Messages

With the amount of evidence/facts available it is hard to believe that some people can still argue against the seriousness of climate change. If you can't be bothered to actually study the evidence that is easily found (like O Leary) then at least stay out of the argument and don't try to cloud the debate. Just because the powers in China, India and the US among others don't care doesn't mean everybody else should stop caring. We will all be long dead before the real manifestation of the damage humans have done to this planet will be seen but again that is no reason to be ignorant.

And yes I will get down of my moral high horse now.

Rollercoaster week is right. Firstly thoughts and prayers with JT. Please God he makes a full recovery. It was hard not to be moved watching JP Mc Manus being interviewed after At Fishers Cross's win. It must be an incredible range of emotions he was feeling and it showed the other side of the man.
Secondly I am thrilled for Hurricane Fly. Unlike last year I didn't put my shirt on him but even if I had no money on the horse I would still have been roaring him home. The horse is an absolute superstar and I'm sure it was even sweeter for connections considering the critics and doubters.
As a gambler Cheltenham is an experience like no other. Like Hardy mentioned, you may have that nagging feeling about a horse or that something is going to beat your selection but you just can't bring yourself to change from a horse that you may have been following all season. I had a nagging feeling about Cue Card but I couldn't change my mind on First Lieutenant as I have followed the horse ever since DH raved about him well over 2 years ago. Blinded loyalty some would call it. I prefer to call it courage in my convictions! Looking forward to Punchestown already!

Looking to head over to New York in September. We haven't booked flights yet. Just wondering should I wait for Aer Lingus Summer sales or do the prices for transatlantic flights generally keep rising over time?

Great win at the weekend. Lets hope they can keep it going against the real enemy in Navan. Meath are definitely beatable and there is no reason why we can't come away with a win. Division 3 is wide open. Promotion is there for whoever wants it most.

What about club action this weekend? Will pitches be fit for games?

The Irish can be serious idiots.

Yesterday the news and this mornings papers where all about the consumer losing vouchers, people lifting from the stores in lieu of using vouchers and how the consumer was been affected. It was almost secondary that the HMV stores could close and jobs lost.

From looking at Sky and Uk news it was all about the threat to the business and why where high street stores failing, could the jobs be saved? Vouchers where hardly mentioned.

Today HMV didn't open stores, the consumer rights crew rode in to HMV mgt telling them they had to honour vouchers, we know you're set up different from UK, blah blah. Almost forcing them into receivership and having to close the doors fearing widespread looting from people with vouchers such was the noise been made in the media.

Have the do gooders forced them to close the doors? I think it's likely and in these situations, when the doors close they don't open again.

That's aload of BS Bingo. People kicking up a fuss about not having their vouchers honoured are to blame for HMV Ireland going into receivership? Widespread looting? This isn't Greece.
They only have themselves to blame. HMV management took a decision to not honour vouchers as happened in Henry St store on Monday. That is where the blame lies. Nowhere else.

Boojangles, missing my point. It's clear HMV where on this road, but why have the Irish stores closed but not the UK stores? HMV took the standard decision of any business in same position re the vouchers.

My main bone is that the Irish reaction is "what about my €20 voucher", while the UK and more correct reaction, should about the jobs lost and longer term damage.

Well I don't agree with your observation of the Irish reaction. I heard plenty about the threat of jobs going but to put it in context; nearly four thousand jobs are at risk in the UK, three hundred at risk in Ireland. By not honouring the vouchers they were always going to attract negative media attention. Most HMV shops in Ireland should be profitable. No reason to take such a decision to try and screw over the ordinary shopper.

Boojangles is correct.

Yeah, this isn't Greece. He's one to watch is boojangles.

Nobody better than yourself for that job. Sit in front of the screen all day, every day. Watch, Creep, Obsess. Hardstation has it covered.

[truths]

Yeah but it's Barton. It's like bullying the weakest kid in school. Anyone could troll him. A self righteous, pseudo-intellectual fcukwit who doesn't like it when the class clown gives him a few home truths. Fcuk off, Dietmar....

Rant over.

What 'truths' would they be?

