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Personally I would have serious health and safety concerns about the new development.

We don't need "architects" in Mayo to know that you need good sturdy posts to hold up the roof on the stand.



We could have saved ye a good few quid too, our mighty new stand only cost 15million euro!

Usual disgraceful discrimination against the West by the Dublin media and the Sunday game.

I will be writing to the county board to implore them not to allow any Mayo team to play there until safety posts have been installed to protect our fans from injury.

The harrison one is dangerous. Judo throws like that can do a lot of damage if the head hits the ground awkwardly. We saw a Derry player going for the eyes to release himself from a wrestle and there were two throws this weekend (one by harrison and another in the Galway/Roscommon melee). Who started it is irrelevant, players need to face sanctions for these things. If I remember correctly (a good while ago now) a Fermanagh county player was left in a critical condition after being on the end of a judo throw when tangling with an opposition player in San Francisco club football. This isn't an anti-Mayo thing it needs to be stamped out for the safety of all players.

The Cillian thing on the other hand smells a bit. A bit like the Keegan thing. However we all know Cillian exacted some retribution on Philly McMahon last year which has infuriated the Dubs and it seems they are not going to let it go. He's a tough player who plays very close to the edge in the physical stakes (as does Philly McMahon) and he needs to be very careful now or we could lose him for a big match. Which begs the question who is our replacement free taker these days?

I would now say it is likely Cillian will get a red-card this year if he makes contact with the face of a player when tackling regardless of the intent. Referees can be effectively led as we have seen previously with the Keegan media stuff. No point complaining about it, management need to cognisant and plan accordingly.

What is with the niggle and high shots? Going for the red card three in a row today. It'll be the end of us.

Hard luck Clare shot themselves in the foot and didn't convert when they had their purple patch. Good looking team.

Best thing to come from today is Regan and Loftus getting game time (even if they weren't very good), must persevere with them or our season will end in familiar fashion.

We move on.

Excellent podcasts - no bullshit, proper analysis. Gets carried away from time to time, but admits that himself.
Conan is a bit of a dose though

Agreed, he is up against his own personality a bit but seems to realise it. Still it is by far the best GAA podcast. No accident that is so well produced if you look at who is behind it.

I really like the second captains in general but I have always found their GAA and American sports coverage to be quite weak. Can't see the appeal in McConville...repetitive, not cogent, contradictory. They would be better just going with Ciaran Murphy or maybe hiring someone like Parkinson. You wouldn't be paying for it anyway. The soccer coverage is sensational though and hugely entertaining even though I'm not really a soccer fan.

Off the ball is similar to the Sunday game, conservative, outdated, frequent cringe moments, terrible interviewers and presenters. What you would expect from the mainstream I suppose. But through sheer quantity you will get some good moments so I do check out their podcasts.

In general (I know this is often said) but there is a massive gulf in class between the hurling media and the football media. Being from a football county myself I have no axe to grind against it I may add.

On the one hand you have genuinely eccentric characters like Ger Loughnane who I would say is a passionate contrarian against Brolly's tiresome affectations, egregious leg fondling (before the watershed c'mon rte) and needless cruelty to usually easy targets.

Even a babbling lunatic like Cyril Farrell can make the odd good point and his out of control enthusiasm is infectious and endearing. Contrast the sheer unadulterated dourness of the schoolmasterly O'Rouke and his googlisms.

What can you say about Pat Spillane that hasn't been said. His canned, sorry scripted (thanks Dessie!) speeches are father-of-the-bride bad.

Compare that to Daly's quips, vignettes and the maniacal delivery. Even the serious analysts are way outgunned in football, Wheelo v Jamsie O'Connor, Dessie v JJ Delaney? No contest there.

Maybe we need Clare to win a football All Ireland to bring the standard of punditry up, c'mon football get your sht together!

Congrats Galway very deserved win although overall not a great performance I think it's fair to say. Very difficult conditions I suppose.

