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Derry winning Ulster club bck to bck at Intermediate, does that not show the original proposed realignment to a top 12/14 league/championship been correct.?

I wouldn't really agree. If all you want is to win things at ulster then yeah, it's doing its job. But if you want to grow and improve the game in Derry then it's having little effect. You basically have a mid table senior team playing intermediate championship. Doesn't actually reflect the strength of intermediate football in Derry. Since the realignment, all junior and intermediate champions in Derry have played their league football at a higher grade. Not sure how that's improving standards at these grades.

I think the issue with Drumsurn is the issue with de coupling the leagues and championship. They played intermediate league this year and from what I hear the players had no desire for playing senior championship as they knew they would struggle. As a result they limped through the league with players not really taking it serious. So as a club I can see why they would want to guard against that happening again next year. They finished mid table last year in intermediate and lost a championship semi final, yet found themselves in senior championship, was never going to be fair on them. I'm sure if they won a championship or got promoted from the league they would have approached it differently as they would have felt like they deserved it and were ready to compete at that level.

Ben McCarron caused Vale some trouble today in another great game, had every one of their backs man marking him at some stage or another.

Castledawson look as good as gone, Ballinderry to possibly join them in Intermediate via a play off?

Took that game in myself as I was up in the town. Thought he was very dangerous but his play acting and diving would annoy you. Actually thought the longer haired fella (Sweeney is it) handled him ok in the second half. Vale leave a lot of space for the opposition, seems to be the way they like to play it, get a lot of reward from an attacking point of view but leaves defense exposed, don't think McCarron will get that space against many teams, but he def looks like he has improved. Very enjoyable game and both teams would be thinking they should have won.

I'd say Dawson are gone. Wouldn't be shocked if Ballinderry pull a few results from somewhere tho.

If we don't win a match this season are you saying no management change needed,if that happened to  other div one team they would be gone

Ok if thats the plan, who do you suggest Derry approach? Or who do you believe would be interested?

Allowing that it must be an improvement from what they already have.
Personally I believe Gilligan will leave Armagh at the end of this season having achieved all he can l, 1 option to be approached as a coach but not management.

The county board would be extremely negligent if they weren't reviewing the management situation and making plans. Hopefully we get a good end to the season, there would be no one happier than me but the realist in me thinks we won't win a game in the group. By reviewing I don't necessarily mean a change of manager but there has to be a serious review of what has been a very poor season and strategies put in place to ensure next season is more successful. If that review leads to a change of manager or a shake up of the back room team then so be it. As I say hopefully it won't be necessary but there should be forward planning already going on.

Can the county board review the county board?

If it's proper, the whole fiasco must be be reviewed.

How long do you go back, this year, 2 years? 

Would you be prepared to put your name forward to stand for the County Board?

I'd say you know the answer to your own question zapped.

Anyway the clubs review the County Board every year at convention and anyone can put their name forward if they think they can do a better job or maybe it's just easier to slate them on forums or social media. 

I don't think county board is the issue, the issue is the self appointed CEO, who created a job for himself (that he is not qualified for) when he was chair and now cannot be voted out by clubs as it is a funded post appointed by county board.

Are players on the development squad let away for club fball? Is u20 outside the starting 26 allowed play club fball, as i seen few lads playing the other nite.

I'm not 100% sure but I think it's being worked on a player by player basis, if the management feel a player could be doing with some game time they are releasing them but I don't think it's a sweeping agreement.

I am going over well trodden ground here and after seeing the list of lads not togged out in a previous post I'm raising it again. Why is are we insisting on struggling on with Mc Carron? Christ lads the lad is completely lost. I'm fully aware I'll be jumped on as making it an individual attack but it needs called out.
You can see other players on the pitch avoiding the clear pass to him in favour of someone else. Not sure what position he was today but spend a lot time around midfield and in second have was going for kickouts close to Derry 20 yard line when we were down to 14 men. Devlin got his first start and scored 0-3,Mc Gurk last week done rightly so new men are making an impact in spells.
Have sympathy for Mc Kinless I do think he looked nervous, defence has to be anticipating a ball coming off the post and they weren't on 3 separate occasions. We missed about 1-5 in first have and then sending off. Sure it was an up hill battle before we even arrived nevermind that.

