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I maybe conveyed that badly JJ. Only three clubs have a constant stream of talent coming through - Gorts, Cargin, St Galls. No-one else looks to have anything of note coming through to challenge any of those three. Yes I agree with your soccer player opinion too - used to play teams like that with half in their man united shorts and the other half in their celtic ones. Seems like a thing of the past! No one else , to my mind anyway, has enough of a stream of talent coming through to impact these three so it should just be a matter of time till Gort NaMona bypass Portglenone and Lamh Dhearg assuming that, and I think they have, they've already bypassed St Johns/St Pauls.

This to me would mean that the only three to challenge for senior / division one honours in the next few years will come from these three. It will be tough for Gort Na Mona to make a breakthrough by the "big two" but you never know if they keep at it.

Culchy the hurlers had no choice but to enter the christy ring...

Gort Na Mona have a steady stream of underage talent coming though so I would expect them to be top three in the next few years. Creggan were doing really well at u14 a few years ago but I've not seen anything at minor yet - maybe they're a year or two young? No other club has a steady stream of underage talent coming through.

You get the odd team like Davitts winning minors but they were never able to sustain it and you need multiple good underage teams to make a good senior team - one just isn't enough. I think Sarsfields are picking up though and Rossa being in a minor semi is the first in a long time.

From the south west Cargin aside there hasn't been too much since Stinsons of the late nineties and even four in a row didn't translate to senior success.

No harm in having an opinion Milltown. It seemd though that you assumed you hammered rasharkin as they're division 2. They're a division 2 side who would give you as good a game as a number of division 1 sides would. What was the score between you and Dunloy on the first day of the season?

Realistically only two sides can win antrim senior at the minute unless Creggan have seriously come up which would, pleasantly might I add, surprise me. All the rest just make up the numbers.

If every team that couldn't win the senior went down to intermediate then there'd not be too many left! I think there is some merit in what you say though.It should be enforced  senior comes from division 1 plus previous years intermediate winners and intermediate comes from division 2 and maybe top half of 3 with junior from the rest.

You had the example of a division1  playing a division 3 team in the championship which shouldn't be happening. All be it that the division three team won but even so it's a game shouldn't be happening!

Johnjoe minor football is down to about 4 teams now if I'm right. Sarsfields, Rossa, St Galls and Cargin. If I'm right I think St Galls play Cargin?

Milltown with Cargin and Lamh Dhearg out there are realistically no teams that can challenge you at all. What you did to Rasharkin you could do to almost anyone. St Brigids aren't really that out of place in the senior championship and deserve to be there as they won the intermediate. Rasharkin have some fine players in Doherty, Hasson and McAleese but are maybe a bit thin on the ground in some other areas. I , to be honest, am surprised they are actually in division 2 at all. If the rules allow them to be in the senior then why shouldn't they be? You have to take into account that Dunloy, Moneyglass are in division 1 and you could probably beat them by more than you beat Rasharkin.

Your argument of division 2 teams in the senior holds the same water as an argument for division 1 teams in the intermediate. Dunloy and Moneyglass are in the intermediate and in division 1.

The Antrim scene in football is really very lop sided. St Galls and Cargin could field second teams who could beat a lot of teams first teams.

You may have a point about division 2 sides in the senior but your comments were ill formed and possibly came across as arrogant! You came up with this theory because you hammered Rasharkin - you have to realise that you could,and probably will, hammer most of the teams left and you are a club with the ability to do in Antrim what Crossmaglen have done in Armagh and the only one team in the whole county,I think, even remotely close to stopping that is Cargin and they blow hot and cold. Now if Creggan put it up to you I will eat a lot of those words but I'd be very surprised.

You'll be alright from now on Mike. Only the Ulster teams seem fit to expose your weaknesses.

The kingdom could be doing with getting a few more ideas than just lumping it into Donaghy Mike Sheehy!

Sure the goal they got came from a monaghan defenders knock down and not even constructive play from themselves. Tidy finish no doubt but lucky rebound to him.

Dublin were the better team but they did nothing to justify the arrogance displayed by some people on here talking about levels above etc.

Derry are a few short of being a real good team but they have some excellent defenders and Doherty and Bradley are top class too. If Murphy had been fully fit and McGuckin too I think things would have been different too. Eoin Bradley for his second goal "attempt" didn't make any effort at all to side step the keeper and for the first one just hit it at him. For a boy who has such a big reputation - especially for scoring cracking goals - I expected Eoin Bradley to be deadly one on one. Turns out he was useless.

