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Unai Emery today ruled himself out of the Newcastle job . That can only mean he's taking the Down job

The championship winners routinely finish in the top 3 in the league . This has been the case for years so it's obviously important enough to them . 3 maybe 4 teams have a realistic shot at the championship , the rest are hoping to catch the big teams on an off day or get a favourable draw . The main teams have got to where they are by consistently winning which happens in  the league . Hiltown won a title this year and suddenly they have a bit of belief .... Go figure

Any league title for anyone outside of burren and kilcoo would be massively celebrated and a fantastic achievement . Winning anything at senior level is a fantastic achievement for anyone given the vice like grip the above mentioned two have had on things for years

Fantastic interview from ruairi o hare and well done the team amd management 👏

Any players I've talked to are totally fucked off. Glorified friendlies was the most used phrase.

I'm unsure as to how this could possibly be true . Any team newly promoted will be delighted as they get a free pass in the division for a year to improve . Any team who normally struggle equally so And for any team with aspirations of a top two finish nothing changes . I'd say this is negativity for negativity's sake

So no relegation from any division ? And all games tomorrow off and re fixed for next Thursday ? Is that the result of tonight ?

I'm a 9 game league 5 wins would see you safe no matter what . No relegation will mean meaningless games and teams not fielding due to nothing to play for after 5 games .  With or without a few 20 year olds for 4 games the worst teams will end up at the bottom and the better at the top as usually happens in any league . The playoff game is just to give each team involved a fair crack at survival or promotion with their full panel . The main pluses to that system are it allows us to carry on regardless of county and leaves the league competitive

Promote and relegate only 1 and playoff with top 2 and bottom 2 then . Games go ahead and 1 extra game

Has that not always been the case ? Some teams with league winning aspirations and some with survival aspirations get shafted due to county players on their squad and some dont ? And again we are talking about under 20 lads here in senior teams not county seniors, huge difference .

Simple solution . Games should be starred and play on . Most of the teams in div 2/3 are affected by 1 and at most 2 starters . By changing the games they may be missing 1/2 of the of players who are available and fit now . Any division 1 team should be able to withstand the loss of a few 20 year old lads . Clubs with panels of 30+ saying they can't play and then saying they are thinking of their team ... managers thinking of themselves . Star the games , think of the players who want to play and play on

I blame the protocol

Farcical you reckon ....50% postponed you say ....It's fantastic insight for you to know what decision 20 clubs are going to make next Friday night . Did you text round them all ? Which ones aren't playing out of interest ?

Clubs have played for years under the starred system . That was losing their senior county players . Promotion and relegation play offs were brought in to ease the unfairness of this process meaning at the business end of the league you will have your full squad available for the games to either save yourself or try to win the league . I'd imagine this won't be as much of an issue as predicted and most will play on without the lads unless they form a major part of your team .Plus who's to say how far they actually go .  It's a freak season again with covid , county boards are having to make decisions on the hop . Players want to play and can't wait to get going , stop moaning and get out and enjoy it .

Provisional dates out for the leagues to start in Down and not happening until the county is out of ulster . Club players shat on as usual . Also talk of an in league warm up cup competition to use as friendlies before the actual league in order to fend off travelling to other counties . Again a poor idea as any team going for anything seriously will not want to show their hand to the same clubs they will ultimately compete with . It will become farcical with teams using them just to get players game time.  Maybe a better idea would be teams from areas competing against each other from any division . St johns , castlewellan , kilcoo and the Finn for example . If teams are gonna play weakened sides anyway maybe use this freak year and circumstance to give lower league teams a crack at the big boys and see where the standard is at and maybe improve down football as a whole as a result .

A major problem is down rely too much on individuals and not on the collective . That can be levelled at down teams throughout the previous years . One or two players will have a great day one game and be anonymous the next . Outside of Darren o Hagan through the years  I struggle to think of anyone that gives a 7/10 performance nearly every game . The top sides have consistent performers , so that if a few main men are marshalled the collective still achieves . Too much is built around Mooney , it took him to be the difference maker last week in a key moment and he was again this week for 35 minutes . Then he went out of the game and the whole team collapsed as a forward moving unit . On a positive , the lads like Daniel Guiness and the whole new full back line are solid if unspectacular and are good additions .