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No chance of sell out, wont even be near 70,000 there.

60,000 would be great crowd to get, dont forget kerry are on the bill

Yea, would be good alright. Good chance for mayo, thought would be brilliant if monaghan could do it

Looking at him in interviews and listening to him lately, the guy seems such a bore. Does he always wear a hat? I have a good mate in his thirties and never seen him without his baseball hat apart from his wedding day.

Since there is a jimmy thread with a lot of jimmy bashing going on, i thought jamsie deserves his own this week in the build up to the big game. Now jimmy has many faults no doubt, and done things i don't agree with, but at least he in an interesting character from his long lasting student life to maturity as all ireland winning manager. Jimmy sounds like the players would go through a brick wall for him, maybe horan has great motivational skills as well? Horan's idea of psychology including referring to the all ireland final last year in the build up as 'GAME 5', the semi was GAME 4, what a farce!

Even though I was convinced donegal would beat mayo well last year in the final, I would give Mayo a strong chance on sunday as I think their preparations have been better lately. They should be fresher, though maybe the tough recent battles will stand to donegal better, we wont know til sunday.

Probably the most pointless thread created for a while

To be honest I have read very few good posts about anything on this board. The Horan guy is all over the papers today ( no harm in that), he deserves his own thread.

Looking at him in interviews and listening to him lately, the guy seems such a bore. Does he always wear a hat? I have a good mate in his thirties and never seen him without his baseball hat apart from his wedding day.

Since there is a jimmy thread with a lot of jimmy bashing going on, i thought jamsie deserves his own this week in the build up to the big game. Now jimmy has many faults no doubt, and done things i don't agree with, but at least he in an interesting character from his long lasting student life to maturity as all ireland winning manager. Jimmy sounds like the players would go through a brick wall for him, maybe horan has great motivational skills as well? Horan's idea of psychology including referring to the all ireland final last year in the build up as 'GAME 5', the semi was GAME 4, what a farce!

Even though I was convinced donegal would beat mayo well last year in the final, I would give Mayo a strong chance on sunday as I think their preparations have been better lately. They should be fresher, though maybe the tough recent battles will stand to donegal better, we wont know til sunday.

We will see how many Ulster teams will be left after next weekend?

2 id say

And sadly not a single one of them plays football that's remotely exciting for the neutral to watch. With your own county Armagh starting this negative trend.

For shame, orchardman.

Armagh never did anything wrong, we played it tough and fair, kernan's team were proper men.
Donegal as well, i like their style of play, too much yapping from the rest of the country, jealousy.

Tyrone are only one's with any sneaky stuff, like what they did at the end against meath last ngt was disgusting

last 8 of championship

1 Connaught ( there has to be at least one)
1 leinster ( they have to allow one of these in as well)
2 munster ( 2 good teams, will always be there)
4 Ulster ( under current set up we are only allowed a max of 5 teams, otherwise all 8 could be from ULSTER)

Should Ulster be split in 2, is it too strong? On this evidence yes. Add to this, if armagh had their shooters with them in galway they would have won, and would likely then have beaten cork meaning all 4 teams coming through back door were from Ulster.

A well as that, down, derry and fermanagh were all only knocked out by fellow ulster teams, otherwise they would also be there. Down and Derry would still give any of the last 8 a big game.

Which leaves antrim as our only shite team, but they were knocked out by louth who are nearly in Ulster anyway. But antrim are a hurling superpower so that's ok, we'll let them at it.

Still think it's kerry's sam this year though

[although I feel the open spaces of Croker will not work in their favour.]

Very well done to Monaghan, very deserved victory. 

Couple of things stand out for me, Lacey was totally of the pace, Monaghan players were flying past him - very strange he started in the first place, but leaving him on the pitch was worse. McGuniness and Gallagher have had their plaudits, but they were shown up today big time.  Corey stuck to Murphy like glue and Wylie and Walshe also had massive games.  Biggest turning point in the game was that massive coming together of McHugh and Gollogly, Gollogly definitely put his body in the line for Monaghan in that tackle and McHugh having to go off definitely disrupted Donegal game-plan.

