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he Laois Junior C final as reported here fixed for St Stephens day five months after the semi finals is symptomatic of everything that is wrong in the Gaa, it is not an isolated incident & won't be the only games nationwide on the day. Then we have President of the Association Aoghain O Fearghaíl speaking from the jaunt to Dubai about doing away with our national flag & anthem despite no talks, requests or negotiations on that subject. This just highlights the thinking of the Gaa & what is wrong, it's a two tier organisation now. One guy speaking from a trip to Dubai with all the elite county players, the others togging out after the turkey on Christmas Day with nobody to speak for them. Perhaps a Uachtaran you would be better served speaking on & sorting out the mess that is club football that involves 98% of the membership of those you are supposed to represent first before launching into a divisive political debate. In my opinion the Gaa is now on the path of two different Associations & Croke Park & the GPA have only the elite inter county player & the money that generates at heart. It's laughable having competitive games on Stephens day. No doubt we will hear the buck being passed that it's the clubs fault, County Boards, Croke Park, Provincial Councils, Ard Comhairle are all beyond blame. Two tier organisation that is haemoraging people from club level frustrated with crap such as games on St Stephens day.

I see Keegan made the front of the Sunday World for smoking a ciggarette and pretending to ride a sheepdog. What a sentence to be able to write.

Yeah, the Dubs Love Keegan!

The Sunday World! Is Roy Curtis still giving his two pence worth on Man Utd, the Dubs, Rugby and anything else he can make a story up about?
It's a gas paper!

When I was a teenager many decades ago it was a great paper to find out what a pair of tits looked like!

Ah Roy Curtis.
What a w**ker.
Excuse for a sports "journalist".

+1
Curtis is ****

That's just silly. Players get injured incidentally in games. Sometimes against opponents, sometimes against teammates. That's the nature of a contact sport. However, referees' calls are a completely different animal altogether.

I don't buy Deegan's review. Looking at it live Small's was the probably the most clear cut black of the day. I suspect that neither Deegan or any of his wing men wanted to make the hard call after a few minutes in an AI final and send a player off. They bottled it. That's human nature I suppose. Later when things het up a bit they were not slow making up their minds.

After Reilly, Bannon and McEneaney, this sort of thing is hard to take. I know I am paranoid but I still think they are out to get us.

Small was a blatant black but in fairness Doherty could have got the line for the little dunt on Cooper after Leroy goal

Munster showing contempt for Railway Cup. Ger O'Sullivan whom I never heard off is managing the team and calls up Tommy Welsh who was dropped from Kerry team. I hope Waterford, Limerick and Clare players get the call.

Top five! Aye good man jinxy. Tis the only top 5 the royals have so.

A simple question , he awarded a penalty , so he seen enright foul. What follows?

agree Enright should have gone. 3 yellows card offences. He took Aidan O'Shea out for one of Mayo goals. I wonder was o'Shea injured(as result of Enright challenge) before his collison with Cillian O'Connor. Donaghy got a couple soft frees for diving that day

[Sure he took a point away from us as a lineman v. Sligo last year too]

He didn't make Head Coaches O'Shea and O'Connor run in into each other like a Laurel and Hardy skit, lads.

Seem to remember him doing ye're crowd over in 2015 v Fermanagh.

The (farcical) penalty decision of course had nothing to do with the result!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnL9U1dkPjc

Sure he took a point away from us as a lineman v. Sligo last year too. But he wasn't the reason we lost either game.

I was down near the pitch that day in Limerick and the bumbling collision between your best midfielder and best free-taker happened right in front of me, it took both out of the game for most intents and purposes. Even with Reilly if that hadn't happened you would likely have won.

That was just crazy. A blatant point. Rightfully removed from referee panel this year.

And your solutions are........?

abolish FBD, McKenna etc. Gap between league and championship is too open. Bring championship forward and finished by mid  August or keep current format and inforce county boards to play club championships sooner(they will be impossible for dual counties or teams going through backdoor. The current format is not balanced. For example say Kerry have 5 games to win Sam where Monaghan have 4 games to win Ulster. Simple as 8 groups of 4. top 2 qualify for A championship bottom 2 B champ

Does the GAA care about the ordinary club player anymore? Every year we have the same discussion/problems. Club players left idle for weeks even months when the pitches are in prime condition. Then when games come around they are often blitzed in weeks. We have seen farcical situations teams playing a provincial match the day after winning county title.  Then you see the GAA trying to bring in group stages for All Ireland Football which is another kick in the teeth for ordinary club player. The GPA was initially setup for welfare players now openly shows disregard for clubs. They are more interested in making trips to America looking for benefactors to their corporate society. Yet again another GAA president has failed to tackle the fixture crisis which is killing our games. In his acceptance speech when he took over role as president O Fearghail said that that the 'Four F's' will underpin his presidency with 'fixtures, facilities, finance and family' central to this ethos. We are seen too many gaps between intercounty games. Too many county boards are bowing to county managers meaning players are been wrapped up in cotton wool. I am sceptical about this new  CPA. Will it be a forum for senior footballers? Will they listen to need to needs of the junior b footballer? GAA needs to forget about Sky Sports and remember the grassroots of GAA

We could be without up to 10 of our 2016 players next year.
Claffey and Niall Carty have retired.
Donie Shine, Cathal Cregg, Ian Kilbride, David Keenan, Sean Purcell and the 3 Daly brothers are not available for a host of rumoured reasons.

