Messages

Big crowd expected in Celtic park this weekend? If it's a good day i'm hopeful there might be 500.

Be interesting to see if Leitrim supporters  out number Derry.  Leitrim people  might be willing to travel in decent numbers for at least two hours to support their country. Will Derry people travel 30 minutes to one hour or take their so called principled stance because it's not in their backyard.  More bull shit excuses from people no doubt.

How many Leitrim supporters are you expecting?

We'll find that out this evening but they did have near to 4000 in Carrick-on-Shannon for the last game. The smallest county in Ireland will no doubt out number the great gaels of Derry in a couple of weeks time in Croke pk. The same people who will whinge about the dedication and commitment of players and others cannot get off their arses to support their county even when it is on their back door or God forbid up to an hour away.

So, how many?  "The smallest county in Ireland" - are you referring to Leitrim?

Didn't count them all but a few hundred anyway.  Aye that's Leitrim.

Back to Primary School for you then.

It's fairly obvious that he is referring to population as that would be relevant. Area wouldn't be.

Is it?  He might just be lacking knowledge. But sure let him clarify or are you his spokesperson?

.

Aye population. Use your intelligence seeing how you bring up schooling to work out that size means more than one thing.  Have you a point to make about Derrys support or are you just invloved in this childish nonsense ?

Thanks for clarification.  I have used that intelligence you mentioned and .... you are still back at Primary ... for all the board to see!!!  Up Leitrim and big Louth.

Ah ok so nothing to add then.  Louth = smallest area.  Leitrim =  smallest population. Hope that clarifies for you again.

Big crowd expected in Celtic park this weekend? If it's a good day i'm hopeful there might be 500.

Be interesting to see if Leitrim supporters  out number Derry.  Leitrim people  might be willing to travel in decent numbers for at least two hours to support their country. Will Derry people travel 30 minutes to one hour or take their so called principled stance because it's not in their backyard.  More bull shit excuses from people no doubt.

How many Leitrim supporters are you expecting?

We'll find that out this evening but they did have near to 4000 in Carrick-on-Shannon for the last game. The smallest county in Ireland will no doubt out number the great gaels of Derry in a couple of weeks time in Croke pk. The same people who will whinge about the dedication and commitment of players and others cannot get off their arses to support their county even when it is on their back door or God forbid up to an hour away.

So, how many?  "The smallest county in Ireland" - are you referring to Leitrim?

Didn't count them all but a few hundred anyway.  Aye that's Leitrim.

Back to Primary School for you then.

It's fairly obvious that he is referring to population as that would be relevant. Area wouldn't be.

Is it?  He might just be lacking knowledge. But sure let him clarify or are you his spokesperson?

.

Aye population. Use your intelligence seeing how you bring up schooling to work out that size means more than one thing.  Have you a point to make about Derrys support or are you just invloved in this childish nonsense ?

Big crowd expected in Celtic park this weekend? If it's a good day i'm hopeful there might be 500.

Be interesting to see if Leitrim supporters  out number Derry.  Leitrim people  might be willing to travel in decent numbers for at least two hours to support their country. Will Derry people travel 30 minutes to one hour or take their so called principled stance because it's not in their backyard.  More bull shit excuses from people no doubt.

How many Leitrim supporters are you expecting?

We'll find that out this evening but they did have near to 4000 in Carrick-on-Shannon for the last game. The smallest county in Ireland will no doubt out number the great gaels of Derry in a couple of weeks time in Croke pk. The same people who will whinge about the dedication and commitment of players and others cannot get off their arses to support their county even when it is on their back door or God forbid up to an hour away.

So, how many?  "The smallest county in Ireland" - are you referring to Leitrim?

Didn't count them all but a few hundred anyway.  Aye that's Leitrim.

Big crowd expected in Celtic park this weekend? If it's a good day i'm hopeful there might be 500.

Be interesting to see if Leitrim supporters  out number Derry.  Leitrim people  might be willing to travel in decent numbers for at least two hours to support their country. Will Derry people travel 30 minutes to one hour or take their so called principled stance because it's not in their backyard.  More bull shit excuses from people no doubt.

How many Leitrim supporters are you expecting?

We'll find that out this evening but they did have near to 4000 in Carrick-on-Shannon for the last game. The smallest county in Ireland will no doubt out number the great gaels of Derry in a couple of weeks time in Croke pk. The same people who will whinge about the dedication and commitment of players and others cannot get off their arses to support their county even when it is on their back door or God forbid up to an hour away. 

Big crowd expected in Celtic park this weekend? If it's a good day i'm hopeful there might be 500.

