Messages

Don't know about an All Star but he has a good chance of winning an OS CAR.

Have to say that 1 of the biggest turning points of the game was Brosnan (I think), going for a goal near the end that was never on, probably thinking the match was already over, when he should have fisted a simple point.  Thought at the time they could regret it.  That save lifted Cork and the point would have made things near impossible for Cork.

Contact is allowed,of course. Shoulder to shoulder. It's in the rules. Not a desperate backwards lunge when you're wrong-footed by your opponent's sidestep to upend him over your bent back - i.e. trip him, as I said.

I agree, Canty side stepped him and he left his leg out to trip over.  If O'Mahony had have faced him straight on there would never have been any doubt and would not have been any penalty.  Justice to see O'Manony giving away the penalty after the dive he took to make sure the Cork man got sent off.

SFC
Saval v Liatroim;    Liatroim
Loughinisland v Downpatrick;    Loughinisland
Burren v Kilcoo;    Kilcoo
Bryansford v Mayobridge;    Bryansford

IFC
Drumgath v Annaclone;    Annaclone
Bredagh v Kilclief;    Bredagh
Glasdrumman v Warrenpoint;     Warrenpoint
Darragh Cross v Shamrocks;    Darragh Cross

JFC
Bright v Ballykinlar;    Bright
St Johns v Drumaness;   St Johns
Newry Mitchels v St Pauls;    St Pauls
Aghaderg v St Michaels;    St. Michaels

Just to be different I will go for a Bryansford win.   

Does anyone have an uptodate division 2 league table?

Ben Johnson, The Romanian girl, and The Chinese girl who pipped Sonia O Sullivan, Michelle Smyth, are ones which spring to mind.

Dame Kelly Holmes, sweet jesus.......

PQ

Oh f**k right off with that. It all came together for Holmes after a number of seasons plagued by injury. Nothing at all do with drugs.

You don't find it odd that she'd never managed to win a global title, was considerably weaker at the 1500 than the 800, then wins both at the Olympics at th age of 34?! Like I said, Marion Jones never tested positive for drugs. God almighty, nor did Michelle Smith, but no one in their right mind would ever consider their medals to have been won in the true Olympic spirit!

And Holmes retired almost immediately after winning her golds (not retiring was Michelle's biggest mistake!). She was definitely tanked up.

There's another British runner who's history makes interesting reading. For a number of years she was an also-ran, a regular 4th and 5th placer, giving her all but not having the class for a medal. At the time she was also one of the loudest voices in the anti-drugs campaigns. Then she gave up on the anti-drugs stuff. Then in the space of a season she went from also-ran to world record holder.

Not to mention her training partner and good friend Maria Mutola, I don't think they need to do a drug test on her, just check for extra bits.

The thing about kicking the ball off the ground is that only a small percentage of any team can kick the ball more than 25 yards off the ground as the ball is so hard compared to a soccer ball, so having someone like Colin Corkery in your side was a huge advantage (still is).  Now most teams have 4 or 5 players who could score a free farirly regurally from 40 yards from there hands.  The same with the advent of the tee for goalkeepers, a lot of teams had keepers who where good shot stoppers but had trouble clearing the full back line at kickouts, putting the backs under huge pressure and sometimes having the corner back taking the kickouts, leaving an extra man for the other team free to compete around the middle from the kickout, it was nearly more important to have someone who could kick the ball out 60 yards than have someone who was good at saving goals.  I think it is a good thing that teams are now allowed to kick from the hands and use a tee for kickouts as it was too much of disadvantage for a team who otherwise played better football.  That's just a personal opinion, others can argue that the skill should be rewarded.

outlawing more than one handpass up to U16 level would be a good way to prioritise the footpass

when i see U8 coaches teaching how to handpass - what a joke

Hand passing is a very important skill, U8 should absolutely be tought how to pass the ball quickly with both hands (and feet).  It's not hand passing the ball quickly enough which leads to the players getting bottled up.  Watch Darragh O'Se getting bottled up again and you will see he had at least 2 chances to hand pass the ball before he eventually got bottled up and had to kick the ball away.

It's also stupid the way people talking about 'northern teams', as if all the northern teams are the same, Armagh kick the ball in long to big strong forwards (more like Kerry than Tyrone) where as Tyrone play a possession game giving low balls in front of smaller forwards, there would be no point Tyrone hoofing the ball in to McCullough, Penrose without looking are they free, there strength is that they are small and quick. Ireland soccer team used to hump the ball up to Niall Quinn and he knocked it down to the other smaller players, people used to complain about that, it's horses for courses, if you can find a 16 stone 6ft 5 full forward that does not trip over themselves then by all means just catch the ball and hoff it in, if not you have to pass the ball accurately (which is much more skillful) and move after the ball.

