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Basings my guesses off the number of active playing teams may be the wrong way to go, now thinking Slaughtneil as youd assume the whole hamlet is involved young and old?

Surely not little Slaughtneil the small village who conquered Ulster in 3 codes - couldn't be the case???

No disrespect by the way great club

Where is this village you speak of? 🫣🫣

There catchment area is so small surly couldn't be them? And they would never go outside that catchment area.😂😂.

Out of the last 3 county title winners they're the only club without an outside transfer, bitterness isn't a great look fellas. In all seriousness it is likely Steelstown, think they've a lot of numbers at underage & are hoovering up all talent in the city and possibly Bellaghy or Magherafelt

I shall indulge your "whataboutery" for the moment, by pointing out that soccer is played/supported/administered in all parts of NI, by all communities. The NI Schools Cup, for example, attracts over 100 entrants every year, comprising state and fee-paying schools, grammar, comprehensive, integrated, technical and Irish language schools from all areas. How does that compare eg with its GAA equivalent, the MacRory Cup?
Whilst all our representative sides, men and women, boys and girls are similarly mixed. The current Manager of the Senior Mens team, Michael O'Neill is ex-GAA, as is his Captain, Conor Bradley.
And I can tell you from my own, direct experience that there are more NI supporters from the Nationalist community than you might imagine - even if they don't broadcast it widely.

Anyhow, this is a GAA forum, so back to your Demographics, eh?

Soccer is based on an sectarian entity, any of the above is mere mitigation.

But more nationalists in the 6 play soccer than gaelic games...

That's just false, just like the south soccer dominates in the city like Derry & Belfast where the GAA are very outnumbered but the rest of the 6 counties are dominated by Gaelic games in nationalist areas.

Waterford selects to lose?

I'm not having any issues understanding how it happened, but by that logic, would it not be apt to argue that Loughgiel or Ballygalget should enter Ulster Intermediate as they're the second best teams in their respective counties? Or that Dunloy and Ballycran should be entering the Ulster Junior Championship as the third best teams in Antrim and Down?

If there's only 5 clubs in a county like Donegal and to a lesser extent Derry with 8 clubs vying for all three championships I can see why they're doing that TBH.

Antrim have multiples of those clubs and are doing their championships at the levels that works for those clubs internally.
They're all at their competitive levels.

Down are similar for me and whilst on the Down thread there may be a bit of consternation that the bottom two teams in the senior round robin drop down into the intermediate semi-finals and have more or less dominated that the last few years the winners of Down intermediate haven't been winning Ulster championships by the bucket load, so for instance this year Liatroim came up just short in their game v Glenariffe in Loughgiel.

If anything in Ulster the teams are pretty well matched, in particular intermediate and junior, The two Derry teams came up short and most games were only won by a few points barring the odd exception.

Is that not a good thing for Ulster hurling in general?

You could be the 2nd best team in Derry and draw SN in the quarter finals though. In principle I kind of agree but tbh Derry in particular should be maybe playing more games to work out 5th , 6th , 7th and 8th rather than one off quarter finals with the luck of the draw. I get that's championship but it's a bit different with the kind of grading aspect. (Or at least that's my understanding of it)

Yeah I vaguely mind that SS and wondered why it didn't apply to Lavey this year. There used to be something about 5 years but I can't mind what?

There is no 1/4 finals in Derry, 2 groups of 4 top 2 into senior semi finals with losers going into intermediate Final, bottom 2 in each group play in junior semi finals. It was the case that only Coleraine or Na Magha played in Ulster.

Any word where Loughrea v Slughtneil will be?

Kingspan Breffni in Cavan probably the most Central?

Terrible venue for a club game, same as thurles absolutely no atmosphere

Iniskeen then?

Probaly put it in newbridge or somewhere

If memory serves Cushendall played St Thomas' in Parnell Park so I'd say you're looking at there

Any word where Loughrea v Slughtneil will be?

Kingspan Breffni in Cavan probably the most Central?

Terrible venue for a club game, same as thurles absolutely no atmosphere

I take it we will be using Owenbeg for home games this year if Derry City are using Celtic Park. I'm sure another nice bitta change for the county board

Thats awful from the keeper, just had to jump. outta interest why is he in nets as he's been outfield before this year.

He's hasn't played outfield in 2 or 3 years

I could see the argument for Easkey and Toreen to play at the higher provincial level if they win their shc next year.

The runner up in the Derry shc compete in the Ulster IHC (i think), it's not perfect but in counties and provinces with a small  number of hurling clubs, it's not easy to find a solution.

Losers of semi finals play in intermediate final

Declan McCauley new Faughanvale manager, Emmet McGuckin & Caelan O'Boyle taking Ballerin

There are some complete slabbers on here. Those who seem to thrive on only highlighting the clear and obvious negatives that the dogs on the street could tell you about.

The reality is that the top end of Antrim club football is as strong as it has been in an age, not the other way around. Dunloy, Cargin, Creggan, St. Brigids, Portglenone and Aghagallon if they got their act together would be more than competitive in Derry or Tyrone. You dont know football if you argue otherwise.

I am also optimistic on the County front for next season. The more I hear the more I like, and on the face of things the re introduction of mckenna cup football for the new management team and a division 4 & tailtean cup campaign lays out a season, to my mind, where we can really compete on all fronts and begin to make strides again.

I've been critical on these things in the past myself, but I don't get the agenda of some people.

Dunloy or Cargin would be the 6th best team in Derry, I've no idea what would give you the idea they'd be competitive

Anyone know why Conor Glass is described as "from Londonderry" in the clip above? It seems strange for a GAA related interview.

For some reason most of them GAA clips YouTube channels have loyalist/unionist names. No idea why

Away to Meath in Croke Park first league game

Sean Young & Conor McAteer bound to be asked into the county setup, 2 serious footballers

Magherafelt v Newbridge    M'Felt -2

Glenullin v Foreglen    Glenullin -4

Slaughtmanus v Doire Trasna  S'Manus -5