Tír Eoghain vs Áth Cliath '08

[Pangurban]

Five Star display by Tyrone, today they became a great team and did Ulster proud. Hope they now push on and win Sam, they deserve it

[Shamrock Shore]

I was shocked at the performnce of both Tyrone (good shock) and Dublin (shocking shock). Even when the ref made a cat's arse out of some decisions the venom from the surrounding Dubs was only half hearted. Dubs who know knew at half time it over.

Best I saw was a text I got from Laureleye near the end

"Biggest distruction of a Pillar in Dublin since 1966"

If there is a Professor of Irony living in Wexford he will surely be holding court tonight down in Gorey or is it Gori?

[Shamrock Shore]

Backpage of The Sunday Tribune:

"RAIN, PAIN and then SLAIN" 

[paddypastit]

As a nuetral that atttended today a few thoughts

• A gripping days entertainment and one of the most effective displays by any team in every facet of the game that we have seen for some time.  Great defending, some superb scores - hats off to Tyrone... they even persuaded the sun to come back.
  
  How bad were Dublin???  Only Bernard Brogan comes out of the game with real ctredit and in patches Cluxton, Cahill and Cullen but that apart...
  
  I didn't have a clear view of the Whelan 'incident' from the Canal End but a friend in the Cuswack said at HT that it was an unmistakable strike and if so he had to go.
  
  Cavanagh should certainly have been booked for the 'challenge' on Whelan, he did get booked for another hit some minutes later but he can and should consider hkimself lucky.
  
  He had fortune on his side for the goal too - 11 steps...??
  
  Thought the ref generally was poor - inconsistent.  Tyrone probabaly got the better breaks from his decisions but that didn't particularly influenec the game.  One general comment though - surely it is poor ptractice to have an AI QF, or indeed any major such game refereed by someone from a county that still has an interest in the competition.  I'm not suggesteing for a second that Mr Mangan was consciously influenced in any way but would it not be better all round to avoid such appointments?
  
  Despite the superb play, it really is a pity that Tyrone and Dooher in particular persists in going to ground as a first option in contact
  
  IMHO Devine is a poor keeper.
  
  McCullogh surprised me. I truly have not rated him as an intercoiunty player but he looked good today... but then he had the freedom of the park. his involvement proved thhough that it is a team game and Tyrone worked superbly today as a team.
  
  In some respects nobody should be surprised - this was the same Dublin team that we saw last year.  If it wasn't good enough then, why would it be good enough now.  To get better something needs to change.  Kerry have Tommy Walsh for example.
  
  No harm for Dublin to get a right grilling - now they mnight try real change and come up with something.  If they had won out an AI or only got betaen by Kerry or Cork in a final we'd be seeing the same crap this time next year
  
  Any chance now that Shane Ryan, David Henry, Collie Moran and Conal Keaney would revert to playing hurling with Dublin (as they are have done / are capable of doing)
  
  

[Uladh]

Any chance now that Shane Ryan, David Henry, Collie Moran and Conal Keaney would revert to playing hurling with Dublin (as they are have done / are capable of doing)

[/li]
[li][/li]
[/list]

it should certainly be suggested to moran

[the green man]

A pretty awesome performance from Tyrone. Outclassed Dublin in every area of the field. Certainly that makes them favourites for the All Ireland now. Cluxton will get an allstar for his save in the first half, you know he will.

The Dubs know how to choke anyway.

[Hurler on the Bitch]

The disappointment in Michael Lyster and Colm O'Rourke's faces is evident, they all want the glamorous Kerry dublin final and sing the demise of ulster football...not happening just yet lads!

Agree totally .. Joe B wasn't taking any sh1te and gave O' Rourke a tanning. The RTE commentary team were as bad - one quote was "I'm sure Tyrone rejoiced when they saw the rain this morning - the rain is a great leveller" - look, the fact was that wet or dry, Tyrone would have stuffed the Dubs! I can't wait to hear Spillane belittle the performance. I do recall 2005, and they tried to say that Mugsy's goal was a foul. Slap it into them and Kerry are in for the same treatment!

[thewobbler]

The best thing about today's game was that skill was the winner. Dublin's response to All-Ireland failure over the past 4 seasons was to lift weights before every training sesson. As a result they walked stright over the top of Leinster. Today though, they met a side who have been coached over the years to do the basics of catching, kicking, blocking, breaking, handpassing and angled running better than just about anyone. And by god did it show.

[Hurler on the Bitch]

The disappointment in Michael Lyster and Colm O'Rourke's faces is evident, they all want the glamorous Kerry dublin final and sing the demise of ulster football...not happening just yet lads!

Agree totally .. Joe B wasn't taking any sh1te and gave O' Rourke a tanning. The RTE commentary team were as bad - one quote was "I'm sure Tyrone rejoiced when they saw the rain this morning - the rain is a great leveller" - look, the fact was that wet or dry, Tyrone would have stuffed the Dubs! I can't wait to hear Spillane belittle the performance. I do recall 2005, and they tried to say that Mugsy's goal was a foul. Slap it into them and Kerry are in for the same treatment!

Sorry, I may have been a bit presumptious. I should have said - "after Tyrone destroy Wexford, Kerry are in for the same treatment!"

[ildanach]

Certainly that makes them favourites for the All Ireland now.

think kerry will still be favorites although they wont sleep as easy tonight knowing that if they get passed cork there bogie team might be waiting in the long grass

[Mourne Rover]

Tyrone would have beaten almost anybody today, but Dublin were dreadful. They have a squad full of good players but no great ones. Alan Brogan is obviously their best forward, but they should still have been capable of lifting their game when he went off. Instead, they lost their shape and their spirit at a very early stage. If it had not been for a freak goal before half-time, they could have lost by 15 or 20 points.

Tyrone proved that form is temporary but class is permanent. In their first five games, they only played really well in the first 20 minutes of the drawn game in Omagh. However, when the AI series came around, they were like greyhounds out of the traps.

Dooher was fantastic throughout, but it was an outstanding team display. Above all, it was a triumph for Harte. If O'Neill, who is still only 28, was available, you would nearly make them favourites. It's lucky that they don't have to play Down too often...

[Tony Baloney]

Why the pussy footing around doohers continued antics?! It's not play acting or going to ground easily. He's a cheat plain and simple. His time spent with Canavan obviously rubbed off. It's some example to any juveniles watching the sport that a man of his advanced years has to resort to blatant cheating to gain an unfair advantage!

[time ticking away]

Brian Dooher is an incredible football with an amazing will to win. Most other footballers with his injuries would have retired by now. An inspirational leader, end of story

[never kickt a ball]

Why the pussy footing around doohers continued antics?! It's not play acting or going to ground easily. He's a cheat plain and simple. His time spent with Canavan obviously rubbed off. It's some example to any juveniles watching the sport that a man of his advanced years has to resort to blatant cheating to gain an unfair advantage!

 Looks like the only way Dublin could catch him was to dive.

[Mourne Rover]

I am by no means a Tyrone supporter, and I would have questioned Dooher's approach in the past, but he was wonderful against the Dubs from the start until he was subbed late on. He took a range of big hits and kept going throughout. Any criticism should be directed against Cavanagh, who might have got a red card for the shoulder to the face on Whelan, and then Whelan himself, who should have been off immediately for his own reckless high tackle. However, Dooher showed Dublin how football should be played.