Messages

1

General discussion / Re: China Coronavirus

« on: March 31, 2020, 02:41:34 PM »

Former World Health Organisation director Prof Karol Sikora explains why the threat from the virus should drop after the peak is reached.

"If you go to Korea tomorrow, you'll find that the majority of people have had the virus - some of them won't even know they've had the virus - but they'll still be immune to it.

"Herd immunity grows, once it gets to 50% the virus has nowhere to go.

"At the moment, a person going out onto the street has the potential to infect up to 2.5 people with the virus

"But once other people around them become immune, there's nowhere for the virus to go, so the pandemic disappears and that's always the same with pandemics.

"The difficulty is to make that judgement call about when to let social distancing relax, to allow businesses to open, to allow the economy to grow."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-northern-ireland-52069262

Could our resident experts advise whether this is dangerous and as such should the Professor be sanctioned?

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General discussion / Re: China Coronavirus

« on: March 20, 2020, 03:33:42 PM »

And where should the kids of front line staff go?

Where do they go down south?

So don’t close the schools then. As it stands we will have about 60% of the school in.

But is 40% at home not better than 0% at home? Is it not all relative? Btw, I am not saying the action is correct but surely any limiting of contact is better than none?

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General discussion / Re: China Coronavirus

« on: March 20, 2020, 02:24:48 PM »

And where should the kids of front line staff go?

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Down / Re: Down Club Hurling & Football

« on: March 06, 2020, 04:39:08 PM »

I thinking about that during the week. How would that go?

Obv we need to beat Leitrim and what else needs to happen?

Beat Leitrim on Saturday night and Derry beat Longford on Sunday Down are promoted with a game to spare.

But if Down were to lose to Louth and Derry & Longford to win their last game it would be a 3 way tie and head to head would no longer be relevant, and it would come down to score difference, is that not the case?

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GAA Discussion / Re: Club football/hurling for 2nd/3rd adult teams (aka reserves, junior B/C/D etc.)

« on: February 03, 2020, 12:23:32 PM »

Over the past 5-6 years I’ve noticed an increasing trend whereby young fellas would rather be a non-playing sub for the seniors, than line out for the reserves. Or if they do line out for the reserves, it’s with nonchalance.

It might be an ego thing. It might be a football-career-goals thing. It might be a senior squad unity thing. They might even not enjoy playing football at a lower standard, even if their current outlook with the seniors suggests it might actually be their level.

It could well be a combination of all those. But I just find it all a little odd. Training prodigiously to watch football.

Senior management should be having a word in their shell like..

No point in being a sub for a senior team and playing very little. Surely Senior management would prefer their subs to be getting meaningful game time if not on the senior team, then on the reserves.

The problem is, where there is a paid outsider, they dont give a shite about the development of a player or what would be best long term for them

That's it in a nutshell - however for their own retention if they were developing their second 15 it would improve the first 15, more competition for places, better quality training driving the first 15 on and in turn increase the likelihood of their own success I would have thought.

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General discussion / Re: The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

« on: January 29, 2020, 10:50:08 AM »

Rangers wage bill is half of Celtic’s.

At the same time do they not have a Net transfer spend of about 40m greater than Celtic's over Gerrard's time in charge?

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GAA Discussion / Re: Club football/hurling for 2nd/3rd adult teams (aka reserves, junior B/C/D etc.)

« on: January 28, 2020, 09:26:35 AM »

In down you have the premier reserve league which is all county and contains the stronger reserve teams in the county.you also have two regional leagues below this,east and south down,containing the weaker reserve teams and some thirds teams from the bigger clubs.both leagues used to play their fixtures on sundays,the premier reserve at 2pm and east/south down at 6pm.however the premier reserve games are now played on Saturdays.main point being they are not played on the same day as senior league fixtures,which are on a Friday.(something I think the down county board have got 100% right by the way,Friday fixtures hold so many advantages)
For championship you have the premier reserve championship and the reserve championship which is all county containing teams from south and east down.
The moving of the premier reserve fixtures to Saturday is a bit of a disaster,but at the same time Sunday’s were proving problematic aswell.reserve football in down is generally run very well,with plenty of fixtures for players.

Some issues are

There can be a bit of a gap in standard between top premier reserve teams and the bottom teams.this means that the weaker premier reserve teams might struggle to get a squad to go to the likes of burden or kilcoo for example.
Saturday fixtures can be tricky as a lot of lads work on Saturdays.or be on the beer on Friday.they also might be heading out that night and an away game gets in the way of that.
If you are trying to break into the senior starting 15 you might be better being fresh at training on Monday rather than being knackered after playing a match on the Sunday and then trying to impress the day after.

In the grander scheme of things though,reserve football is not played for glamour and a lot of the guys togging out will find it easier to miss a match for a concert/weekend away/hangover etc than would happen at senior level.and no matter what structure you have in place,Tyrone model,down model or something different again,I don’t think it would matter.

