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The ref was terrible imo and gave a lot of easy frees to Kerry (especially the Gooch).

Cafferkey just had no answer to what the Referee expected from him! Any form of contact on Cooper was blown up. Some of the frees given were embarrassing. Anyway that's what you have to put up with.

I know they are completely different build but I felt the same today watching Ros try to contain Michael Murphy. He got possession and barrelled into contact. Immediate whistle and free in. We have little or no experience playing the marquee names. Is this what you are up against all the time?

In fairness to MM I've seen him take ferocious abuse in the UFC in recent years and I'm sure refs are hyper keen to protect him.

Nice day out. Lengthy oul spin from Athlone but once you hit North Ros the scenery is lovely all the way to Letterkenny which makes the trip a pleasure. I really liked O'Donnell Park. Nice old fashioned feel to it with the crowd herded on to a gravel bank and close to the pitch. Good atmosphere amongst both sets of fans and the home crowd gracious in defeat to our buoyant lot. I guess that is what AI's and numerous Ulsters does for you. We played great stuff and missed a good 2-3 on top of the 1-19 so happy to get out with the win when it looked like Murphy was going to single handedly drag Donegal back in to it in the 3rd quarter. I thought the ref was very anxious to give score able frees. We've been very disciplined in the tackle this year (shades of the 06 minors under Fergie) giving away very little soft tap over frees but today Donegal were awarded 10 I think which kept them in touch throughout. We got a break with the sending off in my opinion. The yellow comes out far too often for those type of tackles where the man in possession is trying to burst through and a lazy arm across the chest can look like a neck high challenge if he keeps his body low and goes down. I know I'd be bulling if a Ros man was sent off for two harmless yellows like that.

I'm looking forward to the Herald this week - Fr Liam Devine will be buzzing after today and Friday with the U21s and minors!

I was at the game. Tyrone certainly deserved their win and their was no sour grapes from any Ros supporters at full time but to call it a non contest is stretching it a little do you not think?

I got the impression from Tyrone men around me on the day that they were delighted to be going in as underdogs and could barely conceal how much they fancied their chances. Fair play to them. The better team won and I congratulated all at full time but I'm delighted I wasn't near such a thundering bolox as yourself.

What are the seating arrangements in letterkenny is it limited and first come first served?  Personally I prefer standing but have an elderly father to think of. I presume we'd need to be in for the hurling to get a seat.

Hawaii?

Edit- Ros poster here

Still believe nobody mentioned the two blatant red cards for Kerry players.

They were red cards by definition but what did you make of the reaction of the Roscommon players to each of these incidents?

Donnacha Walsh pushed one of the Roscommon players to the ground with a mild open hand to the chin, he flopped to the ground clutching his face and needing a minute's attention from the physio. Likewise with the no.23 who took a tap to the chin after the Kerry lad grabbed his jersey. They exaggerated the incidents in the hope the referee might send off the Kerry players, they got involved in plenty of niggly incidents near the end of the game to instigate melees and kill the clock, they committed cynical foul after cynical foul to close the game out. I don't neccessarily have a problem with that, if teams are in anyway serious about being at the top they need to have that edge to them and it's up to the referees to stamp it out, dish out the appropriate punishment and add on the appropriate time. It's the complete double standards when commenting on this that is sickening.

You could only imagine the uproar if that was Tyrone players who flung themselves to the ground. There was plenty of hand wringing from the Roscommon lads on here when they were beaten by Tyrone in the U21 last year, they now choose to ignore or make any comment on the actions of their own players. Hysterical rants about lads being assaulted, goaded, choked, wrestled without provocation but no comment today.

look up the rule book
a strike to the face is a strike to the face, as is an attempted strike.

4 steps is 4 steps, except when its a Kerryman it seems

What are you talking about?

I said they were red cards by definition. I'm asking you what you thought about the reactions of the Roscommon players.

I didn't like seeing us resort to the tactic of killing the clock by starting melees. I doubt any Ros football  man would like it. It appears to be a facet of the game now amongst the top tier sides and as such I was delighted we learned from the monaghan game last week where they did the exact same thing.  So in short, not happy to see it but if it's part of the game now I'm happy we are learning and not being naive. Ros people were a bit disappointed with the u21 Tyrone game as it was underage and you hope that sort of cynicism will not be present at that grade. But the suspicion is that in Tyrone it's the norm and is encouraged.

You might get a few people on the internet being 'optimistic' about staying up in Div 1 but in conversation people tend to be more realistic. Roscommon, a division 3 level team for years. It would take an unbelievable set of results to see us survive. While we have potential and have improved a bit recently we are still well outside 'the top tier' sides in terms of experience and know how, evidenced in how Monaghan shot an injury time 1-2 yesterday to close out a game that was theirs for the taking since they pulled the first goal back early in the second half.

I would be over the moon if we survived but not too devastated if we remain competitive at least in the rest of our games. We will be underdog in every single one of them and rightly so.

Yeah, Enda Smith carrying the ball into the tackle does my head in. Takes way, way too much out of it and is turned over with infuriating regularity. I know he's only playing in the midfield to cover injuries but it's absolutely not his best position. I'd sooner see him in at either 14 or on the wing.

