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Kerry deserving winners and I thought it was a better game than most others here seem to have viewed it. Deegan gave Kerry a few soft frees but don't think you could argue he was the difference at all. Kerry took over in the second half and won because Tyrone's system is not good enough against the tope teams if they play it right. I was surprised Kerry were so poor in the first half and carried so much down the middle, that's the last thing you do, especially with isolated carriers. They showed more patience and picked the holes in the second half.


Hard to know how Kerry will do in the final. Their defence will hardly hold up against the Dubs.

Kerry back in this. They are not doing enough of what they should be doing to break the Tyrone defence but they are starting to.

Cute play there by Geaney getting Sludden booked for off the ball wrestling and getting a hop ball from which Kerry got a score.

That was a disgraceful decision. If a ref doesn't know what happened he just have a word them, not book them both. Geaney was clearly the aggressor there but if you haven't seen it then why book them?

Kerry have been very disappointing. Not sure how they've manged to watch Tyrone repeatedly deliver unpressurised angled ball into their full forwards and have their own players carry the ball down the middle of the Tyrone defence only to be turned over without changing something. Tyrone have given a masterclass in tactical football though. They've managed to get bodies back and yet be able to support the attack in decent numbers too. In contrast Kerry have got no pressure on the delivery or extra bodies to deal with the ball when it comes in.

Dublin & Kerry. Think both games will be tight though.

If you've two draws then nobody can be knockout by losing in Rd 2, bar I suppose a team getting a serious hammering. If one Rd 1 game is a draw then neither of those teams can be knocked out in Rd 2 so you're guaranteed at least one do or game in that group in Rd 3.

I think there's a strong argument against the super 8's being the best format but not if the only alternative is the old QF's after the qualifiers.

I'd scrap them. The long weekend of knockout quarter finals used to be great.

This is one of the issues with those wanting to scrap the super 8's as this simply isn't true. The All Ireland QF's were often a very disappointing weekend and put a real dampener on the football season. Of the games played in the super 8's this year most of them were good and we got a number of massive occasions and important do or die games. The tweaks proposed in this thread would solve some of the issues that come with the super 8's. How anyone can say the super 8's are making the strong stronger after two years of the competition and a number of different teams making it to teh super 8's is beyond me. There isn't a system that wouldn't currenty have Dublin, Donegal, Tyrone, Kerry and Mayo getting to the QF stage of an All Ireland most years because they are clearly in the top 8 in Ireland.


Meath, Armagh, Cork and Roscommon are improving teams and Kildare with all their missing players back would be another team who'll be stronger next year. What benefit is it to the sport as a whole, plyers, managers or fans to going back to the old knockout? Less games, greater predictability and lower profile for the sport and for what? I just can't understand the negativity about the super 8's when the only alternative is the old knockout system.

They're lucky this happened during games of relatively little importance. Pain in the ass nonetheless.

Anyone else's GAAGO crashed?

[Managers, players and fans don't want more games?]

The Super 8's were never 'super' to begin with. Despite the best attempts to hype these league games up by of a whole host of media pundits who rely on more games for more work, the public have become totally disengaged by them. When ultra establishment man Dick Clerkin steadfastly defends them he is really defending his own interests. More games = more work for these pundits. The public are not fools though. They are flat, often predictable and boring. The best weekend of the year used to be the quarter finals over the August bank holiday with real cut and thrust games.

The inter county game is no longer of any great interest to a lot of good club people and I can only see this getting worse as the bean counters in HQ appear to measure success by the amount of revenue generated.

Hard to disagree with any of that.

The qualifiers diluted the knockout nature of c'ship football, and the Super 8 has diluted it further. Yes, you might get the odd good game like Kerry Donegal, but all it is, is a cynical money-spinning exercise. Fans, players, managers, club players and managers don't matter here - it's all about money.

But the GAA will not get rid of their summer cash cow. It's here to stay.

What a load of nonsense in fairness. Managers, players and fans don't want more games? Has the super 8's negatively impacted upon club players or managers. According to some posters here there are loads of league games going on in counties. You're an odd bunch to be complaining about more games.

Not unless you have a massive squad. Teams going week in, week out. Prolonging the club c'ships. More expenses week on week for fans.

