Ulster Championship 2021

[Schkite]

Shades of David Seaman against Sheffield Utd from that Patton save

[From the Bunker]

Game being played at snails pace now!

[Blowitupref]

Down 1-12 Donegal 2-25. Routine victory for Donegal in a contest that was won early. Down might have lost by a more narrow margin if they kept 15 men on the field and had taken their other goal scoring chances.

[yellowcard]

I've seen some pundits complaining that the season is over for the likes of Clare, Sligo and Down. For what, to delay the inevitable and another potential mauling a few games on. The issue is having a properly tiered championship structure.

[CK_Redhand]

I've seen some pundits complaining that the season is over for the likes of Clare, Sligo and Down. For what, to delay the inevitable and another potential mauling a few games on. The issue is having a properly tiered championship structure.

We have that. It's called the league

[seafoid]

Donegal obviously better than Down but the All Ireland titles gap between the 2 won't be narrowed this year for all of that.

[yellowcard]

I've seen some pundits complaining that the season is over for the likes of Clare, Sligo and Down. For what, to delay the inevitable and another potential mauling a few games on. The issue is having a properly tiered championship structure.

We have that. It's called the league

Yes, I agree with that. I wouldn't be against a tier 2 championship either though.

Im surprised at these pundits who seem to want a more league based championship though, I think a lot of them are only thinking of the extra media work for themselves. Vested interests at play. I certainly don't feel any appetite for an extended inter county championship on the ground.

[imtommygunn]

Tbh it's much better for club stuff that it's not extended.

[twohands!!!]

I've seen some pundits complaining that the season is over for the likes of Clare, Sligo and Down. For what, to delay the inevitable and another potential mauling a few games on. The issue is having a properly tiered championship structure.

We have that. It's called the league

Yes, I agree with that. I wouldn't be against a tier 2 championship either though.

Im surprised at these pundits who seem to want a more league based championship though, I think a lot of them are only thinking of the extra media work for themselves. Vested interests at play. I certainly don't feel any appetite for an extended inter county championship on the ground.

If there were no COVID, Clare and Down would be going into the top tier qualifiers, while Sligo would be going into the Tailteann Cup.

If you asked the players involved whether they would prefer that as opposed to being done for the year, the players would be overwhelmingly in favour.

[StPatsAbu]

Shades of David Seaman against Sheffield Utd from that Patton save

Is that the one where the forward ended up with Seaman over him?

[Wildweasel74]

The minute they formed a top tier division 1 15 odd yrs ago, it's been an exclusive club. League system was better when it was 4 equal divisions with the top 2 of each going to quarter finals. It wouldn't do the lower strength teams any good but it would have improved the current strength of tier 2 teams

[twohands!!!]

The minute they formed a top tier division 1 15 odd yrs ago, it's been an exclusive club. League system was better when it was 4 equal divisions with the top 2 of each going to quarter finals. It wouldn't do the lower strength teams any good but it would have improved the current strength of tier 2 teams

Why do you think it would have improved the current strength of the tier 2 teams?
Plenty of Tier 2 teams have gone up to Division 1 over the years and have struggled massively.
If you had the old system of 4 equal divisions with the top 2 going to quarter finals it would make a complete farce of the league.
It would do little to doing for Division 3 and Division 4 teams except reduce the number of competitive games they would play and increase the number of hammerings they would get.
I think it would do very little for Division 2 teams - instead of 7 games against Division 2 opposition they would get 2 games against Division 4 teams, 2 games against Division 3 teams, 1 game against Division 2 teams and 2 games against Division 1 teams. Division 1 teams would have 4 games against Division 3 and Division3 4 teams, 2 games against Division 2 teams and 1 game against Division 1 teams. You would have a vast amount of hammerings and non-competitive games under this format until you eventually got down to the quarter-finals.
Also it would take at least 2 weeks longer to run off the league under this system.

[Itchy]

Based on this game Derry will have a real chance against Donegal who have given up a serious amount of chances against a poor Down side.

I wouldn't give Derry much chance to be honest to beat Donegal in Ballybofe

[yellowcard]

Based on this game Derry will have a real chance against Donegal who have given up a serious amount of chances against a poor Down side.

I wouldn't give Derry much chance to be honest to beat Donegal in Ballybofe

Donegal will be rightful favourites. However that score line today does not tell the full story of the match. Down created 4 good goal chances whilst both their finishing and shot selection at times left a lot to be desired. Donegal raised more questions than answers from a defensive viewpoint. Whether Derry have the quality to beat them Im not sure but I do expect it will be an awful lot more competitive than today and it looks like Murphy will be out for a few weeks.

[Solo_run]

Donegal are on the road to a hiding if they do not sort their defence out. I do expect them to go into blanket defence mode against teams that have more of a threat up front