I thought Monaghan deserved the win. Considering it was one of those games where it was all about what you did with the big wind at your back they definitely used it far better than us and kicked 2-8 with it to our 1-5. As soon as Monaghan got the first goal early in the second half I felt we were going to struggle to hold on for the win. They really squeezed us very well on the kick outs. Fair play to them. A hardened outfit and winning two Ulsters out of three is no joke. Finding themselves seven points down there was no sense of panic. For us Rossies while it was positive to put it up to top opposition we need to get a few wins some way instead. I find it hard to see where the wins will come from on this bleak wintry night but feck it I expect us to give it a right rattle and surely we will learn a bit along the way.

I'd say it's all more or less decided on. Just needs rubber stamped. Submitting objections to Mullingar says it all. Where is Ros CoCo in this? We are given wind of this when it's already too late. We should be looking to to take back the left bank of athlone not retreat out to brideswell. As if they will listen to the ordinary people! This is the way of world unfortunately.

GPA proposal is rubbish. Can you imagine their 'Champions League' style groups of say Kerry, Kildare, Fermanagh, Antrim playing off against each other? Half a chance of one decent game there in Kildare vs Ferm. The rest would be worse than the lowest key qualifier game under the current system with attendences to match. The soccer CL groups are rubbish for the most part with the seedings ensuring strong vs weak consistently. Would be no different here.

Cavan have to be firm favourites for this going on current form. We (Ros) appear to be a 'see how it goes on the day' sort of team. If things fall for us we have the ability to run up a score and win the game however put us in a battle and the fight doesn't look to be there. I tried to ignore it at the time but the Galway loss in the league was big in many respects. Win it and we were up to Div 1 with a game to spare whilst also consigning our provincial rivals and historical betters to the ignominy of Div 3. We found ourselves well in front at half time with a big psychological statement about to be made. Move over Galway we're here now. No, not yet, know your place Roscommon came the reply and we folded in a game that potentially had big significance in the struggle for power in Connacht. We got a flukey promotion out of a league that was fairly even over all yet with no significant wins over Galway or Mayo in years we are still the bridesmaids of the province despite the apparent progress being made. We need to step up now and start winning games when we are fancied. We cannot always be a coming team. But I suppose things take time. Hopefully the bad Sligo loss (well done to them) will be used to learn from rather than unravel things and we get a bit of consistency next year in div 1

Disappointing from a Ros perspective. But Tyrone were easily the better team. Well done to them. Beat Roscommon in every department. Wasted very little whereas we fumbled and misplaced a lot of ball. The Tyrone backs were nearly always out in front when we let it in. In contrast whatever ball they put in direct their forwards were out first, but in general they carried strongly through the middle and made it look easy ghosting past our lads. I find the running game hard on the eye and a major gripe of mine with the modern game is that players are allowed take 6,7,8 steps while being tackled. Credit to Tyrone they did not resort to this and soloed around our boys like they weren't there. As mentioned their score kicking was top notch. Once they got into the scoring zone it was going over. We found it very difficult to get the ball to stick in the forwards as the Tyrone backs were everywhere.

Overall they were the more tenacious and composed team and won fairly comfortably. The favourites tag didn't suit us though. You could feel the ambush was coming. Before throw in a Tyrone man said to me 'don't bate us too badly' with a chuckle. They found themselves in a lovely position whereas us with nothing but a few underage Connachts and plenty of failures to go with it were somehow second favourites for an AI!

Anyway hopefully a few of these players will deliver us a senior provincial title or two over the next number of years. Hon the Ros.

Remember Rossies playing Down in a league game back in the early nineties too in Orchard park Elphin. Mickey Linden was in his pomp, and Derek Duggan similarly for us. Down were physically huge! Won on the day too as I remember.

was that the day president Mc aleese (with obvious strong allegiance to both counties) viewed the game in elphin in the luxurious surroundings of the back of a bertie glancy lorry.

She wasn't president in 1990 or 1991!

I was a child at the time but I remember being in the Orchard for a Ros vs Down NFL game in the 90's...... What year was it? Surely not as early as 90/91?? Something rings a faint bell that we played them twice in Elphin in the league but a few years apart I thought...or am I wrong? Also the president in the Glancy bus story is ringing a bell.... Anyone got the history of our clash(es) with Down in the Orchard in the 90's?

Please Benny stop. When your defence is that a bunch of kids don't understand the game plan then you've lost the argument. Schools football should be devoid of that shite.

Was I defending that? Read my first sentence again there. My point is that it's not always the tactics that's the problem, it's the way in which they are implemented and a defensive system with no thought to attack is wrong and will lead to shite games and this is more likely the lower down the grades we go. Though, I've seen plenty of shite games where both teams kick the ball loads.

Did you not watch the clip through to the end??? I know it was difficult! Eunans eventually turned it over the second the other crowd ran into their blanket, stormed up the field and had it popped over the bar in a matter of seconds. Their tactics worked perfectly. They sat patient, didn't foul (not even putting a hand in!!!), smothered the opposition and burst up the field at pace resulting in a quick score. Absolute bolox of a style but within the rules. Those coaches need brought out and shot. Feck them.