Messages

Galway v Armagh, Avantcard Páirc Sean MacDiarmada, 4pm
Westmeath v Tyrone, Kingspan Breffni Park, 4pm

Its in Sligo I heard not Leitrim...

In Connacht again, doesn't strike me as particularly fair but there you go

Galway have played their twice in a decade and were deplorable their last outing there. Can't see it as much of an advantage. Equal driving time from both counties, although doesn't leave much public transport options

Where would you have played it?

Brefni Pk, Cavan. surely Sligo will not hold the fans both Counties will want to bring to the game

Last years game in Carrick not selling out probably put paid to the capacity concern

If an equal distance from both Sligo is unfair then surely Ulster venue Cavan thats much closer to Armagh is even more unfair. I thought Navan or Mullingar would be fair enough venues but can't see how many can have complaints about Sligo, bar the roads from both directions being a bit crap

Some Armagh fans on social media losing their minds over it

Galway v Armagh, Avantcard Páirc Sean MacDiarmada, 4pm
Westmeath v Tyrone, Kingspan Breffni Park, 4pm

Its in Sligo I heard not Leitrim...

In Connacht again, doesn't strike me as particularly fair but there you go

Galway have played their twice in a decade and were deplorable their last outing there. Can't see it as much of an advantage. Equal driving time from both counties, although doesn't leave much public transport options

Where would you have played it?

[we'd all 4 games won]

Agreed tbrick18, that's exactly how I see it ... winning at a canter against a Derry team not up for the fight is one thing, backing it up the next day would be confirmation that Armagh are undisputedly trending upwards in the pecking order.  But that is exactly the opportunity that McGeeney and Armagh want to have, and no better team to square up to than Galway.

There was one penalty between Armagh winning Ulster and the actual result. They have a lot going for them. They also lost the qf on penalties in 2022. They have the class.

We're 4 penalty shootouts away from back to back Ulsters and all ireland semis. Sicken yer fecking hole but we'd all 4 games won and managed to snap a draw from the jaws of victory every time.

Another narrative would be:

Derry were in control for most of the Ulster Final and had Rogers fisted attempt had gone over, for a 3pt lead, instead hitting the post in the 65 minute, Derry would've been home and hosed.

Galway were 6pts up going into injury time and Gleeson had two brain farts. Even with that Walsh(?) hit a cross field pass that was never on, had he taken it into the corner it was game over as well.

True but then against Derry Grugan missed a mark that he'd score 9/10 times, Rian missed a handy free and we gifted them a goal.

Galway fair enough but we did get a bullshit red card that day and it ain't our problem they'd a keeper in with a high ball allergy.

The first time ive ever heard someone call that a BS red card. Red no question. McCabe was actually on a yellow if i recall correctly, albiet Coldrick gave a straight red

https://www.balls.ie/gaa/greg-mccabe-red-card-armagh-galway-514660

Armagh went back to 15 anyway after FT because of that stupid quirk in the rulebook (now removed). And then got the considerable benefit of Sean Kelly getting phantomly sent off along with Nugent.

Its not a game Armagh left behind anyway. Absolute freak occurrence that game finished level

Could've been a penalty for a footblock at one end, goes up the other, ROD takes 10 steps and gets given a pen. Incredible strokes of luck

I watch a lot of games from the 1996-2010 era and the standard of score taking now is far more consistent tbh. A lot of brilliant games because the ball went to contest so often but on very few occasions were a team above 60% conversion

I know you can say teams are told not to shoot now unless its around the D and a simple score, and that certainly true in the later version of Gavins Dublin and subsequent copycat teams.

But there's many recent high profile examples of exceptional scoretaking that I struggle to remember from earlier years. The Ulster final has been mentioned. Last years semi final between Derry and Kerry had brilliant scores throughout. Has there ever been scoretaking to a higher standard throughout than we saw in the 2022 All ireland final? I can't remember any game that's come close tbh

[McKinless deserves a lengthy ban for it]

Thought Hartes comments after the game were a disgrace. Said he didn't see mckinless incident , but then proceeded to accuse Comer of making a meal of it and theatrics.
It was as  blatant a red card as seen at a game & it more or less ended Comers involvement in the game. McKinless deserves a lengthy ban for it

Didn't Gavin  Devlin get 3 months for similar  back in the day?

