Doire v Mhuineacháin 24/5/09

[Main Street]

it would have been more fitting for RTE to have someone from Monaghan on the panel to counter Brolly´s cheerleading for Derry's yet to be revealed brand of pure football.
I think Nudie Hughes on his own would have balanced out all three of them.

[thebandit]

it would have been more fitting for RTE to have someone from Monaghan on the panel to counter Brolly´s cheerleading for Derry's yet to be revealed brand of pure football.
I think Nudie Hughes on his own would have balanced out all three of them.

Send JP Graham as well

[lynchbhoy]

I'm glad Cassidy has come out

steady on - think thats the worst insult thrown here on this thread to date !

would agree that there is a level of hypocrisy alright, some Derry players were no angels, I dont expect an under 10 type clean game, but some of this was a bit OTT, esp the couple of Derry lads that let it get to them.
As was said longbefore the game , we know how Monaghan play and while it might not be pretty , its borderline on the rules (quite a lot of it over the line)
but thats football and all teams (dont kid yourselves) are guilty of a bit of it to varying degrees - cork,kerry, galway etc too..

[lynchbhoy]

it would have been more fitting for RTE to have someone from Monaghan on the panel to counter Brolly´s cheerleading for Derry's yet to be revealed brand of pure football.
I think Nudie Hughes on his own would have balanced out all three of them.

aye - literally , if he's still the same size as he was a few years ago !

[INDIANA]

Cassidy brands TV pundits 'hypocrites'
27 May 2009


Derry manager Damian Cassidy has accused RTE's Sunday Game panel of hypocrisy as the fallout continues from last Sunday's controversial Ulster SFC clash in Celtic Park.

TV pundits Joe Brolly, Colm O'Rourke and Pat Spillane were scathing in their criticism of the rough house tactics employed by both Derry and Monaghan, but Cassidy has turned on them by claiming they were no angels themselves during their own playing days.

"I can't help but feel there is a rampant level of hypocrisy about this," he said.

"You are talking about pundits who when they played could have been cited very handily themselves.

"Now they are sitting on television with halos over their heads."

Cassidy was especially riled by Spillane's comments that he felt sorry for spectators who paid to watch the game.

"I haven't spoken to a Derry supporter yet who was disappointed with what they saw," he remarked.

"There are people with their own agendas here. Being controversial is one way of maintaining your profile."

Speaking from the pulpit Max?

[Oakleafer93]

Derry had all the baggage,
Monaghan had a clear conscience.

Umhum...

[Schkite]

You need to stop taking everything so serious Oakleafer! 

[DennistheMenace]

The players are so damn inconsiderate, the first thing on their minds when crossing the line should have been, 'right paddy how am I going to promote the GAA today', any thought of winning should have been secondary to putting on a spectable. Ban them all I say, especially the ginger ones.

[Main Street]

it would have been more fitting for RTE to have someone from Monaghan on the panel to counter Brolly´s cheerleading for Derry's yet to be revealed brand of pure football.
I think Nudie Hughes on his own would have balanced out all three of them.

aye - literally , if he's still the same size as he was a few years ago !

You mean the widescreen version

I don't think Nudie is tall enough to bite my backside.

[ONeill]

Mulligan plays down Celtic Park controversy

Tyrone forward Owen Mulligan has described the reaction to Sunday's controversial Ulster SFC clash between Derry and Monaghan as 'over the top'.

Derry booked a date with Tyrone after seeing off the Farney on a scoreline of 1-10 to 0-10 in a game that saw several violent clashes.

But Mulligan says such physicality is inevitable with the stakes so high at this time of year, and said the Red Hands would be willing to do exactly the same to guarantee success..

'Some people say the Ulster Championship does not matter, but it does,' Mulligan said.

'The Tyrone team and different teams around Ulster do care. That is the Tyrone team's first goal, to win Ulster, and we'll do anything to do it. If it means getting rough and getting physical we will do that,' he insisted.

'I only saw the second half but I think the reaction was a bit over the top. Alright, players got involved, but there is a great deal at stake and you will do anything to win. I think that is what they did, but I don't think it's as bad as some people made out.'

Another bruising encounter is expected at Clones on Sunday where Tyrone and Armagh will do battle for the right to face Derry on 21 June.

[DennistheMenace]

Muggsy in talking sense shocker.

[tyronefan]

Mulligan plays down Celtic Park controversy

Tyrone forward Owen Mulligan has described the reaction to Sunday's controversial Ulster SFC clash between Derry and Monaghan as 'over the top'.

Derry booked a date with Tyrone after seeing off the Farney on a scoreline of 1-10 to 0-10 in a game that saw several violent clashes.

But Mulligan says such physicality is inevitable with the stakes so high at this time of year, and said the Red Hands would be willing to do exactly the same to guarantee success..

'Some people say the Ulster Championship does not matter, but it does,' Mulligan said.

