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Both Academy midfielders were excellent - Hughes was a prominent threat, reliable from frees, but i thought their No. 9 was even better. Cant mind his name now. Lost count of how many clean kick outs he won, always an outlet on the Academy kickouts. Liam McGeary showed very well too in the SPAD attack
Agree on Noah Grimes, fantastic prospect. One to watch with Tyrone U20s this year

It was a really enjoyable semi final - especially when you consider that not that long ago, both these sets of players would have in all likelihood have been playing for the Academy. If Omagh CBS do indeed lift this years McRory cup, the emergence of Donaghmore convent taking boys in has cost the Academy a McRory.

Hughes has a fantastic strike on him for free kicks. Massive asset having a player who can do that. He played the majority of the game as full forward, so disagree with his impact at midfield. The number nine Dillon O'Neill had a very good game but shades of Holy Trinity last year as he is 19 years old playing against players one or two years younger than himself. Grimes is a great prospect but he will have better days on the football field, his 1-01 showcased his talent but he was also guilty of some very poor shots throughout the game. Ultimately what cost Donaghmore was the number 15 Corrigan blazing a goal chance over the bar when he had a simple chance to square the ball for a palm to the empty net second half, he puts that across and Donaghmore go three up they would've pushed clear. Joey Clarke the best for Donaghmore, even though the referee was very very harsh on him. CBS have a great chance of back to back MacRory's but they have struggled with teams who have superior size and Dungannon would be quite a bit bigger than Omagh, so 50/50 game.

Agree on Joey Clarke. I felt he was the best player on the pitch and the referee was sore on him particularly on one occasion mid way through the second half at a crucial stage.

Does any team actually wanrt to win the League under the new system?
Does winning the League benefit anyone ?

And why are Derry 5/2?

https://www.oddschecker.com/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/national-football-league-division-1/winner

As long as you're not playing a championship game the week after the league final like Mayo last year then I would say yes there are benefits to winning the league. Kerry won it the last time they won the AI, Dublin won D2 last year and won the AI. Derry did well last year and got to D2 final. Winning is a good habit and it creates momentum.

Div 1 & 2 are not comparable. It takes a lot of effort to win Div 1 league whereas a few games in Div 2 are very lop sided.

Is it KO now from here onwards?

Any on streamed tv this week?

The red card was harsh but Kilpatrick gave the red a decision to make
No square ball.

Yes, he did. The decision should have been yellow

As far as I know Cahair O'Kane put out a starting 15 without a Glen man mentioned so there were more than Silver Hill who got it wrong.

In fairness to Cahair, he posted a photo of the match programme team but did say clearly to expect multiple changes to the starting line up

Conn got a ridiculous red card it balanced itself out

If you think that's not a red card then you've had too many knocks on the head yourself. It was late, high and dangerous, he had time to pull out of it as well.

High or low - forget about it.

Had time to pull out if it - are you crazy? It was a big man colliding with a smaller man, albeit slightly late but there was no malice involved

But malice involved in every tackle on Darragh Canavan, all without punishment from a poor referee

As someone said earlier, they are all poor - you just hope you get one of the better poor ones!

Co-commentator some tube as well.

Mattie McGleenan.

Dungannon a bit cuter when it counted. I'd be sore with the ref if I was a Donaghmore  supporter, some serious soft frees.

Referee shocking for both teams. Donaghmore got some very handy frees in first half then Dungannon got them second half

The advantage rule is a nightmare and the referee application of it differs from game to game.

Sometimes they pull it back, sometimes they let it go with (no advantage accruing) - crazy.

Today, referee gave arm up signal in the second half for Dungannon, player played on and played great pass to a player on edge of the D. Ref pulls it back to outside the 45' !!!

Then the Grimes one as mentioned above was poor decision as well at a vital part of the game

Hopefully he is not refereeing a league game tomorrow somewhere - he blew every bit of contact all day long - stop start and no flow to the game at all

How long was Paudi captain for?

In the match report in the paper this morning, Darragh came on at half time and Ruairi only came on with with 10 minutes to go.

Heard there was an accident which meant diversions and delayed a few cars which had UUJ men in them, including the Errigal lads.
That may explain the late changes to the team
Darragh appears to have played well according to the paper reports and he only played 30 minutes

[McCurry was suspended]

Possibly something like,

1. Niall Morgan.
2. Michael McKernan.
3. Pádraig Mampsey.
4. Cormac Quinn.
5. Peter Harte.
6. Frank Burns.
7. Niall Devlin.
8. Brian Kennedy.
9. Conn Kilpatrick.
10. Conor Meyler.
11. Ruairi Canavan.
12. Joe Oguz.
13. Darren McCurry.
14. Darragh Canavan.
15. Michael O'Neill, dropping back.

but who knows?

Is Meyler not out for a few months with a knee injury?
I had heard McCurry was suspended but not sure how true that is as I can't understand how he could be.