Don't know about back in the day by according to the rules it looks like a two game ban the max McKinless will get.

Two's probably lenient but in line with rule books

After the league game in 22 there was a lot of local chatter that he had eye gouged Sean Kelly. Paul Conroy accidentally broke a Derry players jaw in the same game so everyone felt the need to move on and nothing more was made of it.

Mckinless went on to play brilliantly in 2023, especially against Kerry in the semi final when I and I assume most people were shouting for him

Absolutely disgusting incidents like today make me think it's infinitely more likely that those multiple reports of eye gouging were genuine

Thought Hartes comments after the game were a disgrace. Said he didn't see mckinless incident , but then proceeded to accuse Comer of making a meal of it and theatrics.
It was as  blatant a red card as seen at a game & it more or less ended Comers involvement in the game. McKinless deserves a lengthy ban for it

Comer 100% made a meal of the initial free obviously not of the stamp.

I didn't see the stamp at first and I'm sure Harte hadn't seen footage by the time he was interviewed either!

Are you serious? It took him out of the game. He hobbled around for 10 mins, took a painkilling injection at half time and went off because he couldn't move soon after. It might've derailed his season

Scandalous comments from Harte really

Too many people are taking the red card as if it's an isolated result. "changed the game", or "Derry performed well with 14"

It took Galway's best player out of the game. If you offered Joyce the option of keeping Comer fit and in the game and leaving Derry with 15 players I'm fairly sure he'd have taken it

Galway half forward line is definitely their weakest line, and another option (Cathal Sweeney) just dropped out through injury. So if the Derry injuries do arise, it's probably the area you'd be able to troubleshoot best

Who plays alongside McKinless in the event McEvoy and Doherty do indeed drop out? I assume they won't move Rodgers back on Comer again, leaving the task to McKaigue?

Conor Lane, didn't give a stonewall penalty on O'Boyle, which would drew the game if scored. From the same play Galway broke up the field to score a goal from Cummins.

I was down in front of that getting drenched Wasn't a pen. I do remember Lane giving Galway 2 or 3 soft frees alright that Gary Sice kicked over. Derry were hard done by but considering Galway nearly won by double scores in the end it's a stretch to say he was the difference. Neither team were going anywhere fast that year

Brendan Cawley is in the middle Sunday, the worst referee in the rotation by a country mile. Hopefully he can have as little impact on proceedings as possible but I won't hold my breath

How are Derry shaping up injury wise aside from McGrogans unfortunate long term issue?

With the exception of Kildare (and who can ever trust Kildare), every team off a 4-6 week break outperformed expectation in Round 1 last year against the team coming off a provincial final. Some of them by a huge margin:

Mayo beat Kerry by 6 having been 4 points underdogs
Ros drew with Dublin as 7 pt underdogs
Westmeath lost by 1 v Armagh as 6 pt underdogs
Monaghan drew with Derry as 6 pt underdogs

Ball is firmly in Derry's court this weekend. Connacht final was entertaining but lowish on quality, and its hard to see Galway getting to the same pitch again after an emotional win. 3 or 4 good performers and Comer to carry proceedings again won't cut it. Wouldn't rule out Cavan against Mayo in group 2 either

Derry away to Galway at 5:30 on a Saturday, taking the piss, that's some spin to come up the road again on the same nite.

What would be taking you up the road again?

Derry people don't like spending money.

Don't mind spending money, but I do mind being ripped off. Accommodation around Galway, especially if taking a family, is extortionate.
I'll pay my Gaago price before lining the pockets of some hotel or b&b who are sticking the arm in.

They're hardly sticking the arm in because of some fans travelling from Derry that'll number in the low thousands.

