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Surely a bit of road running is useful in building a bit of stamina before and leading into presason?

Over the mountain and down to Moira roundabout has always been a reliable Plan B for myself.

My club usually start Jan/Feb.

Personally I think there is nothing wrong in getting some road running done pre-Christmas and perhaps a weights programme, so that come proper 'collective' pre-season the bodies are tuned that wee bit better with slightly better fitness levels than 30 odd puddings carrying extra Christmas weight.

I know that the second most clubs exit the championship they stop training unless they're still in the hunt for promotion/league title, so a lot of clubs could have been finished up now for a good few months.

I've heard of clubs out running the roads in Oct/Nov but I think that is ripping it a slight bit.

Of the current squad there are 3 who transferred into the club from other clubs and didn't come up through the ranks. Of those 3, 2 have direct links to the club/area with parents having lived here/played for the club but moved away.

And did the whole families transfer back or do the rest of the clan still play away with their original club?

Aghagallon (Antrim) and Magheralin (Down) are about 2.5 miles apart.
Magheralin is about 2 miles from the Lurgan clubs (Armagh) and Aghagallon is about 4 miles.

7 clubs in a 5 mile radius covering 3 counties.

I'm tipping Annaghmore because (on paper) they're too good for Junior; they gained promotion to Division 1/Senior football this year in Armagh. Plus they've home advantage.

Boylesports are doing odd's on the semi's so think I'll do a wee accumulator for the purposes of interest this weekend.

I'm leaning towards Annaghmore and Kileeshil in the Juniors, and Eskra in the Inter semi, just can't decide on Foreglen/Truagh.

Any inside info on all games appreciated 

Any team that beats St Gall's is a genuine contender. I know St Gall's aren't quite at the same level they were at a few years back but I just fancy Glenswilly to edge this one. Roslea look a good outfit though so would expect a tight affair, 1/2 points in it. Glenswilly can probably bottle up the threat of the Quigley's to an extent, but do Roslea have someone to quell Murphy?

Kilcoo/Ballinderry is a toss up. What do Kilcoo take from the Cross games? That they beat the best club side ever and reigning provincial champions; or did they scrape by a team that lacked any scoring threat and that had been decimated by injuries/absentees from it's normal line up? I'd lean towards the latter. Either way again only 1/2 points will be in it. Think it's time this Ballinderry team stepped up to the plate.

Another good game but maybe not as exciting as last week.

A fair result I would have thought, though if Cross had a full hand to choose from they'd have easily beat Kilcoo, fair play to them though as it took Kilcoo two games in ET to beat them. I don't think the Ballinderry men in the crowd will have too much to worry about for the semi-final.

The first sending off in my view was a turning point, after that Cross had Kilcoo rattled and looked like they could near nick it, but when it came to the end of normal time and both teams level, the Down men looked to have more options on the bench whereas Cross hadn't really anyone to bring on.

Would imagine that deep down Cross people will accept that the extended break will do them no harm in the long run, AK can regain fitness and they can go into next season a bit fresher and as well as getting a bit of game time with the county.

Every day that goes by Jamie Clarke looks more interested in becoming a well-travelled and maverick fashionista; and less interested in playing football with Crossmaglen and Armagh.

[The referee was great,]

Absolutely amazing game.  Lots of hard hitting from start to finish.  Darragh O'Hanlon scored a monster free for Kilcoo right at the end, the same as he did in the County Final v Burren.

Kilcoo had a great goal chance in the second half of extra time, but it went into the side netting.  A couple of middle aged Kilcoo men lost the plot in the stand just before half time.  They should have been put out, but the stewarts were reluctant to get involved.

Both teams did themselves proud.  It was tough going throughout.  The referee was great, he just let them play away.  Some other dick of a ref could have sent half of them off.  Ryan Johnston was Man of the Match.  J Hanratty, Garbhan Carragher and T Kernan were excellent for Cross.

Interesting.

As a neutral I think the ref let a lot go, both sets of players showed great discipline (to an extent) keeping their calm over the hour and 20 mins when lesser players would have snapped and earned themselves a red for reacting. If we get half the entertainment we got today we'll be in for a good game!

Apologies, had assumed A Cunningham was fit, he basically spent the game warming up right in front of me.

For me, both teams are extremely well conditioned and have great strength in depth. I felt Cross really missed AK's leadership/influence today and for that alone he would be a massive boost and could well be the difference, what exactly is his injury?

Part of me thinks Kilcoo have missed the boat, but I've been wrong before calling games like these!

Kilcoo were also forced into making a number of changes with key men having to come off. I didn't realise that AK, PK and Jamie Clarke equated to a third of the Cross team?

In any case a great spectacle today, Kilcoo will probably be kicking themselves but at the same time relieved to still be in it. Overall I think they should have won, major blunder for the Cross goal when Kilcoo were really cruising and looking like they would close the game out. That gave Cross a huge lease of life and saw to a hugely entertaining finish. Cross are also lucky, McNamee could have seen red early on.

Let it be. If there's an appetite for something it will be satisfied. I agree there is no point forcing clubs or counties to embrace a code just for the sake of it. In the town near me you have 4 football clubs (one of which actually has a thriving handball club) and a hurling club, with about 4/5 other football clubs scattered around the outskirts of the town.

A sizeable GAA population, but there is little to no interest in hurling. The hurling club itself is Junior level and would cover the catchment area of all the local football clubs, drawing its players from these clubs. While they are holding their own, they won't be competing for senior any time soon.

It doesn't matter if a club is dual Division 1 senior club or a bottom of Division 3 Junior, so long as they promote the ethos of the Association and are the focal point of their community then they are a true GAA club in my eyes.

While I do not speak for Nally Stand, in my own opinion the likes of British state agencies in a lot of cases were in a position to carry out arrests on suspected IRA members rather than shooting them on the spot and then subsequently attempt to deny that they were unarmed or that there was a STK policy in place.

They also did this with non-combatants, as well as blatantly colluding with Loyalists who were inherently sectarian in their selection of targets.

So on that basis, (and granted I think that any member willing to volunteer in the IRA should be aware of the risk to their lives),  I don't see how anyone can view the IRA as terrorists and simultaneously ignore/forget/downplay the acts of the British Gov; and somehow view them as morally superior to the IRA when they played as much an active role in killing innocent civilians as any Republican grouping did.