'The Tyrone team and different teams around Ulster do care. That is the Tyrone team's first goal, to win Ulster, and we'll do anything to do it. If it means getting rough and getting physical we will do that,' he insisted.

'I only saw the second half but I think the reaction was a bit over the top. Alright, players got involved, but there is a great deal at stake and you will do anything to win. I think that is what they did, but I don't think it's as bad as some people made out.'

Another bruising encounter is expected at Clones on Sunday where Tyrone and Armagh will do battle for the right to face Derry on 21 June.

We have a match to play yet, hope that was a typo and not a quote

[ONeill]

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/championship/2009/0527/tyrone.html

Ah balax. There's motivational fodder.

[Main Street]

All threads eventually lead to Tyrone

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Frank Mc Nally's perspective, in today's Irish Times:

An Irishman's Diary
Frank McNally

IN THE CALM before throw-in at Derry's Celtic Park on Sunday, I drew my nine-year-old son's attention to the historic backdrop of the game. "You see up there on top of that hill?" I said, pointing away into the distance, where a Union Jack fluttered from the ramparts. "Those are the famous Walls of Derry. They've been the cause of a lot of trouble over the years."

Then we settled back to watch a football match, or so I thought. But the fellow Monaghan supporter beside me, a seasoned individual better versed than I in the Ulster GAA's ancient honour code, hinted that there might not be much football during the next hour and a half. "We need a strong referee here today," he confided in hushed tones. "Otherwise, they'll bate us into the ground."

Considering his dire words, I glanced with concern at my son. Suddenly the wisdom of bringing an impressionable child from Dublin to an Ulster Championship first round match, in which there had been a build-up of hostility from the two previous years, with the result that the home side now had a point to prove, seemed very questionable.

What on earth had I been thinking? Clearly I needed to protect his innocence, in order that he could return to his under-10 games with enthusiasm undiminished. So as the grim spectacle unfolded before us, I told him that the scheduled football match had been cancelled at the last minute because it clashed with a local arts festival; and that, as part of the latter, what we were witnessing instead was a 40th anniversary re-enactment of the Battle of the Bogside.

"The men in red are pretending to be the B-Specials," I explained, after the game's early exchanges. "And the ones in blue are playing the part of unarmed civil rights activists, protesting over corrupt housing policies, gerrymandering, and the need for political reform generally. See how they've erected barricades across their 45-yard line? The area behind that is supposed to represent Free Derry."

So it continued until, as the "re-enactment" reached a climax, my son inquired who the man in black with the whistle was meant to be. "That's the then taoiseach, Jack Lynch," I explained. "He's very concerned about what's going on, and he's threatening to not stand idly by. But really, he's helpless to prevent the mayhem." Sure enough, another two players hit the ground in front of us, pretending to fight. "It's very realistic, isn't it?" I said.

IT'S ALWAYS disappointing to be knocked out of the Ulster Championship in round one. But since the advent of the back-door system, being knocked out of the Ulster Championship, with its Sicilian-style feuds and vendettas, is also its own consolation.

And as we trooped home from Celtic Park afterwards, our eyes red from tear gas, at least the exotic possibilities of the qualifier draw were now open to us.

Oh for a beaker of the warm south, we thought. Maybe we'd get Tipperary. Or Waterford. Or any of those lovely, relaxed places down the country where hurling is prized and football is kept alive only by an eth?ic minority. Not that it had to be Munster, either. Even a visit to the balmy climes of Tullamore, or Longford, seemed seductive.

Then we hit the first of a long series of traffic jams on the road home, and the mirage of Munster and Leinster gradually receded. Stuck in a tailback among the red-white-and-blue kerbstones of New Buildings, three miles out of Derry, we experienced our first yearning for the sight of a traffic cop. It was, as all such yearnings subsequently would be, unrequited.

Not long ago, it was still common to hear Northern Ireland described as a police state. But on Sunday last, from Aughnacloy to the Walls of Derry and back again, we didn't see a single police-person anywhere. As a consequence, the whole excruciatingly long way south to the Border, we were at the mercy of rogue – apparently DUP-designed – traffic lights, that absolutely refused to turn green in any circumstances.

We realised then it wouldn't be so easy escaping the North, even through the back door. Last year, after all, our reward for early elimination from Ulster was draws against Derry and Donegal. It was only when we ran of Northern teams to beat that, like a shot to an injured horse, they gave us Kerry.

Two hours south of Celtic Park, still in bumper-to-bumper traffic, we were resigned to the utter certainty of getting the losers from next Sunday's Tyrone-Armagh match in the qualifiers. And to add to the torture, John O'Shea of Goal (and Kerry) was on the radio pontificating about his embarrassment about having to watch the game earlier among American tourists. It felt like we were stuck in some GAA version of the seventh circle of hell; although on closer inspection, it was only the ring road around Omagh.