the chair - I  think its forward thinking and the debate needs to start on this.  With the Dubs success being powered by larger contributions from Croke Park in 10 years time we want to be having 18 - 30K + at all home league and championship games.,  Theres a fanatical interest in supporting the county if the clubs are used in this process correctly and rightly - if that is where this is coming from.  If the stadium can be a sustainable model ultimately sending money back to the clubs, paying for county set ups and can gain appropriate funding then I think it would be a great thing.  As an eastern Tyrone supporter I really dont think Omagh is the spot for it either, it needs to be Dungannon or Ballygawley and I think Dungannon offers more.  It has to be based on an income generating model post funding.   I assume they will get Casement right second time around but if it fails everyone need a fall back and the fall back is more than likely Mid Ulster.

Some good points there.

I am not against a new stadium or good county venue in the east even though it was suggested for Ballygawley. Although should we not tackle a couple of other issues firts.  Why was fixtures not addressed? Why was there not a number of apologies from the chairwoman. Messed up county final replay. Messed up the junior final. Constant mess up of league fixtures.
You might say this was the CCC's fault but someone has to take responsibility and Roisin is currently the boss.

All this was, was a distraction from the horrible job she has done since taking chair.

Didn't want to give the Indo the page views by reading it on their site so missed it until now, that is a disgraceful article.

Just the extremely distasteful Kevin Lynch paragraph or all of it?
Is it wrong to equate the sectarian massacre in January 1976 of three South Armagh brothers with the Kingsmill atrocity and the Claudy bombing?

1) To compare Brolly to a man who claimed that Catholics 'breed like rats and multiply like vermin' and basically fanned the flames of the Troubles, never mind his founding of the UPA while innocent blood stains his coffin is uncalled for.

2) Comparing anyone to a jihadist and then taking the piss out of someone for admiring the men and women of 1916 (let alone in such a manner) is out of order.

3) 'A bit of killing for Ireland, a bit of dying for Ireland' Hadn't eaten his grub in Long Kesh'. If only the author of the piece had even a fraction of the courage the hunger strikers had.

4) Giving off about the GAA being a cultural organisation? It was founded to be both a sporting and a cultural organisation and it stayed true to its goals, unlike many things in Irish society after 1922.

5) Anyone alive while Rule 21 was still around is a bigot. No, it denied membership to the very organisations murdering innocent Gaels.

6) Reference to 'Ulster nationalism' - it's Irish nationalism, no matter how much Freestaters like him might want to wash their hands of the forgotten Irish citizens in the north east.

+1

Managed to copy and paste this.


Joe Brolly
One day the GAA president is talking about a hypothetical future in which the tricolour and national anthem might be stood down as conspicuous symbols of the association.

The next day Joe Brolly is talking about a vicious past and citing it as good reason for proudly retaining the same rag and dirge.
His piece in last week's Sunday Independent was a tour de force of historical prejudice, tribal tub-thumping and emotional blackmail. His former Belfast neighbour, the late Rev Ian Paisley, would surely have been proud.

Aogán Ó Fearghail had merely floated a notional prospect that in some sort of distant "agreed Ireland", the GAA would be "open-minded about things like flags and emblems". Of necessity, his thinking on the matter was entirely speculative. It was interlaced with all sorts of caveats and qualifications.

Yet it was a red rag, a Danish cartoon to Abu Hamza al-Brolly. He spent the day slapping his head with both hands and whacking a picture of Ó Fearghail with his shoe. Later that evening he was spotted on top of the Sperrin mountains chanting "Padraig Pearse Akbar! Padraig Pearse Akbar!"

Then he calmed down and the self-pity flowed out in torrents. Somehow from the president's gentle comments, the Dungiven Wahhabi made a psychic leap back to the sectarian massacre in January 1976 of three South Armagh brothers.

Sez you, what has that got to do with the GAA and the flag and anthem? Well you might ask. But seeing as he dragged the debate back into that rancid swamp, it would be remiss not to acknowledge another few terrible spectres from that barbaric time and place.

