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But with the church not rescheduling mass to another time, every other divison 1A game needed to be rescheduled to the Sunday.

Heard that story before, perhaps on here. Didn't the priest say that with the crowds going to the match and vigil mass that he asked the GAA to play the match some other time, stating that people enjoy going to Easter Sunday vigil mass. I'd the good GAA followers of Donegal would rather see their team play than attend evening mass.

Dosen't it also mean that all other games in 1A now have to be played on Sunday, as that was the plan to play all final games at the same time to avoid anyone getting an unfair advantage, with points difference being some important this year.

I think most posters said that Tyrone had broken no McKenna Cuo ruling. Does this rule:

Tyrone's team sheet didn't comply with Rule 2.5 (in Part Two of the Official Guide) which stipulates: "The first 15 names appearing on a list shall be taken as constituting the actual team...''

mean that if a team makes a late change to a team, say if someone gets hurt during the warm up and they are replaced at the start of the game that the team loose the game?

Bit rich of Harte making issue with all Tyrone have done to reinvigorate the McKenna Cup. I think the McKenna Cup being popular now is more to do with interest in Gaelic Games being at an all time high with a number of strong teams in Ulster, Tyrone having a big following, and the fact that people haven't seen a ball kicked in anger for 4-5 months. Although it has nothing to do with the Ulster council efforts or college teams in the competition. Ulster Council are sitting pretty, riding on a natural wave.

Ulster Council should now donate the final money to charity, as they have declared the final null and void.

Would expect a very strong representative in the Intermediate Club Championship from Tyrone in the 2008 season. With possibly eight senior clubs being relagated to a Div 2 at the end of this season. The current make up in Tyrone has 2 senior leagues, 1A and 1B with 12 teams in each for a total of 24 teams playing in the senior championship. At the end of this season the leagues are restructured and there will be only 16 senior clubs, with the remaining clubs going to division 2. It should leave for a very competitive intermediate championship and with the added profile of the Club championships, may ease the blow of dropping out of the senior championship for those clubs involved.

Good luck to Greencastle on Saturday.

Didn't think there was county training last night. Thought it was just on Thursday night. Team would have trained with their clubs last night, so I'm thinking he hurt it with his club.

This was back on page 3.

In any case Ricey is back from suspension and should be an automatic choice to drop into the full back that had their hands full against Cork. Dooher could also make his first start.

Saturday will be a double header at Healy Park with the U21 playing Donegal in the prelim round of the Ulster Championship. So I'm guessing the lads like Cavanagh, Dobbs, McCaul, Marlow, McCarron etc will all be togging out for the U21s and not the seniors. First game at 5.30 and seniors at 7.30, both under lights I would imagine.

Donegal at 11/4 isn't bad.

Yes I would prefer to see various county secretaries getting paid full time and Nicky Brennan getting paid. He travels the country attending opening of pitches and does a very good job. Very little intercounty players tarin on waterlogged shit holes in january, they typically have the best of facilities. anyway if they do its good training, pulls the legs off you. its the club player that trains in shite conditions. and as for the argument about doing for their county and supporters well thats hardly the case. everybody plays football or hurling for the enjoyment and for themselves. playing for a county and getting the respect of supprters may be nice but its hardly a driving force behind their participation.

Tyrone squad heading down tonite and staying tomorrow nite also. I'm sure that would cost a pretty penny. 30 players + 1 manager + 10 others for 2 nights = a hefty price. Think the Kerry match is away also. No wonder it costs near half a million to run a county team.

Decent team on paper but will find the going tough in what always looks to be a very heavy pitch in Cork and against a Cork team that badly needs the points. A draw wouldn't be the worst result in the world.

Heard recently that a row was avoided in the Tyrone camp with a lot of players not best pleased about the statement being released alledgedly coming from the Tyrone team. A lot of players were not consulted about the statement. Apparently a former Tyrone player had a lot of input into the issuing of the statement. The general feeling in the Tyrone camp is that most of the players couldn't give a toss about the GPA, feel the county board look after them very well and just want to play football.