This is the point I've been making. You are never going to unearth anyone new or progress if you keep going back to players who've already shown they aren't good enough. This was highlighted by myself and others on here before a ball was kicked about some of the 'new' players who had been added to the panel for a the season. Tohill and McCarron seem to be the main two who have lasted and now they have added McKinless. This management team seems to have very little foresight, innovation or ideas both in terms of panel building or systems and tactics tbh.

[Surely Derry have a good kicker of a ball who is competent at the other aspects of goalkeeping. Or maybe not, maybe this is all we have.]

Derry have a multitude of issues at the moment, injuries being chief among them. But in reality the management havnt done themselves any favour with some of their decisions. The goalkeeper position has been a shambles since day one. When they thought we needed an outfield keeper they plucked a player from complete obscurity who'd never done goals before and seemed intent on sticking with him. Then when the rules changed and Lynch got injured they have plucked another keeper from the county wilderness whose already proven he isn't good enough at this level, no doubt due to his club mates influence on the management team. Surely Derry have a good kicker of a ball who is competent at the other aspects of goalkeeping. Or maybe not, maybe this is all we have. But for me, the biggest issue is how wide open we are in defence. Even with the injuries, Tally is supposed to be a very good defensive coach but all year as soon as any team inject a bit of pace into their attack we are wide open, it's galling. A very short summer ahead I would imagine.

so who would you have had in goals today?

I don't know, I've asked the question (in bold above) and said maybe this is the best we have. But surely we have better than a lad who has been up before and not been good enough and who was being targeted as one of Ballinderry's few weak links by intermediate teams in last years championship. That's just my opinion, and as I said, maybe we don't have any better.

Derry have a multitude of issues at the moment, injuries being chief among them. But in reality the management havnt done themselves any favour with some of their decisions. The goalkeeper position has been a shambles since day one. When they thought we needed an outfield keeper they plucked a player from complete obscurity who'd never done goals before and seemed intent on sticking with him. Then when the rules changed and Lynch got injured they have plucked another keeper from the county wilderness whose already proven he isn't good enough at this level, no doubt due to his club mates influence on the management team. Surely Derry have a good kicker of a ball who is competent at the other aspects of goalkeeping. Or maybe not, maybe this is all we have. But for me, the biggest issue is how wide open we are in defence. Even with the injuries, Tally is supposed to be a very good defensive coach but all year as soon as any team inject a bit of pace into their attack we are wide open, it's galling. A very short summer ahead I would imagine.

It is called a 'solo and go'. The rule states ' a player who is fouled can solo (Toe-Tap) immediately, within 4m of where the foul occurred, and continue to attack. If they solo & go they cannot be challenged for 4m. A solo & go is not permitted inside the opponent's 20m line'. In a Q and A it clarifies 'It must be a 'toe-tap' i.e. the ball must be released from the hand(s) to the foot and kicked back into the hand(s)'.
So you can't bounce or just run.

Good to hear there has been a Senior development squad set up, there can be no more moaning from clubs (geographical areas) about players not getting opportunities. All getting good exposure around Owenbeg and insight to what it takes to be Inter County player.

Who all is on this development squad?

I'm not sure it's a full on development squad? Open to correction.

Heard there are 3 lads from Faughanvale down training with the county anyway. Don't think they're the required standard but good luck to them and I'd happily be proven wrong.

There's about 14 on it, clubs were asked to send who they believed was capable I've no doubt there would be slightly clouded judgement on that but if they were there at least they know.

