Not jumping the gun as it’s certainly a 50/50 game from what I’ve seen of both but are semi final pairings predetermined or is it an open draw ?

Dublin beat Cork In the first one .

@SEAN Burke. Mayo play Dublin if they beat Monaghan in the semi-final.

Are you sure about that Jimbo? thought it was Mayo/Monaghan v Kerry Derry v Dublin.

Derry giving Galway a bad beating in Carrick, they only beat Monaghan on a shootout.

Cork can feel very hard done by. Clear free in missed by the ref in the closing stages. Might even have been a black card.

Into injury time and Derry are out the gap, up by 1-12 to 0-4. They’re an impressive outfit, Galway very poor.

Derry won by 1-13 to 0-4.

Derry well up on Galway so Monaghan are going to be very hard to beat

Impressive score from Carrick allright. Some hiding there for what I thought was a decent enough Galway outfit.
Derry looked bigger, faster an sharper, they'll take some stopping.

Galway was without two of their better forwards in Jack Heneghan and Sean Walsh but a very poor display by them just 0-4 is a poor as it gets for a knock out tie

Great game so far
Mayo have it all to do
1-04 to 1-03 after 15 minutes to Monaghan

Getting well bet now. Can’t handle their power through the middle.

Monaghan have taken over here gone from 3 points down to 6 points up just before ht.

Monaghan have hit four unanswered in the space of a couple of minutes. Mayo struggling on their own kickouts. Really up against now in the second half.

We’re really under the hammer here. Monaghan have scored 1-6 without reply to lead by six.

Monaghan by far the better team

Mayo constantly playing the ball to guys in heavy traffic or wild inaccurate passing

1-9 to 1-4 down at half-time. Big hill to climb here, well beaten in that opening half.

Good for the first 10 minutes, 2nd best for the rest of the half and can't have many complaints about 5 point margin at half time.

lucky to be only 5 points behind. either Monaghan are terrific or Mayo. are weak...not sure which. No cohesion and aimless shooting and passing...from Mayo.
Hopefully they will up the game in 2nd half...fingers crossed

Final ball letting Mayo down,Monaghan have lots of power,pace,athleticism and skill,a serious outfit.
Mayo were starting to come back into it a bit in the last minute or two before ht and got a lovely point but they're up against it.

5 points in it,we have a chance.

Monaghan seem to be a lot bigger and more physical than us but we have huge pace need to use it more , kicking it it to one man inside with 3-4 around him isn’t much point, our back seemed at sea needing to tighten up it’ll take some effort to pull it back but it’s not done yet

Biteen light , plenty of time to develop though as individuals but as a team too small/light .

Looks like the Ulster u17s are stronger than their Connacht counterparts. Derry far too good for Galway and now Monaghan giving us a bit of a runaround. Still half an hour to go and if we can get ball forward we could do a bit of damage. Derry annihilated all teams in Ulster with the exception of Monaghan, so the fact that Monaghan took Derry to extra time suggests they are a really fine team.

Being beaten by a better stronger Monaghan team.

Combination of Monaghan very good and Mayo woeful. Huge difference in use of possession.,with Mayo very wasteful with bad wides and coughing up possession, mostly with poor kick passes. Also our kick-outs have been a disaster. Looks like The Minor standard in Connacht is poor this year.

It’s like watching men against boys out there today unfortunately. Monaghan very calm on the ball, don’t cough it up easily and can mix a running and kicking game. Simple passing from Mayo very poor, not a good look at all. Monaghan going straight down the middle another concern considering it was the same tactic that killed us in the AI final last year. Hopefully we can mount a late comeback but it doesn’t look great

Interesting to know how many of our own kickouts we won. Pure disaster.

That straight red was a scandalously poor decision. The Monaghan lad hopped up right after pumping his fist. Ref totally conned. Monaghan far the better team but that kind of stuff leaves a sour taste.

Men against boys in the minor game unfortunately. Monaghan the stronger team by far. Broke through the Mayo tackles so easy, linked up well with their forwards and they also kicked some great scores.

Monaghan very good and deserved the win but Monaghan player getting Mayo lad sent off by going down holding his face was not nice to see. They had the game won ..no need for it (anytime)

1-15 to 1-8 FT. Fully deserved win for Monaghan, our lads were second-best for much of the game. Hard luck to them.

Very good Monaghan performance. Hard luck lads. You were up against it but kept playing to the end.
Best of luck to Monaghan
Maigheo Abu

A real lesson there from Monaghan. Strong direct and very good individuals right through the spine. We loooked seceond best in every facet of the game.
However very well done mayo boys you will have better days. Keep the faith.

TBH I fear for Mayo after the trimming Galway took off Derry. Nothing between Monaghan and Derry in the Ulster final separated on penalties. Without stating the obvious Mayo and Galway not as strong as last year but Ulster reps look very strong and Dublin and Kerry will do well to beat them next.

Wasn't to be today. Monaghan outclassed Mayo but there were some strange tactics by our lads that didn't help matters at all. We were destroyed under aerial balls in every game we played in Connacht but had the savvy to get around that problem. Today against a bigger, stronger and more athletic side we kept kicking out high to midfield where Monaghan mopped up. Monaghan's 1v1 defending was excellent and they turned us over time after time. Best of luck to Monaghan in the rest of the competition.

I dunno, are they doing hypertrophy weights and protein shakes up North? Just were simply too big and physical for our lads.
All were thick squatting legs.

Strength and size difference was alarming , it was like our bucks were two yrs younger grade in comparison .

Hard luck guys . Monaghan far the better team and well deserved.

@JP was thinking the same thing ha. The monaghan boys as others said actually liked 2 years older in size and that!

Dublin minors will have a tough match against them.

Joe G-the goalkeeper didn’t trust the backs not to cough up the ball. That’s why I think he was going long

For the sending off, I thought what actually happened was throwing off the other player and the Monaghan player pretended a strike had happened?

Final Whistle pod from Carrick is up on Patreon. Mike and I are joined by Nigel Reape on it and Mike also chats post-game with Seán Deane.