The Irish can be serious idiots.

Yesterday the news and this mornings papers where all about the consumer losing vouchers, people lifting from the stores in lieu of using vouchers and how the consumer was been affected. It was almost secondary that the HMV stores could close and jobs lost.

From looking at Sky and Uk news it was all about the threat to the business and why where high street stores failing, could the jobs be saved? Vouchers where hardly mentioned.

Today HMV didn't open stores, the consumer rights crew rode in to HMV mgt telling them they had to honour vouchers, we know you're set up different from UK, blah blah. Almost forcing them into receivership and having to close the doors fearing widespread looting from people with vouchers such was the noise been made in the media.

Have the do gooders forced them to close the doors? I think it's likely and in these situations, when the doors close they don't open again.

That's aload of BS Bingo. People kicking up a fuss about not having their vouchers honoured are to blame for HMV Ireland going into receivership? Widespread looting? This isn't Greece.
They only have themselves to blame. HMV management took a decision to not honour vouchers as happened in Henry St store on Monday. That is where the blame lies. Nowhere else.

As far as i know Ballymachugh have also moved up to Intermediate.

Thats means that Cornafean, Mountnugent and Balllymachugh are moving up having failed to win the Junior championship.

Anyone have any views on this i think its totally wrong.


Apologies for getting some teams wrong i didnt write them down and its hard to remember then all.

Are they having a laugh or what... It was known before the start of the League last year that the teams who were going to be relagated in Division 1 League would also be losing their place in the Senior Championship. Denn beat Drumgoon in a relegation/promotion play off and that counts for nothing now.

They have just thrown the idea out the window and felt the wrat of a few clubs not happy about what was happening, and now it has gone into a comedy show.

The clubs have spoken Rodney and democracy has won. The County Board finally engaged with the clubs instead of trying to railroad through changes based on a Fermanagh man's opinion. Whatever comes out of it all at least the County Board have received by and large the opinions of the people that matter in Cavan GAA, the club officers, players and members.
As Tommy mentioned earlier they have now given the clubs further opportunity to engage and influence how the Championships should be run. Assuming that you are a club member you can have an input into that if you want to.

T.K Whitaker. Not a leader but a visionary. His work behind the scenes brought Ireland into the modern era.

[Drumalee]

17 teams in Senior Championship next year 10 divison 1A teams and  Drumgoon, Gowna , Killygarry, Crosserlough, Castlerahan, Drumalee and Redhills.

Intermediate - 10 teams in division 2 and Shercock and Butlersbridge


Junior the rest.

I don't understand that at all, they wanted to improve the quality in the Senior Championship and reduce the number of teams, as  there was lots of one sided games in the last few years.

What's the point in reducing the number for the league. if they didn't do the same for the Championship. Drumalee were hammered in nearly every game last year in Division 1.

Bit of an exaggeration Rodney. We took a hammering from the Gaels and Ramor to a lesser extent. Then when the league meant nothing we got hammered in the final 2 games with makeshift teams. We were competitive in the championship and most league games while missing some key players. Drumalee have won 2 Intermediate Championships in the past number of years so going back to Intermediate would have been hard to get lads motivated for. It's up to the players now to finally make a proper stab at Senior level which we haven't done before.
Crosserlough couldn't even win the Intermediate championship and they are up but fair play to them. They are showing a bit of ambition and they know they will have to raise the bar out there.

Kill have gone down to junior also.

Tha'ts the wrong colour of Orange Hardy. That's another month of protesting there.

Very surprised to see Roscommon get such a drubbing. I hear Leitrim were very poor and looked like a team of lads just thrown together on the day. Cavan were missing Jack, Killian Clarke, Joe Dillon, Flanagan, Mooney and Andy Graham all of whom you'd be expecting to start come Championship time. Do we play Longford now? As was said above they won Minor in 2010 so it'll be a measure of how where we really are.

Gonna be tight for places on that U-21 team. You forgot Paul O Connor and Conor Moynagh, off the top of my head. Whats the story with Nevin O Donnell, Kevin Bouchier, Finnegan of Lacken?

