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Anyone got a link for getting the cheap jersies/ kits for kids?

Sent you a PM

Setting up new hurling clubs in areas with none at the minute is great but without a properly respected window to play the game it's always going to struggle to keep going. You need the big football clubs to buy into a gap in the calendar to allow the lads that go to those clubs and give them a chance to get past u10 level. Most underage coaches (and the hurling ones do it too) are afraid of other sports taking their time.

The intermediate is not quite as exciting this week, but could still throw up a shock or two.

Shamrocks will travel to Kilclief, and Clonduff will host Warrenpoint.

Last year's Junior Champions, Kilclief, will want to make a statement win. However they don't seem as strong as they were last year, and whilst Shamrocks have also regressed from where they were a few years ago, it's still very hard to see past them as the best team in the Intermediate at the moment. The few years they  spent in the Senior Championship will probably serve them well.

Clonduff have been massively struggling this year. Understandable given the tragic circumstances around the club, recently. With low numbers and a poor league campaign, it is hard to see them doing much damage to a strong Point team who really want to target getting an Intermediate Championship.

Unfortunately, there's not too much more that can be said for this week's Intermediate action. Shamrocks and the Point are realistically a good bit ahead of Kiclief and Clonduff.

I think the problem with the intermediate is the lack of teams in it. There's only a few teams in the county, and there's a big enough gulf between teams going up from junior (like Kilclief) and meeting teams coming down from Senior (like Shamrocks).

I think the only real solution is we need more teams so we can expand the championships- although that is far easier said than done.

The intermediate championship should throw up some interesting clashes this year, with a mix of Div One, Div Two, and potentially Antrim league teams once the senior clubs come down later on in the championship. Realistically though, it is hard to see past whoever comes down from the senior championship meeting in the final.

Should be an interesting championship, all the same.

Thanks for this splash, what way would you like the county board to increase teams? Where would you target?

No bother Truth. Hope you found the read interesting.

It's of course very difficult to start hurling teams and takes a long time, and the County Board can't force clubs to field hurling teams. I think we should put the emphasis on offering football, hurling, and handball to everyone in the county and go from there.

There's a lot of areas I think could be targeted for hurling growth, and in different manners.

I think for a start we've a scope to promote hurling in our urban areas.

If you think of the major towns in the county- Newry, Downpatrick, Newcastle, Banbridge, Kilkeel etc., the only one that has a team is Newry. (I wouldn't count Kilclief, Castlewellan, and Ballyvarley as being hurling clubs in those towns, they are different clubs people from Downpatrick, Newcastle and Banbridge would have to travel to to play hurling).

Downpatrick in particular is a place with major potential I would say. A large, nationalist town, with a lot of Ards people attending school in the town.

I also think any club that fields a camogie team would be fit to field a junior hurling team. Others may disagree, but in my opinion, the resources, or at the very least, the foundations, are already there. Ballyholland, Mayobridge, Kilcoo, and An Riocht all compete in the Senior Camogie Championship. Surely it wouldn't be impossible to introduce underage hurling alongside underage camogie?

One example that comes to mind is St Kevin's. The club is exclusively a camogie club. No football, no hurling, purely camogie. Surely there should be a discussion about offering hurling? (I understand the situation surrounding St Kevin's and that it's not as simple as that, and it draws its players from Teconnaught and Drumaness etc., the run in with the county board a few years ago, but I still don't think any of that prevents the club offering hurling).

Resurrecting hurling in clubs where it used to be is also something I think should be looked at by the county board.

Darragh Cross had a particularly strong hurling team in the relative recent past. Glenn and Rostrevor had hurling teams around that time, too. There's others, but those are ones that spring to mind.

There's a lot that could be done to promote hurling in the county, and there's no quick fix, and it'll take a lot of persuasion, but it's possible.

If every club that offered camogie offered hurling, large urban clubs like RGU and Bryansford fielded clubs, and a few parishes resurrected the game, we would double the amount of hurling clubs in the county. This would be huge, and it would allow us to expand the championships to more than 4 teams, and would lead to more competitive and more interesting championships across all grades.

That's my 2 cents anyway. Im sure alot of people will say it's wishful thinking and I should give over and just let clubs focus on football, but I think it's a pragmatic way of thinking about it, and at the very least, it's discussions we should be having.

The same can be said of football in hurling clubs and handball. There's no reason we shouldn't be talking about offering Gaelic Games to everyone.

I wouldn't agree Downpatrick has any potential in terms of hurling. It could be easily argued that for such a large population the RGU have seriously underachieved in football for a very long time. I doubt there would be a strong enough interest for hurling or the playing numbers to sustain it.

They had a hurling team at junior level and underage teams for years. Only stopped in the last 20 years.

