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I would never have thought that Down, after 35 minutes in the Athletic Grounds, they'd reach a semi this year, but lo and behold, they're against Mayo.

Exactly the kind of outfit that suit Down.

Very interesting tie and it should be a great match.

Great display from Donegal to pick up the cup and the game went fairly much according to script. They are fantastically fit; to see McFadden making bursting runs in the last five minutes shows how well conditioned they are.

One big black mark against Donegal was Neil McGhee stamping Conor Laverty's foot in the first half. He got a yellow but it should have been red, as there was clear intent to do damage. If there's any justice he should be out for the next game for what was a nasty act.

Down defence are poor, even with Garvey and Gordon won't make that much of a difference. Murphy and McFadden will be much too powerful. At the other end Benny Coulter and Laverty won't count under the blanket.

Both managers are astute and react quickly to game patterns, so it's even steven on that score.

Donegal to win by 4 - 5 points.

Like all journalism it's subjective. The best sports writers and pundits, more often than not overcome their own background. With most their origins shine through and within GAA this obviously leads to rubbish comments about referee, 'opposing' player performances, calls for CCCC action/inaction and lazy analysis.

There's no point in having a cut at the decision to appoint E McE now.

Eamon hasn't shown enough these past 2 seasons that he can cut it as manager of the county team.
There are no grounds for optimism.

He's gone now, and the stats show record was poor. While he was hit badly with injuries, it was when the Under 21 got hammered in Celtic Park a few months ago that it was clear we're not making any progress. He took on more than he could deal with. In fairness to whoever the next manager is, it's going to involve alot more that one man and his background team. The county board clearly have a massive role and every club in the county has to buy into it and pull together.

So you question 'supporters' because they are critical of the management? Worth reading Dick's recent column in the Examiner - http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/columnists/dick-clerkin/angry-fans-can-raise-standards-197702.html

Yes, Eamonn was a great player, but should never have been appointed as Banty's replacement, given his previous management spell with Monaghan and his time with Louth. There was absolutely nothing to suggest that he was the man to bring us to (in the County Board's words) 'the next level'. It takes more than 'will' and 'passion' to make a team successful.

As for Eamonn saying it's going to take 3 years... well if we hadn't just wasted 2 years... And i'm all for a 'do or die' approach to the Ulster Championship. Let's be realistic - it's our only hope for proper silverware. It's not as if we've sacrificed a few All Irelands to give Ulster a bash!

There's no point in having a cut at the decision to appoint E McE now. The 'supporters' I  was referring to relate to another popular GAA forum, full of keyboard warriors, who never gave him a chance from Day 1, even after we got trounced in the Ulster final under the previous manager. Of course supporters are entitled to criticise how the team they support perform or how it is managed.

Perhaps I wasn't clear regarding Monaghan's approach to the qualifiers. Good sides are developed in the qualifiers, as we have done in the past under Banty. Any team with any sort of ambition has to give it a lash. And I don't really understand why so many Monaghan supporters dismiss us as perennial All Ireland no hopers. Down have won five with players from a small number of clubs in the south of the county. Offaly have won hurling All Irelands with only a few clubs playing the game. There are many examples of counties with limited resources scooping the big one. Derry in the 90s is a good example.

Luck and timing are important of course. The Monaghan side of '85 would have been good enough to win it in other years. It has been done before with limited resources. Ambition and confidence, necessary ingredients for any success in sport, is very lacking in Monaghan, with the very notable exception of the women.

Yet another massive disappointing exit from the Championship for Monaghan. The Down game highlighted the edge needed to turn good footballers into winners. Small things needed from the sideline were absent. As an example, when Down were chasing the game, their management had their man, behind the Monaghan goal, harassing Keogh for time wasting. It took at least ten minutes for the ref to intervene and send him back to the dug out. When have we seen this level of business from a Monaghan background team?

Before today's game to hear that Finlay had transferred to play with 'Donegal' in New York, and is travelling in the morning, said a lot about Monaghan's general approach to this qualifier campaign. It was half hearted, as the display in Portlaoise showed. All our eggs were placed in winning an Ulster title. When that didn't happen we needed to be going full throttle through the back door, like Tyrone did against Roscommon. That's where team rebuilding begins, in the heat of Championship.