Strange that some teams always do well against others, I get that feeling with Monaghan playing Donegal they always seem to have the upper hand on Donegal.

Last thing I would say is that Monaghan matched Donegal and more in the physical dept, they are a seriously big team - my only hope is that that can bring this hunger into their next game, although I feel the open spaces of Croker will not work in their favour.

I would say they'll thrive in the wide open spaces in Croker. Time will tell I suppose.

Wide open spaces of croke park, we hear this constantly.

Seriously, is it much bigger than any other pitch?

The Dubs really don't like any sort of criticism of their team. Even if it's 1 million percent justified like this. Or 7 million percent even.
A Meath man stated a fact that it took Cluxton 8 minutes to take frees and 45's in the Leinster final and since then this thread has had nothing on it but Dubs knashing their false teeth.
Lads ye get criticised fairly because of the unfair advantages you always get and the nasty way you go about your business. If ye want to be treated normally then change your ways, become a county that believes in fair play and also stop letting the bad apples out of their homes. People like Bertie, Gilligan, Burton, Dunphy, Ian Roberson etc You're embarrassing the rest of us.

best post on here in a long time!

I underrated Cavan and overrated Derry. With a bye in round four the very best of luck to Cavan in the quarter finals.

Perhaps the daftest thing you've typed. London would be licking their lips at the prodpect of Cavan being between them an an AIQF. London can easily give Cavan a game.

We will see londons real worth when they get out of connaught, its alright when they are playing ross and sligo

Well done Galway! Connacht not looking so weak?

Well only galway and mayo left so its pretty weak, Ros, leitrim and sligo were a disgrace, though mayo will do well.

Armagh going out doesn't bother me too much as I don't go to watch them, but i really thought they wud have beaten a poor galway side and got a run out in croker with a good test against cork. Wouldn't have expected anymore than that.

But yes as others have said, i'm happy for a class act like meehan to have a day in croker, considering what he has come back from

Here's the ages of the Kerry team v Cork, assuming Fitzgerald & Griffin are 23, the average age is 26 so pretty close to their prime.

Granted, some key starting players have huge mileage on the clock - O'Se x 2, Galvin, Gooch, Donaghy & Dec Sull - but there are a lot of young players in there too.

B Kealy (25)
M O'Sé (33)
M Griffin (early 20s?)
S Enright (23)
T O'Sé (33)
K Young (24)
P Crowley (23)
A Maher (24)
J Buckley (22)
P Galvin (31)
C Cooper (28)
D Walsh (27)
Darran O'Sullivan (25)
Declan O'Sullivan (27)
J O'Donoghue (21)
Subs:
K Donaghy (28)
F Fitzgerald (early 20s?)
E Brosnan (31)
B Sheehan (25)

You must have got these ages from some site that had published them two years ago as most players you have listed there are two years older than what you have specified.  Plus, their younger players aren't up to much.  Dublin are in with a shout this year, but to be honest Donegal are going to win the All Ireland again.

They have introduced plenty of young guys as they have had to, but lets look at the real ages of the top 10 players

Marc o se 33
Tomas o se 35
o mahony 33/34
brosnan 32/33
galvin 33
Cooper 30
Donaghy 30
Dec O sullivan 30/31
Darren O sullivan 27
Bryan Sheehan 27

I actually don't think the ages are too bad, most of these guys apart from the last 2 have been called 'old' by many as far back as 2010. After the meny retirements of 2009, really only tom o sullivan has gone since. The stand out age is tomas at 35 but darragh o se has said he has never seen him in better condition.

For me their still easily the best handfull of players in the country, and I said back in feb I fancy them to win one more sam this year.

Yea Cavan have been playing in leinster for a while, good idea but i think fermanagh also played in the west in the last couple of years did they not?

Packie Bonner and his twin dennis both played senior for donegal when they were 17

Cork has still the biggest team in the country, then probably Mayo, its numbers around you from donegal which is wearing teams down not the size factor.

What tanks have mayo got? aiden o shea surely, plus a couple of lanky lads like barry moran. Remember reading the all-ireland final previews last year and Donal vaughan is counted a physical man in mayo and he looks like a wippet with a pair of guns

Still think mayo could be back in the final though, decent side