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Football Championship 2026

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Replying To bloodandbandage: "100%. Happy enough with the draw, as I'm sure Mayo are." The Mayo and Cork camps will be happy enough with that. Both will fancy their chances. 50/50 game. May the best team on the day win. yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 12150 - 22/06/2026 14:15:32 2681243 Link
Its great that Galway have managed to become an All Ireland favourite by doing nothing of note. Lost to Div 1 Roscommon, beat relegated Kildare and div 3 Westmeath at home. Last notable win was 31st Jan v Armagh - (also beat already relegated Dublin and Monaghan) at 5/1 and Kerry at 4/7 is doesn't make much difference, but have Galway actually performed like the 2nd best team in the country? no. tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1912 - 22/06/2026 15:26:46 2681271 Link
Replying To tirawleybaron: "Its great that Galway have managed to become an All Ireland favourite by doing nothing of note. Lost to Div 1 Roscommon, beat relegated Kildare and div 3 Westmeath at home. Last notable win was 31st Jan v Armagh - (also beat already relegated Dublin and Monaghan) at 5/1 and Kerry at 4/7 is doesn't make much difference, but have Galway actually performed like the 2nd best team in the country? no." You would be a great judge to know what the 2nd best team in the country looks like... tribesman123 (Galway) - Posts: 39 - 22/06/2026 16:46:48 2681305 Link
Replying To tribesman123: "You would be a great judge to know what the 2nd best team in the country looks like..." I would. Glad you agree. tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1912 - 22/06/2026 17:23:37 2681312 Link
Are the semi finals an open draw. endgame (Roscommon) - Posts: 2714 - 22/06/2026 17:40:47 2681318 Link
Replying To legendzxix: "Without doubt. Tyrone will be well up for it. It's a draw that will have brought the Kerry group back to earth. It's a great draw though. These are the games to be involved in." Some tasty draws for the quarterfinals! As T O'Se said last night, it's Kerry's to lose now, but no better buckos to put a spanner in the Kingdom's work than Tyrone. However, I can't see Daragh Canavan being fit to play. He didn't look anywhere near it when introduced the last day out. It was desperation stakes that he came in at all. Hope I'm totally wrong. Galway, even though they have flaking footballers and play a lovely brand, could well bottle it against Dublin. They're renowned bottlers in Croker in big games. The Dubs are bound to be tired but sometimes games down on top of each other like that bring the resilience and the rough n tumble out in fellas. Cork and Mayo could go anyway, but I fancy Cork as Mayo are woeful at defending. A decade ago, when Mayo had great defenders, they lacked the forwards. Now they seem to have sharp forwards but can be sliced open at the back. That extra week of play could tell against Monaghan versus Louth, but again a very 50-50 game. Louth need to up their killer instinct, as if they leave Monaghan lingering at all, no better boys than the Farney to pull a game out of the fire. It all seems quite 50-50 or thereabouts, bar Kerry and Tyrone. But... foreveryoung (USA) - Posts: 2583 - 22/06/2026 17:55:07 2681321 Link
I really don't know where the optimism comes from regarding our chances against Kerry. Kerry have beaten us convincingly the past couple of times we have met and they have only gotten better while we have regressed. Tyrone are no longer Kerry's bogie team and we have to accept that they are on a completely different level to us currently. Wally (Tyrone) - Posts: 936 - 22/06/2026 22:09:03 2681359 Link
Kerry Mayo Monaghan Galway 4 QF winners. Malachy O'Rourke to get the door after Saturday defeat. hlynch12 (Limerick) - Posts: 116 - 22/06/2026 22:53:15 2681363 Link
Replying To endgame: "Are the semi finals an open draw." Yes Scenicparish (Donegal) - Posts: 1024 - 23/06/2026 08:31:05 2681380 Link
Replying To foreveryoung: "Some tasty draws for the quarterfinals! As T O'Se said last night, it's Kerry's to lose now, but no better buckos to put a spanner in the Kingdom's work than Tyrone. However, I can't see Daragh Canavan being fit to play. He didn't look anywhere near it when introduced the last day out. It was desperation stakes that he came in at all. Hope I'm totally wrong. Galway, even though they have flaking footballers and play a lovely brand, could well bottle it against Dublin. They're renowned bottlers in Croker in big games. The Dubs are bound to be tired but sometimes games down on top of each other like that bring the resilience and the rough n tumble out in fellas. Cork and Mayo could go anyway, but I fancy Cork as Mayo are woeful at defending. A decade ago, when Mayo had great defenders, they lacked the forwards. Now they seem to have sharp forwards but can be sliced open at the back. That extra week of play could tell against Monaghan versus Louth, but again a very 50-50 game. Louth need to up their killer instinct, as if they leave Monaghan lingering at all, no better boys than the Farney to pull a game out of the fire. It all seems quite 50-50 or thereabouts, bar Kerry and Tyrone. But..." We've won more big games than we bottled. Hard to know where this bottler reputation is coming from. Final 2024 and QF 2025 are the only 2 come to mind. Last time in croker before that was 2018 and we beat Kerry that year but lost to dubs in semi. In that period we beat Armagh in QF, Derry in semi, in huge games, then Dublin in QF and Donegal in semi, huge games against favourites both times as well. Had a scattering of QF appearances, 2014, 2016, 2017. Struggle to call any of those bottlejobs. Blowouts most of them. systematic (Galway) - Posts: 326 - 23/06/2026 09:00:45 2681384 Link
Replying To endgame: "Are the semi finals an open draw." no - repeat pairing are to be avoided if at all possible. Assume Monaghan, Cork, Dublin and Kerry - then Kerry and Cork cant meet Assume Monaghan, Mayo, Dublin and Tyrone - then Mayo play Dublin and Monaghan v Tyrone tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1912 - 23/06/2026 09:40:02 2681391 Link