Ulster Senior Football Championship 2021

gael_force_orchard said:

I know its a controversial debate, but something surely will be done about lopsided championships after this year.

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The championship was always lopsided. Even in the super 8’s, between Division 1 teams.

Roscommon were tanked by maybe 15-20 points by Tyrone and Kerry. Cork were tanked by Tyrone. Donegal and Tyrone tanked us. Dublin tanked Meath, Roscommon, Tyrone, Monaghan, Cork, Kildare etc etc.

That is the top teams tanking other teams in the top 10. You’ve no need to look at the tankings Division 3 and 4 teams are taking. It’s happening within Division 1.

gael_force_orchard said:

I know its a controversial debate, but something surely will be done about lopsided championships after this year. The average winning margin to date must be well over 10 points at the minute. Flicked on to watch 30 seconds of Mayo there and they were 3-11 to 0-02 up, instantly switched off, no joy in watching hammerings like that, especially when its Mayo dishing them out (could never warm to them for some reason)

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It's because they think they are one of the best counties yet consistently have one of the easiest routes into All Ireland's. They are lucky to have to play 2 decent teams a season to get there.

Beat Sligo and Leitrim and you are in the final. What a joke.

Most counties have 3 championships to cater for different levels of strength. Surely at county level it should be the same. opportunity to move up the divisions by winning at your level.

PatMustard said:

The championship was always lopsided. Even in the super 8’s, between Division 1 teams.

Roscommon were tanked by maybe 15-20 points by Tyrone and Kerry. Cork were tanked by Tyrone. Donegal and Tyrone tanked us. Dublin tanked Meath, Roscommon, Tyrone, Monaghan, Cork, Kildare etc etc.

That is the top teams tanking other teams in the top 10. You’ve no need to look at the tankings Division 3 and 4 teams are taking. It’s happening within Division 1.

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There are no top teams. There is a top team and maybe two or three in the next bracket.

PatMustard said:

The championship was always lopsided. Even in the super 8’s, between Division 1 teams.

Roscommon were tanked by maybe 15-20 points by Tyrone and Kerry. Cork were tanked by Tyrone. Donegal and Tyrone tanked us. Dublin tanked Meath, Roscommon, Tyrone, Monaghan, Cork, Kildare etc etc.

That is the top teams tanking other teams in the top 10. You’ve no need to look at the tankings Division 3 and 4 teams are taking. It’s happening within Division 1.

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Agree with a lot of this, maybe im just noticing it a lot more this year given the knockout nature and fewer fans and whats happened this last year with the pandemic. Im hoping and thinking Derry will put up a better showing shortly

niall1980 said:

There are no top teams. There is a top team and maybe two or three in the next bracket.

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Yes, but the teams ranked 2-6 like Kerry, Tyrone, Mayo, Donegal etc have dished out tankings in recent years to other teams in Division 1.

So how many would this Tier 1 consist of? Three? Four?

Any word on what capacity they’re allowing for the game?

I noticed from the BBC updates for Tyrone game there was 3,700 there.

So you’d hope for similar or more?

Provincial championships in their current format for me at least are losing their appeal very quickly and there needs to be a rapid change in how it is setup.

Munster and Connacht have a seriously unfair advantage over Ulster and Leinster. Dublin have ruined Leinster and have done since 2005. Ulster is a minefield and after Derry today (whether it is a flash in the pan remains to be seen) could have five challengers in the next 2 or 3 seasons.

I think there should be an integration of the league and the provincial championship if we are to keep both. I would be in favour of having rotational leagues over the period of two years and the top four teams playing against each other for provincial honours.

How would it work I hear you ask?

- The divisions will be rotated every two/three seasons to keep pairing fresh - some seasons you are going to have it difficult some seasons you might have it easy.
- To start it all off the provincial finalists are seeded and cannot play each other.
- What league a county goes into is determined by an open draw as seen below


Each county plays the other counties in the league only once. The four best placed teams are put straight into a semi-final against each other. If the league was to finish with the example below - Ulster for example will have Armagh, Donegal, Monaghan and Tyrone playing against each other. If two counties finish in the same position but are in different divisions it will be decided on points difference. In Leinster it will be Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Laois. Connacht will be Mayo, Roscommon, Galway and Leitrim whilst Munster has Kerry, Cork, Tipperary and Clare.





With this format every county is getting the advantage of playing more than one game each championship and are getting a chance to develop. For the All Ireland I am not completely sure how to work it. I am split between using the top two teams in the leagues or only using provincial winners.

Taff said:

Any word on what capacity they’re allowing for the game?

I noticed from the BBC updates for Tyrone game there was 3,700 there.

So you’d hope for similar or more?

