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I always thought part of the reason there are more unionist commentators is that there are simply more issues and controversies surrounding unionism. Every year there seem to be multiple scandals around the Twelfth, whether it's Carla Lockhart and her masked men, the Moygashel bonfire, houses being damaged by bonfires, people dying after falling from them, or the latest DUP sex or fraud scandal, burning immigrants out of their homes in Ballymena. The list goes on.

Nolan can be divisive, but I'd say he's impartial. He tends to play devil's advocate on whatever issue he's discussing.

I walked past the Donegal bar I'd say 6 times over the course of the week and it was rammed every single time. Thursday and Friday it had a giant queue outside from early afternoon as well. Can only imagine what it'll be like tonight and tomorrow.

Massive queue today, don't know how people could be arsed waiting that long to get in

I'm enjoying the classy TG4 coverage. How is this working  the Fleadh and Féile an Pobal happening simultaneously?  Have they merged events/some events or have both entities manage to have their own identity?
The Féile located in West Belfast and the Fleadh in other parts of Belfast

Separate events I believe

Congrats to Mayo. Just remember Derry CB and players got rid of one of the winning Mayo management team last year. The current set up needs a radical and ruthless change.

Fact is he didn't win a game over a whole year.

2nd year of the All-Ireland semi-finals done and dusted under the new rules none of the 4 games was close to what FRC hoped for let's be honest.

2nd year in a row we got a mis-match at the semi final stage. Credit to Mayo,Donegal going about their business though no neutrals wants to see a non contest semi-final.

Kerry had a routine win against Tyrone last year and yesterday was probably the worst quality Kerry v Dublin match since 2015 and that game had the excuse of poor weather.

2021 to 2024 All-Ireland semi-finals had Armagh beating Kerry,Tyrone beating Kerry and Mayo beating Dublin after extra time all memorable contests.

Also had Galway beating Donegal by 2 points,Kerry beat Dublin by 1 and Kerry beating Derry by 2. 

Biggest margin win of all those All-Ireland semi-finals was Dublin by 7 points against Monaghan and that match was level with 10 minutes to play.

It's probably still too small a sample size for the new rules but I do think the old rules weren't as bad as people made out, especially summer football. As you correctly point out there were some unreal games in the latter stages of 2021 to 2024. 2024 final was terrible though, which helped people support the new rules.

Didn't see that coming. Probably underestimated Mayo

So all we need is two 6ft 5 midfielders that can play football and we'll compete again. Any idea where we get them from?

Watching these last few games in the AI shows just how far Derry are off it at the moment and how many counties are ahead of them. It'll be a long road back till we're competing for silverware again. A  team rebuild and major change of tactics required.

Maybe I'm an eternal optimism but I actually thought the opposite. There are fine margins at this level and if things aren't going right you can look worse than you are. We've had the upper hand on Tyrone when we've faced them the past 5 years, we should have beat Monaghan well and we beat Cork by 20 points. All those teams competed this weekend.

Should be 2 weeks between these games, they gonna have to find a few weeks in August in the future.

I think if next weekends QFs are a damp squib due to teams being overstretched they will look at adding a week break.
The QF weekend should be bigger than this wkend but it needs 8 fresh teams for that.
This weekend gone was brilliant for football.

Win your first two games and you will be fresh. Come through the back door and that's the punishment. It's a good system imo

So 5 first round winners and 3 losers make up the last 8. Not maybe the huge advantage that winning your first game was supposed to bring. It's a strange system. We moved away from 6 day turn arounds for losers only to return to it.

I'll see how next week pans out before I make any determinations ok it.

I think you can only do this analysis after the next round. Let's see how the qualifiers get on after their third weekend in a row

Whoever said that Rory Gallagher might have been the mastermind all along (especially considering how far Derry have fallen without him) was on to something.

Gallagher's no mastermind he's a brilliant motivator but tactically he isnt anywhere near the top in the country no otber manager would have played their goalkeeper as a half forward in an all ireland semi final

That worked very well v Kerry in 2023

Fisting over the bar in that situation was a shocking decision

There's rules and then there's commonsense.

Looking around for the rulebook when poor defending and horrendous goalkeeping (all he had to do was stick his head on it) were the prime factors, is just a little bit sour for my liking.

Forker holds on to the ball instead of having a stupid shot and we aren't having this conversation

Forker getting some abuse for Armagh fans. There was an even worse one after. Can't remember who fisted it away in mf area

I wouldn't be as critical as some. We did well to make a game of it out of such a poor kickout return. You are never going to win a game losing all your own lockouts and letting the opposition get theirs away every time.

We defended well and turned them over a lot, we were clinical in the first half every time we attacked.

The kickouts are a tactical point that can be fixed. Still think there is a good team there especially with the addition of Sargent

Derry in croke park. I would have been fairly confident. Derry away is a whole different story.
Hope rather than optimism.

We've won one championship game in 10 years in Celtic park and that was v Antrim this year. I wouldn't be so pessimistic if I was a Meath fan.