Darragh Cross stopped fielding after 2000 - I remember Ballela playing them in the junior quarter final in 2000 (then played RGU in the semi), Rostrevor stopped late 90s - same for Drumaness. St Johns, Kilcoo, Mayobridge & Glenn all played in the 80s.

If you could go back in time and relive a whole match in live time, what would it be?

1991 AI final. I'd love to see wee James in full pomp to see if he was the absolute force of nature my younger self remembers.

Same for me. I was 10 at the time so didn't get a ticket. That image of the hill being covered in red and black flags as the teams paraded around is class. James and Mickey Linden flying in either corner.

Szmodics is older than Idah and any team buying him is likely to factor in that there is no resale value so likely to have a lower ceiling price.
As a comparison Cardiff City centre-back Mark McGuinness is set to join Championship rivals Luton Town in a deal which could eventually be worth £10m. - 23 year old ROI youth international apparently at a similar price to Idah a full international and a striker so traditionally more costly.
They have probably overpaid compared to what could have been negotiated in January but from a football perspective it is better to have him in the squad than some extra money in the bank.

Not sure Idah's ceiling would ever be 27 goals in a championship season.

I'd rather have Idah too, than not have him, although I'm not sure there will ever be a big resale value one him, especially with the sell on fee.

I don't think the Idah sell on clauses matter that much, Idah will repay his fees (and wages) in kind over this season and the next. Anything gained after that is in bonus territory.

Idah's 9m fee is a relative pittance to what the board dished out for Sutton, Hartson et al.I didn't realise then just how much the board  went total left field with the transfer policy during Mon's time.

sutton, hartson, lennon all 6 million signings back then. Wonder what that would translate into now

That's nearly 25 years ago so it'd be big money now for sure. Just think, even nowadays, in 2024, Celtic spending £6m on a player would be rare enough.

I think that O'Neill must have said to the board, I need a treasure chest of money if I sign on as manager. That's the only thing I can think of.  It was speculate to accumulate type of thing and it worked. Got through to qualifiers in Champion's League and a UEFA Final V Porto.

Lawell and current board just want to count the coffers unfortunately. No real interest in Europe as Rangers are brutal and Celtic will win the SPL and go straight into CL qualifiers.

Changed times but if the Board were a bit more adventurous, they could push on a bit further. 

Not denying anything you are saying, but the question is, push on to what?

It would take 100's of millions to compete at CL level and even at that clubs who have invested those types of sums can't compete.

So what are the options? Hard to attract even mid level players to the league when it is so uncompetitive.

Victim of their own success unfortunately.

Could Celtic turn the head of someone like Scott McTominay? I know they wouldn't pay up the £25million and he might not be the player you want at the minute but could a transfer like that be a realistic target?
Rumour was that BR tried hard to bring him to Celtic in his last spell and was close to getting the deal done.

Who's your house insurance with lads? I paid £270 last year with a company called GetSafe who have now been taken over and won't offer me any cover. The cheapest quote I can get now is £580.

I've tried those not on the comparison sites like Axa/Aviva/Admiral/LV/Direct Line and no luck yet.

I had a similar issue with my insurer and had previously set it to auto renew as it was so cheap so never gave it a thought.
Only to realise I'd gone almost 2 years without insurance as they stopped covering NI. When I went to re-quote, prices were sky high (000s) as I have a gap in my insurance.
Still havent found a replacement for reasonable money.

Ours went from 500 odd to 900 last year. Getting quotes now for 1700 ffs. What nonsense is going on with home insurance?

Climate change leading to increase in claims related to flooding etc., inflation leading to massive increases in labour and material costs for repairs to properties and cars etc. That's the official line from the insurers but they can make any oul shite up and when one goes up they all go up.

Just a follow up on this. I now can't get a quote under 2k because I have a claim in the last 2 years. Most companies here have a new policy of no new customers with a claim within 2 years and our existing insurer (along with quite a few others) are no longer insuring in the North.

Wife says she's not paying that much!

It's for pretty much the same reason as to why Stalin's rivals didn't push him out and take over.  Trump is the Republican party now.  He has loyalists in all or most of the positions of power within the party. His daughter in law is the chair of the Republican National Committee!

 Those few who come out against him (e.g., Cheney, Romney) either face a MAGA backlash and become irrelevant, or just retire.  Romney, for example, noted that after his vote to impeach Trump, he had to hire extra security after threats on his family.  He also claims that several other Republican representatives told him that they were afraid to vote for impeachment precisely because (unlike the very wealthy Romney), they couldn't afford to cost of that kind of security.

Fair enough. I didn't realise it was as bad as that. Land of the free...