Ian Kilbride is gone overseas on duty for 6 months
Cathal Cregg will be back if he chooses but has requested a few months off to finish his PhD
Donie Shine was not invited down but has a hell of a lot going on outside of football and probably wouldn't have been able commit anyway.
David Keenan was supposedly dropped but talk he may be part of squad yet don't fully rule him out.
Sean Purcell was never good enough for county imo and has been dropped
Niall Daly was considering travelling next year and management told him if he wasn't fully committed for whole season don't bother coming down as they didn't want lads leaving panel mid season like his brothers last year. He opted out.
Neither of the other Dalys have been asked to rejoin panel as of yet. I personally would do what ever I could to get Conor committed.
There's a break down of each of them.

Conor Devanney and Fintan Cregg have left panel too. Neil Colllins is taken time out to concrete on his business so might not be available next year. We need to get Tom Corcoran, Ultan Harney, Cathal Compton and Diarmuid Murtagh fit and ready for next year

Donoghue is being too quick to get rid of players who still have something to offer. This puts a lot of pressure on the younger players.

Good to see Liam get rid of the ringleaders who ousted previous managers.  You wonder would Mayo management have the same balls  to get rid of players rather let them pick the team especially their club mates?

Lads the campaign was started by Whelan towards Lee Keegan and continued by other lesser Dublin names. All of Whelan's fellow panelists said nothing – too afraid that they would rock the boat. How could they go for pints afterwards?. To portray them as journalists is a joke. To portray the media outlets they work for as producing quality output is therefore a joke. Whatever about Vinnie Murphy commenting at least he is not a paid journalist. When you are paid to write something you need to leave your prejudices at home and you need to show your character and bottle. O'Shea, Dolan, Spillane, Brolly, O'Rourke, Lyster and Cahill showed none when Keegan, AOS and others were subjected to a biased and personal attack by one of their own. They circled the wagons.

The black card advocated by pundits has made a mockery of Gaelic football.

If I were the mayo manager I would be seriously considering withdrawing all interviews with RTE and the national papers next year. Speak to SKY and local mayo papers only, maybe that would focus RTE into looking into the quality of their pundits.
Regarding the all stars, I am finding th bitching form certain Dub social media sites quiet entertaining, the arrogance is amazing really. Personally I dont take much notice to the all stars, really couldnt care if we won any or not. Football is a team sport where the prize is given out in September.

Incredible that the voting panel got a PotY correct for once. Keegan richly deserved the award. Way better than Jack Mc last year or even Lacy back in 2012. Can't remember a defender who struck the balance between actually defending and attacking as well as Keegan did this year.

Tomas was a hoor for running up the field and being gassed when he got back to do his primary job in his later years, and he's far from the only 'big name' defender who had trouble doing the basics right. Keegan stopped his men and went up the field and scored himself. You can't really ask any more from a player.

The fact any supporter could have watched this year's championship and think Fenton or Kilkenny deserved this more is frightening in the extreme. Partisanship is one thing but it was blindingly obvious Keegan was the best player on the field in the AI finals.

Brilliant to see that Mayo men scooped both young player of the year and young player of the year. Nothing short of deserved on both counts.
We are living in an era of brilliant, and outstanding Mayo players.
With regard to the Dubs, it's they way the love the complaining and the banter, more doing it to rise us than anything else. They have the same attitude with regard to Galway's hurlers complaining about the venues of the Leinster championship. Dead pan jokes etc

Would be interesting to find the breakdown of the national paper sales in Mayo.
Then a check back to the journalists who ran the stories on Lee in the build up to the Final.
It our choice whether we want to buy their trash !If you catch where I'm going.
How the national newspapers ( editors) and possibly other media allow themselves be influenced by ex Dublin players in blatant attempts, to influence a referee ,in the week of the Ireland final should be looked at and seriously queried.
It seems to be the Dublin norm that they will control the media at all others expense.What's worse, it seems that this ploy worked, as Lee certainly didn't get the benefit of the doubt.
If the GAA can't/wont do something about it then we as Mayo supporters can.
We can also influence the nationals.
A warning could be issued to the nationals to refrain from printing any derogatory Mayo opinions and anything that can be perceived as an attempt at 'getting at' the referee in big matches.If the national editors, persist then ...............
News paper sales can be the motivating factor to get compliance.
I believe the word Boycott was invented in Mayo.

Firstly, congratulations to Lee and Diarmuid on their awards, hugely deserved and the outrage of some Dublin supporters hints at a sense of entitlement that would shame Pee Flynn.
Secondly, there is an interesting article in The Times this morning regarding Irish/American voting in Ohio. They interview a lady called Colleen Corrigan Day, a former director of the Democratic Party for Cuyahoga County in Ohio, which includes the city of Cleveland. Her people originally come from Achill and she is also secretary of the Cleveland Mayo Society. In that one county in Ohio, 400,000 people identify themselves as Irish, of which 250,000 claim roots in Mayo. That's a quarter of a million people in one county, in one state, who claim Mayo roots. People often forget that America is more than New York, Boston and Chicago.
How many fundraisers have been held in Cleveland? How many county board officials have contacted Mrs Corrigan over the years or even know she exists? If only 1% of those people in Cleveland who claim Mayo roots gave $100 each, that's $250,000 you'd have raised. Can people not see the resources that are waiting to be tapped by a competent and well supported commercial director. How many more Mrs Corrigans exist throughout America and elsewhere just waiting for that phone call asking them to help?