Messages

Good chance Derry will go for Gilligan now. Other names in the frame would be tony mcentee or oisin mcconville but one of them is very likely to take louth. To me it's a very long shot that they'll go after gallagher as the same issues are still there from last year.

There will be a Tyrone man & an Armagh man in with Derry next season.

Who would that be? Tally stays. Who's the armagh man?

Good chance it would be gavin mcgilly. I think he's armagh and he worked with tally at st marys in the sigerson. He's the current manager of their sigerson team.

Donegal by 3 - Donegal should have got Sunday, but still should have enough given the Louth game was a second half stroll.

Dublin by 2 - a hesitant vote but the Jacks likely to have their shooting boots on for this one. If they don't, Tyrone will.

Galway by 3 - have been very impressed by Meath this year but they are more vulnerable to goals on bigger pitches like Croker and Dr. Hyde. Galway also have a 2001 aura about them. 

Kerry by 1 - Armagh have been the most impressive team this year. Win this and they will go all the way. But Kerry are still Kerry and will be up for it.

For me Armagh and Tyrone are certainties. The other 2 games are where we might see upsets. I do think Donegal will scrape through but I think Meath might just pip Galway. That would leave a semifinal where Tyrone would be looking for revenge for 1996 when Meath beat them with some beautiful football.

Derry needs Rogers out the pitch. They can't win a kickout

Exactly

Not sure how Derry are level. We're getting destroyed on the kick outs. Need to start to get a grip there or Dublin will pull away

I'm living in the North. Up until
last week I was able to watch back all the Sunday Games Live and Evining shows on RTE Player. This have mostly disappeared over the last week and it won't let me watch back the recent episodes. Anybody know the reason?

Have you changed internet provider?

What do cork have to do to get a free here.

Terrible match. Refereeing has been so inconsistent

How many players have won All Stars as a forward and defender?

Paddy Mo, Corner Forward and CHB

Anthony McGurk also I believe. Id say Conor Glass is probably the best all round player at the moment. He played most of his underage career at full back or half back, has become a brilliant midfielder and consistently gets a few scores every game. He could easily do a job anywhere in the forwards.

[If we can get the win on Sunday against one of the favourites for the all ireland then it gives us a free hit at the dubs as we will be in a preliminary quarter final]

Biggest game of the year on Sunday, what's everyone's thoughts? Was in armagh last week and was expecting a more aggressive approach from us especially as we were 7 weeks without championship game. Was hoping to see us play high press on opposition kickouts but instead we conceded them to my frustration. We look like a team void of confidence and a team who are playing like they're hoping for something to click instead of pressing the opposition and actually forcing the mistakes to make something click. When armagh went 13 points up it seemed as though the players just decided to finally throw off the shackles and actually just go for it and low and behold we started looking like we could create chances again. Sunday is massive for this team. I really hope we see us going 100% after that galway kickout from the first whistle, run at the galway defence from first whistle and go out and make it happen instead of hoping it happens. Team selection will be interesting. Will loughlin, Murray or Bradley be back? Lynch and clucky?? If we can get the win on Sunday against one of the favourites for the all ireland then it gives us a free hit at the dubs as we will be in a preliminary quarter final. This team needs a confidence boost and with the likes of ruairi forbes, Danny mcdermott and Tommy Rodgers all being introduced it gives us a bit of youth too. Hopefully the injured players above can return if not this weekend then 2 weekends time against the dubs and all of a sudden derrys panel will start to look a lot stronger than it has been. Let's hope so 🙏

Totally agree with what you're saying but I don't think a win definitely puts us through. If Dublin beat Armagh and us and Galway beat Armagh then 3 teams would be on 2 points which would then come down to score difference. All of that is irrelevant though if we don't win. An Armagh win works better for us providing we get the win because that would rule out the 3 teams on 2 points scenario.


Yeah your right lenny. Long way to go in this group yet. Good job we closed the losing margin to only 4 against armagh. That could be crucial but only if we get the win on Sunday. A win would put serious pressure on galway to go and beat armagh in game 3. Some craic if armagh and dubs drew. Would leave game week 3 nail biting if we managed to beat galway this week 🤣

Bottom line is we need to get a result or it's all over for us. I agree, we need to be more positive and press the kickouts, all the good teams are getting a lot of joy from that.

