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What's the story with McKinless, is he back playing

Clear foul on Scotstown at the end but Newbridge Joe at it again

Didnt think it was a clear foul. The one beggan his wide not long before it was a terrible decision

Regarding the last kick out were the free was brought forward, he's got a massive amount of praise on here and rightly so but what the hell was Fionn Mc Eldownney thinking, jumping along with Rogers and dispossessed his own man.
And also the fact that CD opted to go for 2 points rather than taking ball in as close as possible to level up the match shows a serious belief in himself. Is he one of the top 3 or 4 players in Derry? Personally I think so.
 Glass, Rogers,CD, Mc Closkey in that order.

Interesting. Id probably put Shane at 3rd though. Then Clucky and honestly Id just about give Padraig McGroggan the nod over Doherty. But hes certainly in that top 5 ballpark at the moment

McGuigan is the best player in Derry. He's irreplaceable. Hoping McKinless can come back close to his best and he'll be right up there. I used to have McGrogan ahead of CD but not anymore. Partly due to McGrogan injury but also CD has improved a lot the past couple of years.

Cahair isn't far off the mark with his latest article, a quarter full owenbeg does nothing for the atmosphere. There shouldn't be a game played there before the SF stage.

We are all middle aged men in here, I wouldn't expect us to like new music, just like my parents and grandparents didn't like Oasis in the 90s and thought the music from the 60s was far better.

I was at the gig on sat night, inside the 2 point arc id say. My main thought as I looked around the packed stadium was can you imagine playing here in a big game.

As for the gig it was very good but the way some people are going on about it is a bit over the top. Maybe I'm emotionally stunted.

Armagh don't have two forwards that can do that and they won an AI

Don't think I ever seen a hot shot league table at the end of a season and 1 county has 2 or three players on it. Maybe it has happened with a left and right footed free taker.
Scores were spread as teams attacked in big numbers, rotated etc. Full backs regularly chipping in with goals and points for example

The list of the top 10 scorers from play in the 2025 All-Ireland SFC includes:
2 from Kerry,
3 from Donegal and
2 from Galway.

I rest my case 

Kerry didn't play a D1 team for their first 6 games. Galway played New York. Donegal is impressive but they had more games than anyone. Clifford is always going to be up there but otherwise I don't read a lot into the top scorers as Dublin or Kerry players have it much easier in the provincials. In 2023 Shane McGuigan was top scorer in country and second top scorer from play, topped only by Basquel who scored 40 points v Wicklow or something.

Armagh don't have two forwards that can do that and they won an AI

There's a lot of hindsight analysis. It's easy to say now not marking Paudie was stupid. I agree it was but also realise that doing it and man marking 2 players would destroy their zonal defence, the basis of their success all year and that just wasn't an option.

Until the last minute they stopped Kerry getting a goal so he might think it worked from that pov. Donegal played poorly, if they executed their game plan as they had done in other games it would have been closer. That's partly down to Kerry of course but I felt some Donegal players weren't at the races and made mistakes you'd never see them make. When they got it to 4 Mogan had a couple of stupid fouls to put the game beyond them. Clifford also scored some 2 pointers that were low percentage even for him. An even bigger mistake for me from McGuinness was not starting one of McGee or McFadden and taking off Gallen for Mcbrearty.

I think McGuinness will think a lot went wrong for him on the day and on another day those tactics might work with a change to the team selection.

The only thing i remember Oisin McWilliams doing for the senior team is coming on as a sub and scoring a great point v Dublin in Celtic park in 2023. Has he done anything else to warrant being mentioned on here every month as an option for the future.

Are Armagh the 2nd best team in the country on all evidence?

Had that Kerry team in trouble in second half and looked good all year.

Albeit for 15 minutes of madness in second half.

They haven't beat Donegal since McGuinness came back

Personally, I wouldn't want a manager unproven at any level as a manager. I'm not sure of any other examples of where this has worked at county level. McMahon was an exceptional player and obviously has aspirations of management, but I think he needs to learn his trade before going right in at the deep end.

I wouldn't be a fan of McKaigue being part of the management set up either. He's too close to the current crop of players and his involvement in attracting Harte/Devlin to the job shows at the very least a lack of judgement. He has more experience than McMahon to be fair to him and no doubt he's driven. But his stint with Ardboe hasn't been deadly. He was a supporting member of management in St. Pats as opposed to leading them, so we just need to apply that context imo. He doesn't have that much managerial experience either.

For me it would have made perfect sense to add Meenagh + an attacking coach to Tally's backroom team.

Assuming Meenagh is going to be the choice, I hope the CB dont stick their noses too far in and instead give him the room to choose his own team - who ever that may be. If he chooses McKaigue, fair enough. But I wouldn't want the CB imposing a backroom team on any new manager.

So you want Meenagh to have power over his own management team (which i agree with), but your first choice would have been Tally and you'd impose Meenagh on him. Put yourself in Tally's shoes, would you really want RG's former right hand man, who all the main players probably prefer, as your assistant? It would undermine your whole set up. It makes far from perfect sense to me.

Yup the focus on Clifford takes the shine off the supporting cast.

Its a great Kerry team and but for a few hiccups could easily be on hunt for 4th Sam as a group.

How did you get 4

Well they won 2022, only for Clifford having a brutal day in 2023 final they'd  have won it, could very easily have beaten Armagh in 2024 and then won against Galway so thats 3 in a row. Even 2021 they should have beaten Tyrone.

Yup the focus on Clifford takes the shine off the supporting cast.

Its a great Kerry team and but for a few hiccups could easily be on hunt for 4th Sam as a group.

How did you get 4

Well they won 2022, only for Clifford having a brutal day in 2023 final they'd  have won it, could very easily have beaten Armagh in 2024 and then won against Galway so thats 3 in a row. Even 2021 they should have beaten Tyrone.

A brutal day in the 2023 final? I wouldn't say that

They were very lucky to even get to the 2023 final.

A forwards coach in todays game would be really important.  We need to really focus on developing forwards.  With the new rules traditional pacey corner forwards who can take a man on one v one will be vital. Doesnt happen overnight though so coaching needs to start with the underage talent at development level. Lets think and plan aheah!

We have a very good one, he's just never fit.

Yup the focus on Clifford takes the shine off the supporting cast.

Its a great Kerry team and but for a few hiccups could easily be on hunt for 4th Sam as a group.

How did you get 4

I thought he was ferociously unlucky not to be awarded the mark.
Other than that thought McQuillan was fine. Missed a Kerry pick up at one point and the Tyrone player that punched White in the stomach was lucky everyone seemed to miss it.

If I was a Tyrone fan I'd be frustrated by McQuillan. Hand up for the advantage anytime a Kerry player was touched. In fairness he was applying the rules and they were all technically fouls. I'm just of the opinion more contact should be allowed. What are defenders meant to do these days. It's bad enough being one on one with Clifford without being able to touch him.

So you'd be frustrated at McQuillan for applying the rules and calling fouls which you agree were fouls?

Yes exactly, I feel some refs wouldn't have called them but you can't argue with the decisions.