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[He's not usually this mad.]

And apparently the 6 Northern counties need the troubles back to be successful again!

I thought that's what he said!

McHug's drink must've been spiked tonight. He's not usually this mad.

I beg to differ. He's a poor pundit IMO and while I didn't see the SG, it sounds like he's put his foot in his mouth again. He's rightly a legend in Donegal but punditry isn't his thing.

His writing in the papers is complete rubbish as well

I've no idea how McHugh gets all the gigs he's managed but fair play to him, or more-so his PR team.
Once I see his lips move I presume he's talking about some other sport altogether, he really doesn't have a clue. 
He is clinging to the 'Brolly' cliche of been controversial for the sake of it(also been embarrassingly tried by O'Hara/Cake/etc).

Tomas is suffering from what all new pundits suffer from - after 1 or 2 shows, all has been said. Everything else is a cliche.  But he's in a small group of football pundits over the past few decades - as in he was a defender.  These positions are usually held for Midfield/Forward 'heroes', so I'll give him some more time for this.

But, when these guys enter the environs of the RTE studio, its either Funeral/Formal/Fancy Dress attire, which dictates the stuffiness/stiffness of the current program.
There is no space for banter or real personality, it looks and feels like every minute is scripted.  Its almost frowned upon to smile or laugh or joke - old school programming at its best.
So, brighten up the studio, lose the feckin suits, throw in a few couches, add a few touch screens, have at least one new face on the screen every few weeks for variety and away  you go....

Its a bit like house design in 1980's Ireland.
...need another bedroom so just stick another one to the side of the house, job done!
Whereas a bit of planning and adjusting what already exists is the way to go.

So rather than add more rules to 'save' our game, adjust/refine/implement what we already had....

...plus improve referree standards.

13 a side has the possibility of bridging the gap between best teams and worst teams, making it more competitive and SHOULD encourage quick attacking football due to the extra space

13 aside will just encourage more carrying the ball through the hand and more selections based on capacity to run rather than the wider skills of the game. A backward step.

I disagree
More space means more likely to bring the foot back to football.

13 a side has the possibility of bridging the gap between best teams and worst teams, making it more competitive and SHOULD encourage quick attacking football due to the extra space

I see The Mort is bringing out his own blockbuster as well.

OKAY, there's no point 'burying the lead story' here so let's get straight to the point.
Conor Mortimer has written a book. Yes, that Conor Mortimer.
And it's coming our way very, very soon.
Shrule's most famous son, Mayo's all-time leading scorer, and the man who parted company with James Horan's county squad back in 2012, just as things were starting to get interesting, has put his thoughts down on paper. For better or worse!
Conor lives and works in Dublin these days, and is engaged to be married to Sara Bergin.
He also plays club football in the capital with Parnells.
Anyone who follows 'The Mort' on twitter will tell you he seems to have lost none of his lust for life since the curtain came down on his Mayo career, and he has an opinion on everything from the Oscar Pistorious murder trial to the welfare of cats to the performance of Mayo's forwardline in his absence.
So we can only imagine what sort of 'gold' that Jackie Cahill (a well-known GAA freelance reporter from Tipperary), who has written the book with Conor, has managed to extract from the mind of 'The Mort'.
It's safe to assume that a copy might find its way into James Horan's hand at some stage over the Christmas too, given that the ex-manager and the blonde bombshell didn't exactly part on the best of terms two years ago.
Neither party has ever expanded much on what exactly was said, or happened, on that particular Connacht Final week in July of 2012, so it will be fascinating to read Mortimer's version of events.
Equally interesting will be his take on 'Jerseygate', the day he threw his Mayo jersey away in disgust after being taken off against Limerick in an All-Ireland Qualifier in 2002.
The former Shrule/Glencorrib corner-forward took a lot of timber at the time for his instinctive reaction and we always got the impression it was something that he never truly forgot, or forgave.
Personally, we hope Conor tells the story of how he came to have 'RIP Micheal Jackson' written on a t-shirt under his jersey the day Mayo beat Galway in the 2009 Connacht Final in Salthill.
The sight of him showing off his tribute to the late 'King of Pop' remains one of the iconic Mayo GAA images from the last ten years, and I have no doubt that hearing how it came about will be worth waiting for!
The Mayo launch of Conor's book takes place on Thursday, October 30 in the McWilliam Park Hotel, Claremorris with a Dublin launch pencilled in for the following week.

Oh dear

If a penalty is to be taken 20m out would it not be fairer to have only the goalie on the line? To me it now favours the defending team and that can't be right.

Maybe award 2points from a penalty when it goes over the bar. Still have chance for 3 but guaranteed 2 if taken...

[Yeah, I've never seen a forward pull and drag out of a tight marking defender]

Yeah, I've never seen a forward pull and drag out of a tight marking defender

Works both ways and giving umpires 'more power' is a ridiculous idea, less power but two refs makes a lot more sense.

roll your eyes all you want dangleberry. I was at an ulster championship match this year, the first thing the full back down was to grab the forward by the throat and squeeze. then threw a couple of elbows into his back. All before the ref threw the ball in. Should the umpire not have brought this to the refs attention as was watching it with a shocked look on his face instead of looking at his feet?

And?