Be interesting to see if Leitrim supporters  out number Derry.  Leitrim people  might be willing to travel in decent numbers for at least two hours to support their country. Will Derry people travel 30 minutes to one hour or take their so called principled stance because it's not in their backyard.  More bull shit excuses from people no doubt.

Derry promoted to division 3,and not one mention on here,forby Glenman93 that is.not even from the pessimists who are quick to bash Derry.well,for wat it's worth,well done Derry,the stint in division 4 was short lived.will be great to be back in croke park again.lets hope we get promoted out of division 3 next yr.well done lads.#DoireAbu #UTW

A full 24 hours before the team who relegated us last year swapped places after five consecutive defeats and a points difference of -40. No honour in this promotion; we touched lucky that Coleraine and not Sleacht Néill are Derry senior champions.

You sound like mighty craic. That's a -if you're granny had balls she'd be your granda comment right there.
Well done Derry.  Going the right way and hopefully can build the next couple of years with more of these underage players pushing on.

I always knew McLarnon was second, sad times my oul school is at third tier now

Sad? I think you mean pathetic. 1,500 boys at St. Columb's, in so-called 'nationalist' Derry, playing 3rd tier Gaelic football? School community needs to have a good look in the mirror. No craic in (London)derry?

That post above is pathetic.

Of that 1,500 maybe 10% would be interested in gaelic football. This isn't the same as having those numbers in a rural school.
A lot of St.Columb's better players will come from the likes of Claudy, Craigbane, Banagher, Slaughtmanus, Foreglen but those boys will make up a very small percentage of pupils (maybe 5-10 pupils per year). So that leaves the city clubs. Steelstown have been making strides at underage level, competing in 'A' divisions and this should help in that regard but the other clubs have been traditionally weaker. There is good work being done with city clubs to try to improve this.
The emergence of Donegal schools in particular in recent times, at a similar level to St.Columb's, has meant that they will yoyo between 2nd and 3rd grade for probably a few years yet.

That Cathair Doire team should go alright in the McLarnon. They have a couple of the successful Derry underage players of recent times in Ben McCarron and Fergal Mortimer playing for them.

So, who is encouraging the other 90%?

How could they not be encouraged  by all the great role models and fine sportsmen they see beat the heads of each other or referees every now again on the media. Right up there with a Seamus Coleman or James McClean as roled models.
Have to laugh at someone using the L word with Derry on a gaa board. The type of individual who probably doesn't give a fiddlers about games promotion anyway.

I think Slaughtneil need to get Chrissy wheeled out in front of the camera's again to get the good PR started again

"We only have 100 families in this small parish who all speak irish, and we have no pub, but a great post office. We fatten our cattle and share them amongst everyone.  Oh and we play 3 codes, dont forget about the 3 codes!"   

Or maybe stick up a picture of some urban area - it must of been a few of those soccer type hooligans that came along to our games. Sure we're the super Gaels and far better than the likes of themuns.

Just saw the video. Truly shocking....but not in the least bit surprised! We've had this discussion here a few times. The Derry board need to deal with this, with social media the evidence is plain to see, so it shouldn't be as handily swept under the carpet.

I see people suggesting, seriously, that phones and cameras should be banned because its spreading this sort of thing.

Film everything, I say. Maybe then we'll get some proper punishments and by the time our under 12s are playing senior football they'll have a bit of manners and won't be trying to fight everyone in sight when they spit their dummy out.  Absolutely embarrassing behaviour.

100% right. No wonder so many drop out and clubs struggle to field from minor on. As you go up the age groups the nonsense and rubbish gets progressively worse. No respect on or off the field, no sportsmanship and a game that's becoming more and more difficult to watch.  Unfortunately it will only be when something really serious happens before action will be taken.

I think after this weeks championship games i see why we ended up in division 4

The level is really poor.  A lot of it suited to scrambling around on poor pitches later in the year where you can get away with not being at the skill or athleticism level of top players. It will be interesting to see how many of these underage players from the last few years will come through to play at county or even club senior level.

It looks to have all the enjoyment of getting your teeth pulled out without an anesthetic for those who have the skill level to play a bit of football never mind watching it.  Of course what is normally put forward is that young lads didn't really have the hunger or desire rather than looking at what is at fault.

You seem to have a fair emotional interest in club / county football. What do you suggest we do to lift the level? Are you personally involved in shaping players through your club?

My personal opinion is we have 25/30 players that would rival any county outside the top 6. Do you think we don't have a squad of players in the county to rivil Meath, Roscommon, Kildare?? For I do.  The problem is, management last year culled too many big hitters and blooded too many young guns, leaving us relegated rather than pushing for promotion back to div 2. Will Mackers and co learn from this or continue down the same lines as last year ? Who knows...