Heard that as well. He must have been investigated by the CCCC for punching Graham O'Sullivan in the stomach in the closing stages of the Kerry game.

Does it not go by competition? If McCurry has a ban then he misses the first round of championship I'd say. Rogers misses at least the first round McKenna cup for Derry next year after stamping on a Donegal man.

If it was NFL then Tyrone played Kerry in round 5 so can't imagine a 3 match suspension for that??
 
Round 6 and 7 were wins V Monaghan and they relegated Armagh in the last game.

The Rogers suspension is an Ulster GAA competition so does not apply nationally. The league and championship are central council competitions so think that is where McCurry gets the ban from. Very unfortunate - he is badly needed up front at the minute

From Niall Gartland on Twitter/X:

JP McManus donation: Tyrone GAA have worked out they have in effect 108 'clubs' affiliated to the three governing associations (the GAA, LGFA and Camogie). So in real terms a Tyrone club affiliated with one association receives just over £9k euro, a club with two, twice that etc.

What would the breakdown of that be?
47 Football clubs, 10 Hurling clubs, 8 Camogie clubs and 43 Ladies football?

So Carrickmore for example are entitled to 4 x 9k = 36k?

out of interest whats the make up of the 10 hurling clubs in the county?

4? Do Carmen have a camogie team?

There's an article about Dougan and his job in Irish examiner or times or something today. It sounds like he travels a lot with his work. I couldn't read it as it's behind a paywall.

Cahair and the Irish News online have it as well yesterday about him only coming back in July and traveling and working for a few months. Also a few of the other lads being away and only coming back about then. It shows that O'Rourke has trust in lads to keep in half decent shape and come back and do the hard yards when it really matters. Warnock in another Irish news interview last week said that they are not being run into the ground early on in the year. By the time the important time in the season comes round a lot of lads just want it all to be over to get a break is is his view on training. Probably a good few clubs have lads flogged at this time of the year thinking that's what they need to do to compete with Glen in September/October time.

Not every team can afford to take it easy until mid season and then up the ante. The quality of Glen players allows them to do that plus they have done the hard yards in previous seasons playing right up to Xmas time when every other club in Derry was finished few months earlier and as a result a high fitness level is in the bank.

If you can't match the Glen quality of player then the obvious other way to narrow the gap is fitness and that's why some clubs feel that is their best way of closing the gap.

As long as the Derry championship stays in the format it is then Glen will most likely win. They can pace themselves through that system and come good when it matters.

Only challengers realistically are Magherafelt & Slaughtneil.

Possibly something like,

1. Niall Morgan.
2. Michael McKernan.
3. Pádraig Mampsey.
4. Cormac Quinn.
5. Peter Harte.
6. Frank Burns.
7. Niall Devlin.
8. Brian Kennedy.
9. Conn Kilpatrick.
10. Conor Meyler.
11. Ruairi Canavan.
12. Joe Oguz.
13. Darren McCurry.
14. Darragh Canavan.
15. Michael O'Neill, dropping back.

but who knows?

Is Meyler not out for a few months with a knee injury?
I had heard McCurry was suspended but not sure how true that is as I can't understand how he could be.

Glen played an awful lot of games to win a club All-Ireland. Many of them tight games.

Surely tight games are expected the further you go in the competition. Not really tested in Derry but got a few tight games in Ulster but that's the norm to be honest

Am I the only one who thought the ref was totally inept?
He was completely erratic with his decisions for both sides, when he blew the whistle I'd no idea who he was going to award a free to.
I think he was largely to blame for the mini melee. If he took control of the game and cut out the off the ball stuff and pulled donegal on the obvious rough house tactics on mcguigan, Rogers and mckinless, that row never happens.

I wasn't close enough to see the incidents for the red cards but the first red everyone around me thought it was for donegal until we saw Rogers going off.
Not saying the reds were right or wrong as I couldn't see, but Rogers is not a dirty player so it's hard to imagine he deliberately stamped on someone.

Ref aside, Derry actually were by far the better side.
I was expecting more from donegal, even though they are not full strength.
The tactics for them seemed to be around stopping derry rather than playing their own game and it didn't work.

Lots of wides for both sides but conditions were awful so I wouldn't read much into that.

Donegal looked dangerous at times on the attack when they ran the ball but they didn't do it often enough to really trouble derry.

Derry were comfortable despite what the scoreboard said.
Murphy looks a class act.
Gilmore improved since the Armagh game and it was good to get  game time into the legs of McCloskey,  but he was rusty.

I think the panel is definitely 3 to 4 players stronger than last year with Baker, Higgins, gilmore and murphy standing out.

Mckenna cup has been great prep for the league for both sides.
I'd imagine donegal will improve for the championship,  but if they realistically want promotion, they'll need to improve a lot and quickly.

Agree 100% on the referee. Woeful performance.
No control on the proceedings at all. Both teams asking what decisions are for all game - totally out of his depth