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I've seen posts blaming the county board and posts blaming the clubs. Like most people, I don't know who's to blame at this stage, I just know who's suffering most from it — the ordinary club player, id say roughly 95% of all players.
Most clubs started pre-season around say December. By the time leagues eventually start on June 5th, that's basically a 6-month pre-season for a huge majority of lads who aren't county players and never were or will be. Yet still training 2/3 nights a week, gym work, challenge games, while not even knowing when the season is properly starting.
It's not just football either. People can't book holidays, weekends away, work trips or organise family stuff because everything is unknown.
I understand clubs wanting their U20s available, especially the likes of Loughmacrory, Cookstown, Fintona, because they'll play huge roles for them this year. Fair enough. But realistically they are the minority. Plenty of clubs have very few or no county U20s.
Then when it finally starts, everything gets crammed into a short window leading to fatigue, injuries and fixture overload. Every player will be burnt out, county or not.
The worst part is it nearly puts ordinary club players in a position where they don't want the U20s to keep winning because every extra week delays their own season and holds up the rest of their life too. I'm not intending to hammer the U20s or the county team, but at the end of the day, club players are people too, with lives and other commitments. Year on year being left hanging as to when they can finally commence the league that they too train and work very hard for. 

 

With the number of club players in Tyrone surely they could start the league without the u20s? As you say not convenient for the majority of club players. 

With a number of issues to be resolved across various positions in the summer would not be against bringing Nunez back on a free given Ekitike won't be available to 2027 and Isaks injury record.

Bowen could be a useful signing if could get him at a budget price if West Ham go down.

Plenty of players going in and out the door regardless of who manager is and lack of squad depth compared City and Arsenal.

Should I Marry A Murderer was a good watch on Netflix.

I was unfamiliar with the story: two Scottish brothers ran over a cyclist on a charity run, left him to die in their barn and buried him on the Highlands estate they worked on; then one of them meets and quickly gets engaged to a Glasgow doctor, tells her about it, and she's left with the psychological dilemma of whether to turn them in and give the cyclists family closure, and the aftermath of her decision and actions.

Does not paint a nice picture of the callousness of the police and justice system towards traumatized witnesses.

J70, BBC Iplayer also has a good two part documentary related to this from the police side and the deceased family which would be worth a watch should you have enjoyed the Netflix documentary- Murder Case, The Vanishing Cyclist. 

Thought was harsh originally but on watching the replay it's a foul. There would need be some type of directive coming from refs in advance of next season in relation to the continuous pulling and dragging at corners and maybe make an example of a few teams not complying in early weeks of season.

I understand the frustration of some , but £13 or £14 a game is  a lot less than what you'd pay to attend a match. It would take £100 minimum to bring the  average family to a match , and that's only the tickets and  fuel.

£14 wouldn't take the average Donegal  fan to Bundoran  in diesel never mind the whole cut to Killarney.

But the problem is previous free to air games are now behind a paywall and the GAA are joining sky in prosecution of dodgy boxes.

This seems to just be accepted.

There are alot more GAA games available to view than in years gone by and that is a positive thing for me. 

You get nothing for free these days and to pay a few quid to watch a game have no issues with it. If people don't want to do that there will be free to air highlights to view the game or can go to local pub which should have it. 

Gaa+ provide a good service and it works out at like £82 per year for 40 games which I would watch the majority.  It is a bit pricey for one off games and that is probably why they encourage subscribers to get the package deal. 

Armagh TV for example will charge you £5 for a one off game league game in (another good service)Armagh. 

Fair play to people making our games as accessible as possible.

If you are following successful teams and have a few young children taking them to every game can be quite costly especially with the condensed season.

Gyokeres unlocked that performance from Arsenal especially the last 20mins

Instead of retreating to the edge of the box and inviting a barrage to hang on, the level of pressing high up from the front 4 was awesome

Gyokeres was the first line of aggressive defence and a great out ball time and again, he must be full of confidence at the minute, was unlucky with a tough volley for 2-0, hopefully starts to find the net a bit more often now too

While not the biggest fan of Havertz I think he's potentially the better option vs Bayern/PSG, but you have to back Gyokeres after that performance as he'll run his balls off and Havertz won't

Havertz held up the ball up very well in the City league game. 

Gyokeres is a bit of a flat track bully who still has it all to prove in big games.  A few here getting a bit excited over a £60 million striker being able to hold the ball up and run around chasing a few lost causes. 

Watched Gallagher clip there now, Is he saying something alot of people are not thinking, or in this case right? Calling a spade a spade!

I definitely feel we throw away far too many games from strong winning positions. Seen someone list them: 2023 AI semi, league games last year v Kerry, Donegal, Galway. Championship last year v Galway. Monaghan this year. 2023 league final we did our best to throw it away. 2024 championship v Mayo the same.