Dublin have a lot of questions to be answered. Full back is a big problem and with the threat of Kieran Donaghy looming that doesn't bode well. Some forwards were found wanting too - Jayo and Bernard Brogan until McEldowney was moved off him were the only forwards to really show. They'll be facing a much stiffer test in presumably Kerry and to be honest on that display Sam ain't going nowhere near the capital this year...

I find in an office you get a "two day pain". You're not too bad the day after a hard session but because you're sitting it stiffens you up and the next day you're stiff from the stiffening up!

The best way I have found to alleviate stiffness is exercise bike and stretching. I think a lot of you pain comes from excess lactic acid which hasn't been "extinguished" from your system. High cadence on an exercise bike helps this.

Also if you eat food within half an hour of training - and I mean proper food like a tuna pasta salad(ie good protein plus carbs) this will go a long way to replenishing what has been taken out of your body.

A recommended way to ease soreness in legs is 2 minutes slow, 30 seconds full pace repeated about 4 times(running of course). You'll feel the difference.

Was it not the case that Armstrong had EPO in some o his blood samples but these samples were taken pre EPO being banned?

I don't believe for one second Armstrong was clean - I think he just knew how to avoid failing the tests. Maybe that's the cynic in me but I just think that the cycling game is dirty and to be at the top you need to be taking part in that.

There is the theory that Armstrong was a supreme athlete - much better than the rest. In that case though why did he need EPO before it was banned?

Last year the draw was made after Cushendall - Ballycastle.

It coincidentally worked out to be 1st v 2nd in the other group. Like I and give-it-timber said though can't be sure if it's completely open - ie can teams from the same group play each other.

Milltown you talk about the scoring averages etc. to avoid cushendall until the final but is it not the case that the semis are open draw? This could then mean 1st and 2nd in the one group could play each other? Or is it open in that you can draw any of the top two in the other group(but not the one in your own)?

GNevin I fail to see your argument with Dublin have won 3 provincials in a row so are therefore a level above Derry.

The dubs beat laois in the final who derry beat so derry would pretty much beat everything in leinster.

Last year Kerry didn't win their provincial Dublin did so were Kerry last year a level below Dublin?

Tyrone won 2 all ireladns in 3 years. In this time they won 1 ulster. In provincial terms it pales compared to dublin so would dublin be a step above them?

I think Dublin will beat Derry but I think your opinion that Dublin are a league above because they have 3 provincials in 3  isn't much of an argument. Ulster is a minefield. Dublin against Meath is the only real tough derby game dublin get. They needed a replay to come through it this year too. Imagine every game was like that. That is what ulster is like. Leinster is a stroll in the park in comparison. You read about the lessons Dublin have learnt and they're from an ulster team - tyrone. The year they got that lesson tyrone didn't win ulster. Provincial titles mean jack shit at this stage.

Responses like Gnevin's are the main reason I would really love to see Derry beat Dublin too!

I would honestly love to see Derry win this one but I just can't see it.

They have the defenders capable of closing out Dublin's key men but around the "middle third" they just don't, I think, have the mobility or the ability to deliver enough quality ball to cause Dublin's rearguard significant problems. The half forward line has been a major issue for years and there's nothing I can see which has resolved that. Realistically they have beaten Antrim, an aging Armagh, a "transitional" Mayo and Laois who Dublin have wiped the floor with already. The one half decent team they have faced in Monaghan wiped the floor with them.

Like I say I hope I'm wrong but that's the way I see it.They have learnt a lot from the Monaghan game but still Dublin by 5.

I think Creggan are in for a big game in this one. A few years ago Portglenone were flying high and st johns dumped them out at the first hurdle. The johnnies in the championship are a different kettle of fish to the league.  This game will be much tighter than form would suggest.

St Brigids will really challenge Portglenone I think. I don't think Portglenone are a great team at all to be honest. They've a left footed free taker in your man McCallion and wee Gerard McAleese from play / frees but not that much more scoring threat. They have some solid players in Convery, McCarry and a few other boys but that asides they are no great shakes. I really think there could be a big shock in this one.

The other two will go the way of the favourites I suspect.