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Parkinson is grand, the only shit stirring he seems to do is with Carlow and he seems to have a Brollyesque grudge for that Poacher fella.

You can't seriously post the metro as a substantive source??

Sure if it's all just prolonging the inevitable hammering somewhere down the line you could say that about 30 odd counties chances in the thing. Still have to try to get behind them and enjoy the ride.

I'll be in for this shouting for Sligo my adopted home, and them playing against Armagh makes it a bit easier to get all into. Tipping a narrow Sligo win with the home advantage taking them across the line.

[Round 2]

Round 2
Tipperary v Mayo
Waterford v Monaghan
Cavan v Down
Carlow v Tyrone
Offaly v Clare
Longford v Kildare
Sligo v Armagh
Leitrim v Louth

I'm picking the teams bolded above as the winners. Mayo, Monaghan, Cavan, Tyrone, Clare, Sligo & Louth.
Tyrone can't play Monaghan and that's the only game that would be restricted.

Monaghan should they get to round 4 can't play Fermanagh (providing they lose).

I think if Tyrone can avoid Mayo in round 3 we'll be able to make the super8 as I don't think there's much else to worry about in the qualifiers at the moment and the likely 4 provincial losers wouldn't worry you too much either.

[I'd even be surprised if Tubber was up to a league game.]

Ithcy what are Sligo going to do next year then when Markivich is being done? Like you say Tubber and Enniscrone can't hold a championship game, I'd even be surprised if Tubber was up to a league game.

Also regarding that list from Laoisman, it's brilliant. While from week to week you will see anomalies at the end of the summer it's usually spot on. London being so much lower than NY is probably as a result of losing a load of points from a bad league, something NY can't do so that's not the author of the things fault. Honestly, he'd be as well leaving NY off it altogether apart from using them to judge for the 1 game a year they play.

For all the crowd that ever turn up to our league games it would be able for it, Tourlestrane and Enniscrone too. If they ever went about doing up Ballymote properly it'd be able but the non-vesting issue would probably put paid to that anyway.

Aye they'd be well able for the crowds, I just wonder is there minimal standards of facilities for intercounty games, like a certain amount of seats, disabled access, toilets, parking etc.

If they were able to spread the home league games out around the clubs I think it could be great for a year and might see a boost in the numbers.

Honestly don't know. The missus would have a better idea of the inner workings. She told me it was being closed for something but I wasn't paying much attention.

I'm going to go to the Sligo Armagh game instead and try to get a rise out of a few Armagh bucks.

That incident in the photograph took place on the Kerry 45 if my memory serves me correctly. It certainly wasnt a case of Tyrone bringing large numbers of players back into a  defensive shape.
I think your memory is coloured by pat spillanes post game comments more than actually remembering the game itself.

I was at the game and i don't have pay attention to what gobshites on RTE has to say on games. Doesn't matter where the photograph was taken as that was a feature of Tyrone play during that game to unsettle Kerry and it worked a treat.

When i watch a game organization in defence is what i like to see as much as anything as all the successful teams have been organized in defence one time or another. Watching games where the losing sides take a trimming because they are poorly organized in defence is a real pet hate of mine and you then have the nonsense of managers coming out afterwards wondering where it all went wrong..

When Barca lose the ball in an attacking situation they swarm all around the player they lost it to and try to recover possession as quickly as possible. No-one calls that a defensive team.

[We are absolutely capable of beating Kerry/Mayo.]

read my post again.

Ok  fair enough though you do say we are capable of beating Mayo or Kerry which I see nothing to indicate that.

Narrow championship defeats to these two teams in the last few years. We are absolutely capable of beating Kerry/Mayo.

It's the hope that kills

Would I put us as favourites against either of those teams if we managed to meet later in the year? No. Would I be surprised if we won? No.

The only team I'd regard as a shock if we beat them at the moment is Dublin. That's not at all saying I think we're better than the other top sides, just that on our day we are certainly capable.

