Messages

You'd love to know who does the SFC fixtures.
Steelstown vs Kilrea on Thursday,
Nothing Friday
Lavey vs Swatragh on Saturday,
Glenullin vs Slaughtneil 4pm and Bellaghy vs Dungiven 6pm Sunday. All at Owenbeg.

What about:
Saturday 5pm and 7pm for Steelstown/Kilrea and Lavey/Swatragh
Sunday 2pm and 4pm for other two not make sense?

Have they not discovered that players prefer not to play on a Thursday or last thing on a Sunday yet?

I'd imagine this was due to a request from Steelstown or Kilrea to avoid the weekend because of a wedding or something like that.

Dungiven the far better team last night but nearly threw it away. Screen very poor but wouldn't go away. Haran and Dillon best two players on pitch. Be a shame to see big club like screen go down

Be great to see in my opinion. After there arrogance regarding previous relegation playoffs. Big clubs aren't entitled to play senior championship would be better for the county if a smaller club stayed up maybe making Ballinascreen get there arse in gear.

What did they do?

I think the biggest issue is trying to fit the hurling games in for a county that is predominantly focused on football, so creates a lot of issues for the dual clubs.

For example with my club (Swatragh) our minors have had 4 weeks in a row with minor hurling championship games on a Friday, and football championship games on a Monday. Which obviously makes it extremely difficult for the dual clubs to prepare for either championship. If dual is going to work in Derry, this cannot be the model as it will either burn players out or push them away from one of the sports.

We've got a similar problem at senior level in that the focus over the past couple of weeks has been on hurling with us playing Kevin Lynchs tonight, then we play Steelstown next Saturday in the football championship. Effectively giving us one week's proper preparation for the football championship, whereas Steelstown have had a few weeks of clear preparation for football only - which obviously gives them a huge advantage over us.

Agree with Ryan O that Slaughtneil are only our real success story out of the dual clubs, but that could definitely change if we didn't have as much overlap during the two championships. Current structures at underage and senior definitely hamper the dual clubs. I would also argue that if there was more separation in the championships Slaughtneil would have won more recent football championships.

Will management teams be ratified this week does anyone know?

They did around this time last year, so most likely.

Louth v Derry game has been moved from Sunday 15th March at 1.30pm to Saturday 14th March at 3pm. Still in Ardee, by agreement from both Counties.

Wonder what was the thoughts behind that?

Not sure. I received an email earlier from the GAA ticket office to say it has been changed:

"A Chara,
 
Please note Venue Change:

AFL2 Louth v Derry has moved to Saturday 14th March at 3 pm, by agreement from both Counties

All existing tickets are valid.

Please Download your tickets before arriving to the venue. There will be no facility to print tickets at any venues.

Le meas,

GAA TICKET OFFICE"

Could it be moved for TV / streaming??

Any mention of McCluskey?

Meenagh talked about someone with a facial injury but McGuckin took a bad hit so it's maybe him. I think the bench depth will be tried a bit more this weekend.

Any Lavey men know if James Sargent will return this year? I noticed him among other U20s on the bench

Gaelic Life had an article last week saying that Sargent is 7 months into his his expected 9 month recovery and reckon he'll not play for the u20s this season.

Has he not got another couple of years at U20's?

Yes, 2 more years after this one.

Celtic Park and Owenbeg to be renamed, tight for cash boys

You'd be a fool to refuse free money. Do we really care that some insurance company wants there name stuck in there?

As long as its not Allianz!
100% agree - its easy money and mutually beneficial to a local company.
not the only county to do this. Armagh has Boxit (I think), for example.

Absolutely a positive thing for Derry GAA, same as the money we're getting from Derry City for the use of our facilities. A considerable amount of easy money that can be put to good use for doing very little.

Do we have a new away jersey?

The predominantly white jersey (which now seems to be our away jersey) will be the same for this season.
They just updated the predominantly red jersey.

Bradley from the screen must be injured? He hasn't featured yet. Thought he did well last year and imo is a more aggressive and physical natural defender than Baker. Higgins has to play at Mf, its obvious we are struggling physically on the long kickouts, was a problem last year and further emphasised last wednesday V Donegal.  Our ball winning in this position will be a problem we have to fix.

Bradley had to get a small op which is why he missed the McKenna Cup games, understand he should be fit again now for the league.
Agree on Higgins, even as a WHF dropping into midfield for kickouts - he was very impressive in the club championship last year and a couple of the latter games for Derry.

Tonight's game is on TG4 YouTube for anyone that doesn't fancy a cold and wet Celtic Park!

Do they know the venue for Wednesdays night game vs Donegal?

Celtic Park 19:30

Gilmore and McMonagle both opted out of the squad this year as far as I know.
Pity as both of them have plenty of potential.

I take it we will be using Owenbeg for home games this year if Derry City are using Celtic Park. I'm sure another nice bitta change for the county board

Wasn't it used for Division 2 games few years ago?

I think there was one in Celtic Park and two in Owenbeg from memory.

Always liked the McKenna Cup, nice to watch a bit of football in the dark evenings in January when there isn't much else happening. Also think it's useful for trying out new players, especially for the div 1 teams that don't want to take a chance of throwing in a young lad in a competitive league. If there is no McKenna cup these teams will be getting challenge games or training hard themselves anyway so don't think it makes a lot of difference in terms of workload for players.

Revisiting this now that the Derry club championship is over - anyone stand out that could make a difference to our county team?

I understand a number of lads are already back at it on the S&C front. Anyone know if there are any new players involved?