Galway's target should be a quarter final win in Croke park this year, they are building confidence and have some quality players but still look quite flawed as a team at this stage.

Very disappointing from us, lethargic again (after the league) ill-disciplined and our familiar mixture of sublime and terrible shooting. Qualifiers will be a major struggle this year I think but once again we'll be dangerous if we can make it to CP.

The impact of the coaching team is hard to see, our admittedly much improved kick passing while pleasing on the eye, doesn't seem to make a tangible difference. Maybe it's better game for Croke park I dunno.

Young players cannot seem to force their way in either which is disappointing but I'm sure if they were good enough they'd be playing.

Division one games every weekend in the summer would be amazing.

Keeping the provincials as an FA cup style comp sounds good, I guess you could then revert to straight knockout with provincial winner straight into the semis?

I suppose the only problem would be the clubs fixtures since you have more serious intercounty games in the good months for football.

As the gaa bemoans championship crowds declining the league seems to be gaining in popularity with the public if the crowds at this weekends games are anything to go by. Are there any stats on league attendance trends available?

The actual football seems to be improving also, maybe that's down to improvements in stadia, pitches etc so the winter footing conditions aren't as detrimental to skill levels.

At least for certain match-ups, teams seem to be much more into it. Monaghan seemed very happy with their win against Mayo for instance (only in the unique world of the GAA would teams that hardly every play but train year round, be almost embarrassed to beat their peers in a competitive match - 'tis only the league etc).

It's easy enough to envision regular crowds of 20k at any match between the division one sides with crowds of up to 40k for the bigs ones (Mayo Dublin I suppose at the moment). That's comparable to Rugby league, Australian rules or championship soccer in England.

Better pitches, stadia, floodlights, good competitive matches, good crowds. Is the solution to the fixtures mess staring us in the face here?

Just looked at it again there very sly from collins, his arm was out and it made contact with the roscommon defender who looked as if he was going to put his shoulder into him but missed him completely. Collins down as if head was take off. Very poor but whatever.

pretty hilarious the sour grapes from the rossy lads, we bet you even with an enniscrone ref letting persistent fouling  go on the Ballina man in possession and sending of O'Mahoney for no apparent reason, while railroading Ballina for things like over carrying on numerous occasions, our forward line was sluggish but we still had enough to win it with 14, enough said.
RE the DB abuse I'd say the big man has heard worse abuse but lads come on a bit of persepective. Brigids clearly went into the game with a policy of cute hoorism i.e diving and feigning injury to get the Ballina man booked, and it obviously worked by getting O'Mahoney sent off, not enough to save ye unfortunately. Before you go back up to the rarefied atmosphere of the  high moral ground have a look at the TG4 web tv coverage: i'll pick out one incident of many, saffron sam and all the other neutrals take note. Go to 35 min 40 sec on the video, pat harte hits one  bridget's man a shoulder just as he hand passes the ball, then Eanna Casey hits a guy not shoulder to shoulder, fouling him. Both bridgets men are seen writhing in agony champions league style on the ground in an effort to get their men booked, in the case of the former they are successful with Harte picking up a yellow, both Bridgets men miraculously recover to play the rest of the game. Sound familiar DB knockers? Ask yourself if you're a Ballina player seeing this go on what are you thinking? you;re thinking this ref is going to be influenced by people feigning injury, DB used his experience at the end to win the game, end of story. What he did happens in every club and on every county team, get off your high horses people...the problem was not with DB but with an incompetent ref. Would Rossies who castigated DB for his end of game diving care to comment on their own lads behaviour? Was that also a disgrace to the GAA etc etc? Maybe we were just too 'physical' or whatever other ridiculous excuse you can come with, take your beatin like men in future, nothing brings more disgrace on the GAA then whinging, abusive hurlers on the ditch.