2016 Mayo only beat us by a point after a soft red for Cavanagh and a site of bad wides.
2015 Kerry beat us by 4 in a tight game that was refereed farcically one sided with crazy blacks for us and worse fouls let away with for them. We also as usual missed a load of goal chances.

The league this year we destroyed Mayo in what was a big game for both of us and we beat Kerry in what was a crucial game for us but not so much for them iirc. I don't think Tyrone look much better or worse than they did in 2015 or 2016 but Mayo to my eye look a worse team than they were and this young Kerry side are untested but look very good.

Fermanagh are also appealing the suspension dished out to their water boy during the semi final. Let's not be hypocrites here, all counties are as guilty as each other. However the Tyrone appeal is slightly different in that they were not put at any clear disadvantage numerically. I think it is as a result of the ill feeling created from the brawl involving team management. I can't understand why you would want to try and win in this manner.

In fairness to Fermanagh that suspension is an absolute joke. Take the head of someone with a punch or an elbow to the face and it's a max 1 game ban. Squirt water on someone and it's 8 weeks.

That's one time then I really hope the technicality works out for them.

So what Carlow do isn't a defensive system but what Tyrone did in 2003 was?

What about Dublin now? They hassle and harry over the pitch to try to get the ball turned over as quick as possible. Is that a defensive system they employ?

What Carlow do is playing to a system that is getting the best possible results for them, if they played a more open game they wouldn't have beaten Kildare. They don't have quality of player that Tyrone had in 2003 obviously so its either continue to do what they are doing or go back and be the whipping boys of Leinster football.

Leinster is such a stroll for Dublin that they don't need to focus much on defensive sides of things until the All Ireland series and IMO they can make themselves as tough to break down as any team even though some pundits have the narrative that they are all out attacking team.

So many words and not one of the simple questions I asked were answered.

I wonder will there be the same level of critique for Donegal appealing the red card at the weekend? Will there fk.

This culture of appealing every red card is a blight on the game. McGee left the knee in about 4 times and still they are appealing the decision. Maybe the ref forgot to hole punch his report so Donegal have them on a technicality.

Absolutely 100% agree. That's what's infuriating reading some of the opinions on here as if Tyrone doing this is such a unique act of poor sportsmanship. Every team does it if there's any chance at all of getting things going their way, be it a player back from a clear red card like McGee, Stephen Wallace appealing his ban for fighting in a club game that eventually lost him his job, Tyrone appealing this on a technicality. That's just 3 examples this year and I'm sure there's a dozen more if you looked into it.

Are these people right to appeal? No. It's nonsense and turns the game into a bit of a farce.

Are they to blame for the situation where an appeal is possible? No. That's 100% the fault of the GAA, it's comedy rulebook, the fact that refs and officials at the games clearly don't know the rules otherwise why allow the 4 players to rejoin, and the fact that when they do appeal on these nonsense technicalities they are more often than not rewarded for it.

So what Carlow do isn't a defensive system but what Tyrone did in 2003 was?

What about Dublin now? They hassle and harry over the pitch to try to get the ball turned over as quick as possible. Is that a defensive system they employ?

I wonder will there be the same level of critique for Donegal appealing the red card at the weekend? Will there fk.

Here a bit of reading for you lads.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/the-top-50-rows-in-the-history-of-the-gaa-35727425.html

By my reckoning only 3 involving Tyrone. 3 from 100 involved. 2 of them Tyrone were on the receiving end of the crap stick and then the Cavanagh incident against Monaghan which is themost overblown thing in the history of the GAA.


Now where you might be right is that every single over exaggerated nonsense controversy involves Tyrone, I'd agree. Because any time any Tyrone man or team does anything that has been done a hundred times before and a hundred times since (see Cavanagh for perfect example) it's used a stick to beat us with by people with a sad little chip on their shoulder over some time we'd have beat them.