Messages

The Weatherspoons are generally decent run pubs - it all depends on the clientele. There are 4 in Manchester City Centre. 3 of them are decent but the one in Piccadilly Gardens (by the bus station and tram) is a nightmare. Generally the scrotes will walk to the cheapest and closest pub. If you want to drink with decent company then don't go to the cheapest pub in an area. They will have a lot of decent people in them but they will attract the scrotes.

The major problem for me is still the style of play. It was noticable that once Stephen O'Neill went off on Sunday the mayo backs started to bomb forward. His lack of mobility meant that we had a half forward in position which stopped the opposition's half forwards from bombing forward. Bringing the half forwards back just invites the half backs onto you and leaves whatever full forward(s) you have totally isolated. We need to play a style of football which keeps the oppositions half backs honest. We don't really know how good McCurry, O'neill, McAliskey, Coney can be since we don't play a style of football that will give them an advantage

There is a real problem developing and this year it has really come to the fore. The personal attacks from pundits who have a platform to say whatever they want on tv with their 'victims' unable to answer back.
Brolly on Cavanagh.
Last week, Brolly on the whole of Tyrone.
Brolly on Grimley.
Eamon O'Hara on Kevin Walsh.

That is not punditry. That is abusing your position to attack people.

dont remember the full details of O'Hara/Walsh but of the rest only Brolly on Cavanagh was a personal attack.

What Cavanagh did does reflect badly on his character. Whats wrong with pointing that out???

Actually you could look at it the other way and say that what Sean did he did for the team - he knew that he could have been sent off and I don't think would have complained if he had. If he was selfish and concerned about his reputation he wouldn't have touched him but he did what he had to do to help his team.

You don't really believe Joe was accusing Cavanagh of being selfish?

Cheating an opponent and not fulfilling the standards expected by players of each other. Thats the accusation,

When asked every other player and pundit (except Joe) has said that they would have done exactly the same. Indeed Joe's two colleagues on RTE on Sat would have admonished any player that wouldn't have done it so he has fulfilled the standards set by players. Joe Brolley wouldn't have done it because he wouldn't have been back in that position but don't tell me Joe had never fallen dramatically and has had his opponent booked. That's cheating an opponent as well

They said they would do the same. They didn't say it wasn't cheating. TSG discussion confirmed this.

Fair play for Brolly for manning up and calling it as he saw it. Too many sitting on the holes afraid to offend anybody

Fair enough  - then they're all cheats. My issue with you was what you said regarding Cavanagh's character. Stamping - hitting a man from the blindside - spitting on another player : When these happens then you can get into the character issue but not for something that every other player would have done.

There is a real problem developing and this year it has really come to the fore. The personal attacks from pundits who have a platform to say whatever they want on tv with their 'victims' unable to answer back.
Brolly on Cavanagh.
Last week, Brolly on the whole of Tyrone.
Brolly on Grimley.
Eamon O'Hara on Kevin Walsh.

That is not punditry. That is abusing your position to attack people.

dont remember the full details of O'Hara/Walsh but of the rest only Brolly on Cavanagh was a personal attack.

What Cavanagh did does reflect badly on his character. Whats wrong with pointing that out???

Actually you could look at it the other way and say that what Sean did he did for the team - he knew that he could have been sent off and I don't think would have complained if he had. If he was selfish and concerned about his reputation he wouldn't have touched him but he did what he had to do to help his team.

You don't really believe Joe was accusing Cavanagh of being selfish?

Cheating an opponent and not fulfilling the standards expected by players of each other. Thats the accusation,

When asked every other player and pundit (except Joe) has said that they would have done exactly the same. Indeed Joe's two colleagues on RTE on Sat would have admonished any player that wouldn't have done it so he has fulfilled the standards set by players. Joe Brolley wouldn't have done it because he wouldn't have been back in that position but don't tell me Joe had never fallen dramatically and has had his opponent booked. That's cheating an opponent as well

There is a real problem developing and this year it has really come to the fore. The personal attacks from pundits who have a platform to say whatever they want on tv with their 'victims' unable to answer back.
Brolly on Cavanagh.
Last week, Brolly on the whole of Tyrone.
Brolly on Grimley.
Eamon O'Hara on Kevin Walsh.

That is not punditry. That is abusing your position to attack people.

dont remember the full details of O'Hara/Walsh but of the rest only Brolly on Cavanagh was a personal attack.

What Cavanagh did does reflect badly on his character. Whats wrong with pointing that out???

Actually you could look at it the other way and say that what Sean did he did for the team - he knew that he could have been sent off and I don't think would have complained if he had. If he was selfish and concerned about his reputation he wouldn't have touched him but he did what he had to do to help his team.

My favourite Tyrone - Monaghan memory of the 80s is Audie Hamilton shouldering Gene Sherry. Once in Clones and again in Croke Park - it's a pity there is no video evidence of either of them.

