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Mighty stuff Lar. I was picturing it all in my head as I read it.

Me too.

Newry 2008 

I find it annoying too.

More and more I'm clicking into profiles to see no County listed and I don't like it wan bit.

Extremely disappointed by yesterday's show. Sad to say that along with the relative success brought by this team, managment and board in recent years we are now in the all too frequent habit of shifting very heavy defeats.

I'm not one who buys into tactical masterplans and especially not when, from the stand, it looks like lads aren't even attempting to do their best. Too many passengers yesterday who looked like they wanted someone else to do the work. Too many half tackles and very little evidence of the required killer instinct to pounce first on the breaking ball.

Only Aidan Carr and Darren O'Hagan looked like men who were willing to do their jobs (and i'm not from Hilltown).

A number of circumstances which stood out for me that were indicative of our problems although these admittedly occurred long after the horse had bolted..

1) Our small forwards exemplified by Laverty. It was painful to see Conor blocked so that he could not collect the return pass under the hill in the second half. Unfortunately the option to burst THROUGH his marker is not an option to Conor and until we have power forwards in the mould of yesteryear then we will be very limited.

2) Our nervous backs. Towards the end with Mayo trampling us I saw an instance where ONE Mayo fwd managed to harrass FOUR down defenders with sheer determination whilst we should have been in cormfortable possession. Our backs looked so uncomfortable/stressed they actually went backwards to McVeigh even with the immediate numerical advantage. Maybe the heads were already gone but I question if they'd been there all year.

Remember that £1 the County Board took from us in 2010? I'd like mine back now please. Gotta go now and do my bit to mould the future generation.

Down team to play Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter final

Brendan McVeigh
Darren O'Hagan
Dan Gordon
Conor Garvey
Niall McParland
Kevin Mc Kernan
Brendan McArdle
Ambrose Rogers
Kalum King
Aidan Carr
Mark Poland
Conor Maginn
Brendan Coulter
Conor Laverty
Eoin McCartan

Larry invented the whole notion of countries and borders. Indeed he also coined the phrase "keep your friends close but your enemies closer".

That's why monaghan is where it is.

Hoganstand have odds too:

Odds: Mayo 1/2 , Draw 15/2, Sligo 9/4



I Knew we weren't favourites (and we haven't even announced team) but hell !

One match doesn't sum up a country/county....

....until Saturday 5pm that is !

Down always always always last to announce their team and have been for manager after manager.

I wonder why that is?

Down* Croatia, always threatening to do something

think a dutch comparsion would be better - a glorius past and always threatening to do something

The BBC had an interesting webpage where you fill in your height and weight and it came back with which Olympian you are most like. It matched me with some fellow called Larry Reilly.

I'm for Gran Canaria Paddy but found that flights from Belfast were a good bit cheaper than from Dublin.

Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian in history. Larry Reilly is just biding his time (for now).

To approach from the other perspective and at the risk of appearing negative the players that I would leave on the bench are:

Brannigan
E McCartan
Hughes

Players I would call from the bench as the game develops:

O'Hare
Doyle
Rooney
McKernan

Yeah Valerie Mulcahy & co going well....