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 Go in Cookstown have went up to £1.49 from £1.29 since the weekend, Tesco still £1.31

Last I heard of Donnncha Gilmore he had injured his shoulder and had to get surgery. Another lad who has had his fair share of injuries. Agreed, he would be an asset for this panel and it would be great to have another city man on the panel.

Hopefully we will see him back. Could see him slotting with the other 7 of the 2020 AI Minor team on the panel - some return indeed.
Diamond, Downey, Higgins, McEvoy, McGurk, Murray, O'Donnell.
 

Thats a tough sell for me there, not sure where he fits personally, I think old rules protected individuals with slightly less football ability. ( Diplomatic?)

Don't see place for him in the back 6 or in the next 5 either. Going off 6 that started at weekend plus Clucky, Mc Evoy, Bradley, Mc Gurk, Mulholland.
O' Mianain another half back option I would think.

I get the importance of building a squad but has to be with right people, and also they need to be from South Derry.

Joking

Fairly harsh, better footballer than most you mentioned

I listened to Irish News podcast a few weeks ago and Cathair O'Kane was praising south Derry clubs for the work they're doing and discussed about how if Derry could harness a few more high quality players from north Derry, that they'd be even stronger. I'd say 90% are from south Derry club - which is a small enough area geographically.

I wonder what the breakdown is of county panels in terms of how many players they have from junior clubs? Be interesting to see I think.

Derry have always fell short when it comes to developing good players from Intermediate and Junior clubs into the County squad in comparison to Tyrone and Kerry for example. Lachlan Murray and Niall Loughlin are welcome exceptions but did they come through certain big schools to get noticed?

Paddy Cunningham is an Antrim legend in terms of his scoring and would have been good enough for Derry at the time. In his youth he grew up in the Waterside and played for Ardmore. If he hadn't moved to Belfast I don't think anyone would have heard of him because Derry wouldn't have given him a sniff.

In was interesting listening to the Monday Club Irish news podcast a few weeks ago when  Cahair O'Kane had noted that the last player from a junior club to play senior championship football for Derry was Mickey O'Brien from  the Loup back in 1980

It's unfortunate, but let's face it, two of them who left aren't good enough to play. Which is why they haven't played. McAteer had potential (and did play) so he's the only one that we can consider a loss.

As for Kearney, the fella has won the lottery currently as he'll probably never be on another county squad. So no idea why he'd walk away now. Byt he'll be further down the pecking order when the U20s are finished so who knows.

It's obviously a huge commitment for them but I wouldn't be losing any sleep. If Derry are to win an all Ireland it'll be with 18 or 19 core players not a raft of lads who blow in and out.

no sure of the winning the lottery analogy but 18/19 players will 100% not win us an all Ireland. It'll be a minimum of 22 odd all playing at a set standard.

Currently theres a gap between our best 5 and the next 12.
Its these squad players with potential that we really need to be holding onto. Massive commitment with very little glory but that's key to building the whole thing.
From the U20 squad who do you expect to join? Tommy Rogers and James Sargent are already floating about it.

Eamon young and Conal Higgins are part of the panel

Are young, Higgins and Roger's still under 20?

Yes and Eamon is under 20 next year also

It's unfortunate, but let's face it, two of them who left aren't good enough to play. Which is why they haven't played. McAteer had potential (and did play) so he's the only one that we can consider a loss.

As for Kearney, the fella has won the lottery currently as he'll probably never be on another county squad. So no idea why he'd walk away now. Byt he'll be further down the pecking order when the U20s are finished so who knows.

It's obviously a huge commitment for them but I wouldn't be losing any sleep. If Derry are to win an all Ireland it'll be with 18 or 19 core players not a raft of lads who blow in and out.

no sure of the winning the lottery analogy but 18/19 players will 100% not win us an all Ireland. It'll be a minimum of 22 odd all playing at a set standard.

Currently theres a gap between our best 5 and the next 12.
Its these squad players with potential that we really need to be holding onto. Massive commitment with very little glory but that's key to building the whole thing.
From the U20 squad who do you expect to join? Tommy Rogers and James Sargent are already floating about it.

Eamon young and Conal Higgins are part of the panel

What size is The Dome pitch and who runs it?

Finished 2-16 to 0-09 to Derry

Full time Derry 2-16 Antrim 0-09

Derry minors down by two against Antrim at half time , have the breeze in the second half

 just finished watching unfamiliar on Netflix and would definitely recommend it , a German spy series with vibes of " The Americans"

Finish 2-25 to 0-08 at Celtic park

Derry 2-17 Offaly 0-03 half time , Derry had wind and advantage in first half

A couple of recent deaths among the Derry GAA family worthy of a mention here. The legendary Packie Farrell from ballinascreen would have needed no introduction to folk of my generation. And John McVey, formerly of magherafelt and newbridge; still a young man and a superb singer in his youth.

May they both rest in peace.

I would have been from the same vintage as John , it was such a shock to hear that sad news from the states, I remember Packie playing but didn't know him but by all accounts he was a real character

With Kilpatrick living in Newbridge, am suprised he doesnt transfer to them, esoecially as county champions, giving its a spin to Edendork.

Was said on commentary that he owns/runs a coffee shop in Magherafelt. Which one is that?

Coffee shops must be the way to go. Seems a good few GAA players in that line of business. Fair play to them.

Its cafe Mamo on Broad street

That was a much improved performance from Derry compared to the Meath game.
Real fight and drive from the lads tonight. Plenty of mistakes and if we'd taken half the scores on offer we'd have been 10point winners.
Felt like we were by far the better side, but we are just lacking confidence I think in the forward line.
Murray was outstanding - didn't see what the black card was for, but in general the ref I felt was very sore on us.
He gave Tyrone a 2 pointer in the 2nd have that looked inside the arc to me and the umpire initially signalled 1pt.

McKinless, Clucky, McGrogan, CD, Glass and Rogers particularly good. Paul Cassidy needs to step up a bit I feel though and Shane is playing like he is low in confidence. He should have shot for goal himself rather than tee up glass that time in the first half, looked like he didnt want to attempt the longer range frees too, but he did keep plugging away and still scored 4 so I've no doubt he'll come good.

Forbes put in a good shift too and Mcguckin did rightly in goals but his free taking was wayward.

All in all, a good shift with much more intensity and a lot less mistakes. Class to get the win over the red-arses who now must be nervous about the wrong end of the table.
They've still to play some really tough games. Meath I feel still look like they could top the group.
Cork will be no walkover.
Kildare next day for Derry will be a huge game - but if we can push on in our forward play and start taking the points when they are on, I think we've a very good chance of getting 2 wins on the bounce.

I would echo all of the above , as well as most of the established players really stepping up to the mark , it was really good to see  Rurai Forbes put in another solid performance,

As good a footballer as Mattie Donnelly was, his time up, Hes the same age as P Conroy and C McKeigue, and hes gone 2yrs.

He would be slightly younger than those two  Donnelly a minor in 2008 Conroy and McKaigue 2007

 Heard  a rumour at the weekend which I thought was a bit far fetched tbh but I see the Gaelic Life is posting it too  that Slaughtneil are set to appoint Austin O'Malley as their new coach