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Tyrone "well in control" and "could go up a gear if needed"

I see the "could go up a gear" post has been deleted, hilarious.

Tyrone "well in control" and "could go up a gear if needed"

Another stuttery display by our lads and got well beaten 2nd half.
Can't have any complaints on the overall balance of play.
However the chalking off of a legal goal and denial of a penalty didnt help.
Not a good day for Mr Hurson and his umpires at the Hill end.

We are in deep relegation bother now and need to beat Monaghan next weekend to keep any hope of staying up.
Is it time to start saying its only th'oul League and thinking of May/June?
Or are we only codding ourselves?

Only Dublin, Kerry or Galway are allowed to do this

Dublin and Kerry win All-Irelands though

Hurson is a poor ref

Bringing group stages into the all ireland might diminished the league a bit with before you may have only two championship games and one pre backdoor so the league was seen as the competition that you could fall back on if you had an ealrly exit from all ireland

One should never tear down something without knowing why it was built in the first place. GK Chesterton

The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad,
For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.

On a completely different note, has Sean Cavanagh had a bit of botox?

Thought he looked a bit waxy myself alright

The years stuck competing in the Bibi Baskin Cup can do awful things to the mind

55 minutes played it was level 2-7 to 0-13 a surprise it took the final quarter for Derry to pull away but win it is and the defending champions into the McKenna cup final. Result Derry 0-17 Armagh 2-7.

17 scores to 9 doesn't look great

Derry weren't good in the first half, but rectified it a bit in the second. And overall they were by far the better side. Decent spread of scorers. Good to see Loughlin getting a few from play. More game time for some subs. And a two week rest coming up.

Clare players were having a ball hitting everything that moved with little or no punishment, especially as they had nothing to lose.. And when a card did appear, they were taken off to be replaced with someone who would do the same.

I like Hurson as a ref, but today he was v poor. McConville was talking last week about protecting players and that didn't happen especially for Glass and McGuigan. Could've been helped more by the linesmen as well.

I think you're the first person I've ever seen praise Hurson

Pour auld Cavan. Will they ever manage to win the Bibi Baskin at this rate?

Was there not a double hop for Monaghan's 15th point?

Louth left that behind them with a lack of quality. Physically and emotionally they were well up for it but just couldn't execute when it mattered fair play to them they're definitely on the up.

Mayo very flat that's all the main contenders who have been flat recently hard to predict much from the group stages.

Who in under God has Mayo as a genuine contender to win the All-Ireland? Have they not watched football in the last 30 years?

Derry's current form is drawing with a division one side and winning the ulster title. Donegal's is one win in a tight enough game against a team Derry annihilated last year and defeat to a division three who then got well beat by a team Derry beat. Derry's form poles apart.

Using this kind of logic to predict results has been proven infallible to be fair

All about Galway this year. Ye can call it yerra or whatever you want , they're the team most people fancy . Sean Kelly the best defender in the land , Walsh , comer , Tierney and finnerty , first two X factor footballers other two would make any starting 15 in the country . Cian o neill has them primed for glory . If Dublin can reignite the flame , it will be some final (if avoided before final ) , can't see anyone else spoiling the party in Tuam on 31st July .

Ah Larry, dya not think it's Mayos year? The only thing stopping them all this time has been the fabled curse and that's now removed. Kieran McDonald with his one all star is the greatest player never to lift Sam. If they can only get Cillian o'Connor back fit, we all know of his prolific record from play in finals. The county never truly wanted the 2020 and 2021 finals when with covid they couldn't properly celebrate. The tin roofs from Swinford to Belmullet will be swinging when the day comes in 2 months time

Word on the streets of Castlebar is that Aidan O'Shea at FF is the key to finally ending the famine.

[Team Semifinal appearances in last 10 years]

I was looking back over the last 20 years at what teams were making the AI semifinals the most and have listed below, the last 10 years semi finalists. No surprise with the top 3 anyway although amazing Tipp have made more semis than any other Ulster team bar Tyrone. Interestingly back in the 00's you had Cork and Meath up there too.

Obviously for years we are used to Kerry and Dublin being the two main favourites to make it into the semis or the final but Mayo in the last 10 years have joined them with Galway nowhere to be seen for years until recently.
The Ulster champions have a tendency to put in great performances in Ulster and provide good early form but then often disappoint in Croker. Donegal and Monaghan have been doing this for years although Derry reached their first semi last year since 2004, although they did easily hammer Clare.

Galway lost to the Super Dubs in 2018 whilst Monaghan made their first semifinal since the All Ireland series started but still struggle to win in HQ.

In my eyes it's only when you really beat one of the top 3 or 4 teams from the year before that you be truly considered an AI contender. Tyrone hadn't beaten Kerry, Dublin or Mayo from 2008 until 2021 although they did get to a few semis.

I'm a little surprised how many people are talking up this Galway team who got to the final last year but hadn't beaten any of so called big guns on the way. They beat the Rossies in the Connacht final and then struggled to beat Armagh. They did beat Derry quite well in the end in a very defensive match with both teams seemingly at similar levels during the league.

Galway put up a good performance in the final but in my eyes they are being slightly over stated as one of this years strong favourites just on last years showing. I suppose they have improved a bit during the league and with Walsh and Comer in their team they are always in with a good shout. In my eyes Walsh didn't really stand out all year except in the final whilst Comer was the opposite.
I'm sure Mayo are loving such talk and would relish meeting them later in the year.

Team       Semifinal appearances in last 10 years
Dublin   10
Kerry     8
Mayo      8
Tyrone   6
Galway   2
Tipp       2
Donegal  1
Derry      1
Monaghan1
Cavan      1

Tyrone are an interesting country to look at from that list. They played Ulster teams in the QFs the years they progressed and the one year they played a non Ulster team (Mayo 2016), they lost. 

2013 Monaghan
2015 Monaghan
2017 Armagh
2018 Donegal

In 2019 they shared a Super 8 group with Dublin, Roscommon, Cork and obviously progressed without any issue.

I would say beating Donegal in Ballybofey in 2018 is by far the pick of those victories with the rest being fairly reasonable draws when you look at who they could have gotten.

If you compare them with the other dominant Ulster team of that era, Donegal, it's pretty interesting. Their QF opponents in those year were:

2013 Mayo
2015 Mayo
2016 Dublin
2018 Tyrone
2019 Mayo

Quite a stark comparison.