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We've seen every team play championship football so I thought I'd update the rankings.

1. Dublin - No Change
2. Kerry - Up 1 Place
3. Derry - Down 1 Place
4. Donegal - Up 3 Places
5. Mayo - Down 1 Place
6. Armagh - Up 2 Places
7. Tyrone - Down 1 Place
8. Galway - Down 3 Places
9. Cavan - Up 5 Places
10. Monaghan - Down 1 Place
11. Cork - No Change
12. Roscommon - Down 2 Places
13. Down - Down 1 Place
14. Louth - Up 1 Place
15. Meath - Down 2 Places
16. Sligo - Up 4 Places
17. Westmeath - Down 1 Place
18. Kildare - No Change
19. Clare - No Change
20. Fermanagh - Down 3 Places
21. Offaly - Up 4 Places
22. Wexford - Up 1 Place
23. Laois - Down 2 places
24. Wicklow - Up 3 Places
25. Antrim - Down 3 Places
26. Leitrim - Down 2 Places
27. Longford - Down 1
28. Limerick - No Chnage
29. Carlow - No Change
30. Waterford - Up 2 Places
31. Tipp - Down 1 Place
32. London - Down 1 Place
33. New York - No Change

Thoughts?

Anyone watch this documentary on RTE tonight.

Chilling stuff.

Thats as good a weekends football as there has been in a while.

Is there as much wrong with the game as is made out?

As much as I got it right about Jim Mcguinness having something up his sleeve with Donegal.

I'll have to admit I was wrong on Cavan. Game was going more or less how I expected it with Tyrone 8 points up. But a unbelievable turnaround by Cavan which I would never had expected.

If they had that bit more belief from the start they'd have pulled it off.

Was the training camp too close to the game?

How impressive were Donegal in the midfield battle though

Will Mickey go back into his shell in all ireland series now?

Where are the boys that said McGuinness couldn't possibly have anything up his sleeve.

Clifford getting frees just because he's Clifford.

Yeah that last one was a free out.

He had a nightmare first 20.

Could change quick though

Not sure if there's a Munster championship thread.

But alot to like about this Cork side.

They might be well bet yet considering how brave they are.


But serious potential in this side.

I notice the Irish News journalists keep referring to Donegal as 'Tir Conaill'. The funny thing about Celtic Park is that it was in Tir Conaill/County Donegal at the time of the plantations. It was also in the Cenel Eoghain before that but the Cenel Conaill eventually won Inishowen in battle.
County Derry was formed when Derry (city) and South Derry (North East Tyrone) was added to County Coleraine (North Derry).

Interesting. Have you sent links to this info?

Also why when driving through the north does it not let you know when crossing county boundaries. What's this Derry strabane Omagh fermanagh stuff.

Excuse my ignorance.

I'm not sure about you men but I haven't been as excited about an Ulster championship game in a long time as I am about Donegal v Derry.

Sun is shining a packed house in Celtic Park what more could you want

Wonder will be be cagey and packed defense or will both teams go for it?

Hopefully not Donegal will need to bring something different.

I have the feeling Jim will have something up his sleeve but narrative around the place is that the games moved on too much to have anything different 😂

Will find out in a few hours time. Game might have came a round too early for Donegal considering their injuries but we'll see.

Would like to see both teams have a strong tilt at the all ireland no matter the result today.

I'm not sure about you men but I haven't been as excited about an Ulster championship game in a long time as I am about Donegal v Derry.

Sun is shining a packed house in Celtic Park what more could you want

The Preliminary Quarter Final is a balls too, no jeopardy, all about extra games, as you say probably TV rights, get beat in the first round of your Provincial Championship lose 2 matches in group stage and you could still be in a Preliminary Quarter Final , what a load of crap.

Prelim QF was conceived as a result of meaningless games in the final round of the Super 8, its to try and incentivise that final round of group games where the top 2 is already confirmed and bottom 2 is not

Nothing screams its fucked quite like Kerry playing the second tier of Hurling (Joe McDonagh) but aren't allowed to play in the Munster Championship. Long story short, 57 varieties

Worked well last year in 3 groups none of these games were meaningless!!

Kerry    5–24 – 0–11    Louth

Dublin    3–23 – 0–8    Sligo

Derry    1–19 – 1–13    Clare

Them games you mention still weren't dead rubbers as score difference was massive due to Cork, Mayo and Kerry finishing on 4 points.

It turned out Kildare beat Roscommon so score difference didnt matter there but that was a shock result.

And if Clare beat Derry then Monaghan or Donegal could topped the other group.

There was also serious drama with John Heslin with a free to knock Tyrone out of the championship and a late rally from Armagh resigning Galway to the Prelim Quarter finals.

Was great entertainment that last week especially with all the games at the one time.

Cavan team named.

No Killian Clarke, McLoughlin or McVeety in starting 15.

Would love to see Cavan win this but unfortunately I think Tyrone will win this by 8-10 points. Cavan struggle to score from open play and will struggle to keep all the Tyrone fires out.

Ie. Canavan, McCurry, McShane if he back on form.

Yeah only the 3-4 scored from open play last day out. Quite the struggle

4 points from play is not a great return haha.

3 goals from play however is very good, but the worrying thing is its not a common theme for Cavan to score goals but hopefully that's changing.

How many goals did they score in the league altogether 3 or 4?

Garavn Jones scored more from play in the Fermanagh game v Cavan that any Cavan player scored from pay in all 7 gmaes combined.

So there's definitely an issue with scoring from play for Cavan. But its championship now and trends can go out the window.

Well it's 7 scores from play in a gale force wind conditions, so it's ok considering that. Some of those goals would be chances that some would take points from, so good we've goals in us anyway.

Wouldn't be too concerned with that Fermanagh League game. We were clearly holding our water for 2 weeks after. They were playing for their lives and we had nothing to play for that day

I agree on the goals very encouraging to see them go for the juggler instead of fisting over the bar. True on the Fermanagh game aswell but these are just observations I've made i'm not criticizing as it was a great performance the last day despite this; bit of a step up again this weekend but you don't know what your gonna get with Tyrone.

Cavan team named.

No Killian Clarke, McLoughlin or McVeety in starting 15.

Would love to see Cavan win this but unfortunately I think Tyrone will win this by 8-10 points. Cavan struggle to score from open play and will struggle to keep all the Tyrone fires out.

Ie. Canavan, McCurry, McShane if he back on form.

Yeah only the 3-4 scored from open play last day out. Quite the struggle

4 points from play is not a great return haha.

3 goals from play however is very good, but the worrying thing is its not a common theme for Cavan to score goals but hopefully that's changing.

How many goals did they score in the league altogether 3 or 4?

Garvan Jones scored more from play in the Fermanagh game v Cavan that any Cavan player scored from pay in all 7 games combined.

So there's definitely an issue with scoring from play for Cavan. But its championship now and trends can go out the window.