Qualifiers Draw

Bright-Oak wrote:

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

GAA-Fan wrote:No suprise that Donegal got Antrim - two ulster teams

Amazing alright (if its true) with only 3 left ....... Mind you both lucky they didn't get Wicklow...

Lino, what do you see in Galway because I see nothing other than an average team and I cannot see what the fuss is about, I would say they are are not much better than Derry, Mayo were head and shoulders above them today, and Galway have not shown this year in the league or championship to date any reason they can be considered contenders. Meehan only woke up with 20 minutes to go, Joyce wasn't at the races, they were cleaned out in midfield and Nicky Joyce kept them in it.

Could you get a fairer observation? While 'tis' Mayo's day there's still a kick in Galway...

Boxtyeater, I beg to differ, aside Derry I have been right enough this year I had a haunch about Antrim and I have one about Galway too, I just don't see what's so special.

Swinford2009 wrote:no offence to Antrim but i knew they were going to give Kerry the 'handy' draw

We knew this as well.

They seem desperate to keep Kerry in it and obviously rate the other 3 above us.

I knew Kerry would get Antrim, I put a tenner at 5/1 with a Kerryman on it!!!

The GAA might as welll give them a free route to the final!

macattack wrote:I knew Kerry would get Antrim, I put a tenner at 5/1 with a Kerryman on it!!!

The GAA might as welll give them a free route to the final!

If it is in Casement Park I fancy Antrim I rate Antrim higher than Sligo

Neutral venue, probably Killarney.

macattack wrote:I knew Kerry would get Antrim, I put a tenner at 5/1 with a Kerryman on it!!!

Someone gave you odds of 5/1 on a 1 in 4 chance? I think Id've been putting a lot more than a tenner on it, given those odds!

How much would you have stuck on Tom?

Bright-Oak wrote:

macattack wrote:I knew Kerry would get Antrim, I put a tenner at 5/1 with a Kerryman on it!!!

The GAA might as welll give them a free route to the final!

If it is in Casement Park I fancy Antrim I rate Antrim higher than Sligo

Good to see the Ulster bias alive and well..... Division 4 Final anyone?

black&white wrote:

Bright-Oak wrote:

macattack wrote:I knew Kerry would get Antrim, I put a tenner at 5/1 with a Kerryman on it!!!

The GAA might as welll give them a free route to the final!

If it is in Casement Park I fancy Antrim I rate Antrim higher than Sligo

Good to see the Ulster bias alive and well..... Division 4 Final anyone?

They beat you in the league though.

black&white wrote:

Bright-Oak wrote:

macattack wrote:I knew Kerry would get Antrim, I put a tenner at 5/1 with a Kerryman on it!!!

The GAA might as welll give them a free route to the final!

If it is in Casement Park I fancy Antrim I rate Antrim higher than Sligo

Good to see the Ulster bias alive and well..... Division 4 Final anyone?

So if someone expresses an opinion on a game/team you can infer bias towards a particular province? There's too much of this BS going on around here at the moment. If you disagree with Niamh then argue the point. Pulling in some cooked-up distraction about "Ulster" is adding nothing.

Agree with RMD on his point about the "Ulster Bias" bulls**te, it's just too easy a spanner to throw into a topic and the people that do bring it up never back it up with a logical arguement.

It's getting boring on here now, can we not just have a bit of a debate without throwing in cheapshots? It's a shame that the Ulster posters can't agree with fellow Ulster posters without getting stick for having an Ulster bias! Sad really!

Not sure I get all this tbh ..............

(Might be no harm!)

i have never seen a bigger fix in my life. I have always dismissed the fixed theory untill i seen it myself last night. It was absolutely blatant. Big massive drum with four tubes spaced out equally inside each tube. The drum was turned once at a snails pace with them two keeping a hold of the handle when doing it. They turned the drum that slow that the tubes did not even hit the top of the drum, each one fell in exact same place for the first two draws. The third draw one of the drums mixed it up a little bit but at that stage with two tubes left it was not exactly hard to keep an eye on which one was needed to be drawn out. Low and behold, the draw.

Antrim v kerry Glamour match for Antrim who are sure to bring a big support to see them take on the kingdom, and for Kerry another supposed easy game (making every effort to keep kerry in championship)

Wicklow v kildare grudge match after last year also a derby sure to bring big following.

Probably Meath v Limerick. Another grudge match after last year.

Galway v Donegal two nice footballing teams, should provide good entertainment, should be able to hold it at nice neutral venue not too far from either team.

It was absolutely cringe worthy to watch the draw. Total fix.

P.s Conor Mortimor, what a tit.

Bright-Oak wrote:

black&white wrote:

Bright-Oak wrote:

macattack wrote:I knew Kerry would get Antrim, I put a tenner at 5/1 with a Kerryman on it!!!

The GAA might as welll give them a free route to the final!

If it is in Casement Park I fancy Antrim I rate Antrim higher than Sligo

Good to see the Ulster bias alive and well..... Division 4 Final anyone?

They beat you in the league though.

In Casement Park, when we'd promotion already assured. We beat them when there was something on the line.

I'm not trying to have a go at you Niamh, and I take back the "Ulster bias" comment. I do think that Antrim are being rated hgher than they deserve purely for reaching an Ulster Final. Bar Tyrone Ulster has fallen back a bit in the last two years, and whilst still a competitive province, as a whole it's can no longer claim to be stronger than the rest.
As for Antrim, Tyrone didn't have to get out of second gear to beat them, and Antrim never really threatened to take them. They had a good win against Donegal, and deserve credit for that. Beating Cavan isn't something that would warrant being elevated to any great status, even though for Antrim it represents progress.

