Messages

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Down / Re: Down GAA Champion 2018 Prediction Competition.

« on: August 14, 2018, 09:09:56 PM »

Kilcoo
Mayobridge
CPN
Burren
Ballyholland
An Riocht
Bryansford
Loughinisland

Annaclone
Ballymartin
Tullylish
Darragh Cross
Drumgath
Saul
Bredagh
Liatroim

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General discussion / Re: The official Premier League 2018/19 Thread

« on: August 06, 2018, 06:48:30 PM »

Given a general lack of transfer activity, it should be relatively straightforward - compared to most years - to nail colours to a mast. Only thing is it’ll take everyone a month or so to get a settled XI after the World Cup.

City will win it. They can pass you off the pitch or can destroy you on the counter, and like last season, not many clubs will have answers to both. Mahrez is a gem of a player too and a serious upgrade on Sterling. Probably the best hope the rest have is that De Bruyne misses a few months of the season through injury, a few poor results are picked up in a row. Also, here’s hoping the bottom 10 clubs go all out route one against them. If they have a weakness, it’s physicality.

United could plod into second again for simple reason that they’re bloody difficult to breakdown and have the individual talents to always nick a goal. It’s rudimentary football and generally awful to watch, and Mourninho’s biggest dilemma is that if City pull out early with 6-7 straight wins, it’s hard to see them keeping anywhere near that pace. So he would be pressured from within and out to be more attacking. At which point, José dies inside and walks with a big payout around March.

That scenario seems all too likely to me, so I’d expect Spurs and Liverpool to move above them.

Spurs are struggling to find improvements to their first XI, and the last couple of seasons have proven that they need a bit more before they can really claim to be challengers. If they get a mostly injury-free season out of Dembele, Eriksen and Kane, once again they’ll swat off the bottom 14 clubs with little issue, and will build up a bank of points to guarantee top 4. But it’ll be at least 10 short of City, unless Harry goes up another gear. Which he won’t do in August, and as a result will always be chasing.

Liverpool are harder to call. Allison should immediately be worth 9 points more than last season, so poor was who he is replacing. But not many keepers adjust quickly to the levels of crosses they have to face in the EPL, so it might take a few months before he settles in. Further up the field, I genuinely doubt Fabinho is any improvement on Henderson or Milner, who know the league inaidenout and know their roles inside out. Keita should have more spark about him, but Liverpool don’t really need a sparky central midfielder, more of a game controller. Ultimately, Liverpool’s potential to challenge boils down to whether Salah is genuinely a worldie, or (just) a top class player who had an exceptional season. If it’s the latter, Liverpool will be top 4. If the former they might even give City a challenge for a while.

Chelsea’s almost relentless knack of sacking a manager then winning a major trophy has always been dependent on Abramovich’s spending power and while it’s difficult to see them winning a league no matter what, if Hazard has a wantaway season, they just won’t have the cutting edge to trouble the top 4.

Arsenal haven’t just replaced a manager, they’ve replaced a footballing culture, and I’d expect they’ll take a few seasons to come close to top 4 again. Wenger has left behind a truly mediocre squad and we are about to find out just how poor. I honestly expect them to pick up less than 55 points this season, and Aubyemang will be the new Defoe, a fine goalscorer, but like playing with 10 men, especially away from home.

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Hurling Discussion / Re: Hurling championship 2018

« on: August 05, 2018, 03:39:11 PM »

Wobbler on a hurling thread?

Oh right, the first half of a game wasn’t great.

Second half was much better in fairness.

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Hurling Discussion / Re: Hurling championship 2018

« on: August 05, 2018, 02:42:07 PM »

Ref riding Galway

Other way around surely.


I wonder if any of the SG panel will be straight enough to call this one a rubbish match.

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GAA Discussion / Re: Live stream Sky Sports

« on: August 04, 2018, 05:30:15 PM »

Pay £7 for Now TV.

It’s worth it.