I see this as being the biggest hindrance to reserve football, if the 2nd team were viewed as a conveyor belt for talent making their way to a 1st 15 or a way of regaining match sharpness after returning from injury it would, I believe make it a much more successful league. I have seen in my own club where lads are happy to sit on the bench on a Friday night but go missing when the 2's on a Sunday.

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General discussion / Re: Car Problems!!

« on: December 19, 2019, 08:54:38 AM »

Looking some advice.

I have a cracked alloy that I have had welded twice now and same issue again this morning. I would know the lad that welded it for me and would be confident in his ability, my question is; is there any other permanent fix that could be applied or is it scrap at this stage? Cheers.

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General discussion / Re: Brexit.

« on: December 12, 2019, 08:50:37 AM »

So is your food different down there? Do you exercise more? As far as I'm concerned I live on the island of Ireland, 40 miles from the border won't have any affect of my quality of life, length of life, or schooling, as in the north, its very good, plus the free health service is hard to beat.

I didn't realise you looked at Irishmen in the north differently, what about ones from Donegal? Can't get more north than that.

I seen all those coats on the Halfpenny bridge in Dublin the other day, what's that all about?

In fairness Milltown...

http://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2019/12/11/news/-warmforwinter-public-coat-donation-comes-to-belfast-1786979/

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General discussion / Re: Running

« on: November 08, 2019, 09:30:02 AM »

Tommy Hughes is running sub 230 at I think 59 years old. It's unbelievable. I was told recently his age graded time (you can apply a weighting per age) is a 2:02 marathon aka world record.

Some lads are shy with their times for Dublin this year! 

Going to gear up for one more, which major city doesn’t have a lottery ?

  ... made a complete balls of it, tbh I knew going in I wasn't where I would wanted to be and really only settled on a plan the night before, went out too hard for the first half (realised I was going harder than planned but ploughed on anyway). Struggled massively for the last 10 mile and got round in 4:19, about 30 min worse than the last time I done it 2017, worst thing about it is that I now have to do another one as I can't leave it at that!!

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Down / Re: Down Club Hurling & Football

« on: November 07, 2019, 10:34:07 AM »

Someone just get Yewtree a taxi for one!!! Not speaking on behalf of Burren and I think more interested in bringing bad press to Burren. More likely to be CPN.
Our U16 team are exceptional but alot of work and cohesion required to get them through to senior, we've seen alot of so called future stars disappear, but hopefully this group can be brought through and build a unit that can bring consistency at senior level.
As for Ballykinlar, it's probably the cheapest option so can see why CB went for it but its a bollox of a run but if lads want to play county football then they'll make the effort, if they don't fancy it, then it won't matter where the training ground is.

Forevergreen, am I right in saying Burren had 2 teams entered the league at U16 level this year? That must introduce a whole other set of problems. Assume the same will be the case for the U17s next year? It would be difficult keeping them circa 50 lads through to U19s let alone seniors!

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General discussion / Re: Running

« on: October 22, 2019, 11:14:06 AM »

excitement/trepidation building now...had bad start to the training and blew up on my 2nd 20 miler but fuk it at this stage. Just need to settle on a strategy!

Anyway, staying down Saturday & Sunday, have a Airbnb on Tara St - any idea where would be best to park? Probably end up with a QPark or similar, not cheap but unless any of ye have any advise I would say there's little option.

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Down / Re: Down Club Hurling & Football

« on: October 15, 2019, 03:03:26 PM »

What constitutes a 'successful' club?

Serious question.

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General discussion / Re: Running

« on: September 13, 2019, 03:12:53 PM »

No, training dates and times are consistent, possibly my food and hydration has not been, but shouldn't cause the head fluster I have experienced this week!

Wiser men than me here but I would say diet and hydration could have a huge impact, and sleep too (although I wouln't have thought it would manifest itself at only 10 mile). I would imagine taking a training day off wouldn't go a great degree of harm.

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General discussion / Re: Running

« on: September 13, 2019, 02:24:03 PM »

Need some help. Training for Dublin marathon and this week I’ve hit a bit of a wall. Every mile I’ve ran feels like a battle, a 10 mile steady run tonight was cut short to 7 miles and felt like every step was gonna be my last. My head is losing the battle and the body is sluggish. I’m a fairly competent runner: ran my first marathon last year and have been going well up to this week. Can anyone recommend any podcasts or books specifically aimed at marathon training to help me regain some focus and more importantly give me a boot in the arse!

Out of interest have you changed the time of day you train compared to the previous marathon? This is my first time training in the evenings and it has been a torture from day one, add in to that a lack of time has meant the first 6+ weeks were hit and miss for me getting out, have finally got some degree of momentum now but it is going to be a case of getting it done rather than a target time!