Messages

[starting]

Well Louper his atitude to the county set up seems a lot more commited than a certain defender from your own club

Joe O'Kane made his mind up not to play county football this year PB always knew he was coming back and probably sooner rather than later. Im just sayin if he was going to keep appealing with the chance of getting back for Antrim match i cant understand why he didnt train with them at all through this period. Do u not agree that he could have gave them a few sessions even if nothin else to keep himself right, and to keep in contention for a starting place?

surely you're allowed to train with them? he was training with glenullin and he was suspended for them, maybe club/county differs on this?

With the recent news of Paddy Bradley not having trained with the county since he was suspended would you agree that in certain counties the passion and honour of representing your county seems to be disappearing. It seems its what the county can do for them and not how they can help their county progress as far as possible. Managers included there are too many demands these days and we are getting closer and closer to pay for play. I know times have changed drastically over the years but thousands of men have represented their county with honour and pride without making a big deal about new boots, or gloves or whatever it may be. I just think the honour, passion and genuine will to win has gone in certain counties.

Realtalk, do you anything surrounding the situation as to why Paddy Bradley hasnt been training.
To say it is to do with poor attitude is rediculous.

Reading in the Star today he says that he didnt train as he wasnt going to be properly focused with the ban hanging over his head, and this was going to do no good for the rest of the players. I think thats a fair enough point.

I also know that being from his own club he has trained away continousally and always had the intention of going back to Derry. In fact, no one in the club knew until Sun night he was going to the DRA as he wanted to keep everything quiet and didnt want media attention surrounding it

That doesnt seem to merit a label of poor attitude

i wudnt say poor attitude but springfield wud it not be fair to say he could have trained once a week with them to show a bit of committment? he was always goin to take this to the highest level (as anyone would) so there was always the chance he would be back. county players in derry dont have the desire anymore. it just doesnt seem as much of an honour as it used to be. now its about travellin expenses, free gear and how well the county look after them and not the other way round! (im not singlin pb out here) i just feel if he was goin to keep appealin with the possibility of bein available v antrim should he not have trained with the county at some stage rather than "checking in with them" as he said in his interview. whats your opinions on this springfield?

Delvin has not the strenght to be consistant county forward, he has potential, but alot of weights work to do.

fair point max! one for the future no doubt!

management is a massive part of any team. derry dont seem to have everyone playin the same way - direct towards goal. i wtached fergal doherty fist a ball about 30 yards back to the keeper against laois at celtic park and it almost embarrassed me. turning into soccer! fergal is one of the most naturally gifted footballers in the county and if men that are on a county team cant take another player on then they shouldnt be there. im not singling out fergal it seemed to be the whole team. a kcik across the field, a fist back to someone, a fist back again, another ball across the field. nothin direct and i cant understand it because derry have the players that can do that. alot of derrys players seem to be afraid to run it past the opposition, they make a strong run then turn when they get to a man to ship it off to someone else!

derry need to know whats goin on all over the field almost bein able to kick a pass without lookin, knowing someone will be in that space. look at the reading of the game betweem stephen mcdonnell and ronan clarke for armagh, possibly one of the best in the country!

i think it was spillane who said that every county has 15 players that are as good as any other in any other county, its how you use them that makes the difference. i agree with lynchboy that the distribution just isnt quick enough. if we had the ball pumped in first day the 2 bradleys wud destroy any defence! u can take one man out of a match but u cant handle 2 like that! derry also must use ALL of their players. colin devlin is a class act and because of derrys fascination with kickin the ball to the bradleys (which any team will now see as predictable) colin devlin was made to look like a joke against armagh a couple of years back! i felt sorry for him...and thats hard for me to say bein from the loup   

Gavin Devlin won 2 AI medals without kickin a ball...fist fist fist! he did the sorta job that half the country could have done, held the middle and picked up any slack balls. however he has 2 AI medals so who am i to judge?! 

They did celebrate after it but having been written off all week, why shouldn't they? I also heard people say that Cargin thought it was their final after beating St. Galls in the 1st round of the Antrim championship last year. They went on to win the championship.

i can see where ure coming from but to me they werent the better team. both of their goals tho well taken were very lucky. hot and hope balls. these dont happen in every match. personally i cant see them bein much of a threat, unless mulligan and raymond mulgrew get their fingers out. marty murray probably stood out more than them both.

  I actually heard louper that Mulligan was impressive, so maybe you are a little blinkered there. 

im not bein biased in any way i honestly thought he was poor. put it like this i wudnt have picked him out as a county man from the game. much like mcguigan i suppose who was quiet, and mulgrew as well! a few of the other lads on both teams stepped up to the plate and im sure the cookstown management was happy with bringin gilmore on, 1-1 from play and set mulligans goal up!

Cookstown are a sham.  My £100 at 5/2 was some sham.  What a silly silly set of predictions.

i wudnt bother puttin any more money on them, goin nowhere.

just home from the ardboe / cookstown match entertaining was that the final by any chance? going by cookstowns "celebrations" after it u wud hav thought so! they wont go too much further got both goals by two hit and hope high-in ball. credit where credits due but cant see them bein serious contenders. of course mugsy will steal the headlines with his winnin goal even tho he was shite the whole match, quite annoyin.

what happened him?

I'm surprised you Derry wans think so highly of Joe B. Hateful wee c**t. I'd go for Tohill or Henry D myself. Great players and gentlemen to boot. But hey, what do I know, I'm only from Armagh.

very true bandit what do u know? if only the poll was "Who has the best personality of the following..."

tho ive chosen tohill myself aswell.

Wexford fan after the '96 final:

"We've won one All-Ireland in a row!"

ah come on will we havent been that bad!