Football Championship 2026 (Mod Note in OP)

Youd have to think Croker would be more of an advantage to Armagh.

I think its a smart move to play in a club ground from a point of view of winning the game.

Not ideal of supporters and i imagine Armagh will have much bigger support on the day with season tickets.

2 matches for busting a lad open with a punch is a joke. Thats the kind of thing that should nearly end your season. Murphy should have at least got 4 to 5 matches for the dig he threw. Clifford being the golden boy won't even get considered for his elbow to the face.

The GAA have zero credibility when it comes to upholding rules and imposing punishments. Its make it up as you go along

First phase of the stadium will only have about 6-8k capacity. So would be same issue next year anyway.

30k fans in Croker looks sh1te to be honest. Would be empty and soulless, better off watching it on TV. All I read every week here is how the Dubs should stop playing in Croker cos its half full. Now people want to move a game to it and be a third full?

No one has a divine right to go to a GAA match

Theres no uproar, as someone has pointed out above, the venue was picked to maximise Louths chance of winning and any Louth fan worth their salt knows that & is supportive of it. If I had my way, the game would be played in Ardee.

There arent that many Louth "diehards", i've been to plenty of Louth games up & down the country and theres been many a day where i knew everyone there from Louth by name or sight and I can assure you, the "die-hards" would have been outnumbered by stewards. Any real die-hard should have their season ticket anyway & would have a guaranteed ticket for this game, as this was always a likely outcome.

Using a round number of say 1,500 tickets to be distributed to clubs, thats around 35/40 per club & very few clubs would have that many members who regularly go to games, and my personal preference is always to give club members first dibs on tickets for sell out games, ahead of people who only support the county team. How clubs then decide on how to distribute their tickets is probably worthy of a whole different thread!

Discourage? Sure there was only 16k Including Dublin fans) at the game on Sunday. People have ample opportunity to go see their team not 4 days ago and passed it up.

Like it or not, but GAA is also about winning. Obviously the GAA is about community but you have to win games as well. Its not Go Games. And Louth have decided holding it in Inniskeen gives us the best chance.

No doubt if we lose (which is very likely) there will be the usual hams saying they are delighted because we didnt host it in Croker for a fiver an entry but that'll be forgotten when the next GAA 'controversy' appears

They're not paying silly buggers in the slightest. It's their right, just as it was Antrim's and and Kildare's.

If this was always going to happen, then why the home venues in the first place when some venues are unsuitable?

This a bit like the defence to the judge that you couldn't stop because you were going too fast and the question was why you were going too fast in the first place.

So the defence is that we may be bollixes but we are not the only one?

Antrim, Kildare and Louth have a population of about a million between them, yet Leitrim or Carlow can provide proper grounds without all this crap.

No, of course not. 99% of times venues do not lock out out thousands of people.

But Armaghs ground could potentially "lock out" thousands of people. So how is that different?

The Donegal Cork game is sold out. Maybe it should be moved!

grow the game of football in Cork? The only growing will be if ye get to an AIF and there’ll be growth in the lads and lassies jumping on the bandwagon who wouldn’t go see them normally if they were playing in the field next to the house.

And then absolutely lambast them if they lose like they have nothing to do with Cork.

I agree with you, there are many in the East and the City who wouldn't cross the road to watch Cork play football.

We're without our best player now too next weekend. Colm O'Callaghan's red card was upheld. Ludicrous really, an accidental forearm clash to the Meath player as he was trying to move past him with the ball. A yellow at most. How often do you see a player in possession of the ball get sent off while trying to move past an opponent?

And yet king David can smash his elbow into the face of a Donegal player off the ball and face zero sanction. The GAA has always been totally amateur when it comes to the disciplinary process.

Michéal Burns gets a 2 game ban for landing a few uppercuts and drawing blood from a Donegal player, a fairly soft punishment. But Kerry always get their way. Not that it matters because Jack will most likely jettison him from the panel. Burns may have some hope of playing in Croke Park this summer, he could be on the undercard for Katie Taylor with his boxing skills.

A game between one of the AI favourites and its second largest county certainly should be streamed. It is infeasible for a lot of Cork people to travel so far. The cameras will be there anyway and at the time it is at it would not much affect people attending other games. The GAA is a bit odd sometimes.