His ego really comes across in those videos. Shows a lack of loyalty to people that gave him absolutely everything too. I don't think it is calling a spade a spade though, it's lack of squad depth is the issue not character and that's mostly Gallaghers fault. I thought the main men that played over 100 minutes showed a lot of character to get themselves into a winning position in the last seconds of extra time despite what happened at end of normal time. I was sure we'd fold like a deck of cards in extra time but we didn't.

Gallagher is out of the Derry job three years, don't think lack of squad depth in 2026/ current management bringing players off and back on can be blamed on Gallagher. Since Gallagher left they have also went to Division 2 which should have afforded more of an opportunity to develop a few players.   

Derry may not have folded like a deck of cards but a more ruthless side would have won that game pulling up in normal time or composed themselves and got the job done in extra time.  Man for man Derry are a better side talent wise than Monaghan and should be in an Ulster final. 

Baker thought the ball was there to be won, and he did win it. Hard to hold back in the heat of battle but ultimately he should have done anything but risk a 2 point free. Other than that I thought he had a good game.

We should have went in at HT 15 points up. So many easy misses in contrast to some ridiculous 2 point efforts from McCarthy, McCarron, McCarville, Ward. Beggan is like a cheat code in the new rules too.

The ref was a joke too, couldn't touch Monaghan without the hand going up for a free or advantage. Ethan had a very untimely slip but he was still pushed for the sideline, mccarron broke the line.

On the plus side McGuckins kickouts were brilliant all day. He hit one towards Beggan which unfortunately led to a goal but it wasn't a howler. Other than that he was flawless and made a great save. Forbes has really stood up this year and put in another good performance. McGrogan was great, he wins so many high pressure short kickouts. Loughlin brilliant all year and was again today. Good to see McEvoy back and his size in the middle was a big plus. Ethan brilliant first 50 min.

Meenagh got it tactically spot on. We dominated Monaghan for most of the game but you can't legislate for those misses. He also can't be blamed for our lack of a bench which will continue to haunt this team in big games.

As sickening a defeat as you can get. Ulster final was there for us. Will be a hard one to recover from.

On Meenagh, he brought mcgurk on for C Doherty and reversed the sub five minutes later, Doherty looked out on his feet. Also held the lad Kearney, who looks have bit about him back to very late in the day when there was tired legs and momentum had shifted other way.

Theres the big problem with a 2pter, can keep a team in it when.  they should be nowhere near it. Derry missed a cricket score, no 2pters and a 10pt lead.McHurk didnt even need be going forward, just hold onto the ball

Derry no one to blame but themselves, their own fault with decision making and lack of ruthlessness when the game was there to be won convincingly.  The foul at the end was naive also knowing who your playing and who was going to be kicking it. Well done to Monaghan that will do the newer members of their panel the world of good. Deserve immense credit to get Ulster final given the league they had.

Losing Luke is a big setback.  We don't have anybody to fill that gap.
It goes beyond this weekend's match.  There's potentially lots of football available to Westmeath this summer.  The team is very young and the possibility of gaining significant experience and growth is there.
Loughlin would have been pivotal to that. This makes the hill a lot steeper.
It remains to be seen how the lads will respond.

Should Westmeath not still be well placed to win this game? Kildare have not been pulling up too many trees this year and the manner of the win against Meath should give Westmeath massive confidence. Was very surprised to see Kildare favourites to win this.   

What are the thoughts on Dublin Louth?

I have changed my mind a number of times this week as to who I think will win the game.  Strange place for Louth going into a games as favourites.  Brennan will know them inside out but momentum is certainly with Louth. 

54 goals this season  for Harry Kane . Not sure how strong a league the German league is , but that's some scoring to be fair

Let's hope he  picks up an injury that will rule him out of the World Cup. Then we can all sleep soundly knowing England  will  be nowhere near winning it.

The  rest  of that squad  have had poor to average seasons: Saka Foden Palmer  Rice Watkins etc, and hopefully will continue that poor form into the  tournament

Is Rice not one of the favourites for POTY? The supporting cast for Kane have been poor could be argued Gibbs-White more deserving of a place on the plane that Foden or Palmer. 

Well that Ticketmastershit is some shit show. Couldn't get clicking the tickets quick enough before they disappeared.

And coming online at 2pm? That helps only the unemployed and tech savvy retired folk.

An awful website and customer experience trying to get tickets for anything. 

It'll be interesting to see some of the match ups in Armagh v Down. I could see Ciaran Mackin trying to pick up Murdock, his Rambo style could suit this encounter. I'd be very concerned about Daniel Guinness as well, Joe McElroy if fit maybe.

McElroy for Guinness a good shout.  Big ask for Mackin being out for so long to go toe to toe with one of the form players in Ireland, Kelly would be the man for the job for me.