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Junior Championship Quarter Finals Prediction.

Tattyreagh vs Brocagh – Tattyreagh should have too much for Brocagh. They hammered them in the league and, with a few key men back, I think this should be a fairly comfortable win. Tattyreagh by 10–15 points.

Errigal III vs Stewartstown – Stewartstown should be too strong for Errigal and should have enough quality to get the job done. Stewartstown by 8 points.

Fintona vs Drumragh – I think Drumragh will do the unthinkable and take down the favourites Fintona. It should be a very tight game, but I fancy Drumragh to cause the upset. Drumragh by 2 points.

Derrytresk vs Glenelly/Castlederg – When Glenelly beat Castlederg in the replay, they showed what they're capable of. However, I think the Mighty Men from the Hill will surprise everyone and beat Glenelly. Derrytresk will need to perform much better after a poor game against Killyman. Derrytresk to win.

With either Fintona or Drumragh guaranteed to be out, this championship is going to be wide open. Who's going to win it?

Derrytresk's next outing likely to be their last of 2026. The subject of thirds teams has already been been discussed. EC are the longest running 3rds team and have been fairly competitive the remaining thirds teams if they play honest thirds are not good enough for Junior football and scorelines like Stewartstown v Omagh 3 do nothing to promote to help stewartstown or Omagh. If more clubs entered 3rds teams who were essentially recreational teams with its own championship that would ideally work for thirds teams who clearly can't cut it at Junior level.

Derry U20s are in a great position to win Ulster and indeed the big one.

Criticism in many instances is easy these are amateur sportsmen being judged to professional standards. A man who jumped ship how many times looking success judging players very soccer like how many players from Leitrim Sligo or Longford could have left their native county in search of success. Not discounting Rory's scathing opinion but you'd think he'd won a truck load of medals as as a player and manager to justify his  brutal opinions. Rory was great at setting up teams to play anti football I'd love to see him tested under the new rules.

Said it a while back on here somewhere that I thought Meath could have a good year.
I still think thats the case, their 2 pointers are top drawer and they have the physicality to compete with anyone. I like their direct style of play.

better team today and the fluke goal made it closer than it actually was.


Tyrone are not as good as people were giving them credit and koldare are better than they were getting credit for.

div2 is wide open, for me Meath are the most likely to top the group, after that its a lottery.

Kildare deserve serious credit they stuck to their task throughout and we were lucky to get a point at the end positives are O'Neill Jordan Bogue Joey Clarke and Donaghy had never played for Tyrone Seniors outside the McKenna cup before. I could be wrong but Kildare weren't of their best 15 nor were Derry or Meath. We will struggle against Derry next week.The positive is we will find more players capable of doing a job but promotion is far from certain.

D

Rte Div 2 Predicted Table:

1. Tyrone
2. Meath
3. Cork
4. Derry
5. Louth
6. Kildare
7. Offaly
8. Cavan

Interesting they have Derry 4th when most will have them 2nd at least then again under new and returning manager Ciarán Meenagh they have to build up a bit of confidence after a 2025 campaign of played 11 Won 0 Drew 2 and lost 9.

 

It's interesting we're as high as 4th with those stats

Derry's opening two fixtures are tricky though I see our visit to Celtic Park as very difficult. Saturday's game will hopefully show the direction of travel for Derry or Meath, I would hope we can get over Kildare but they will not be push overs having won promotion from Division 3. I fancy Cork to get two points from a Cavan side who I think will struggle this year.

Rte Div 2 Predicted Table:

1. Tyrone
2. Meath
3. Cork
4. Derry
5. Louth
6. Kildare
7. Offaly
8. Cavan

I think there'll be a kick in Derry. Very interesting league though, Cork and Meath both capable of beating Tyrone and Derry on their day.

It will be very tight I'd be delighted if RTE are right but to finish top will not be easy with teams playing for Sam Maguire status there will be more edgy games I believe the last time Derry and Armagh were down they both got past Louth with the bare minimum and Louth lost a lot of games narrowly only staying up at the bitter end. The fixtures have been kind to us the furthest game away is Meath in Croke Park. Cork and Meath are two teams who on their day could beat anyone never mind us or Derry. The bare minimum to secure promotion would be to win 5 draw 1 and lose 1 I think it would be hard to win 7 out of 7.

Clogher surprisingly got it tight today against Donagh. Win AET.

Well done Clogher it's all about getting through to the final, I expect Emyvale to be their opponents though and imagine they will be Clogher's toughest test yet Clonoe's opponents next week play Division 1 football in Cavan if they are at the level of Arva then they shouldn't be taken lightly.

I'm sure when people get married they aren't planning their divorce. Things happen, when they put the plan forward they certainly thought they could sustain the numbers all year. I would say you will see a better return this year. I personally would rather have a seperate development league but this is what the county board has decided. User Square_ball typical of the TikTok generation wants everything instant or its no good.

I think there is merit in a development league like the thirds model in Derry. I would say more clubs might enter a development team(s) in a development thirds league independent from Junior football.

