Messages

John Devine (Tyrone) Few big saves early in Section A games, even though Pascal pulled out a few amazing stops later on

PJ Quinn (Tyrone)
Liam Morrow (Derry)
Aidan McCrory (Tyrone)

Conor Quigley (Fermanagh)
Peter Harte (Tyrone)
Neil Forrester (Derry) made big impact around half back area against Down - one to watch

Colm Cavanagh (Tyrone)
Mickey Murphy (Tyrone) notched up plenty of scores

Mark Donnellly (Tyrone)
Owen Mulligan (Tyrone)
Conlith Gilligan (Derry)

Paddy Bradley (Derry)
Stephen O'Neill (Tyrone)
Seamus Quigley (Fermanagh) Wasn't going to risk him the full 70, until I realised its a fictional team


Tyrone bias of course, but ....

Jordan saying on Twitter that Hughes has retired too..

from @ officialgaa on Twitter:

GAA.ie can confirm that Tyrone's Kevin Hughes has announced his retirement from inter-county football. #gaa

[Rampaging thugs burn house to the ground]

The Kerryman just won't let the Hill men alone http://www.kerryman.ie/news/rampaging-thugs-burn-house-to-the-ground-2992034.html

Rampaging thugs burn house to the ground
By DONAL NOLAN dnolan@kerryman.ie

RESIDENTS are living in fear after a house was burnt to the ground by a gang of thugs who went on
the rampage outside Ballyduff village in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Locals, including a number of elderly people who live alone, are terrified following the havoc in the
Kilmore area at the weekend, which culminated with a vacant house, owned by former Ballyduff hurling
manager Jerry Wallis, being burnt to the ground.

The late-night mayhem was the latest episode in a number of similar incidents in the area in the past
two weeks. A vacant holiday home was broken into early in the New Year and upwards of ¼10,000
worth of damage was caused as thugs smashed everything they could lay their hands on.

This weekend's appalling vandalism saw the gang damaging a hot-rod car in one home, uprooting
garden lights in another, throwing a rock through the windows of one house and stealing a fire
extinguisher from another before setting it off all over the outside walls of that home.
None of the
houses was occupied at the time. The Wallis family are this week reeling from the destruction of their
Kilmore home. "We're absolutely devastated and it's a terrible start to the New Year for us. Thankfully
there was no one in the house at the time, but it is shocking to think that something like this could
happen to us," Mr Wallis — who brought Ballyduff to hurling glory with a county title once again last
year — said.

"It's the latest in a number of incidents on our area and to be honest we're living in fear," one local
resident who didn't wish to be named said. "This crowd are out of control and it's bad enough here with
the boy racers driving down by night to the beach. There's a number of old people living here alone and
they are in real fear at the moment. We're thinking of getting an Alsatian now to protect our home it's
so bad."

Gardaí are appealing for any information in relation to the episode and have carried out house- tohouse enquiries in Ballyduff as well as conducting a forensic examination of the road on which the
vandalism occured.
"We have spoken to a number of locals in relation to these incidents and are taking the matter
extremely seriously," a spokesperson for gardaí in Listowel said.

They may man the sidelines with Alsatians so

http://bit.ly/z6bcRU Brawl is online.

Doesn't look good with the benches cleared, but looks like the footage misses most of what was supposed to have sparked the brawl.

Could argue that Dromid no. 4 swinging at Derrytresk management sparked it. But looks bad for a few Hill men.

Final is back in Athletic Grounds at 7.30pm on Saturday. Bring your thermals.

Definitely a game of two halves. I would have probably gave MOTM to PJ Quinn or Mugsy. Ronan O'Neill should be good enough for his place in the league now as well.

Seamus Quigley seemed to be carrying an injury, did go down for a time in the first, which is why he maybe didn't have a bigger impact before he went off at half-time. Still managed the goal though, despite 3/4 wayward shots.

Paddy Bradley is a handful. Every ball that went into him, he either took it clean or claimed it after breaking it down. Gilligan always a threat as well.

[Radio Ulster maybe]

Anybody know if the matches are on the radio today ?

Looking to know the same, q101 covering Derrytresk in the All Ireland club Semi.  Radio Ulster maybe ?

Doesn't look likely. Q101 might do the odd update. Twitter's probably the best bet for 'Live' coverage.

Howdid Derrytresk do?

Won't know until near half three tomorrow. Game is at 2pm in Portlaoise. Live coverage on Q101 apparently.

Best of luck to the Hill. Pity McKenna semis had to clash.

[but wouldn't get carried away with his impact.]

Tyrone ran riot in first half, turning over Fermanagh and getting acres of space around midfield and half forward. SON was in great form and Lafferty looked very sharp. Mattie Donnelly had a lot of possession but maybe just needs a bit more confidence. Hughes also did well.

Fermanagh came at Tyrone with Seamus Quigley in the second and deployed a tighter blanket defence which frustrated Tyrone, forcing them to shoot from difficult angles, but they still missed a bagful. Aidan McCrory and Peter Harte's runs were among the highlights of the night, pity their efforts weren't converted.

Felt ref awarded a lot of soft and easily converted frees to Fermanagh, bumping up Seamy Quigley's score tally. He did take a nice point from play,but wouldn't get carried away with his impact. Mickey Murphy missed an absolute sitter on bascially an open goal, but to be fair Fermanagh had at least 3 good goal chances before they bagged one.

Quigley (the wider) is clearly not fit for 70 mins against Tyrone, least Canavan doesn't think so. Pace was fairly fierce for McKenna football. Why else wouldn't he start? Will be interesting (if he starts) on Sunday, how long he lasts. Nicely teed up.