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Down / Re: Down Club Hurling & Football

« on: August 01, 2018, 04:00:17 PM »

Wobbler-Are you doing a club championship preview this year?

It’s a long time from I done one of those Jim.

The thing I want to see from SFC this year is 6-8 teams believing they can win, and genuinely willing themselves towards, the Frank O’Hare. It is so long since it was a competitive competition that most clubs - even if they make noises otherwise - just haven’t the culture needed to see off Kilcoo.

We need our every last club to turn every match against them into a fight to the death, to see where the chinks in their armour lie, and then bite, bark and frustrate them to the final whistle. For the likes of Burren, Mayobridge and Bryansford, this means a few of the more individual types taking one for the team and playing the role needed rather than the role wanted.

This isn’t anti-Kilcoo by the way. I’ve nothing but respect for themmuns. But our county needs a competitive championship, and if Kilcoo manage to get trough one of those, they’ll be more ripe for Ulster.

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General discussion / Re: Man Utd Thread:

« on: July 31, 2018, 05:25:10 PM »

Given that the only transfers of note this summer in England have been Mahrez and Allison, I don’t think this is solely a Jose problem folks (personally I wouldn’t regard Brazil reserves like Fred and Fabinho as major deals).

The Neymar deal a couple of years ago had an immediate effect of inflating the transfer market. But the reality is nobody can afford a squad full of £50m/£200k a week reserves, and a £80m player should transform a club by himself. Try getting anyone with pedigree currently for £40m or less. You can’t.

It’ll resolve itself in a year or two when transfer fees reduce. But for now it’s a bit like housing in 2008 Ireland.

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Down / Re: Down GAA Champion 2018 Prediction Competition.

« on: July 31, 2018, 06:36:57 AM »

Clonduff
Mayobridge
Ballyholland
Kilcoo
Castlewellan
Downpatrick
CPN
Burren

Annaclone
Tullylish
Shamrocks
Drumaness
Darragh Cross
Saul
Drumgath
Liatroim

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General discussion / Re: Dunphy - gone from RTE

« on: July 30, 2018, 01:15:11 AM »

In general I liked Dunphy.

He had an awful habit, for Ireland matches, of talking up an out-of-favour midfield player as the missing link that would transform Ireland into Holland 1974; Stephen McPhail, Liam Miller, Lee Carsley, Andy Reid, and most recently Wes “Mark Anthony” Hoolahan. Which usually led him Brolly-style into confirming his bias at every opportunity, instead of reviewing the action.

But by and large, even though he was outspoken, he was fair. He would eat his words, perhaps unhappily, but would eat them. A skill that his whiny-voiced wannabe Sadlier has yet to master.

Plus, Souness on RTE was always a brilliant pundit, whereas on Sky he is mediocre, mainly because he could show his guns on RTE safe in the knowledge that Eamon and John would overreach every time and mask any controversy he might generate.

From a personal perspective, it says a lot that I never watched a single match on BBC or ITV this World Cup. It won’t be until the Euros in 2 years time when I’ll be able to assess if this was down to RTe in general or just the fact that Dunphy is entertaining , but I suspect it will be a fair degree of the latter.

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GAA Discussion / Re: Full time professional referees

« on: July 26, 2018, 11:15:38 PM »

Two things.

1. That adds up to over a million a year in salaries, before administration costs, travel costs, and other overheads. To be honest with you, I’m sick to f**king death of the rising costs of competing in GAA for clubs and members, as a large part of these increases is simply to cover administrator salaries... and the first rule of being a paid administrator is you will want paid support to share the workload.

2. The biggest problems we face with the officiating of games is that a) the rules on tackling are open to interpretation, and b) there is a culture in our game whereby cheating isn’t just acceptable, it’s demanded by the fans. So a referee, unfortunately, rarely gets to referee a game, but instead he’s a the pantomime villain. Paid referees can’t fix these problems.

