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How the hell can Kevin Nolan not be on that list despite being Dublin's best player this year? 

Why did the defender throw his feet across to block that shot, when any eejit knows there's a risk of a peno in doing such a thing. Why wasnt he brave enough to throw himself hands first instead of feet first?

Because he was two yards away from the attacker and because he knew he had a far better chance of stopping the ball with his leg.

Your argument is bizarre. A player makes a block which is clearly within the rules, he's doing nothing wrong, and yet you imply that he only has himself to blame for the penalty being given. That's like the football equivalent of arguing that a woman deserves to be raped because she's walking home at night on her own.

Terrific game of football. Congratulations to Donegal, a richly deserved win and I fancy them to win the final regardless of who their opponents are.

+ how do you play a game and score points without any imagination or intelligent thinking. i'm intrigued. how exactly does this phenomena happen?

I specifically mentioned the last ten minutes against Dublin. Perhaps you can point out the imagination or intelligent thinking Donegal displayed there?

And I must have imagined us digging ourselves out of holes against Tyrone and kildare last year.

Tyrone had got to grips with Donegal last year and a disastrous defensive error handed them the match on a plate. Kildare couldn't deal with Donegal's system but even still were also denied a perfectly good goal which would have killed off Donegal's challenge. On neither occasion did Donegal vary their tactics. When faced with a situation against 14 man Dublin where they needed to score and needed to show a bit of intelligence in varying their tactics they were couldn't and were easily dealt with for the last ten minutes plus injury time.

Maybe go with a new approach. You are not going to run through Donegal. Maybe play a 3 man full forward line of Coulter,Gordon and Poland with half forwards of Carr,Laverty and Hughes as a screen in front of midfield to stop Donegal runners.

I don't think there's much point playing a full forward line against Donegal. Mulligan and O'Neill were worthless for the entire game on Saturday. Drag three men back, play a 3-4-4-3 formation, control the middle or maybe draw them out a bit, make it way harder for them to break at pace and make it easier for your own players to make runs from deep and find some space.

Donegal just love it when teams throw players forward. It's their trap. The way they break at speed is reminiscent of Real Madrid and I'd bet anything McGuinness has showed his players videos of them.

Sooner or later some team is going to work put how to deal with Donegal's players sweeping forward. They've have clearly developed a devastatingly effective system but the difference between them and Tyrone at their best is that they have almost totally sacrificed individual flair and creativity and an ability to think individually in favour of a relentless adherence to the system. Tyrone enabled individual flair and creativity to flourish within a system. Time and again Tyrone over the last decade Tyrone have, through football intelligence, turned games that were going against them completely in their favour. Donegal have yet to do that. There is no Plan B and when faced with a situation where they needed a goal against Dublin last year, no imagination or intelligent thinking. There is only one-track thinking, a relentless adherence the system they have.

Thinking of heading up to this one. What sort of driving time would I be realistically looking at from Straffan?

Inter-county GAA in my book is a representative scenario similar to international soccer. While I don't think that representing one county should bar you for life from ever representing another county, I certainly think that an "idle period" of, say two full seasons should be required. This would mean that for somebody like Johnston who last played for their native county in 2011, the earliest they would be able to play for their new county would be January 2014.

It would certainly put a stop to oppurtunist, gloryhunting inter-county transfers like Johnston's.

I assume this hurling club are being looked after in some way for allowing themselves to be whored like this?

The word "prostituted" is entirely appropriate to what Coill Dubh have done to themselves here.

G Myles who are you to say Seanie Johnston ain't a cavan man at heart any more, he played county football for cavan for a few years, alot more than i think you did, the fact he playing in kildare now make him any less of a cavan man that you, hes ended up at Kildare, he ain't the first man to transfer about, Rory Gallagher done the rounds as has plenty of others, Kildare in with a serious shout this year and i think this has annoyed people more as he could make a difference!!I guy who played for my local team played Derry minor one year, Tyrone U-21 the following year after transferring down the road, thought he was wrong but didn't stop me talking to him,

Eh...if you piss off and desert your county like Johnston did at the first hint of not getting your way in order to try and play for an All-Ireland contending county you have no connection to whatsoever, yes it certainly does make you less of a Cavan man. A lot less.

