Donegal vs Kerry . 3.30 .

Just hope there are not too many contentious issues , carrot !

how incompetent are the umpires?  donegal goal chance,goalie saves it,going out for a 45.kerry defender kicks it out just in case,, wide ball!!

Poor football both very defensive. Proper puke football.

both teams ultra defensive.not a great advertisement for the game after the great semis

Kavvie, were they great games for the losers of both Semi's? I don't think so.

kerry look to be running on empty , and its donegals to lose

if u live by the sword u die by the sword

GAA must be the only sport in the world where the acceptance speech doesn't BEGIN with an acknowledgement of your opponent.

Same every year. Most uncouth.

Fair play to SKY for going to ads.

Jaysus Christ

Ko2, never noticed a registration date of 01 Jan 2000 before. You were very early onto Betfair! Was Epsom Oaks day June 2000 not the first race traded?

Hi Kelly, I could write book. Few golden years from 2004-2007 before people figured out there was money to be had on this new trading lark!!

Had great few years on Irish racing, horses backed from eg 25/1 into 16/1 were available to back on Betfair at 80 etc etc. In last few years Irish betting follows Betfair price moves or the opposite happens. Had to invent new angles or edges and big profits hard to achieve. I cant handle premium charge withdrawals from my account at all!

Betfair is a brilliant concept . Came from the stock exchange essentially from someone who understood gambling . Could have been any one of a number of like minded people who came up with the concept , Andrew Black hit the jackpot , fair play to him .

Regarding profitability , as someone else posted on another thread , the only guaranteed profit is simultaneous arbitrage . We would all love that , but does not happen often , and the bookies have adjusted their systems to be Betfair trackers , that eliminates possibilities .

Anticipating the market will always yield profit if you can do it , and are not greedy .

And people who can do sums can winkle out profit , particularly in running .  Yesterday the back percentage in the match hit 93% at one time . And it was over 100% at various times in the lay market .

to the purists,it was not a great game of football.i doubt anybody will be buying the dvd,even kerry people.the donegal crowd took it on the chin(take note mayo) but the fact is fitzmaurice had to do it because he knew this present kerry team were not good enough to play it with finesse.but it was still a grest occasion and the game turned on a packie bonner!the pressure in the cauldron of croke pk got to durkan(then fell apart)and he will have to learn to live with that.

   on a side note,i see the gobshytes of the mayo county board have appointed a joint management team(wtf does that mean?)of noel connelly and pat holmes(a failed mayo manager before).i doubt they even canvassed the oppinion of the senior players within the mayo squad .i can safely say that this present mayo team are finished now!

2 average teams on the day neither performed. Reason Kerry won was because of basic errors in lead up to both goals. You don't win 2 Ulster titles, an All Ireland and reach another final by been an average team.

I believe Connelly and Holmes were chosen cos they have brought through much of this team from 2005 - 2008 as U-21 managers during which time they were unbeaten in Connacht and managed to win one All-Ireland. Connelly has also been involved in many development squads in Mayo and is generally well thought of across the county. Holmes is his Brother in law and got Castlebar to the Club final last yr only to be beaten by a very strong St Vincents.  I think both tickets were strong and would have been happy with either. I hope they can do what Horan set out to do and be 'consistently competitive' and be in the shakeup when Augusts come around.

Mordin , Dublin were an undisputed 4/9 shot to win out before the semis , most judges wondered only who they would beat in the final . If you had taken the Dubs out of the equation , Mayo would have been marginal favourites with Kerry just behind them and Donegal whipper in . That is what surprised me in the lead up to the final , Kerry ground out a victory over a tried and trusted ( and equal on the day) Mayo team , Donegal picked Dublins pockets for 3 goals and suddenly they were going for a victory lap on the third Sunday .

We had seen Donegal struggle against Monaghan and Armagh , they were Division 2 National League , but the rosy tinted goggles were about the North West  , and the media were pushing the band wagon .

Kerry are not the finished article , but they have a good set of young legs who will now have the confidence to wear the shirt for years to come , injury etc permitting . Just a pity the best footballer in the country over  the last 10 years missed out going up the steps to receive Sam .

Donegal may have to deal with some retirements , but presumably some of their minor squad will progress to senior status ( as will their conquerors Kerry ) . I admire the Donegal effort in keeping the flag flying in their spread out county on our western shores , only consolation for them is that if you had painted a picture of what took them to near glory on Sunday 3 months ago , a lot of people would have told you to go and have your eyes examined .

Tradition a big factor in many counties , Mordin . One of the best aspects of the newer championship arrangements is that a lot of counties who only got one match a year can look forward to more matches at the competitive level . We in Down had no success at all relatively speaking  , no tradition in All-Ireland terms , until Maurice Hayes and co figured it out and took the selection of the county team away from the county board .  And they played anybody , anywhere , all to gain experience and match themselves against as good teams as would play them in challenges etc . 

I have seen football in a lot of different counties over the years , in some of the "weaker" counties I have easily identified players we would loved to "adopt" . If it was a professional sport I have no doubt that would be happening , and while it might yield dividends ( and glory) for individuals I am not sure it would be good for the game overall .

In the meantime its back to the drawing boards for most counties . Just wonder how the Dubs will react , wish we had most of their players !

to be fair to all involved and im not whinging i think mayo were rode out of the all ireland by cormac o reilly.the fact mayo lost a 5 point lead is incidental really.it was a match,mayo were winning it by two points close to ht in extra time, despite the ref failing to reduce kerry to 14 men early in the game.he then inexplicably awarded kerry two non frees to bring them back into it and give kerry a huge lift.two points at that stage of extra time would have been a huge lead.another thing i see every year is the way the media decide issues about games and the general public seem to follow like sheep.there was very little made of the umpires amazing decision to not award donegal a 45 in the first half?it was a clear 45 when the goalie saved it but just to make sure a keery man tapped it out.again an almost certain point by murphy had been denied.im an admirer of kerry football etc but facts are facts..