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Tyrone v Mayo Mayo
Dublin v Kerry Dublin
Galway v Derry Derry
Roscommon v Monaghan Monaghan

Fermanagh v Cork Cork
Louth v Cavan Cavan
Meath v Kildare Meath
Armagh v Donegal Draw

Down v Offaly Down
Clare v Wicklow Clare
Sligo v Antrim Sligo
Westmeath v Limerick Westmeath

Wexford v Waterford Wexford
Longford v London Longford
Carlow v Leitrim Leitrim
Tipperary v Laois Laois

Or they could quit yapping and improve. Theres no excuse for likes of Meath and Kildare to not be competitive.

I suppose Louth have that Northern edge being close to the border and dont make excuses. Fermanagh are a credit also given the limited resources they have. What Fermanagh do have is a great culture; their players are in great shape.

Kildare and Meath just want to lie down.

And why do they want to lie down? Its very easy to make such a glib statement without delving further into it.

Whatever about Kildare but Meath teams were never known for lying down. There has to be a reason for the culture change in Meath football over the past 20+ years.

Why the change in attitude or culture in Meath you ask?

Some theories would suggest that their has been a demographic change or transition in Meath from a mostly rural county to a more urbanized county?

Could this be a factor.

Or they could quit yapping and improve. Theres no excuse for likes of Meath and Kildare to not be competitive.

I suppose Louth have that Northern edge being close to the border and dont make excuses. Fermanagh are a credit also given the limited resources they have. What Fermanagh do have is a great culture; their players are in great shape.

Kildare and Meath just want to lie down.

Rd 3 17/18 February

Derry v Monaghan - Derry
Dublin v Roscommon - Dublin
Kerry v Mayo - Kerry
Tyrone v Galway - Tyrone

Donegal v Fermanagh - Donegal
Cork v Cavan - Cork
Meath v Louth - Louth
Kildare v Armagh - Armagh

Antrim v Down - Down
Limerick v Sligo - Sligo
Offaly v Clare - Clare
Wicklow v Westmeath - Westmeath

Waterford v Longford - Longford
Laois v Carlow - Laois.
London v Tipperary - Tipperary
Leitrim v Wexford - Draw

Obvious tweak is to only allow Provincial CHAMPIONS automatic entry to Sam (also previous year's Sam and Tailteann Champions).
Then go down the League till you get 16.


PS I'm not sure how we'd fix Seafín's problem that only strong teams win Sam.....

When is the last time a BMW county south of  Donegal won Sam ?  Offaly was the last beag bideach county to win Sam and that was over 40 years ago. The GAA isn''t interested in competition like other sports are- 6N, US football, even the EPL. Fans don't seem bothered either. In February everyone thinks it could happen this year.

Dublin and Kerry win over 50% of titles.

It is difficult to free football fans from the chains they revere.

I agree. There needs to be more done. For all the talk of split Championship being great, it actually widens the divide. Lower teams won't get better by only playing each other. gaps widen this way. I believe this started happening when we went the 4 division model in 2008, as it allows the better teams to stay up top, play each other all the time, and then pull the ladder up. it's very hard for teams to break into that and stay there. I think the old A and B model works best. Split Div1 and 2 over 1A and 1B, and same for next down. Promote 4 teams up and down and give actual opportunities for mixing each year. Rework Championship after provincials to include all, and then split it some way halfway through on results so top go to Sam, rest to Tailteann and run them off. We will never progress the game properly with this current model of top teams playing themselves only apart from the rare provincial match

The way the leagues are now is a brilliant system.

If we went back to the the 1A and 1B formats interest levels would greatly reduce. Sure why not just throw everyone into division 1 and call them 1A B C & D.

Derry have shown what can be done with the correct structures in place going from Division 4 to division 1. Louth something similar even Limerick spent a a year in division 2.

Unfortunately there will always be some predominately hurling counties languishing in division 4 but a lot of counties have spent a period in the top 2 divisions since the system has been brought in.

[Dublin]

Mayo v Dublin
Monaghan v Kerry
Roscommon v Galway
Derry v Tyrone

Armagh v Meath
Fermanagh v Kildare
Louth v Cork
Cavan v Donegal

Down v Limerick
Antrim v Offaly
Sligo v Wicklow
Westmeath v Clare

Carlow v Waterford
Wexford v Laois
Leitrim v London
Longford v Tipperary

Cork need an outside man in to shake them up.

I know hurling is big there but it's a big enough county to be aiming for semi finals or better every year.

Imagine what McGuinness could do with them resources or a Malachy O'Rourke.

Obviously logistics mean they'll never get a northerner in and too proud to get an outsider

Just 1 game, I wouldn't be making any decisions about any team based on just the one game

This is the guts of 10 years I'm talking about not just one game.

They've made a few quarter finals in that period and it looks like John Cleary might finally be the right man for the job with Walsh in with him.

It seems to be very slow progress however.

In fairness travelling up to Donegal in them conditions is not easy but if it was the other way around and Donegal were travelling to Cork they'd be relishing that challenge and there's no way McGuinness would accept a performance like that.

Cork need an outside man in to shake them up.

I know hurling is big there but it's a big enough county to be aiming for semi finals or better every year.

Imagine what McGuinness could do with them resources or a Malachy O'Rourke.

Obviously logistics mean they'll never get a northerner in and too proud to get an outsider

It's amazing how different counties produce different player types.

For example Mayo produce unbelievable powerful runners but haven't produced a real classy forward since McDonald... Moran O'Connor O'Donoghue Conroy all decent but you wouldn't call them classy elegant footballers... Having said that there's not many in the country.

My home county Cavan have struggled to produce that type of player also.

1. Clifford
2. McGuigan
3. Shane Walsh very inconsistent though.
4. Dara Canavan starting to show signs
5. Rian O'Neill when on it
6. King Con
7. Seanie O'Shea
8. Conor Mcmanus

Does Tyrone's win make it an unbeaten weekend for all 9 Ulster teams?.


Canavan class for Tyrone today.

Brilliant game in Omagh here.

All the bad press the Ulster teams get, they have all played brilliant attacking football this weekend.

Galway and Mayo by far the worst game on tv this weekend.

And fair play to the Rossies too playing some good ball. As much as I'm no Roscommon fan Davy Burke is a very likeable guy.

Not a great game compared to last nights games.

Galway going nowhere on that evidence. Very lethargic looking and have looked that way since they got to the All-Ireland in 2022.

Donegal going to absolutely cakewalk this Division 2 on this weekends evidence.

Donegal very impressive second half so far too.

I suppose they are the masters of playing in the wind.

Cork haven't stepped up this half at all.

Till now. Bad goal to give away (Mulreany caught up the field). We were cruising to victory, now it's back in the mix.

You's have recovered well.

Donegal seem to be on a different level physically to Cork.

Donegal very impressive second half so far too.

I suppose they are the masters of playing in the wind.

Cork haven't stepped up this half at all.