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Down / Re: Down Club Hurling & Football

« on: July 25, 2018, 07:16:53 AM »

Only problem with Shane is that his tenure in the minor managership ended prematurely due to a lapse in judgement, personally I would have no objection if he was involved in some capacity, similarly the likes of Paul Duffin would be a good member of the back room staff.
Getting back to Wobbler , your full of b s , to say all the inter county managers are aged between 30 and 40 is a bit wide of the mark, managers of Dublin, Galway , Mayo , Tyrone contradict that statement , nothing beats experience, Jack might be an able administrator but he is not qualified to make any call on a suitable candidate.
As I have said before there are a lot of people who have no faith in this selection committee and finally while they might not be actively involved in the county scene the opinions of the likes of Sean oNeill and Paddy Doherty from the 60 s era may not be as trivial as you suggest.Too many times we have got this part of the process wrong resulting in the wrong appointment, time will tell,but Wobbler your a Richard head to be so dismissive of PoR , don’t forget the work he has done in setting up development squads which is starting to show results.

Walsh, if he’s 50, it’s by a day or two.
Rochford would maybe have just about hit 40.
Gavin has a few years yet to his half century.

Are you trying to prove my point or go against it?

I never dismissed O’Rourke, I just don’t see how being an All Ireland winning captain 30 years ago makes him a suitable headhunter in the modern game. The shortlist of suitable candidates within our county couldn’t be any shorter. Knowledge and connections that expand beyond our boundaries is essential. Paddy may have this, he even may have it in abundance. If so, get him on board. But don’t get him on board because he captained an All Ireland team.

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GAA Discussion / Football All Stars 2018

« on: July 25, 2018, 06:38:57 AM »

Apply them as they become certs

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. Karl O’Connell
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.

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GAA Discussion / Re: Should the gaa allow the Liam Miller testimonial in Pairc hi Caoimh - poll

« on: July 24, 2018, 11:22:54 PM »

I'd nationalise all stadiums over 20K capacity and have them managed by local councils. Absolutely crazy that we are even in this situation.

Communism doesn’t work. The lazy get lazier, the hardworking try to leave, and only the politicians gain. Go read Animal farm.

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GAA Discussion / Re: Should the gaa allow the Liam Miller testimonial in Pairc hi Caoimh - poll

« on: July 24, 2018, 11:20:21 PM »

I’m not disagreeing entirely with you Baile Brogin, as there are some genuinely Neanderthal hypocrites attached to the GAA.

But give €30m to boxing or athletics and you’re basically giving about a €5,000 grant per half serious competitior in each sport.

It’s more like €2 per competitor in GAA. And that before you begin gauging public interest.

Soccer could take that line and raise you...

This is the main problem i have with the hierarchy. Say yes and they are the good guys. Say no and there is a national debate about state funding and rule 42. And its not going well.

But soccer can’t raise, not even close. The combined league of Ireland attendance for a fortnight would fit in a Croke Park.

It’s public interest that allows the GAA to build 30k stadia. It’s through an ethos of investing money and time into community-focused sport that generates such a public interest.

I’m a huge soccer fan. But it’s a problem child compared to the GAA. There’s no guarantee that 30m would be spent perfectly in the GAA, only that it would be spent immeasurably better than in any other sport. The history is there to prove this.

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Down / Re: Down Club Hurling & Football

« on: July 24, 2018, 11:05:09 PM »

You for real Wobbler , how is he better qualified than Paddy ORourke for instance , all Ireland winning captain, managed club and county teams, what has Jack achieved in his playing and managerial career ?
I’m not making this personal I’m saying the make up of this selection panel is wrong and I’m not the only only who thinks this.

Paddy is what, around 58 years old, runs his own business, and is a devoted Burren and Down man. How big would you think his network is among the 30 and 40 year olds that dominate the managerial networks? How many players and managers across the county, outside of D1, do you think he’s be familiar with?

This is no criticism of PoR by the way. But as mentioned, he’s late 50s, and he has enough going in life to allow his finger to be on another pulse.

Winning Sam almost 30 years ago doesn’t change that. If it did, we might as well add the remaining members of 68 to the selection panel while we are at it.