[If we can get the win on Sunday against one of the favourites for the all ireland then it gives us a free hit at the dubs as we will be in a preliminary quarter final]

Biggest game of the year on Sunday, what's everyone's thoughts? Was in armagh last week and was expecting a more aggressive approach from us especially as we were 7 weeks without championship game. Was hoping to see us play high press on opposition kickouts but instead we conceded them to my frustration. We look like a team void of confidence and a team who are playing like they're hoping for something to click instead of pressing the opposition and actually forcing the mistakes to make something click. When armagh went 13 points up it seemed as though the players just decided to finally throw off the shackles and actually just go for it and low and behold we started looking like we could create chances again. Sunday is massive for this team. I really hope we see us going 100% after that galway kickout from the first whistle, run at the galway defence from first whistle and go out and make it happen instead of hoping it happens. Team selection will be interesting. Will loughlin, Murray or Bradley be back? Lynch and clucky?? If we can get the win on Sunday against one of the favourites for the all ireland then it gives us a free hit at the dubs as we will be in a preliminary quarter final. This team needs a confidence boost and with the likes of ruairi forbes, Danny mcdermott and Tommy Rodgers all being introduced it gives us a bit of youth too. Hopefully the injured players above can return if not this weekend then 2 weekends time against the dubs and all of a sudden derrys panel will start to look a lot stronger than it has been. Let's hope so 🙏

Totally agree with what you're saying but I don't think a win definitely puts us through. If Dublin beat Armagh and us and Galway beat Armagh then 3 teams would be on 2 points which would then come down to score difference. All of that is irrelevant though if we don't win. An Armagh win works better for us providing we get the win because that would rule out the 3 teams on 2 points scenario.

[Swatragh Reserves 7 8]

Conceding Team    Number
Swatragh Reserves    7  8
Magherafelt Reserves    3  5
Castledawson Reserves    3 
Slaughtneil Reserves    2
Ballinascreen Reserves    2
Lavey Reserves            1
Dungiven Reserves    1
Kilrea Reserves            1

A couple of corrections at the top. Is reserve football close to dead?

I'm afraid it is, so sad to see this but the writing has been on the wall for the past couple of years.
Imo i honestly think it's a generation problem. Young fellas (not all) these days simply don't want to play but they happy to train and stand in gyms. But minute there a game there unavailable for selection, on the flip side 20 years ago you hated the site of training but never missed a game.
Also the recreation league should only be for players over 30.

I think it's a bit of the complete opposite.

The commitment is now through the roof, club sides now trying to run like intercounty sides.

Starting to train in December/January for a league that's month away. Attendance required at all sessions, trainings, gym, video analysis, team meetings, sports psychology sessions. Not very appealing for someone that knows their at reserve level, or living in Belfast at university, or wants a few pints at the weekend.

It's either you're 'in or out' at a lot of clubs, and 'in' is 3-4 nights a week for 10 months a year. Is the juice worth the squeeze for a reserve footballer. It's not as acceptable anymore to train 1 night a week and show up for a reserve match, or say I'll not be there this weekend I've a weekend away with the missus or a stag. Add that in with the fact that you might only get 7-8 league games in a reserve season with the amount of games conceded. After a few years of that, it's easy for fella's to opt out.

All fair points in this discussion. We have plenty of players like a few clubs but a lot of our lads are used to starting on successful underage teams and it's not easy to accept playing on the reserves especially when the competition is devalued with games being called off, often with not much notice. Thats a reason I see for lads not committing.

No Murray a massive miss, lad always injured. M Bradley not there either. Is Murphy injured or not on the panel anymore? Some Derrys best young footballers always seem to be long term injured, when if fit and a no.of games behind them, McWilliams and M Downey be on that panel. Take it Gilmore out for the year, as McCloskey and Lynch. Panel got very young on it, just Rodgers and McFaul over the 30 mark.

Maybe we're setting up the ambush of Galway the following week?
Hard to see us getting within double digits of that Armagh side, literally men against boys!

We'll do well to keep within 10 points, I agree. Very inexperienced squad.

Match not on TV?

No. If you listen to the many southern media podcasts, you'll quickly realise it's all about Dublin, Galway and Kerry.  All Ireland champs starting the defence of their title at a packed home stadium in what has the makings of a great game, you'd have thought  someone would carry it.

Totally agree, it's a game between the 2024 AI champions and the 2024 league champions. Derry have been in freefall ever since but how it hasn't been picked for tv is staggering.

Not seen us this year. We been awful since the Donegal game last year. The management and Goalkeeper situation  never resolved to a point people be happy with. No. of players refusing invites, and panel members dropping out. Injury list. Derry season i think be dependant on Dublin attitude in the last game and trying get sthing out of the Home game. We go out zonal marking on kickouts Armagh will eat us alive like the league game.

You think Dublin might take their foot off the pedal if they're already qualified. That isn't likely in the least because it's so important to top the group and get a week off before the qfs. We need a massive performance this week even if we lose by only a few points. If we get a stuffing it'll be hard to compete in the last 2 games as the confidence is already shot to pieces.

I did do a quick fact check on 2022 attendances and the largest attendance pre-quarter final was 16.5k.

I'll take a bet that Dublin v Armagh will get twice that this year, as following events in Salthill more Dubs will come out in the hope of repeating the dose for the All Ireland finalists.

No system is perfect but I think what we have currently is really good. Galway dublin on Saturday was a brilliant game. Okay, Galway are still in the competition but as a gaa fan I'm happy with that. I want to see the best players and teams still in at the business end of the competition. These groups will throw up a few dud fixtures now and again but there's more than enough humdingers to keep us all entertained before we get into knockout.