[FFS the stuff Harris is on record as actually saying should make her unelectable]

Speaking as a conservative, I hope he loses badly and I am seriously considering voting for Harris

He probably cost us 4 Senate Seats, 25 House seats and 2 or 3 Governorships in 2022

FFS the stuff Harris is on record as actually saying should make her unelectable.....but he hasn't an ounce of discipline and takes zero advice from anyone

How did normal conservatives think that Trump was ever the answer? I could understand it was a protest against Clinton who represented all that was wrong in politics at the time. But how he got back in after the Biden loss baffles me

The people who vote in the primaries are the extremists....in both sides. That's why the Democrats tried to rig their primary against Bernie back in 2016


No one thought Trump would ever win in 2016....his people turned out and her people didn't

And you ask how did he get back in the running after Biden won in 2020....it's not that baffling at all if you live here. Joe and Kamala have made a dogs dinner out of things the past 4 years

Just one example below

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/mass-senate-passes-budget-with-over-800m-to-help-migrant-shelters/3315898/?amp=1

My point was that knowing what happened after Biden got in with him not accepting the result etc, how was there not a majority of conservatives pushing better candidate in front of Trump to beat Biden. From the outside looking in it seemed that any new appointment could take the victory. Biden pulling out has left the republican party fighting a battle Trump wasn't ready for. As for the VP ticket - the democrats seem to have made the better choice there without knowing either character in depth.

[FFS the stuff Harris is on record as actually saying should make her unelectable]

Speaking as a conservative, I hope he loses badly and I am seriously considering voting for Harris

He probably cost us 4 Senate Seats, 25 House seats and 2 or 3 Governorships in 2022

FFS the stuff Harris is on record as actually saying should make her unelectable.....but he hasn't an ounce of discipline and takes zero advice from anyone

How did normal conservatives think that Trump was ever the answer? I could understand it was a protest against Clinton who represented all that was wrong in politics at the time. But how he got back in after the Biden loss baffles me

No word on who will be the new Derry manager yet then??

Talk of Andy Moran

Can't see that happening.
If rumours are to be believed, its been decided already.
But as time goes on with no announcement it does make me wonder if the rumours are true.

Banty with RG as his #2?

That's one of many rumours all with equal credibility.
For what it's worth, I can't see that combo happening.

That would be an expensive team to put together

There were so many reserve games not played this weekend. What can be done to resurrect reserve football?

How many years in a row has this question been asked now?

Who's your house insurance with lads? I paid £270 last year with a company called GetSafe who have now been taken over and won't offer me any cover. The cheapest quote I can get now is £580.

I've tried those not on the comparison sites like Axa/Aviva/Admiral/LV/Direct Line and no luck yet.

I had a similar issue with my insurer and had previously set it to auto renew as it was so cheap so never gave it a thought.
Only to realise I'd gone almost 2 years without insurance as they stopped covering NI. When I went to re-quote, prices were sky high (000s) as I have a gap in my insurance.
Still havent found a replacement for reasonable money.

Ours went from 500 odd to 900 last year. Getting quotes now for 1700 ffs. What nonsense is going on with home insurance?

Climate change leading to increase in claims related to flooding etc., inflation leading to massive increases in labour and material costs for repairs to properties and cars etc. That's the official line from the insurers but they can make any oul shite up and when one goes up they all go up.

Robbin' bastids

It's a joke - how does that make any sense to be paying 1700 per year. Have the number of claims went up significantly lately or just the cost of claims?

Who's your house insurance with lads? I paid £270 last year with a company called GetSafe who have now been taken over and won't offer me any cover. The cheapest quote I can get now is £580.

I've tried those not on the comparison sites like Axa/Aviva/Admiral/LV/Direct Line and no luck yet.

I had a similar issue with my insurer and had previously set it to auto renew as it was so cheap so never gave it a thought.
Only to realise I'd gone almost 2 years without insurance as they stopped covering NI. When I went to re-quote, prices were sky high (000s) as I have a gap in my insurance.
Still havent found a replacement for reasonable money.

Ours went from 500 odd to 900 last year. Getting quotes now for 1700 ffs. What nonsense is going on with home insurance?

[How about starting with all kickouts from the 21 and must cross the 45 before being touched?]

How about starting with all kickouts from the 21 and must cross the 45 before being touched? This short kickout is terrible and has robbed the game of one of the greatest spectacles i.e high fielding.

Anothe item of note was that 2 matches had no goals at all..

Time to wake up before it's too late

They tried that and in one of the trial games there was a gale force wind and the keepers struggled to get the ball out. I'd look at the new 40m line as a zone for kick outs to go out past as a starter. The short kick out and slow build up is a pollution.

Our flight wasn't cancelled, but supposed to leave at 1.15pm.

Hopefully it all goes ok for you. Kids in the airport are hard enough work without any worrying about whether the flights going or not.