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Underage football is about producing players. It's not a win at all costs mentality. Senior football is. Especially in Derry where our Ulster champ record is pitiful.

That's it. In general i'm happy we seem to have a series of very strong underage teams coming through (regardless of winning it or not). This can only help to supplement the senior side if we want to cement ourselves as one of the better sides in the country in the coming years.

Under 20 final is fixed for the Wednesday night before the game.
Can't see Rory being impressed with that.

Although it does impact Down as well. As their game with Donegal is on Sunday.

Many Down U20s on the senior panel?

Odhran Murdock will be playing with the seniors this weekend rather than the U20s according to the Irish News
I'd assume McEvoy and maybe Murray could be held for the Derry seniors, with Doherty, Downey and O'Donnell playing for the U20s.

Why can the lads not play with the U20's on Wednesday night then rest until the week-end of the senior game?

There's a rule in place that they can't play both in a 7-day window. Agreed common sense should allow them to play in both.

[I take it McWilliams is with u20s?]

Under 20 final is fixed for the Wednesday night before the game.
Can't see Rory being impressed with that.

Although it does impact Down as well. As their game with Donegal is on Sunday.

McEvoy will play for the seniors!!

I take it McWilliams is with u20s?
I really hope it's Armagh and not Omagh, better pitch, better venue.

Oisin? He'd be too old, about 22/23.
Senior game is down for Omagh.

I see David Coldrick won't be referee for any of this year's championship as he failed the fitness test.

[It's not a bit lazy. It's puke to watch, slow, lateral boring crap]

To call Derrys style of play puke football is lazy. Go back and watch Dublin when they dominated. Always had plenty behind the ball. All worked tirelessly for the team. The difference is that Dublin had 6 quality forwards with more in reserve. Everyone just turned a blind eye to it as they had outrageously good forwards. Derry have Mcguigan. The rest are good but could you rely on the rest to get consistent scores if mcguigan was injured? No.

IMO, gallaghers style if perfect for what Derry have. Tough, physical runners who can break lines at will. Ciaran Mcfaul back in the fold will only add to it.

It's not a bit lazy.  It's puke to watch, slow, lateral boring crap.  But to be fair only a version of what a lot of county teams serve up.  There's a whole other thread on the state of football, no point in going back over it all again here.

It is lazy. In fact, Derry clearly don't want to move laterally if you actually watch them and only do so to find create space or allow players to filter into forward positions if the other team have men back. They thrive on getting their athletic players running past men.

Very little chat about this. Game is on Saturday at 5pm at Brewster Park. It is also on BBC Sport NI.

Fermanagh trying to fool us into thinking they're more interested in selling houses but I don't think we'll have things too easy 

Last jedi was the best of the new trilogy, it just needed to lose the whole casino section with Finn and the annoying girl

Last Jedi is ok as a standalone but ruined the storyline by killing off Snoke so easily, only heightened in the last film by making him a clone and bringing back Palpatine.

Mandalorian is good tv. Latest episode wasn't to my liking but can see why it would appeal to some. Overall though i'd be a fan.

Andor was very good.

Obi-Wan was ok, not bad but not great.

I think they've done a pretty good job overall with the TV stuff for the amount of criticism they get.

RIP Jim McKeever

If you were training all winter and now McFaul comes in and gets game time you'd not be too happy I'd have thought.

McFaul had to surrender his passport
Derry don't have much depth in their panel. I would be more worried about that if I were a fan.

We have McKaigue, McEvoy, McWilliams and McFaul to come in from yesterday and Glass missed half the game. I think most realize where we are. We aren't expecting all the U20's to come in and set the world alight straight away but we're better having them than a few other players who aren't up to it. Overwhelming majority of the county who are good/willing enough are in the squad. I'd possibly get on the phone to Emmett Bradley again too but apart from that we know where we are. We've come a long way but are possibly a bit behind the top 4 or so counties, no shame in that.

I wouldn't be overly worried about the defense. McKaigue and McEvoy to come back in. If we don't have them this year we won't win anything anyway.
Had hoped to see something a bit different tried going forward as we had nothing to lose today but I'm not sure we have it in us yet.

Gallagher-ball is brutal to watch.

Whatever Dublin are playing is no better

We wouldn't have the biggest crowds anyway but I get a sense that the job is done with promotion and whilst it would be nice to win, we'd be more bothered about what's to come later in the year.

Fermanagh beating Derry and then Tyrone/Monaghan in the championship would be a bigger achievement than anything in Div2/3 of the league.

Down had 8 lads starting from Burren and 2 subs. This is the highest number of players from one team to represent a county I've ever seen

Think the same minor team was something similar, lost out to Fermanagh from memory.

The Tyrone result is a big shock. One of the favs for the All-Ireland out in 1st round.
Who would be favourites for Ulster now?

Derry would have been favorites before the Tyrone exit even. Derry won all the Ulster competitions at this age group coming up (Buncrana Cup etc) and then won the All Ireland minor. I'm not one to be bigging us up usually and anything can happen on any given day but anyone who's been involved with or kept an eye on this age group knows that.