I don't think clubs were asked to send anyone, players were contacted directly by members of the management/CB as far as I heard. 

[Don't think they're the required standard]

Good to hear there has been a Senior development squad set up, there can be no more moaning from clubs (geographical areas) about players not getting opportunities. All getting good exposure around Owenbeg and insight to what it takes to be Inter County player.

Who all is on this development squad?

I'm not sure it's a full on development squad? Open to correction.

Heard there are 3 lads from Faughanvale down training with the county anyway. Don't think they're the required standard but good luck to them and I'd happily be proven wrong.

I'd generally agree with you on that, but from what I heard one of them played in a challenge game against Tyrone at the weekend and was one of the best players on the pitch, has now been called up to full county training.

Things I would change that I would hope would bring a positive impact. 1) Positional changes- get MacEvoy back to CHB and Rodgers to MF. I know we lack a full back but I'd maybe try Bradley in there to have a look, we just lose way too much with McEvoy and Rodgers playing where they currently are. 2) Keeper- get Lynch or another 'orthodox' keeper back in nets, everyone is fixated with this outfield keeper because of the 12 v 11, but in reality only a handful of counties have ones who can do it effectively, the alternative is to have an orthodox keeper who can do the basics and has a decent kickout. I'd still have them coming up to create the overload but not use them as a scoring threat, more just to occupy a defender to create the space for others, that's more or less what Dublin did with Cumerford tonight barring his one score which he had to take on as he'd so much space. 3) Start more dynamic forwards like Murray (and Murphy if he's still about?). Even when we were going well in recent years our forward like Loughlin, Heron and Toner etc.. were more workhorses than genuine quality forwards, which could suit the old system of dropping everyone back and working hard, but that's less important now and with the 3 up we need pace power and dynamism to take advantage of the space, and importantly to allow Shane some space to work in too, he is just too easily shut down by teams now who know he's the only real scoring threat.

I think these are three things that can be changed pretty easily and would make a difference. And while tonight's showing was really poor in terms of effort as well and it would be easy to get despondent, I don't think this is a team who in general lack effort, heart and commitment, just look at last week for proof of that. They are an honest bunch who are, in my opinion, being hamstrung by strange management experiments.

Change the GK. simple reason. He is not a GK ffs

He isn't even up to standard on the ball. As I said previously, he is an average/decent intermediate outfield player picked from absolutely nowhere and been asked to do goals for an intercounty team. Absolutely baffling where the idea came from. But that can be fixed by simply replacing him with a competent keeper. The bigger issue is how poor Derry are in defence and the lack of scoring options. Those are harder fixed.

[Regarding the keeper kickouts.. it looks like it doesn't seem to matter as much this year.]

Regarding the keeper kickouts.. it looks like it doesn't seem to matter as much this year.

Have a look at everyone of Shane Ryan's second half restarts against Dublin. Aside from two, all of them were hit to an identical spot. Zero variation and very little happening going short. Any keeper getting a short option away now is due to the forwards not doing their job of picking up a man.

According to one of the stats men on twitter Derry won 12/16 of their own and Galway won 11/21 of their own. So this idea that we hardly won a kick out or break ball is false. 

The only reason that Galway had a short option is nothing to do with the keeper and everything to do with us either withdrawing / marking space / or being slack.

I think it very much will matter come the championship. It's still very much a phoney war out there at the minute but, as with every facet of the game, as we get closer to championship you will see more of what it's actually going to be like emerge. Niall Morgan in the last round of games had 6/16 at one stage apparently and continued to hoof it into a gale force wind, same with Kerry tonight, every team is doing the same, but if anyone thinks that's going to be the norm come championship then they are living in cuckoo land. The top teams will still look to create space and options for the shorter kickouts and build from the back, especially when the game is in the balance.

Super effort by the lads in the second half. What they lack in ability they made up for in sheer effort. Massive difference when the brought Murray on. Good to see Padraig back at the end too.