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Especially considering the first half of Mayo v Dublin

Was a carbon copy of the 1st half v Galway and enough evidence not to write Mayo off if Tyrone happen to lead the 1st half of this upcoming final by a couple of points.

Mayos conditioning and ability to up the gears in intensity is what won the Connacht final and All-Ireland semi final.

Plus they took out Shane Walsh. As Sylvie Linnane observed,"lads ye won't win anything without a few tinkers.."

You mean Shane Walsh bit off more than he could chew.

An té nach bhfuil láidir ní foláir dó a bheith glic. Ní raibh Shane glic.

This. He tried to start something and he picked the wrong lad to try to bully. I'd say he's sorry now.

I remember at work we discussed buying a premium ticket or two between several people from different counties. You'd need fairly well constructed rules about how it would work, but I didn't expect Armagh to be in a hurling final while some of my colleagues were mostly interested in that side of things. Presumably, though premium tickets are of most interest to Dubs, who would get provincial games and could expect to be in the final as well, with real difficulty getting a ticket for that final.

Most interest would indeed be to the Dublin crowd given the home games for Dublin are played there so they would get the most value. The current pricing though is fairly hefty - if you're on the higher tax bracket you basically have to earn 10K to pay for the cheapest 3 year ticket. Its a lot of money when you boil it down to that.

I know it's stating the obvious but there's going to be quite a few disappointed people.

Yes of course there will be , it's the hope that one will turn up that's killing us . Personally I just wish I could train my mind to genuinely accept I wont be there but it's harder than you could ever imagine

They'll be there next year, and if you help out a little more around the club and maybe join the committee you'll be a shoe in. or become a referee. 

or get a season ticket if they make a return.

So talk me through a premier ticket? How much do they cost and what do you get for them?

Pricing is here:
https://crokepark.ie/premium/prices
fairly hefty pricing. You get a book of tickets for all scheduled games at the beginning of the year, and for any replays there is a section of tickets marked as "reserve ticket 1, 2" etc or something along those lines. You get an email in advance of that fixture to tell you which ticket to use.
If there is a concert, you get first dibs on a ticket for that concert, but you still have to pay full price.
There is an option to sell/exchange tickets to other premium members for matches you don't want to go to, but I don't think it's at the full face value and I think they don't give you money either, it's like a prepaid card for food/booze in the premium section.
I have had the privilege of getting one for 2013 as they were doing a special deal for a discounted price to celebrate 100 years of Croke park. That was good value for the year, 500 euro for a seat I think. That was great value when you consider you got guaranteed tickets for Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Finals in both codes.

[your]

Joe McQuillan confirmed as the ref for this All-Ireland final.

Was hoping for Gough.

+1 way more assertive, McQuillan is not.
Advantage Tyrone, as he is an Ulster Referee, Tyrone will be very well aware of how far they can push the boundries, which TBH they are very good at.
Was at the game on Saturday and watched the entire game again last night , got confirmation of that.
Not a slight on Tyrone by any manner of means, as they were the better team on Saturday.

Dublin Joe has been very generous to Mayo againat the Dubs 2012  2013 and 2015. James Horan called him out after 2011. McQuillian had no choice but to send off Don Vaughan in 2017 final.  Listen ye are favourites and have the better team. No need to be whining about referee. Some Mayo supporters are never happy 🙄🙄🙄

Just like you kerry guys and your alter egos;

Kerry for Sams
The Greatest
Eire 90
Macker 15
CK Redhand
Fear anFhiranne

your infantile wind ups' are getting very old.
The gig is up, can you please disappear from what was a very good genuine GAA Blog.
btw shit job by the MODS.

I can assure you I have nothing to do with hoynevalley and I've no idea what would given you any notion that I'm from Kerry.

Fair play to Tyrone  - I genuinely didn't think they would be able to recover sufficiently to challenge Kerry, but they certainly did.
I was also genuinely surprised by the number of Kerry players going down with Cramp late in the game in start contrast to Tyrone.
Don't understand how the odds aren't closer between the finalists. I don't see Mayo as 4/6 favourites and Tyrone at 6/5 to lift the cup, I really think this should be a lot closer, but a lot of that is going to be based on where the money has gone, and I'd expect it to change in the run up to the final.

I am sure there are some bits added fro dramatic effect. Like the two Small brothers sneering Cluxton and Cluxton in turn getting annoyed with Dessie...BUT

The general gist is that Cluxton was raging after the training breach, with lads who are teachers and front line workers who should not be doing this. Obviously takes the role model thing v seriously.

Now I have heard that Cluxton from a few he did leave over the training ban and they were keeping it qt. Also told that some of the lads went back to try to get Mannion back in but he didn't want it.

Told by one lad who I would trust Dessie is safe and others saying he might not come back.

But yeah that's the WhatsApp flying around.

Have you heard about the Ballymun vs na Fianna issue on the captaincy?. That seems to be quite outrageous.

Any truth in those WhatsApp messages doing the rounds

share the wealth. I've heard some mutterings but not seen the messages myself.

Game was up, subs can be on the field unless runs have changed

No, Lane blew it up after he lost control of that situation.

He blew it up before that. He had lost control of the game long before that, in reality.

Game was up, subs can be on the field unless runs have changed

Correct. if you look at this clip, you'll see lane on 11 seconds telling the players to clear the pitch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOfpG57P554

Then at 22 seconds you see him holding out his arms to signal the end of the game. I've not seen the Sky version but it looks like RTE kept the clock running when the game was signaled as over.

Imagine he scored the first one and missed the retake.

Is there any chance of O'Shea getting banned from the final for going on the pitch during that schemuzzle?

Probably not but he absolutely should be.

Probably not as the Ref had actually blown up the game before he came on.

Decisions go for you and against you in big games, Dublin have got their fair share of calls over the years, some for , some against.

Il only begrudge decision, the Hennelly point, but its all buts, if he scored first time, would Lane had made him take it again? However Mayo the better team after half time,  still think Dublin threw it away and could have easily won it, should of won the game.

What I've heard, and it makes sense if you look back because Deegan is still standing about 4 yards away from him on the 45 and on the pitch when he takes the kick, and you can see Deegan pointing when Robbie is about to make contact. That's interference from an official, really.

EDIT - bit I omitted from the above was that as he was running up Deegan was telling him not to take it.
If you look back at the first take on Youtube, you'll see what I mean.

As a Mayo man, have to say I'm delighted with that result. Horan made the right calls, and brought on the right replacements.
Make no mistake - we were not playing to our full potential for the first 40 minutes of that match. It started gradually in the second half but we were 5 points down with 8 minutes of Normal time remaining, and Diarmuid runs past 4 Dubs to keep that ball in play which McLoughlin slots over.

On the McLaughlin incident - in real time it looked dodgy enough to me on the Telly and the replays confirmed it. I've no idea what Small's real intentions were, but he should have been off from that point.
I don't expect he intended to break Eoghan's jaw but regardless it was late and it was high, and if you're out by a fraction of a second and you catch the man other than on the shoulder, you're in the wrong.
Worse than all that is how play was allowed to continue when there was a player clearly injured on the ground. I know the refs have a tough enough job but that was incompetence of the highest level. It really is time for TMO or if the GAA is worried about slowing down games, then get more officials. A Second ref should be there as when you break it down - you've a lad probably in his forties or fifties running continually after 28 lads half his age (30 if its an Ulster Final) and expecting him to see everything on a pitch that's over 12,500 square meters, as well as having to apply additional and sometimes subjective rules every year, such as Forward marks, changes to black card rules etc. It's no wonder there is little consistency on how games are officiated.