Messages

On another matter, there seems to be, a few new posters on here past few weeks. On the messages, I get the impression they been on here before or jumping between a few names.

On the matter at hand watching the goals again, first was terrible, second Lynch actually scored it, it was going wide, forth lying in a heap in midfield embarrassing stuff.

The 2nd wasn't going wide but he made a balls of it. Should have kept it out.

The thing that stood about thise goals was him seemingly jogging back.  Surely he should be anticipating these scenarios and be busting his balls to get back.

He's always done that, it's always been a source of great annoyance amongst us! Maybe the thinking is that busting a guy to get back will mean he's unable to make a save anyway?
I'd agree with whoever said he was targeted for the last kick out - he's been covering space and rarely targeted, there's a reason why he's not midfield for the county, makes sense to target him, you'd wonder why it took Jimmy coming back to think of it!
Well done again to Donegal and Jim, excellent result for them and a tactical masterclass. Let's hope that our sluggishness was related to training or something and we'll get a prime draw with Kerry up in Celtic park in 6 weeks time - that'll tell us where we are!!

Don't think Derry too worried about winning Ulster again.

However, the blueprint has been set by Jimmy.

It's the manner of the defeat. Absolutely obliterated by McGuinness.

Getting beat is no harm, my preference would have been a loss on penalties. But we were worryingly outmanoeuvred today.
Donegal had done their homework and exploited the opportunities, we failed to react and adapt.
I'd disagree with screen on our attacking play, imo we lacked any cutting edge today, our speed and incisiveness was non-existent, very few line breaks, we didn't/couldn't carry the ball at pace. Our normal game plan just wasn't there. Barely won a breaking ball either.

The rest should do us good and the seeding is largely irrelevant as has been discussed ad nauseum. Better to have 4 weeks off than 2 more games where you could still end up as a losing provincial finalist, meaning you cannot draw the Munster or Leinster finalists, who will be the weakest teams in the competition.

Oh, and to those questioning Glass and all that nonsense, go to a game and watch what he does, he's everywhere, covering space, organising team mates, providing an outlet. Phenomenal athlete with an incredible football brain on him.

Derry going with the same team as the league final.

No real surprise didn't think they'd risk McKinless from the start and he's a great impact sub.

No Murphy on the bench??

Can changes be made to the 26? Harte normally names his subs in alphabetical order. Doherty is out of place & Murphy would fit in at 25 alphabetically.

Yeah I think you name 4 lads in reserve who don't appear on programme but can come in last minute.

Is that right? I thought that no changes could be made to the 26? The whole team naming gaa culture is a nonsense with these multiple changes come throw-in, but I thought that at least it had been agreed no changes could be made outside the 26 named.

2 time penalty Kick champs, Fact. Vinny Corey had the decency to acknowledge it after Monaghan beat Armagh. Derry got the cups* tho.

It wasn't penalties they beat Donegal on though?

I was giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming he meant last year's Ulster and this years NFL, maybe I'm being generous in my interpretation?

[Ulster U20 Football quarter-final results:]

Ulster U20 Football quarter-final results:

Derry 1-11 Cavan 0-7
Monaghan 1-15 Armagh 0-13

Semi-finals on 24 April 7:30pm:

Tyrone v Monaghan in Omagh
Donegal v Derry in Ballybofey

Final on 1 May.

They could nearly have played the Derry v Donegal game on Saturday in Celtic park, be like the old days when underage players used to get a proper taste of championship crowds!

There is a lot of back and forth re Dublin who I think we should all admit would dominate any province. They are dominating the All-Ireland long enough so it's fair to say their depth would manage Ulster too.

But, that doesn't excuse Kildare and Meath especially. They should be up and around Div 1 or solid Div 2. I know lads are saying when we are waiting to be hammered in Leinster it breeds a bad vibe, but the league is something different and Kildare were annihilated by Cork and Derry last year. That is not excuseable.

There will be a reset and some fresh blood on the pitch and on the line next year, but the Dubs are going nowhere!