Eamon McEnaney has been a great servant to Monaghan football, as has Paul Finlay and both don't deserve any crap. Many 'supporters' have been very critical of Eamon harshly. Both have been loyal to Monaghan's cause and deserve immense credit. We need Monaghan men with the will and the required passion to bring us to the level we're capable of playing at. We shouldn't need to be looking outside the county for this.

Where to now? We clearly need a new attitude that looks beyond the 'do or die' in the Ulster Championship. Division 3 is where we can to start blooding new players to benefit from the experienced. As Eamon said, it's going to take 3 years.

[Antrim]

Antrim v Galway

Leitrim v Wicklow

Westmeath v Kerry

Roscommon v Tyrone

Longford v Limerick

Cavan v Kildare

Laois v Monaghan

Tipperary v Wexford

Not sure how sharp Westmeath are at the moment but I think they're capable of causing a big upset in Mullingar. They'd have 31 counties behind them, while Roscommon should make maxiumum use of home advantage against the Tyronies. Kildare have far too much to go down to Cavan, who are a work in progress. The best Cavan can hope for is that this game brings on a few of their younger players and they put up a good challenge. Monaghan will be keen to make sure last year's early exit to Offaly is history, but the away record has been very poor of late. It should be one of the closer games of the weekend.

Quick one (or two), particularly aimed at those whose county happens to be playing.

Do you lads ever go to games? Or do you just sit at home, watch on TV with the laptop besides yis, sharing your expertise in cyberspace?

not sure if anyone has mentioned it already, but surely the winning point at the death was a throw ball? he tried to fist it over the bar but the speed and height that he had his hands at when the ball left him was the kind of pass outlawed a few years ago.

Down also got a nice peno and a few handy frees in the last lock of mins to get back in the game, ref wasn't too bad on them

I agree. All this guff about the ref is OTT.

What would we be listening to if a Monaghan player stamped on a Down players head?

Thought beforehand that Monaghan had a good chance because Down thought they were going to run out easy enough winners. It was following the script, a la Monaghan v Armagh, at Casement, a couple of years ago. Monaghan were well up for it and we were beginning to feel a bit embarrassed for Down. Maybe we should have been wearing jersies, like the Down players before the game, with "RUTHLESS" in big, bold fonts. We should have been completely out of sight at half time. Mc Manus was running riot and Hughes was well on top of his man. He wasn't quite the same after he got a "knock" in the head.

Still it's hard to believe we let that lead slip. It was discussed at half time and it was felt we had too much experience to let this one go. But let it go we did.

We can only hope that the players can pick themselves up for a good rattle through the back door. It's the first time we've had anything resembling our 1st choice 15 in a few years. A bit of rustiness showed in one or two of the seasoned players, but the attitude can't be faulted. Down's defense is porous, and if we had maintained something resembling the quality of supply of the first half, we would have run out easy winners.

This voice keeps saying something like, "don't give a sucker an even break". Let's prepare to face Kerry in the qualifiers again. And we'll do them this time, big time, out the back door.

The ref certainly wasn't as bad as some are making out. He was on the mark with a few of the dives and penalised over carrying, unlike most. The Monaghan midfield weren't as sharp as Down in the 2nd half, they had the supply line that Monaghan had in the 1st. Aidan Carr turned it on big time for Down.

Ádh mór Down in the final.

Looks like a decent Monaghan side. Pity Freeman still isn't back to 100%.

It will be interesting to see who Down name. The Down supporters seem to be thinking further ahead than this Sunday, not rushing players back, and having a bigger pick later in the summer.

Hopefully the weather conditions will allow for a good game.

Something's serious wrong in the Derry camp. As others have said worst performance ever.

The same players and manager looked very good last year and if they hadn't been hit with injuries could have taken Ulster.

As a neutral I thought experience won out. Armagh supporters should be very confident about the future, with some great talent coming through. Inexperience did cost them this match.

Tyrone remain the team to beat in Ulster.