Tyrone concentrate on the skills of the game needed to win a match more than any other team, all training sessions last exactly 1 hour and all with a ball, they also only train 1 or 2 nights a week during the national league, much less than most other teams.  Players are expected to do there own work in the gym.  Like Kilkenny they base the way they play in a match on the intesity they get at training. Tyone don't play friendlies, the only 'friendlies' they have are amoung the 30 people in the squad at training.  This is why they have got to such an understanding among the team and why they are in an AI semi final after losing players of the caliber of Peter Canavan, Stephen O'Neill, Cormac McAnnallen (RIP).

Is it on youtube or anything yet?

More info lads.  World Record gone?

Yes 19.31

Tyrone beat Dublin off the park.  With great scores and great passing and movemnet.  There was hardly any 3rd man tackling in the game and the refs DO normally give the free to the forward if there is a 3rd man tackle and they are moving forward, they where just better at shooting, passing, blocking, handling.  Any criticism is just jealousy.  The only way some people on this foum would be happy is for the northern team to be beaten by the southern team.  Nothing else.  No matter if Tyrone scored 200 points in the match there would still be peole complaining about there negative tactics.  Negative tactics = good defending.  Ultimately every coaches objective is for there team to score a bucket load (good shooting) and there defenders to stop the forwards from scoring (good defending).  Tyrone mastered both in this game.

To me surrounding a player who dallies and catching him in posession is also a skill of the modern game and it takes discipline to perfect. As a defender I admire these qualities in the Tyrone team. They are a team who defend and attack together and to achieve this skill at any time can be just as inspirational as a high catch, a good score or a brave block in my opinion. It is a credit to gaelic football that the likes of Micky Harte can develop ways of nullifying their opponents. To me it simply adds to the spectacle as it did on saturday in what was a highly entertaining match!

you have to be joking !

does all this stuff in our game of 3 or 4 men surrounding a player not look a bit girlie to be honest, something like a schoolyard game or something !?

i dont think this can continue for much longer and a rule has to be brought in to prevent it. MOST IMPORTANTLY and to start the ball rolling (and I've been saying this for a longtime now) that the midfielder especially needs some kind of protection on a kickout -ie...if a clean catch is made then then 1 player ONLY should be allowed to make a challenge after he fields it......if it continues where a midfielder does make a spectacular catch and suddenly he is surrounded to be quickly followed up by a free against him then our game is suffering bigtime. I wont be paying though the gates to watch this sh1te.

is 2 players tackling any man not plenty ?! once a third man comes in blow them up to fcuk and give the man in possession some advantage !!

If there are 2 men tackling 1 man then that means there is another man free somewhere, give the ball to the free man.  End of problem.  If you try to take too much out of the ball and get bottled up tough, you should have passed it earlier.  Meath used to be experts and bottling a player up in the 90's as well when a player hesitated on the ball.  Tyrone where exceptional yesterday scoring 3-14, with some exceptional scores, you can't score 3-14 if you are defending all the time.

Check out the photos of the war zone on the BBC - the second photo with the gent on the tricycle - is that a Tyrone away jersey with WJ Dolan on the front?   

The simple explanation might be that I'm blind of course! 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7559270.stm

Using the blanket defense to keep out the Russians?

H emay have but I doubt it. 66/66 would be remarkable even for Woods. That course is a lot tougher than you give it credit it for. Unforgiving semi-rough and tough putting surface not to mention countless bunkers - a real tough course with one of the toughest finishing holes in the game.

the course was set up to play much easier on saturday, which is why harrington got back into contention, then the rain came and the lads got an even easier course because by the time they played it on sunday morning it was wet too, i'm not running down harrington's achievement here, but he got really lucky with the weather on saturday.  65 may be the record but that was shot on the saturday (but actually on the saturday) and young Romero can feel a bit unlucky as he would probably have been in the lead if round 3 had been able to have been played on saturday.
Harrington's closing 66 was superb, but never presume tiger wouldn't have done, I mean he's just won a major with a broken leg.

The course record is 65, so to shoot 66, 66 is phenomenal by any standard.  If the course was set up much easier on Saturday then it was set up much easier for everyone and I didn't see many other 66's, that final round was phenomenal.  Only 3 players finsished under power so it wasn't that easy.  As Gary Player once said to the begrudgers 'Well, the harder I practice the luckier I get'.

If's and but's with Tiger Woods, he wasn't there, tough shit, no one will ever know what he could/should/would have shot.  If my aunt had a set of balls she would have been my uncle.

Ian Dempsey had a poll on his show this morning to find the greatest Irish sportsperson. Harrington came second to Sean Kelly (the cyclist ... not the ex GAA President!!).  I suppose for many Harrington will have to sustain top form over a longer period to earn the title of best Irish Sportsperson, but he must be nearly there.

Harrington has to be the greatest.  2 majors in a row and 3 out of the last 6.  The best player bar Tiger in the world now.  If we where to put an asterix against every victory and wait until everyone was fit there would never be any matches played in any sport.  Our football team lost a match the other day when our best player was on holiday, I didn't see any asterix against us when looking the league table.