Meath and Kildare should be at least around the level of a Roscommon/Monaghan. Dublin being great is not an excuse for them being shite.

Kildare and Meath are the 4th and 5th most populated counties in the south, they have populations which are 3 times larger than Monaghan and Roscommon. There is no obvious excuse as to why Dublin are going for 14 provincial titles in a row.
And despite what someone else said about how they'd dominate any province, I really don't think that would have been the case in any of the other three provinces if they'd been magically dropped in!
They'd have dominated the last decade in any province certainly, but they'd have lost games too.

Apparently Glass is a top lad !!

Conor has received a full pardon from Joe who has eulogized the man, his leadership character and his football genius.
 In Joe's eyes, Conor accepted Joe's criticism as a challenge to overcome and bury his inadequacies.

Brilliant and absolutely spot on, that's exactly his spin on it - and he may actually believe it too.

Sure he credited himself with turning Dublin's tactics around in that same piece where he hoped Derry could get within 6 PTS of Dublin. He referenced an earlier article where he told con's da that Dublin needs to get the ball in to con and lo and behold they did that and transformed the team.

Maybe he should take the reigns down in mayo if mcstay doesn't make it happen - all totally pro-bono of course.

Paul Flynn says  the likes of Meath and  Kildare  more or less need to get the finger  out if they want to be competitive 

Aye and a few  million quid!

But  nobody  seemed to address that bit on TSG

The Derry county board is notoriously tight fisted, yet have managed to navigate a path to competitiveness.
Meath and Kildare have no excuses for failing to put up a fight to Dublin.

They have more than adequate playing populations, I imagine in the top 10 at worst?

They have facilities aplenty and aren't faced with the issues that many counties have trying to get players down from Dublin for training.

So even if that argument around funds being pumped into Dublin creating this situation had some validity (it doesn't in my experience), it still would not account for the inability of another Leinster team to field 15 players able to compete with 15 dubs at senior level every once in a while.....

Sixty thousand empty seats in Croke Park for a Dublin Meath championship match.  What a sad state of affairs.

Sad indeed

A number of obvious reasons for it , but one thing I have to say  from watching  a numbers of games this weekend, is that  the quality of football right now is  absolutely dire

As a spectacle it really has become a poor game to watch. Ruined by over coaching and stats, the level of crowd engagement at a match has never been lower.

Your money at the turnstile is effectively funding a host of professional coaches and over inflated backroom teams.

Whatever about tactics etc, when games aren't competitive and the competition is largely meaningless anyway, with little or no jeopardy, why would people turn up?
By the way, I hope you've all completed your survey for the football review committee?

300 approx as far as I'm aware in Derry

Yet there will be endless whining if Derry do reach the All Ireland.

Could it reach the lunacy levels of '93?? That would be something to behold. Hoor's still haven't spoken to each other since. Clubs really struggled to get anyone to fill committee positions in' 94.

Thing is though, if they drastically decreased the corporate numbers attending the AI Final and increased the % to both senior finalists, pretty much everyone whose deserves a ticket would get one out of a capacity of over 82k.

I believe around 50% of the Celtic Pk stand is going to Donegal and Derry clubs, that's a hell of alot of seats going elsewhere.

Croke park had drastically reduced capacity in 93 iirc - 63k? Probably much of a muchness with the amount that's available nowadays after corporates and premium tickets are distributed.

It's a nonsense to suggest that corporate or premium tickets could be redistributed to 'real' fans. These tickets are generally bought on a 10 year basis and if the rights to the all Ireland finals were removed, they wouldn't have too much value.

We talked on the way home of how this can and should be motivation for other counties that, with the right organisation, work rate and team building (because at the end of the day, Gallagher brought these men together and bonded them with the belief that they can do great things) pretty much anything can happen. Micky and Horse have added to the squad. Some of the play for periods in every game this year has been exceptional.