Ten Protestant workmen were subsequently murdered by the IRA at Kingsmills in South Armagh. They were taken out of their van and mowed down by machine guns where they stood. This atrocity happened within 24 hours of the murder of the Reavey brothers. Joe somehow forgot to mention it.

In July 1972 our heroes planted bombs outside three Protestant businesses in the village of Claudy, then fled to Dungiven, 10 miles away. A mere nine people were murdered on this occasion: four Catholics, five Protestants, including Kathryn Eakin, aged eight. Joe's buddy, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, was deputy leader of the IRA in Derry at the time.

Kevin Lynch played underage hurling for Dungiven before he moved on to greater things. He decided to do a bit of killing for Ireland and, after that, a bit of dying for Ireland. He didn't join the IRA, on the grounds presumably that they were a bit slack in the depravity department. Instead he joined the INLA, which happily had an even more bestial disposition. Lynch died by suicide in 1981. He hadn't eaten any grub in Long Kesh for a few months.

Dungiven GAA subsequently named their hurling club after him. Abu Hamza al-Brolly thinks it's a great idea altogether to name his hurling club after a chap who had no problem with the killing of men, women and children. Sure he was one of our own, after all, and a "good Gael" to boot.

Croke Park should have stepped in long ago and banned this practice.

What's to stop a club from naming itself after Dominic McGlinchey, the psychopath from south Derry who founded the INLA and boasted of his involvement in 30 murders? Maybe Brolly's football club could be re-named the Dungiven Mad Dogs, in fond memory of McGlinchey. Or maybe he was a soccer man, in which case it would be unthinkable.

Unfortunately the GAA at national level was too deferential for too long when it came to Ulster nationalism during the Troubles. Admittedly the Association was placed in an almost impossible position during that era.

These were the years when it didn't know whether it was primarily a sporting or cultural organisation. It claimed to be both. But its cultural identity was the anchor that pulled it down into the morass of atavistic conflict. It never set solid boundaries. It allowed itself to be hijacked by forces that cared little for the GAA's wider mission in Irish society. Like any sports body it should have been all-inclusive: non-tribal, non-sectarian, non-political.

A prime example was Rule 21, the law which prohibited Northern Ireland and British security forces from joining the Association. Rule 21 made bigots of the entire GAA membership. But time and again the Association's leaders deferred to the Ulster hardliners. They abdicated their responsibility to the organisation nationwide. The tail wagged the dog.

Nowadays the GAA is a lot clearer about its remit. It is a sporting organisation doing magnificent service for the community. But it will take generations to shake off its tribal baggage.

Ó Fearghail's comments should be seen as the beginning of that journey. Or maybe it began with Jarlath Burns' civil and decent intervention last year. The former Armagh captain is a GAA man to his core. He grew up in the tradition – all "the sacramentals" of flag and anthem and culture.

"It wouldn't cost me a thought," said Burns, when asked if he would contemplate getting rid of the old emblems. "They are divisive. All they say is, this is me, this is what I am. It's not about reaching out to anybody else. People are more important than flags and anthems and all those things."

You would think that this much, at least, should be obvious, after all the damage done. But no: we'll damn well cling to the rag and dirge, even if it kills us.

The interview shows that he clearly has more issues that just an addiction. 12 mentions of him taking part in violence in his book is astounding. These have no relations to addiction.

If you are being honest, if he was not a gaelic footballer at county level, he would of done some jail time by now. He has got away with too much and everyone runs to his defence. Of course, you can have some compassion as he dealt with a disease, but there has to be a line.

I just feel, like we are still not getting the full truth and there are more and more lies being told just to get the pound back in his pocket.

Just my opinion.

To be fair I don't think playing inter county football would make him escape the authorities at all. Unless it has got him better lawyers from knowing people in high places. It's not like the stuff was on the field.

I mean in the sense that people have held some sort of respect for him as a footballer and not reported him to the authorities. Of course if all had been reported, he would have been done.