As regards club football, and Derry are far from the only county hit with this, but the scourge of the money mercenaries infesting the club scene isn't helping. They've zero emotional attachment to the clubs. They drain the club and imo leave a lot of resentment along the way. For every Micky Moran, there's a couple of dozen blow ins taking the cheque and winning nothing (because winning must be everything if a club is paying huge amounts of money to these cowboys).

Imagine the Magherafelt u12/u14 coaches watching that dirge on Sunday evening. Are they developing future players to stand off their men en masse without laying a hand on the ball (ie anti-football)?? Meanwhile they go back to coaching on Wed / Sun and the latest money man rides off into the sunset with his big brown envelope scouring for his next club with their latest defensive anti-football masterplan in place.

I coach underage at my club, not that's either here or there. Like all clubs we have the ability to mess it up as soon as they get above about U14s when some of the lads feck off or become fecked off by it.

One of the first things we have to do is stop fooling ourselves that our lack of success or interest at county level is balanced by our great club football with plenty of top players.  It's not even competitive the last while with Slaughtneils dominance and those who watch a bit of it say intermediate and junior are going the wrong way in the standard played.

I don't know much about the likes of  Meath but I don't see a load of players not involved who are going to take us to the level of a Kildare at the minute from what I've seen of them. Who's out there that matches up with the Flynns in the forwards or the strength around midfield from Kildare ? What two footed forwards are ready to make a big impact.
Maybe there are a few hidden talents. I haven't seen all club players but there's not many being touted as untapped talent. Those lads who have done well the last few years look to be the main hope of doing something different that look remotely like the level needed - without being rushed into it.

These managers coming in are aren't a help. Few if any have an interest in developing fellas who might be coming through minors or playing reserve football. They are not looking 2 or 3 years ahead. Maybe for club and county we need to take a load of young players and not just development squads to decent coaching sessions to improve.

I think after this weeks championship games i see why we ended up in division 4

The level is really poor.  A lot of it suited to scrambling around on poor pitches later in the year where you can get away with not being at the skill or athleticism level of top players. It will be interesting to see how many of these underage players from the last few years will come through to play at county or even club senior level.

It looks to have all the enjoyment of getting your teeth pulled out without an anesthetic for those who have the skill level to play a bit of football never mind watching it.  Of course what is normally put forward is that young lads didn't really have the hunger or desire rather than looking at what is at fault.

[Ballerin St Marys Slaughtmanus GAC Desertmartin St Michael's GAC Lissan CraigbaneDoire Trasna Drum]

First off I thought the same and you'd have a bit of concern but clubs are just going to have to try and do the unthinkable for some - develop the players skills and fitness and improve retention of young lads through to play for their senior teams. God forbid that a few clubs have to actually do what is needed to try and play a bit of decent football so that they can compete.

With Limavady beating Ballerin well yesterday, here is the final list of intermediate teams who'll be play junior next year:

Ballerin   
St Marys Slaughtmanus GAC   
Desertmartin   
St Michael's GAC Lissan   
Craigbane
Doire Trasna   
Drum

Christ, there will be a few heavy tankings dished out next year

Total dross and not the just the game yesterday. The overall standard is terrible. Is there a player on show anywhere that you could say that's in the top 50 players in the country.  Any lad trying to develop as a forward has to face this shite at most clubs where he could be told to spend half the game in his own half.
Fair play to Slaughtneil for what they have done the last few years but their success has papered over the cracks across the board that the  standard is so poor. It's hard to name a forward that would make it on to county teams in the top 2 divisions.

The idea of balancing the numbers across the leagues is probably the right way to improve the standards in the long run.  Doing it all in the one year with the number of clubs dropping down is too much.  So many teams at the one time will result in a good few hammerings next year in Division 2 and probably 1B which isn't going to help anyone.  As much as the number of senior games might be an issue the current reserve and minor football games being played is not good. Reserves and minors are supposed help lads come through and develop for club and maybe county. A number of clubs must have young lads at minors that are fed up with it as they have played maybe only 3 or 4 games in leagues that started in April or May.

Great minor game and some finish. Fair play to the players and management. It might keep the negative hoors quiet for a day or two who come on boards or get to the media and papers to chip in and have a pop at men and clubs. Hopefully the young lads will have the missing Derry hoards of support heading for Cavan for the next game who couldn't make the game yesterday because of the arduous trip to Celtic pk -  say that as someone who couldn't give a flying fiddlers where Derry play games as long as we're winning.