Seanie
http://www.sportsfile.com/id/615758/

Is anyone sorry to see him go?

I hear Seanie is using these as part of his case:

The Dubs will win it again.

The facts speak for themselves. Dublin's intensity last year was a huge reason for them winning the All-Ireland. It's very difficult to replicate the same intensity the next year as many other teams, notably Tyrone on a number of occasions, found out.

All the leading contenders have what you would magine, are mitigating circumstances against them.

Dublin - difficult job maintaing the same intensity and motivation as last year
Cork - have a tendency to be rather headless in really crucial matches, question marks over the management's tactical nous and ability to really get the best from the players
Kerry - still have the class, but a thinner squad than in the 2006-2009 period, very old defence which will be a year older and more vulnerable than ever to being caught out by a team with the ability to play with the highest intensity for 70 minutes, were caught out to a certain extent by Dublin's superior fitness last year
Tyrone - the most impressiveteam in the country so far in 2012 but their older players will be a year older and it might still be a year or so too soon for some of their younger players
Kildare - have they the ability to score enough when it comes to the crunch n an All-Ireland semi-final or final? Also fighting against over 80 years of history
Mayo - fighting history in a similar manner to Kildare, have they the all-round class needed? A coming team certainly but Mayo's ability to fook things up should never be underestimated

One of those teams should win it though. It's incredibly open as to which one it will be.

If I had to pick one, I'd pick Kildare, reluctantly.

As a Dub I'd almost prefer to see us fail to qualify for the League semi-finals as I think the last thing the players need now is a semi-final against Kerry where they could well get a trimming based on current form. They're better off with some breathing space between now and the championship. If Dublin are to have a real chance of retaining Sam I think gaining through the back door would be the best route. It'll certainly have to be done a different way to last year when they built right from the start of the league. There's a lot of tired players there and I have to question whether the same motivation will be there this year when it comes down to it. The back door will give them the best chance to peak when it matters but I can just as easily see a quarter-final exit in a similar manner to Cork last year.

It's a very open All-Ireland this year. At the moment I'd say there's six front runners, in no particular order, namely Cork, Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone, Kildare and Mayo. Donegal and Down would be outside bets and then there's a chasing pack containing the likes of Armagh, Derry, Wexford, Galway, Meath etc who could with a bit of luck end up in a quarter or even semi-final but would be highly unlikely to actually win the All-ireland.

Mayo impressed me tonight. They are building very nicely, playing a very Tyrone-style of football with a very high intensity and forwards who can take scores. They'll be a lot more familiar with their system of play this summer than they were last year when they beat Cork and put it up to Kerry for a long time. Conceding only one goal in six matches has to be respected. They're definitely a team that's in with a shout of winning in September.

Everybody should ask themselves the following questions:

Is the "momentum towards professionalism" in the GAA "irresistible" as Conlon says? If so, why?

Who is pushing that point of view? Is it mainly GAA members themselves or is it mainly a media thing?

Do you think payments to managers should be legitimised? If so, why?

If managers were to be legitimately paid, how much payment should be legitimised? Should it be on a supply and demand "free market" basis where a manager can name his price or should it be only a fixed amount with a specified maximum limit?

Would under the counter payments still continue anyway if a specified limit wasn't considered enough by a manager?

If managers were paid, should players be paid? Would players look to be paid if managers are paid?

If players were paid, where would the money come from? Should players be paid more than managers?

Which teams would get paid? Would it be just senior inter-county? Would it be only some senior inter-county teams? Would the Leitrim hurlers get paid? Would the top club teams get paid? What about Women's GAA?

If payments to managers were legitimised, would anybody want to manage a team without looking for payment?

If players were paid, would they be able to move between counties? Would rules against this be seen as restraint of trade under the law?

Should players be allowed to move between counties anyway like Seanie Johnston is trying to do?

If players were paid would it have an effect on the county system, and if so, what effect?