There's no doubting that Gallagher brought them together and gave them belief and and some incredibly innovative tactics imo.
But we can't disregard the step change in underage performance. From 2008 - 2014, I'm fairly sure Derry won one Ulster minor championship game (against Fermanagh iirc), from 2015 to present they've progressed to the all Ireland series on 7 out of 9 occasions and won 2 all Ireland titles, so the players are there.

Re criticism of lynch, I've been slow to come round to him, but can appreciate how important his creating the overlap is now, he knows his limitations and the risks, but his play making is superb and he's now contributing far more going forward than in his early years where it could the risk reward could be questioned.
Great game and great win for Derry, but there's a long road ahead and we'll hardly get too carried away. The tale of last year's league winners is there to caution us.

I thought Lane did very well as ref. Got big calls right but I've a feeling they sneak a peak at the big screen.

People may want more extra time but players are knackered. Penalties now only fair way to end it on the day

The big screen doesn't show anything remotely controversial or which results in a free, or didn't today anyway. It's frustrating in the ground, but I presume that such incidents aren't shown to ensure no suggestion can be made that the ref used the replay.

When i think of O Lynch its the getting caught sometimes when he's outfield that's a problem.  However mostly he gives us that +1 when our play goes into attacking mode that he makes a significant contribution.  As a shot stopper he is also excellent .. had 2 great saves v Roscommon.  As far as Shane McGuigan is concerned he covers a lot of ground from the opposing 14 to his own 14yrd line and is very often the 'break ball winner' in mid field and of course a top drawer efficient finisher so it's also great for L Murray, C Murphy and D Gilmore giving us more options. Baker is not ready yet to mark players like C O'Callaghan, C Basquel (nor are there many that could ? ) ... So to beat Dublin we need a floating additional 4 players can add to our defensive system during the course of the game .... Dublin will not let that happen. 

The best we can hope for is to limit them to a 8 t0 10 pt defeat.  Here's hoping i'm wrong

Baker has been find of the season in my opinion. Having him slot in there has allowed us to keep McEvoy out the park and mckinless' absence hasn't been a factor.
Murray had a very good game today too and I think we really have a squad now, there wasn't a substitution there today that had me thinking that was a big drop off.
Looking at the respective panels on show today, I thought our bench was probably the stronger. Granted Dublin have a few top drawer players to come in like Costello and a few like McCaffrey, Fitzsimmons, mccarthy and possibly cluxton who may or may not be at the required level anymore, but man for man, Derry had it today.

When i think of O Lynch its the getting caught sometimes when he's outfield that's a problem.  However mostly he gives us that +1 when our play goes into attacking mode that he makes a significant contribution.  As a shot stopper he is also excellent .. had 2 great saves v Roscommon.  As far as Shane McGuigan is concerned he covers a lot of ground from the opposing 14 to his own 14yrd line and is very often the 'break ball winner' in mid field and of course a top drawer efficient finisher so it's also great for L Murray, C Murphy and D Gilmore giving us more options. Baker is not ready yet to mark players like C O'Callaghan, C Basquel (nor are there many that could ? ) ... So to beat Dublin we need a floating additional 4 players can add to our defensive system during the course of the game .... Dublin will not let that happen. 

The best we can hope for is to limit them to a 8 t0 10 pt defeat.  Here's hoping i'm wrong

Christ you're all fierce pessimistic on here, you think this is some sort of Kerry cute hoorisms?
I really hope we go all out for this one and think we can win, not clear why everyone thinks we'll do well to limit them and all this nonsense. We've got a good break until the Donegal game and imo we've got nothing to fear, it won't be 2014 all over again.

As someone said earlier, the prize below div 1 is promotion. I know as a Derry fan, I had little interest in the league finals over the past few years after promotion had been achieved.  I can see the argument for giving teams the chance to play their final in Croker, but with the condensed nature of everything nowadays, you'd have to question the interest that teams have in being there.  If they want to play them, that's grand, I've no objection, I just don't see the attraction myself.

Some interesting proposals around increasing the incentive to win the league too - I'd be hugely in favour of something that really rewards league performance and allows us to move on from this attitude of survival is the perfect outcome from a div 1 campaign.