Derry have a separate recreational reserve league and knockout for thirds teams. I'm not sure if it's over 35s or not. May have been at one stage

Thirds in Derry isnt great, clubs fielding thirds teams but not Reserves, no age limits on it so heavy crossover between reserves and 3rds and I've seen it used to get Senior lads back to full fitness. Not very recreational either, many rows been had

Chatting to a Derry man who says it doesnt work because the reserves arent fielding, with lads dropping down to 3rds.
Then 3rds essentially becomes reserves with a mixture of young lads who are good enough for senior but dont want to commit and recreational footballers. This is turn leads to the recreational footballer losing interest with the young, fitter lads running rings round them.

Surely the CCC can draft rules that prevent reserves from dropping down. What is worse players dropping down from playing div 1 league or div 1 reserve league into junior championship despite never playing any junior league football or dropping from senior reserve to a thirds team in their league. Another alternative is have separate competitions for 2nd and 3rd teams who can only enter seconds or thirds knock outs if they haven't played senior intermediate or junior.

I'm sure when people get married they aren't planning their divorce. Things happen, when they put the plan forward they certainly thought they could sustain the numbers all year. I would say you will see a better return this year. I personally would rather have a seperate development league but this is what the county board has decided. User Square_ball typical of the TikTok generation wants everything instant or its no good.

I think there is merit in a development league like the thirds model in Derry. I would say more clubs might enter a development team(s) in a development thirds league independent from Junior football.

If Urney were winning the game well and the game was nearly over it seems odd they would want to start a free for all. Teamtalkmag reported the half time score as Urney 5-5 Gortin no score. I think if you are that side of a scoreline you've to just accept your second best. Gortin won the grade 4 Championship and got to the league final one piece of silverware and runners up in the league is not bad at any level. Disappointing that the game couldn't have finished and that Urney have been denied an underage title.

Unfortunately it's not as simple as that, if there are spectators on the pitch fighting, then the ref has no other option but to abandon the game regardless of the time played...
It doesn't seem to be in the thoughts of those adults involved in the fighting, that their actions will result in the game being abandoned, from either club. Everybody can argue about what sparked the row, but nobody can deny the choices made by adults afterwards were extremely poor.

Agreed a handful of adults have ruined the final for the young men taking part. I wasn't saying the referee shouldn't have abandoned the game I just don't understand the behaviour of the handful of lunatics one man looked like a bull let of the pen at the mart.

Is there a club on the Donegal side of the border that these Urney ones could transfer to?

Why would Urney youth want to do that?

If Urney were winning the game well and the game was nearly over it seems odd they would want to start a free for all. Teamtalkmag reported the half time score as Urney 5-5 Gortin no score. I think if you are that side of a scoreline you've to just accept your second best. Gortin won the grade 4 Championship and got to the league final one piece of silverware and runners up in the league is not bad at any level. Disappointing that the game couldn't have finished and that Urney have been denied an underage title.

Video doing the rounds of u16 league game today, not good viewing for either club. Disgrace if ccc don't take action the clubs should. Pantomime

What videos?

Gortin v Urney, an all out free for all by the looks of things. Adults panned out on the ground and what can only be described as 2 middle aged men partaking in WWE style combat. To make it worse one of them is wearing a high vis jacket that you'd see on the M1 surfacing. 🫣

Bad all round. Game played on a training pitch with no fence. Our neighbours let themselves down now, urney winning the game well Gortin manager started the whole thing I hear. Young lad from urney only 16 or 17 hit by Gortin coach, i think most parents would be on the pitch if the cub was hit by an adult

As it was an under 16 game you'd presume he was no more than 16...
I've seen some of the videos and they're very poor, for both clubs, the story I heard, from an Urney man, was that it started when a Gortin player, not manager, hit an Urney player, I believe it was a kick on the ground he said, but regardless, there is no justification for the shambles that followed, forget about the training ground and no fence excuses, the videos that are circulating would make you think a fence wouldn't have stopped this.

It started when an Urney lad and Gortin lad were throwing punches and both ended up on the ground. A second Gortin lad drew his boot off the Urney lad on the ground. A bit of pushing and shoving that was being settled by ref and linesman.

Unfortunately a group of Urney lads, including adults, who had been sitting in the second dug out on the far side ran across and starting battering all round them. One Gortin player in particular looked to get a serious facial injury. At that point it became a complete free for all with neither club covering themselves in glory.

The choice of the venue definitely contributed to what happened. The group who caused it to blow up wouldn't have been inside the wire at a normal pitch.

It's madness that the CB allowed a final to be played in a venue where spectators were inside the pitch. No club can moralise and say if that was us we would to a man have self control if an incident occurred on the pitch. I'm sure no one from either club went to the match with the intention to get into a scrap. I haven't seen any now saw the inevitable video on WhatsApp if Strabane's main pitch wasn't available then the game should have been played elsewhere. People who are typically sensible in real life become different people at football matches.

Kilcoo showed their quality, composure and craft it was always going to be hard for the Lough after lifting their maiden championship.

Outclassed by good bit as expected.

How difficult is it for officials to control the number of balls on field?

Every time a ball is kicked into the terrace, the keeper picks up another one to attempt a quick restart.

How you'd expect the officials to control when and where that ball is returned, I'm not sure.

Ball catchers would prevent 90% of that. Don't know why they aren't in place in Omagh. Definitely hampered their own County champions in this case. They were looking to get the ball away quick most of the time but couldn't.

If they charged just a few quid more for tyronegaa tv they'd be able to afford catch nets.

🤣🤣