Ah here. There's not a manager or player in Ireland that would pick knockout QF's over the super 8's I'd say. They all want more games, big occasions and less training. The super 8's are far from perfect but they are way better than the QF's.

As for fans, all the games Mayo are playing is sowing the seeds for the next generation of footballers. When I see the amount of kids at all their games roaring on their heroes it can only inspire them to greater heights. Do GAA fans spend more money following their team than soccer, NFL, Aussie rules fans? You can always choose to watch some games on TV.

The Super 8's were never 'super' to begin with. Despite the best attempts to hype these league games up by of a whole host of media pundits who rely on more games for more work, the public have become totally disengaged by them. When ultra establishment man Dick Clerkin steadfastly defends them he is really defending his own interests. More games = more work for these pundits. The public are not fools though. They are flat, often predictable and boring. The best weekend of the year used to be the quarter finals over the August bank holiday with real cut and thrust games.

The inter county game is no longer of any great interest to a lot of good club people and I can only see this getting worse as the bean counters in HQ appear to measure success by the amount of revenue generated.

Hard to disagree with any of that.

The qualifiers diluted the knockout nature of c'ship football, and the Super 8 has diluted it further. Yes, you might get the odd good game like Kerry Donegal, but all it is, is a cynical money-spinning exercise. Fans, players, managers, club players and managers don't matter here - it's all about money.

But the GAA will not get rid of their summer cash cow. It's here to stay.

What a load of nonsense in fairness. Managers, players and fans don't want more games? Has the super 8's negatively impacted upon club players or managers. According to some posters here there are loads of league games going on in counties. You're an odd bunch to be complaining about more games.

Well that's it. There are certainly better formats IMO but we can only deal with the options in front of us. I wouldn't favour getting rid of the super 8's to go back to the old format.

I think they are good tweaks Rossfan.

For me, it's simple. Are the super 8's the best realistic format we have? We can post various formats here all we like but they aren't being considered so if the super 8's are scrapped after next year and we return to the qualifiers and knockout QF's will we have a better format? For me, we wouldn't.

While that's true this year if Cork had beaten Tyrone then we'd have Tyrone at home against the Dubs having to win while Cork would have Roscommon at home having to win. Tyrone against Dublin in Omagh in a must win game would be a massive occasion. The super 8's can deliver more than they have so far and that's with a number of very good and one great game played already. That's good for the sport.

You can't have group games in the provincial championships IMO as they are uneven and I see little point in Leitrim, Waterford, Limerick, Wicklow, Antrim having to play, and lose, numerous games to get knocked out a championship. Perhaps groups could be used instead of qualifiers but map that out. No point saying what we have is no good unless you've something better. The qualifiers and knockout QF's isn't better IMO.

What's more, of those games, Cork/Tyrone and Mayo/Meath were more or less do or die, lose and you couldn't make the All Ireland SF's. That's far better than what we had.

I think most would agree that Meath,Cork having dead rubbers to play after losing their do or die matches is not better than what we had.

Ronan McCarthy has already come out stating their game isn't a deadrubber as far as he's concerned. I'm certain the Meath management feel the same about Kerry coming to Navan in a game Kerry will want to win.

If you compare the old knockout QF format to the super 8's then the super 8's would be the preferred option of most I'd say.

Managers and players want more games and less training so it's the super 8's

Administrators want more revenue and a higher profile for the game so it's the super 8's

County boards like the home game element as do local businesses and getting rid of the Croke Park game will spread that business wider.

Fans get more games, more oppportunities to get kids to games which is what helps fuel the passion in the next generation.

Clubs won't get anymore games played if you went back to the QF's so I see little or no advantage to the old system over the current one. It's not perfect but it's still better IMO.

Ah come on now Zulu what do you expect a manager to say about these games? Leaving counties to hang on after they can't progress is not better no matter way you try to dress it up.  The players i'm sure would prefer to be back with their clubs than playing those dead rubber games this weekend.

Again, I can accept you could be right but I don't accept it's better to go back to the knockout QF's to avoid 1 game out of all the games played in the super 8's being pointless. Basically, there are far more good things about the super 8's than bad when the only other thing on the table is the knockout QF.