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I don't agree often with Mugsy but he's right Derry players walkout about with big sad heads looking depressed and feeling sorry for themselves time to put up or shut up today. Meenagh says dressing room full of leaders well let's see it today lads.

Its now or never for this team
If we lose i think this team needs major surgery
Knockout game v meath at home, time to show that there is still a kick in this team

I agree, i was so disappointed in our players and came away from the Armagh match thinking that's the end of the road for this double Ulster winning team. I really thought there was more fight in Derry, right OK bad loss to Monaghan we dominated the game for 50mins and should have been in an Ulster final. So lets see a response lots of players that have won titles and are in their prime majority of our panel is fit lets show we can mix it with a team tipped to be All Ireland contenders in the top 2/3 in the country. We had been waiting in the long grass for 5 weeks for an Armagh team that had already humbled us 2 years in a row, yet the performance was terrible even from just looking at the body language of the players they looked like they gave in and came to the realisation that Armagh are just a better team. We are a complete shadow of the team that won Ulsters and got to 2 All Ireland Semi finals there was nothing positive in the performance that you could pin your hopes on. We either turned up and fight for our reputation now or stick the pin in this team and blood new players in 2027. Whatever happens Meenagh needs to stay, the managerial merry go round has done the county no favours. I go to Celtic Park with little confidence the players have to show the supporters they still want to be at the top and still believe in themselves.

Hoping we get as good a crowd as we did against Galway last year the atmosphere was top class. The team need the supporters behind them more than ever, i still believe there is a big performance in this team. It's now time to perform

Paudie had a poor game on Saturday because our kickout strategy is so easily telegraphed. Paudie for a short, CD mid range to the sideline or bomb out to the middle and hope for the best. McEvoy and Dan Higgins will be far more suited to go up against Meath's big men of Jack Flynn & Bryan Menton around the middle. Armagh ran the legs off McEvoy and game passed him by. Meath are similar in a way to Monaghan love a kick pass and go for 2 pointers from distance from all directions so we've been warned need to apply pressure and tackle outside the arc. Jordy Morris, James Conlan, Matthew Costello and Ruairi Kinsella are their men that need tagged. Their achilles heel is their defence so lets hope we really improve our conversion rate in front of the posts.

Rogers, McKinless and Clucky were the only men to get turnovers on Saturday night. Was by far Brendan's best game in 2026. The wides were criminal still in shock at what McGuigan done in the first half. Niall Loughlin has been in great form but struggled against Armagh. How has no one mentioned the disgraceful breach on the halfway line or when Paudie McGrogan was blowen up for so called over carrying. The media darling Geezer and his backroom team know to put pressure on the refs and get tight calls fair play to him he has every reporter eating out of his hands they hover around him like a bunch of school boys looking an autograph. Lets just say a McGuinness, Joyce or O'Connor wouldn't have stood back or be intimated by Geezer on the line and have let the ref and linesman know all about it.

We have a major rebuild required which needs to happen next day out. It's cliche to say but players here are being picked on reputation. We have zero competition for places. Whoever we play next - and I hope to f*#k it's somebody we can handle - we need to drop some big names. Who I'd go with

1. S McGuckin
2. D Baker
3. R Forbes
4. C McCluskey
5. C Doherty
6. E McEvoy
7. P McGrogan
8. J Sargent
9. T Rogers
10. E Young
11. N Toner
12. P Cassidy
13. N Loughlin
14. L Murray
15. S Young

Unlucky to miss out - R O'Mainain. I'm assuming M Downey is still with the squad but injured.

Based on current form I don't see how we can start Glass, McGuigan, B Rogers, McKinless or E Doherty. These lads owe us nothing but we need mobility and speed. But we will need them off the bench. We should be building a midfield around Sargent and Rogers and an attack around Lachlan.

Derry can promote Derry City and post about Martin O'Neill on their social channels yet not tell their supporters that tickets are on sale for the All Ireland Championship, jesus lads make it make sense! Promote the game ffs

Rogers owes us nothing but it's about time someone needs to call out that he's had a stinker of a year so far very poor by his own standards even being took off during games which has never happened in the past. Glass carried us on his back last year was phenomenal at times but has been a passenger in 2026. Senior players need to stand up and look themselves in the mirror i hope Meenagh has questioned the big players in team meetings since the great collapse against Monaghan. Armagh have ran over the stop of us in 2024 & 2025, its time to challenge the players can they deliver a statement victory.

I'm sure they'll post it soon enough, chill.

Follow links Armagh have posted,or you can search for things yourself online like a big boy!

I've a season ticket so doesn't affect me. Derrys official social accounts decided to advertise tickets on sale 2 1/2 hours after they went on sale with no tickets left for the standing terrace or seated end. That's just not good enough, every man and his dog knows Armagh are the best supported county in the country and that tickets would go fast. The least Derry could do was advertise in advance.

Derry can promote Derry City and post about Martin O'Neill on their social channels yet not tell their supporters that tickets are on sale for the All Ireland Championship, jesus lads make it make sense! Promote the game ffs

Rogers owes us nothing but it's about time someone needs to call out that he's had a stinker of a year so far very poor by his own standards even being took off during games which has never happened in the past. Glass carried us on his back last year was phenomenal at times but has been a passenger in 2026. Senior players need to stand up and look themselves in the mirror i hope Meenagh has questioned the big players in team meetings since the great collapse against Monaghan. Armagh have ran over the stop of us in 2024 & 2025, its time to challenge the players can they deliver a statement victory.