My point is that forwards pull and drag too.  this was aimed at the view that only backs foul...... so yeah

eh? obviously you're a deep thinker. So I'll just let you get on with your thinking

Eh? Obviously you're not, so yeah, move on there. Next time read it a few times before replying, good lad.

[Yeah, I've never seen a forward pull and drag out of a tight marking defender]

Yeah, I've never seen a forward pull and drag out of a tight marking defender

Works both ways and giving umpires 'more power' is a ridiculous idea, less power but two refs makes a lot more sense.

roll your eyes all you want dangleberry. I was at an ulster championship match this year, the first thing the full back down was to grab the forward by the throat and squeeze. then threw a couple of elbows into his back. All before the ref threw the ball in. Should the umpire not have brought this to the refs attention as was watching it with a shocked look on his face instead of looking at his feet?

And?

My point is that forwards pull and drag too.  this was aimed at the view that only backs foul...... so yeah

Yeah, I've never seen a forward pull and drag out of a tight marking defender

Works both ways and giving umpires 'more power' is a ridiculous idea, less power but two refs makes a lot more sense.

Galway were close to relegation to D3. Where is the significant improvement over the last few years? There is a lot of delusion in Galway at the moment

[F Hanley]

I think he did a good job compared to what went on before he took the position.
Big Joe was useless as was O Flaithearta.
The young lads will get bigger and sure Mayo will fall into decline at some stage, as all empires do.
Syf will be cursing Shane Walsh for many years as well.   

He had 3 years and still the panel is primarily based on what Joe and O'Flaith set up

That's not correct to be fair. Panel is substantially different now to when those two were in charge.

Plenty of valid reasons to criticise Mulholland but that's not one of them.

GALWAY 2011 vs Antrim: A Faherty; K Kelly, F Hanley,J Duane; G Bradshaw, G O'Donnell (0-1), T Fahy; J Bergin, F O Curraoin; G Sice, S Armstrong, C Doherty (0-1); M Meehan (0-2, two frees), P Conroy (0-1), M Hehir (0-3, three frees). Subs: D Cummins for Armstrong (34 mins), T Flynn for Bergin (45 mins), K McGrath for Fahy (46), P Joyce (0-2, one free) for Hehir (60 mins), G Sweeney for Doherty (67mins).

GALWAY 2014 v Dheristan : T Healy; 2 D O'Neill, 3 F Hanley, 4 J Moore; 5 G Bradshaw (0-2), 6 G O'Donnell, 7 P Varney; 8 F O'Curraoin, 9 T Flynn (1-0); 10 M Lundy (1-1), 14 P Conroy (0-1), 23 J O'Brien; 13 M Martin, 11 S Walsh (0-5, three frees), 15 D Cummins.

Substitutes: 22 S Armstrong for D Cummins (half-time), 25 D Comer (0-1) for J O'Brien (half-time), 12 K Kelly for J Moore (48 mins inj), 24 E Hoare for M Martin (56 mins), 20 C Mulryan for P Varley (67 min)


D1 would have been nice but it was more important to get the young lads in the team IMO.

Now I said Panel.
So go and highlight names from team and subs, bear in mind that Sice and Duane were on the team for most of this year..... Retired: Joyce/Meehan(sort of)/Bergin

GALWAY 2011 vs Antrim: A Faherty; K Kelly, F Hanley, J Duane; G Bradshaw, G O'Donnell (0-1), T Fahy; J Bergin, F O Curraoin; G Sice, S Armstrong, C Doherty (0-1); M Meehan (0-2, two frees), P Conroy (0-1), M Hehir (0-3, three frees). Subs: D Cummins for Armstrong (34 mins), T Flynn for Bergin (45 mins), K McGrath for Fahy (46), P Joyce (0-2, one free) for Hehir (60 mins), G Sweeney for Doherty (67mins).

GALWAY 2014 v Dheristan : T Healy; 2 D O'Neill, 3 F Hanley, 4 J Moore(J Duane); 5 G Bradshaw (0-2), 6 G O'Donnell, 7 P Varney(G Sice); 8 F O'Curraoin, 9 T Flynn (1-0); 10 M Lundy (1-1), 14 P Conroy (0-1), 23 J O'Brien; 13 M Martin, 11 S Walsh (0-5, three frees), 15 D Cummins.

Substitutes: 22 S Armstrong for D Cummins (half-time), 25 D Comer (0-1) for J O'Brien (half-time), 12 K Kelly for J Moore (48 mins inj), 24 E Hoare for M Martin (56 mins), 20 C Mulryan for P Varley (67 min)

Significant improvement?

I think he did a good job compared to what went on before he took the position.
Big Joe was useless as was O Flaithearta.
The young lads will get bigger and sure Mayo will fall into decline at some stage, as all empires do.
Syf will be cursing Shane Walsh for many years as well.   

He had 3 years and still the panel is primarily based on what Joe and O'Flaith set up, so I don't think 'significant' progress was made, not in the slightest....

[despite having made significant progress this year.]

The Salthill-Knocknacarra clubman has decided not to take up the option of a fourth year in charge of the team, despite having made significant progress this year.

Wut?

Have heard both games due to be played today, have been postponed for 24hrs...just an fyi