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I got it on really good authority that it's definitely not going to be more than 1700 (met one of the guys at the chinese tonight that does the Armagh tv and he said he was told it in Donegal today because he does those games as well). I doubt there was more than 1700 at healy yesterday. That was the limit on Friday for the U20 game. Usually wrong on those though, but honestly, the numbers for next weekend will be 1700 unless something big changes

Yeah @Big Jim - I’m pretty sure Sidey said on the Championship there was 1700 in Omagh.

PS. What you get in the Chinese?

PatMustard said:

Yeah @Big Jim - I’m pretty sure Sidey said on the Championship there was 1700 in Omagh.

PS. What you get in the Chinese?

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Far too bloody much as usual (any wonder that damn bus won't fit around me anymore ) but just can't resist their ribs, Sweet n Sour chicken cantonese style with boiled rice and prawn crackers. What a starter and followed that with.........Oh sorry, you didn't actually want to know!! My bad!

Okay all the silliness to one side (well yeah except the parading tomorrow/today, but at least that has nothing to do with the past), what a game this weekend to look forward too. IF we were able to make it past this one the feeling would be like '99 almost all over again, it's been such a wait just to get to the final.

First things first and just one step at a time. I believe we have what it takes, but will that actually do it for us or will Banty be too cute.? My feeling is that we have the better team/panel/squad, but fear we may lack the experience to finish it if it is tight. Six more sleeps

niall1980 said:

There are no top teams. There is a top team and maybe two or three in the next bracket.

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2 are clear of the rest. Don’t think there’s a huge pile then between about 8 teams, ourselves included.

Big Jim said:

Okay all the silliness to one side (well yeah except the parading tomorrow/today, but at least that has nothing to do with the past), what a game this weekend to look forward too. IF we were able to make it past this one the feeling would be like '99 almost all over again, it's been such a wait just to get to the final.

First things first and just one step at a time. I believe we have what it takes, but will that actually do it for us or will Banty be too cute.? My feeling is that we have the better team/panel/squad, but fear we may lack the experience to finish it if it is tight. Six more sleeps

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Gaelic Football is constantly evolving and managers always have to be on the look out for the new tactical trend that is going about and few are capable of this. It is for this reason I am against bringing back old managers because they almost always like doing things a certain way which might have worked ten years ago but they won't necessarily work today. Time is very much against Monaghan and perhaps Banty has been brought back to county management to identify and bring in a few players and after their development someone else will step up.

I think our attack is going to give the Monaghan defence a headache and it won't get any better for them as the game comes to the closing stages. Whilst we can do damage at one end we are not great at damage limitation at the other end. When we use the blanket defence we step off them and let them work their way in and we cover a lot of the ground. I would expect us to mark loose in the first half and in the second half and tighten up in the second half.

There won't be any long balls into the forward line because when we go on the attack or have the opportunity to attack we need to make every score count. Patience in the first half and increase the intensity gradually in the second half. Can't be doing with running out of steam with ten minutes left.

Armagh_paul said:

Gaelic Football is constantly evolving and managers always have to be on the look out for the new tactical trend that is going about and few are capable of this. It is for this reason I am against bringing back old managers because they almost always like doing things a certain way which might have worked ten years ago but they won't necessarily work today. Time is very much against Monaghan and perhaps Banty has been brought back to county management to identify and bring in a few players and after their development someone else will step up.

I think our attack is going to give the Monaghan defence a headache and it won't get any better for them as the game comes to the closing stages. Whilst we can do damage at one end we are not great at damage limitation at the other end. When we use the blanket defence we step off them and let them work their way in and we cover a lot of the ground. I would expect us to mark loose in the first half and in the second half and tighten up in the second half.

There won't be any long balls into the forward line because when we go on the attack or have the opportunity to attack we need to make every score count. Patience in the first half and increase the intensity gradually in the second half. Can't be doing with running out of steam with ten minutes left.

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Class!

Nerves are starting to make it feel like we are finally in a battle with the odds favouring the brave. It's no longer a case of hoping we could do it. Now it's a case of hoping we will do it. That's some change!

Big Jim said:

Class!

Nerves are starting to make it feel like we are finally in a battle with the odds favouring the brave. It's no longer a case of hoping we could do it. Now it's a case of hoping we will do it. That's some change!

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The question is how much have they improved? In terms of results they have drawn against Donegal, Tyrone and technically Galway although won in ET - just about. I am glad we are not playing them as a relegated team as they would have had that focused mentality nobody likes to play against. Although Monaghan have stumbled through Division one and beat Fermanagh, we are finding our form and I hope the blips we had against Antrim in the first half are now well and truly out of the system. If the team doesn't step up now they never will.

Any word on the ref? I see McQuillan reffing Tyrone vs Donegal so at least we've dodged that bullet..

thecritic said:

Any word on the ref? I see McQuillan reffing Tyrone vs Donegal so at least we've dodged that bullet..

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David Coldrick

Armagh_paul said:

David Coldrick

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Glad we've avoided Deegan

Coldrick that's Monaghan getting soft frees