Seems to me that it is the managers that are making our county players lives a misery. It is the managers that are asking players to train all year round, do the weight programs, the special diets. The GPA should be up in arms and fighting against managers. It is not county boards or the GAA HQ that asks players to start training in October, so if the GPA has an axe to grind then it should be the various county team managers. The GPA constantly give about about the amount of time and effort a county player has to put in, the lost wages and missing chances of promotion. Instead of focusing on comsentating the players, why not focus on the managers who ask their players to make them train excessively. If the GPA is genuinely interested in player welfare then call on managers to introduce more player friendly training. None of this nonsense of running round a beach at 6.30am. Thats what their real focus should be on. Will a few euro ease the burden on a player.

Managers seem to be the ones making money out of the whole thing and it is they who dictate the regimes that the GPA use as an arguement for their existence. Perhaps it is time to call them to task.

I see that the GAA introduced a ban on challenge games in December and January and a few intercounty managers weren't too happy about the whole thing. The GPA should applaud the GAA for this move but should also be calling on the GAA to introduce restrictions on pre season training or all expenses paid weekends away (cause this is when players earn overtime for their jobs)

Expect to see Winghalfun post in the Independent or the likes in the near future

RTE seemed to suggest it was a done deal with the Carlow county chairman on the box pleading for Walsh not to make the move saying that he had to come back to Carlow at some stage and that a lot of people would be very unhappy with the move. If it does turn out that he does transfer and if infact Micko had a hand in the move, then shame on O'Dwyer.

I think Norf tyrone is taking the mick now!! I'm he meant to say Cormac McGinley. Emmett is another brother who plays for Errigal. Also Norf must be having a laugh when he says Dermot Carlin came out top in his battle with Alan Brogan. Carlin was destroyed in the first half but did well enough in the second and came forward to help out his forwards on occasions. Brogan would have been MOTM had Dublin won and Conor Gormley not appeared for the last 20min.

From the Indo and possibly McGee:

Whether the presence of third level college teams in pre-season inter-county competitions improves anything is altogether a different matter.

It certainly hasn't done anything to please Tyrone manager, Mickey Harte who walked up the confrontation blank by playing four colleges players in last Sunday's Dr McKenna Cup clash with Derry.

"Bold boy," retorted the Ulster Council who had earlier ruled that colleges would have first call on their players in the McKenna Cup.

Not fair, argues Harte. Tyrone don't play challenge games so how can he judge whether players are up to county standard if he can't use them in McKenna Cup games? Besides, last Sunday's double-booked quartet opted to play for Tyrone rather than their colleges.

Harte insists that he put them under no pressure, although, in fairness to them, a call to county arms is an instruction in itself. After all, if you don't answer, you might not get a second one.

The Ulster Council can rightly contend that Tyrone signed up to the original deal and shouldn't attempt to amend it in mid-competition. Yes, but did Harte sign up? His sole responsibility is to prepare the Tyrone squad to the best of his ability - hence his desire to look at some fringe players this month.

My sympathies are with Harte on this one. Ultimately, he will be judged by how Tyrone fare this year, not by how accommodating he was to colleges. Winning the Sigerson Cup is the sole aim of third level colleges in all four provinces.

To that end, they are keen to boost their preparations by playing against inter-county teams in January. And what's in it for the counties? Absolutely nothing.

In fact, during his period as Galway manager, John O'Mahony withdrew the team from the FBD Connacht League on the basis that it was a pointless exercise when so many of his players were tied up with college teams.

Problems have also arisen in the O'Byrne Cup this year with Dundalk IT withdrawing from the competition altogether while DCU backed out of a Shield game last Sunday.

Of course if college teams want games in January, there is a solution. Why not alter the format of the Sigerson Cup so that teams are guaranteed more than one game? What would be regarded as far more conservative elements within the GAA have dropped the straight knock-out championship system at county level, yet the colleges insist on retaining the one-chance format in Sigerson.

Running

If the competitions were running now as part of the official GAA schedule (either in round robin or 'back door' format), county managers would have to accept that college players were unavailable for pre-season competitions.

However, that's not the case so why should counties have to facilitate colleges in what is purely preparatory work for Sigerson?

It's as simple as this: college and inter-county competitions should not be combined. And guess what? This year's experiences almost certainly means that it won't happen again - not in all provinces anyway.