McCrory, Harte, Cavanagh and SON very strong for Tyrone, with Hughes and Lafferty looking good. Hope they get a stab at the league.

Dont know what game you were at?? he turned the game on its head.Fermanagh offered nothing in attack until he entered the fray. the whole side evolves around him from what i seen..Tyrone were beat 1-06 to 0-3 during the period when he came on so a treble scores defeat in the second half im no mathimatician but id say if you dont get carried away with that impact it must take a fair bit to get you excited....

Fermanagh could have easily had two first half goals only for good keeping/defending and plenty of luck for Tyrone. They also shot a bagful of wides. Tyrone being reduced to 3 second half points had everything to do with Canavan's tactics of a thick blanket and nothing to do with Seamus.  Tyrone were frustrated and couldn't convert from distance and wide angles. Yes Quigley gave them a target man to lob into and he was always a threat... But 4/5 of his points came from handy frees which I don't remember him winning. He is certaintly talented and has the ability to shoot from everywhere, but Fermanagh were always going to come out of the cages in the second half. Only surprise was that their goal didn't come earlier. Still, hope Quigley gets the start on Sunday. His presence alone is good for the atmosphere in the usually dull McKenna period.

Tyrone ran riot in first half, turning over Fermanagh and getting acres of space around midfield and half forward. SON was in great form and Lafferty looked very sharp. Mattie Donnelly had a lot of possession but maybe just needs a bit more confidence. Hughes also did well.

Fermanagh came at Tyrone with Seamus Quigley in the second and deployed a tighter blanket defence which frustrated Tyrone, forcing them to shoot from difficult angles, but they still missed a bagful. Aidan McCrory and Peter Harte's runs were among the highlights of the night, pity their efforts weren't converted.

Felt ref awarded a lot of soft and easily converted frees to Fermanagh, bumping up Seamy Quigley's score tally. He did take a nice point from play, but wouldn't get carried away with his impact. Mickey Murphy missed an absolute sitter on bascially an open goal, but to be fair Fermanagh had at least 3 good goal chances before they bagged one.

Quigley (the wider) is clearly not fit for 70 mins against Tyrone, least Canavan doesn't think so. Pace was fairly fierce for McKenna football. Why else wouldn't he start? Will be interesting (if he starts) on Sunday, how long he lasts. Nicely teed up.

McCrory, Harte, Cavanagh and SON very strong for Tyrone, with Hughes and Lafferty looking good. Hope they get a stab at the league.

I see the Tyrone Herald have a big interview with Oz in today's paper (bit of an excerpt here http://t.co/0Mxcs9oE). No notion of retiring apparently! Few choice quotes. Also says there's more to come on Thursday on him talking about the league final.

Just watched Moneyball there tonight. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1210166/

Best sports film I've seen in a while. Based on the true story of Oakland A's general manager (Brad Pitt) and Jonah Hill (fat lad from Superbad) attempts to change baseball around 10 years ago using stats and computer generated analysis.

Better than it sounds...

One one hand we have the Carrickmore club volunteering the move of a large piece of GAA heritage over 100mile up the road for people to sit down in and watch any brawls that may erupt through their execution of our great game and on the other hand we see the club pay out large sums for their employees to manage their adult teams. It's great to see a club with such a diverse perspective of the GAA and its culture and the importance heaped upon the volunteer to the strength of our organisation.

Such a club being what it is it's not a surprise that it seems to dominate the entries on this forum

I think both clubs will and should be happy with the suspensions handed down. There were a lot more than 3 men on the field badly misbehaving, but the video obviously only sees so much.

At the end of the day, while I wasn't happy with the melee on the field, had it happened on the other side of the field there would have been very little about it. There will be conspiracy theorists claiming Carmen get away with it all the time, but sit back and think about he many incidents around Tyrone this year alone that got swept under the carpet. People jumping fences and knocking teeth out at underage games, linesmen getting assaulted. These weren't high profile games, so little in the way of publicity.

The issue here was what happened in the stand. I stood in the stand watching at the time and thought then it was a pure disgrace. I still think the same. There is no excuse. I seen what was largely responsible for igniting the situation and there maybe were a lot of people in there who got caught up in the moment, which I suppose can happen easy enough.
Personally I feel anyone with cop on stood their ground and didn't get involved. Of course there were a few of the regular headers (from both clubs). Many clubs have them, but are reluctant or afraid to address these individuals. What's the solution? Easier said than done.


Another point I want to make, there's a disease in Tyrone football that is spreading to other counties and it's nothing to do with fists and everything to do with the gob and attitude. Dromore are the worst (but not the only) perpetrators. It has been allowed to happen in the Tyrone senior team for too long. Players might argue that sledging, mind games or whatever you want to call it are all part of the modern game. But where do you draw the line? Talking about someone's wife, mother, dead relative, sticking your finger up someones backside? Laugh if you want, but these have happened and are happening in the game.

Did McCusker not get a run out in the McKenna Cup and League a couple of seasons back? Definitely remember him starting and coming on at corner forward.
He's a great club player, but IMO this is the first year he has stood out head and shoulders. Would do no harm to give him and a few of them Clonoe lads a run out in January.

Apparently Pomeroy on standby ahead of an 11am pitch inspection of Omagh tomorrow. But going by the shape Pomeroy's in after today's game, can't in any way see it being switched. Healy Park should be grand. Though switching the u-16 final could be a possibility.