I'm sick to death of Sligo (and Connacht in general) being constantly written off be anyone and everyone. Sligo being considered the "handiest" draw in the last round. Despite being the Div 4 Champions, and having eliminated the Div 3 Champions we were still rated below Wicklow, who's great achivement had been beating Cavan (and now beating Down, I wonder how Sligo did against them the last time they met?).
Read the papers yesterday, and 90% of the coverage was about how Kerry played so poorly. Feck all credit (or mention) is given to Sligo, who should be in the Round 4 draw if they weren't so wasteful with chances (and if the referee didn't reverse a decision when Galvin argued with him). It's the typical rubbish we've seen in the last few years about Connacht teams in general, Mayo reached two All-Irelands in 2004/2006 and were treated as lucky and a joke. They may have choked in the Final, but Cork did the same in 2007, and are being talked up as one the favourites this year.

I don't really buy the whole "fix" thing but the GAA are leaving themselves totally exposed to such accusations by using those drums. Surely to god we can find some round bottomed drums (that make the world go around!!) and use them instead. When those things that they used last night are spun the little cylinders don't change position at all. Why not have a round drum and give it a good heave Winning Streak style!!
Simple solution!!

But where is the fix? Apparently there was an earlier draw that the world and its mother knew about - and they had a second - maybe so. But whats the fix? A fix just to get Kerry playing Antrim??? Are people for real??

And another thing - am I am not being funny here - but if you lose and go into the qualifiers then you are in a draw situation so you can have no complaints one way or the other. At least you are still in the C'ship - years ago one defeat and you were gone.

black&white wrote:

Bright-Oak wrote:

black&white wrote:

Bright-Oak wrote:

macattack wrote:I knew Kerry would get Antrim, I put a tenner at 5/1 with a Kerryman on it!!!

The GAA might as welll give them a free route to the final!

If it is in Casement Park I fancy Antrim I rate Antrim higher than Sligo

Good to see the Ulster bias alive and well..... Division 4 Final anyone?

They beat you in the league though.

In Casement Park, when we'd promotion already assured. We beat them when there was something on the line.

I'm not trying to have a go at you Niamh, and I take back the "Ulster bias" comment. I do think that Antrim are being rated hgher than they deserve purely for reaching an Ulster Final. Bar Tyrone Ulster has fallen back a bit in the last two years, and whilst still a competitive province, as a whole it's can no longer claim to be stronger than the rest.
As for Antrim, Tyrone didn't have to get out of second gear to beat them, and Antrim never really threatened to take them. They had a good win against Donegal, and deserve credit for that. Beating Cavan isn't something that would warrant being elevated to any great status, even though for Antrim it represents progress.

I'm sick to death of Sligo (and Connacht in general) being constantly written off be anyone and everyone. Sligo being considered the "handiest" draw in the last round. Despite being the Div 4 Champions, and having eliminated the Div 3 Champions we were still rated below Wicklow, who's great achivement had been beating Cavan (and now beating Down, I wonder how Sligo did against them the last time they met?).
Read the papers yesterday, and 90% of the coverage was about how Kerry played so poorly. Feck all credit (or mention) is given to Sligo, who should be in the Round 4 draw if they weren't so wasteful with chances (and if the referee didn't reverse a decision when Galvin argued with him). It's the typical rubbish we've seen in the last few years about Connacht teams in general, Mayo reached two All-Irelands in 2004/2006 and were treated as lucky and a joke. They may have choked in the Final, but Cork did the same in 2007, and are being talked up as one the favourites this year.

Now that's a good argument
And one which I agree with completely. In general it's very hard for non-traditional (LOL - must not use the word weak) counties, such as Sligo and ourselves for example, to get much credit from the GAA world at large. If Meath or Cork or Galway were to perform as well as Sligo have then they would be receiving much more credit. Non-traditional teams have to do much, much more before they get credit. See Wexford for a case in point. I think it's a case of needing to do it on a regular basis before you will get credit. I told Wexford people that they would have to do the same this year before they'd get much praise and it's probably the same for Sligo.

So I understand your frustration BnW, but it's not just a Sligo thing.

I have banged on about Wexford and the lask of respect they have had many times. As for traditional powers before 2003 who were Tyrone! Spoken like Patrique! But a valid point ....

B&W I have been tipping Antrim since before the championship started, They should have beaten in you in the league final only for a late Sucker punch, so you were not actually head and shoulders above them. Sligo seem to have a problem closing out games, they could have had Galway but choked in the last few minutes, likewise with Kerry. Sligo are still developing and maybe in the mix in the next few years, however, a lot of the Antrim boys have experience from St Galls and Sigerson i think that Kerry will be very complacent going up to to play the,m and if it is in Casement I can see Antrim winning it.

I've got a couple of drums out the back i could give them for the draw!

Bright-Oak wrote:and if it is in Casement I can see Antrim winning it.

Neutral venue ....... won't be Casement and Kerry won't be doing any charitable gestures the way they are playing - at least off the pitch!

the fix is those doing the draw knew which order they were placed in, spun the thing gently so they did not change position. Yes i do think its beneficial to the GAA to have Kerry in the championship and i think they are doing their best to make sure they are around for the last 8 at least. I think the "draw" has been used to gain maximum interest in the games.

samin10 wrote:the fix is those doing the draw knew which order they were placed in, spun the thing gently so they did not change position. Yes i do think its beneficial to the GAA to have Kerry in the championship and i think they are doing their best to make sure they are around for the last 8 at least. I think the "draw" has been used to gain maximum interest in the games.

The GAA essentially playing God in the who All-Ireland competition.

I think some people over estimate Kerry's worth. In terms of fans they bring very few - surely it would be better to have Wicklows or Antrims or Limericks progress and bringing support? Is it not better for the GAA to have new blood than same old, same old - don't buy this at all! Also in round 3 last year Kerry got Monaghan - prob the hardest draw.