there is a solution to this which ticks all boxes i believe - I think look at american sports where traditional rivalries and cups are accomodated in bigger leagues, and where all roads lead to an ultimeate championship match or final.

the munster conference

clare, cork, limerick, tip, waterford - the munster final.

the leinster conference

Kilkenny, Wexford, Offaly, Galway, Dublin, Antrim. - the leinster final.


all ireland final, munster v leinster.

each team plays the teams in their own conference every year, alternatinig home and away as appropriate

munster = 4 games
leinster = 5 games

they then play 3 extra interconference games (leinster), 4 for munster giving a total of 8 games, the best 2 in each conference play each other for the provincial title, the provincial winners playoff for the all ireland..

NB the League would be scrapped

what this would achieve

more meaningful games for all tier one teams giving them a chance to develop

finally all the provincial grounds will be used and showcased

much better tv product

Championship may be a little longer but no league will leave more time for club fixtures to be played, help reduce player burn out

it is fair, each of the two finalist will have played nine games to get to the final, plus kilkenny will play at least three munster teams every year.

All teams will play each other at least once every two years - therefore interprovincial rivalries like galway clare and kilkenny waterford will happen on a more regular basis and draw crowds

the tradition of munster is preserved: if absolutely necessary the munster championship could be awarded on the basis of games only against munster opponents and the all ireland finalists from the munster conference could be decided on the overall aggregate of wins included interconference matches (to ensure both all ireland finalists have played an equal amount of games)

From the point of view of a weaker team like say Dublin, a one off win like the one they had against Galway (or the draw against Killkenny) would mean a lot more as it would genuinely hurt the title ambitions of one of the big counties -, when it happens in the league no one really gives a shit, and in the Leinster championship Dublin only get one chance to cause an upset every year and then its into the forgone conclusion of the qualifiers which attracts very little spectators. It gives weaker teams a chance to build and blood players year on year.

the only thing this systam cannot guarantee is that kilkenny will ever be bad or even average again alas!

reading this and being exposed to the sickening media coverage on this subject I've lost all interest for this game. The one thing this shows is the sheer scale of division in the nationalist communities north and south. In the south there is a huge disparity between the media consensus on nationalism - i.e. the IRA is 'evil' and was set up to kill innocent people and steal money, that 'we' need to get over Britain; and the actual consensus of the population which I think is a staunchly republican as ever, as was demonstrated by  the success of the recent 1916 commemoration despite the all out media assault. And there seems to be huge suspicion and a lack of camaraderie between north and southern Irish people always bubbling under which is really tragic. I can't figure where the huge self-hatred in the media comes from and I don't buy the British papers angle...whatever it's dispiriting to find such a huge body of journalism that it so wantonly derivative in terms of its subject and pessimistic towards the nationalist legacy and it just keeps self perpetuating waiting for the next British controversy to roll into town. It seems to me that this on-going self-critique ignores the obvious answers behind our division, which is/was the despicable, sectarian, racist behavior by the British and the Unionist community towards Irish people. Why can't we just admit this to ourselves that its not our fault things are the way they are? I think its largely because many of us have friends and colleagues from a British / Unionist background and its a very difficult subject to broach with them, actually its impossible. So we would like to just forget it but these controversies just keep re-appearing, and the problem of the Unionist ideology which plainly has no basis in reality in a modern context also forces us into corners. So we seem to turn our frustration into self hatred....the IRA, 1916, the hunger strikers, the GAA, the Irish language, the wind that shakes the Barley, etc, etc and we ignore the real cause of conflict. I think we need to 'get over' our own self hatred and say to our friends in the North and Britain sorry but its your fault...we've made a massive effort at reconciliation any way you look at it, and the GAA's magnanimity in allowing England and GSTQ is just another example of our maturity in this respect...we are perfectly entitled to say we don't like it but we will be the gracious host we always are when english teams come to town. Its times like this you just wonder will we ever be able to pull it together, we've so much going for us besides...its a real downer.