We'll be knocked out later on this year and it will probably be to another trouncing. If we get another hammering at the end of the year then Mickey will have to go. The main problem is down to our style of play which worked well 10 years ago when you were not playing against massed defenses. We are far too slow to get the ball into the full forward line. I counted I think 3 occasions in the first half when we played it long and I think that it was even fewer in the second half. The way we're playing you could have Peter Canavan, Frank McGuigan and Iggy Jones in the full forward line and our half backs would probably score more than them. What I really liked last year about Donegal was that they were not afraid to let it in long especially when they got to Croke Park. The stats show that Donegal have the best completion rate and it's no wonder because they're getting the ball into the area were it's easiest to score from. The way to set up against Donegal is to have a 3 man full forward line (2 target men and a speedster) and tell them not to move more than 30m from goal. You have the rest of the team defend from the 50m back and tell them as soon as they get the ball to halfway then belt it in. Don't even think of hitting it towards the wings - just straight towards the square. You might only win 25% of the ball coming in but you should get a score from it.

Back page story in Irish News today.Paul considering withdrawing co operation with RTE as a result of Brolly's attack on Sunday. Seems to be infuriated particularly because Brolly brought the twins into the debate.Obviously Joe has forgotten the fate of John Lynch.

Yeah - and Eugene McKenna sorted that out at the start of the second half

Really looking forward to this one now. There will be some scramble for tickets.

Should be some atmosphere!

It is primed to be a cracker. All we need now is sunshine and about 27c!

This is Ballybofey you're talking about - I've never  been there on a dry day : It's nearly as bad as Markievicz Park in that respect

I'm not sure how the black card will work out but I'm willing to give it a chance. It will all really depend on the referees. If it is applied properly though it should  favour teams that run the ball as opposed to a long passing team. If you run the ball then the opposition are far more likely to receive black cards as it's now standard to block a runner for a return pass or take out a colleague who is available for a pass. Mind you there are some referees who never spot runners being taken out

Interesting that Coldrick was the ref in all 3 of Tyrone's defeats in 2012.

Ah ffs come on man dear...................................... I hope you are not implying that he is the reason you lot are no longer in the championship, are you?

Let me say this first - we were beaten by the better team on each of the 3 occasions this year.My point is on how the referee can affect how the game is actually played. If you play a running game and the referee is not good at picking up third man tackles on your players then you end up at a serious disadvantage. If the referee doesn't pick up on the blocking then you end up with two players wrestling on the ground and with both players booked. Both the offender and the offended end up with equal justice. If a referee is quck at spotting it and books the offender only then you'll end up with an open game of football. Brian White was one of the best refs at spotting this and Mc coldrick is not. This should really be a job for the linesman and they should be specific on who was the initial offendor.

I predicted in the Donegal vs Tyrone match thread a few weeks ago after the game that Tyrone would get hammered again in a similar vein to the Dublin game last year when they met one of the "big guns" this year and yesterday proved that. 

Tyrone at the moment are playing a horrible brand of football at the minute, lets be honest about that. 
Short kick outs to a man standing on his own 20 meter line and then try and work the ball up to the scoring position by "bursting" through tackles and short passing it back or sideroads is not only hard to watch, its actually unreasonable to ask players to do this. 
There is no way you can get fit enough to play that type of game, by the time tyrone players worked the ball up to a scoring position, they where that wrecked from taking tackles and punishing running that in the end up most of the attacks where easily over-turned and Kerry broke with space everywhere which the kerry forwards completely revelled in.

Tyrone have given up the old age adage that you let the BALL DO THE WORK.   Tyrone are doing all the work for the ball.  Its horrible, physically & mentally exhausting  and highly unintelligent football.  Really think Tyrone need to look at their style of play and change it otherwise they will continue to go backwards even in a transition period.

You have hit the nail on the head - Tyrone have had 2 trouncings in 2 years. The running game looks good in the league because the opposition are not up to the speed required but come the championship we are found out. By the time the ball gets to midfield the 2 man full forward line will have 5 men marking them so they never see the ball. To receive any ball then they usually have to run to the wing and are about 40 yards out where they end up turning into 3 defenders. There was only one decent ball played in all game to the front of goal - McCurry turned and hit a fine point. By having 2 legitimate half forwards (i.e. not having them play half back) we might find that we will score more and might actually find it easier to defend because the opposition half backs will actually have to do their primary job instead of bombing forward. Tyrone at their best in the last decade mixed good foot passing with a good running game. The running game will always fail in Croke Park because by the last ten minutes you'll have run out a gas and have nobody to hit the ball to since you'll be all sitting back in defense (as the pundits would say 'you've lost your shape').

I do believe that the players are good enough - given a full hand you would have to pick a full forward line from Coney, The 2 O'Neills, McCurry, Mulligan and Penrose but  given the system we have now you could have Frankie Donnelly, Frank McGuigan and Peter the Great in there and your half backs will still score more than them.

Terrible sad news about Dessie - he was a very proud Fermanagh man. My memories of him will be of the many goals he scored for Fintona - him running straight through and hitting a rasper to the back of the net and of many a rendition of the 'Auld Triangle' . He'll be greatly missed

Dessie - Rest in Peace

http://youtu.be/YoXfyQKM7GA

Cavan score penalty 1-0 to 0-0 - it's also on teamtalkmag

So, is the 'county championship' mode really a breeding ground for the county team?

If you look at both Kerry and the Tyrone panels (basing this on the panels listed in wikipedia)

              Kerry  - Players from Senior Clubs 22 in panel of 41  53%
              Tyrone - Players from Senior clubs 22 in panel of 28 78%

All the kerry players will have played in their senior county championship - it goes back to my point that the standard county championship system will not find late developers in intermediate / junior clubs. The kerry system is set up to find the best footballers in the county.