The compensation claim if successful will be huge.

I suppose all ye bucks up North will be happy to see the plain people/taxpayers of the 26 Cos shelling out more money to Celtic Tiger/Bubble cowboys in that case.

Yep. Because the Quinns will use the money to rebuild their business and create loads of employment. In the long run it will be better for the 26 as well as it will help straighten out a corrupt system.

Brilliant!

Seanie Fitzpatrick gave even more employment and as for Bertie, sure was he the greatest employer of them all?

Yawn. Give up Muppet.

[With Kerry we are always guaranteed a free flowing natural style of football.]

The 2013 All Ireland football series will be one of the most keenly contested in recent years. There are five teams who could currently consider themselves real prospects to win the Sam Maguire in September.

Donegal, Mayo, Kerry, Dublin and Cork all have the tools and experience to lift Sam but they are going to have to beat each other along the way.
With Donegal, Mayo and Cork you are going to get the same approach we saw last year. With Kerry we are always guaranteed a free flowing natural style of football. The Dublin 2013 case study is slightly more difficult to analyze.

On October 1st 2012 Jim Gavin was ratified as the new Dublin senior manager. A decorated manager with the county under 21s Gavin was the obvious choice in the list of succession after Pat Gilroy.

Gilroy's success with the senior team was based on a rigid system which relied on hard work, relentless tackling and dogged defence. The modern day role of defensive wing forwards was executed to perfection as Paul Flynn and Bryan Cullen were as valuable around their own 45 as they were further up the pitch.

In the modern game it is the belief that you must employ a system to compete. The systematic approaches of All Ireland winners this side of the Millenium has added weight to this theory. Gone are the days where the team who scores more wins, we are now in the age where the team who concedes less comes out on top.

Kerry and Cork try to employ the 15 on 15 game but often the manner in which the opposition lines out forces their hand. If a team are playing 13men in defence it is impossible to go man for man against them.

Indications from watching Jim Gavin's underage teams in the past suggest that Dublin will try to employ an orthodox 15 on 15 approach this season. Gavin won two under 21 All Ireland's playing free flowing man for man football. This is a system of trust – relying on each individual man to be better then his direct counterpart.

There are certain trends in the game which have proved successful for certain counties. The 'new' midfield is a combination of size and athleticism. One compensates the other. Look at Donegal last year – Neil Gallagher would play the role of orthodox midfielder while Rory Kavanagh would be the runner – moving with the play. This is not to say that the role of the traditional midfielder is redundant. Gallagher's semi final performance against Cork was one of the best exhibitions in fielding and simple football to grace Croke Park in years.
Similar to the Kavanagh situation Kerry used the new conversion policy to convert a star forward into a busy bee midfielder. Bryan Sheehan was the best player on the pitch in the 2011 All Ireland final playing at midfield. Last season he again impressed in a struggling Kerry team. Sheehan had made his name for Kerry as a forward and free taker. As a midfielder he has the mobility to exercise his defensive duties but still contribute further up the pitch. Mayo's Aidan O'Shea is another example of the success of this conversion.
Dublin have yet to adopt this approach. They finished last years Championship with Denis Bastick and Eamon Fennell in midfield. Fennell is a ball winner and Bastick, although athletic, would lean more to the side of traditional midfielder.

Dublin have a shortfall at midfield currently. With Fennell no longer on the panel the depth of options and experience suffers. However they do have the advantage of a very strong conveyor belt of talent in waiting. A minor two years ago Emmett Ó Conghaile could fit the Sheehan/Kavanagh role. With the evolution of strategies it will become impossible to play two orthodox midfielders and therefore the development of Ó Conghaile could be a real asset to Dublin football in the coming season.

Another area where Dublin suffered last season was the consistency of substitutions they were producing in championship games. When we talk ......................................
http://sportsnewsireland.com/gaa/what-can-we-expect-from-dublin-footballers-in-2013-under-jim-gavin-2013-01-07/

Lazy analysis. Kerry have become as defensive as most other counties. In this day and age you are guaranteed free flowing football by no county. What is free flowing football anyway?