You're looking at last minute hotels in the most popular getaway city in the country just when tourist and wedding (stags, hens) season is kicking into gear. If you booked in advance you'd have a chance of getting something reasonable. At a weeks notice? No chance

Government aren't helping matters by filling every hotel bed they can get their hands on with refugees

Gough was fortunate that Galway won, If they hadn't won, he would've been melted on the spot by the extent of Joyce's ire post game. Considering the 2 shocking decisions when Galway were trying to claw back the 3 point deficit, the two soft frees they did get just balanced things out.
But that's not how a game should be reffed.
Overall I thought Galway were well worth the margin of victory.

Think Gough realised that he gave Mayo a couple of very marginal calls heading towards injury time so gave Galway a couple of marginal calls during injury time. That's what it felt like at least. That said I thought Maher got clattered for that free. Even if he was expecting the hit. Not sure how that one is even controversial.

Maher dove after he knew he was not gettin it.
Tommy Conroy got all ball. The reaction of the three or four Mayo players around it really tells the tale, they were incredulous.
But as I said earlier Gough did not cost Mayo the game.
He Did give us a fair few 50/50 ones earlier.

The biggest decision in the game was the Galway goal being over the line by the RTE slowmo doing the rounds on twitter and not being given. Even if that wasn't given as over the line (it was), Brickenden basically threw the ball out thereafter. By rules is that a penalty or a 14 yard free? Huge moment nonetheless. A couple of dodgy calls in Galway's favour in injury time doesn't change the fact that Mayo benefitted from Gough more than they were hindered

Bit of a joke near the end. Galway got the charity frees that helped them cross the line. Gough made so many bad calls earlier, that he did not know his arse from his elbow in how to even it up. A complete meltdown, Joyce got into his head from the sideline and he succumbed. Can happen to the best of us.

Embarrassing post. Mayo got absolutely ridiculous decisions from minute 20 to minute 70. Even the Mayo clowns around us were saying it

You honestly believe a couple of soft frees at the end made up for complete ridiculous one-sidedness for most of a game? Take your beating pal

Outside of occasionally Armagh and Dublin, no football teams fans can really hold a candle to Munster hurling teams at the moment

Not really fair comparing with the completely different setup in hurling.

The football provincials are not much more than a warm-up before the serious business starts with the group stages.

The Munster hurling round-robin has real jeopardy with every single game being critical given 40% of the teams taking part will be finished for the summer in a few weeks (and possibly even sooner depending on how results go).

But football fans aren't going to any games in those numbers is the point. If you took Armagh fan out of the All Ireland quarter final double header on the Saturday last year there'd have been less than 15k there. Similar for the Sunday double header if you took Dublin fans out. Those are exceptionally big games and nobody outside of an Armagh bandwagon will travel for them anymore

Hurling fans, especially in Munster, will travel for games currently tbf. Clare who are a small county have brought 35k+ to their last two semis. Limerick and Cork (hurling only) have huge support constantly

On the Sunday Game, there was a poor attendance at Sligo v Galway. The time wasn't ideal, but it shows that neither county is interested.

Galway don't have the best of support, might bring out more for the final but will be well outnumbered in support for the home final in two weeks. Sligo support highlights the lack hope they had for that match.  Maybe with more performances like that one will bring out more support. Strong at underage with lot of good players to bring through yet.

Not sure Galway will be well outnumbered at home in 2 weeks tbh, certainly wasn't the case for the qualifier game last year.

Mayo's support seems to be tapering off in recent times. Approx 7k or so Mayo fans at a short distance championship game there today in perfect weather doesn't seem excessive. Thought the Mayo crowds at the last two quarter final weekends in Croker were paltry also, absolutely dwarfed by Armagh fans on both occasions those weekends. The self annoionted "best fans in Ireland" title certainly has to be put back on the shelf for the foreseeable, cringe-fest's in times square or not

Outside of occasionally Armagh and Dublin, no football teams fans can really hold a candle to Munster hurling teams at the moment