Ulster Championship 2025

[naka]

Be same mess 3.30 on a Sunday.

Nope
Monaghan town had Saturday traffic
Took 50 mins to get through last week
Sunday never as bad

[Captain Obvious]

Moved to Saturday in case Donegal U20s reach the All Ireland semi final?  they have a few on U20s on their senior panel.

[barelegs]

Moved to Saturday in case Donegal U20s reach the All Ireland semi final?  they have a few on U20s on their senior panel.

According to Cahair O'Kane it was fixed for Saturday night so the ladies final didn't have to start at 11.30am on Sunday morning. There's then the Galway and Wexford Leinster hurling game scheduled for 3.15pm on Saturday which is on RTE so it couldn't clash with that...

[flowerpot]

Be same mess 3.30 on a Sunday.

Nope
Monaghan town had Saturday traffic
Took 50 mins to get through last week
Sunday never as bad

Don't follow Google maps, miss the town.

[SouthOfThe Bann]

Harsh enough on Derry dropping to 4th seeds.

If Cork had of beat Kerry we'd have had 4 great provincial finals to look forward to but 3 ain't bad.

Tyrone would have also slipped down to 4th seeds.

The draw on Wednesday should be interesting.

[Christmas Lights]

Paddy McBrearty will be a little surprised to pick up that potm award. What did he have, 5 touches?

Philly McMahon strikes again... I thought McHugh was brilliant in defence and linking with attack.

Does Philly have much of a clue there?

[SouthOfThe Bann]

Paddy McBrearty will be a little surprised to pick up that potm award. What did he have, 5 touches?

Philly McMahon strikes again... I thought McHugh was brilliant in defence and linking with attack.

Does Philly have much of a clue there?

Does Philly McMahon be taking the P*SS or does he genuinely not have a clue?

[gallsman]

Harsh enough on Derry dropping to 4th seeds.

Is it really? Since the winning penalty in last year's league final they've done the square root of f**k all.

[SouthOfThe Bann]

Harsh enough on Derry dropping to 4th seeds.

Is it really? Since the winning penalty in last year's league final they've done the square root of f**k all.

Very true but you wouldn't expect to drop to 4th seeds when in division 1.

First time it's happened I think.

[Mario]

Harsh enough on Derry dropping to 4th seeds.

Is it really? Since the winning penalty in last year's league final they've done the square root of f**k all.

They got to an AI quarter final

[gallsman]

Harsh enough on Derry dropping to 4th seeds.

Is it really? Since the winning penalty in last year's league final they've done the square root of f**k all.

They got to an AI quarter final

To do which they beat Westmeath and drew with Mayo, subsequently winning on penalties.

But even take that at face value, coming out of last year they were, at best, 9th in the country. This year they picked up a single point in the league, generally looking way off the pace and were comfortably beaten by Donegal in the preliminary round in Ulster. 4th seed sounds about right to me.

[Armagh18]

Harsh enough on Derry dropping to 4th seeds.

Is it really? Since the winning penalty in last year's league final they've done the square root of f**k all.

They got to an AI quarter final

To do which they beat Westmeath and drew with Mayo, subsequently winning on penalties.

But even take that at face value, coming out of last year they were, at best, 9th in the country. This year they picked up a single point in the league, generally looking way off the pace and were comfortably beaten by Donegal in the preliminary round in Ulster. 4th seed sounds about right to me.

Put it this way, would you be confident of them beating any of the teams seeded above them bar Clare? They're well behind the division 1 teams and Louth and Meath are flying and full of confidence at the minute.

[Mario]

Harsh enough on Derry dropping to 4th seeds.

Is it really? Since the winning penalty in last year's league final they've done the square root of f**k all.

They got to an AI quarter final

To do which they beat Westmeath and drew with Mayo, subsequently winning on penalties.

But even take that at face value, coming out of last year they were, at best, 9th in the country. This year they picked up a single point in the league, generally looking way off the pace and were comfortably beaten by Donegal in the preliminary round in Ulster. 4th seed sounds about right to me.

How can you argue we were 9th in the country last year if we won the league and got to the last 8 of the AI. The only teams that beat us were the AI semi finalists. This year we had a point in the league but were playing the best teams in the country. Would we finish in the top half of D2, effectively equivalent to 3rd seeds? I'd say so. If we finish bottom of the group that will justify our seeding, we'll see.

[gallsman]

Sorry yes, QF, not preliminary QF so at best they were the 5th team last year. I don't think anyone believes that though.

There's no question of "justification" of seeding - there is a clear formula for it. They could end up winning the all Ireland and with the benefit of hindsight you could come crowing back to lord it over me. It would still be completely irrelevant to the situation as it is today. Failure to reach the provincial final means they can only be 3rd or 4th seeds, so you're really splitting hairs if you want to argue that their seeding is a touch harsh.

[tbrick18]

Doesn't say much for the 2 semi finals at the weekend if the topic of discussion here is on Derry being a 4th seed, from an Antrim man! 

Donegal as expected beat Down at a canter. Down trying to run the ball all day was never going to work against a Donegal team as tight at the back as they are. Murphy once again could be considered fortunate to not see red though!

Armagh were, imo, 10 points the better side for the majority of the game with Tyrone. A combination of eye off the ball and Tyrone subs brought them back into it though. I said after the Cavan game that Tyrone's attacking play was poor and and for the majority of this game it was the same. Canavans well shackled. McCurry was definately Tyrone's best player. McElhone is a more exciting prospect though.
I'm not entirely sure under what rule, but I thought the Armagh keeper was lucky to not get a card when he dived between the ball and canavan after a backpass to him - feels like he should have been black carded at least. But I'm not sure if the rules have given consideration that type of scenario. 
Referee was brutal - no consistency at all.

I don't think either Armagh or Donegal are as good as they are being made out to be, but I also dont see any other stand out side this year - so both have a good chance at an AI.

New rules make the games any better? Armagh v Tyrone - sideways play around the arc with rarely a ball kicked. Is that any different to games in recent years? Some very dubious refereeing calls around the new rules too causing more frustration offsetting any perceive benefits in my view.

Best score I saw at the weekend was a monster 2 pointer by Louth from outside the 45. I'd have remembered that score even if it was for 1pt. If anything we seem to be seeing less of these than before.

Final is probably a 50/50 game - with Donegal perhaps having a slight edge.