Did Ryan McNicholl opt out or is he injured?

He is overage for u20s

Mal said on this weeks Derry Gaels podcast that Ryan McNicholl & Conor Raffery from Glenullin are part of a development training panel for the senior team. Be interested to know who else is on this training panel.

I was at it yesterday McKinless picked up Mulroy in the 2nd half and even with his old tricks and array of dark arts he couldn't get near him  tbf it's been the only game McKinless has come out second best this year. Ardee a unique venue deceptive breeze but 4 points in one half won't win too many matches. Probably a worse performance than against Meath, it was a Strange game as we had plenty of possession and done ok with the kickouts just simply had no answers against a very organised Louth defence.

I read that Meenagh stated that the U20's have been released back to McErlain so that will be us down a few that made up the bench the past few weeks, which I think will mean McEvoy will be listed whether he plays or not is a different story but he looked to me moving well before the Cork match. I wonder if it will cross the managements mind should we add to the squad now that the u20s are away along with McAleer, JD, Mark Doherty. Did you notice Horse naming his Louth team very early on a Tuesday night...

Couple of wee take aways from yesterday, it seems like McKinless has been handed the old Chrissy McKaigue role of being the nominated man marker for the opposition key forward in the full back line which might mean not as many big defence splitting runs we were customed to seeing from him before his ACL injury. Forbes seems to have a transition role linking defence and attack and could well be a major find for us he looks like a Rolls Royce player striding forward with the ball a proper athlete with footballing skills. Eoin McEvoy and James Sargent don't look that far away from returning both being put through their paces and moving great while taking part in a bit of the pre-match training. McEvoy will need match sharpness before Championship so we might just see him against Cavan in the last round. CD and Paudie McGrogan are playing out of their skins at the moment both are fully committed and driving us on they are key to our kickouts with and without the ball, when them two lads are on it Derry are motoring well.

Anton sounds genuinely gutted at being cut from the panel. He gets some amount of stick on this forum and online but I too think he should be a panel member we simply don't have too many 6ft plus athletic fielders to be tossing to the kerb under the new rules but for a man who needs minutes and football to improve he played little or no ball for Swatragh in-fact I would say he has played more for Queens than he has for his club the past two years. So he done himself no favours going to Australia for the summer rather than playing club football to stake a claim for a county call up.

https://www.balls.ie/gaa/anton-tohill-queens-sigerson-semi-final-ul-648867

Jez lads talk about an overreaction you'd think the world was ending reading some of these posts. And the football snobbery of so called knowledgeable football supporters looking down your nose at a top 8 team in Meath, as I stated in my last post the Royals were going all out for promotion with proper challenge matches over the winter even Brennan came to watch our McKenna cup game in Celtic park where as the sounds bites coming from Meenagh were that we are not risking men and want to get our bodies right with league games coming thick and fast. Reading between the lines sounds like he will be happy to stay in D2 for another year. I'd be ok with that if players are given proper minutes. One major concern for me was there was not one midfielder on the bench on Saturday which looks like we have just 3 Glass, Rogers and Dan Higgins who was last seen in a knee brace? Criminal to think we can get away with that in inter county with the new rules. I thought Meenagh was a smarter man that to hope CD and Paul Cassidy might dig us out of a hole and do a job if needed we are already struggling in that position and looks like we're not helping ourselves with no cover

Donegal beat Meath in Croke park by 20pts. We coming down from Division 1 and should be way stronger than Meath. Big thing i notice,forwards tackling is very poor, its half a effort.

That's a little disrespectful to Meath. While they were hammered in AI semi final, they had a good year last year, have an excellent age profile and there will be a big buzz about Meath football coming into this year.  Derry on the other hand are coming off a couple of seasons where there are more questions than answers. (Though I do think they have finally got a Manager that is a good fit for them.)

Meath played a development panel during the O'Byrne cup while their first team have been on the challenge game circuit. They drew with Donegal, beat Mayo and Galway beat them by 2pts in those games. Meath have massive men around the middle Conor Gray, Daithí McGowan, Bryan Menton, Matthew Costello, Shane Walsh all well over 6ft. Robbie Brennan well know all too well Derry's issues revolve around their kickouts with a lack of size around the midfield that find it difficult to win primary ball.

No disrespect intended to McGuckin but exactly how many games has he played exactly in goals at senior football for Magherafelt would it be less than 10? It just follows on the issue that as a county we are not producing goalkeepers players who are brought through the development teams from u17 to senior who play what has become a specialised position. The trend looking at senior clubs is sure stick in a veteran outfielder in nets and he'll do a job seems to have come back to bite us.

Declan Bogue has just tonight revealed that Rian O'Neill is not in the Armagh 2026 panel and Peter Harte isn't in the Tyrone 2026 panel only because he quizzed the management teams after the first round McKenna cup match not because Armagh or Tyrone had squad lists in the Irish News. Do Kerry, the Dubs, Galway have squads released?