 So, Michael, it's good to see you again. Good to talk to you as we talk Derry Championship football, which is in full swing already. Last time we spoke at Paddy McBrady, he put a light light on us and he asked to pick up a game, so it's good to be back talking football. Yeah, these boys had to refocus quickly so you had to get back into the club scene. But listen, it's all going, Derry. There was a break last weekend, but the weekend previous to that, there was a full round of games. There was eight matches in the senior championship, and they all went sort of according to form. Michael Bar won, where Lavi's defeat to Swatra was, I suppose, the big shock around one, was it? It definitely was. Lavi had been going really well, playing a very exciting brand of football, and they were in the cusp of winning the league. But they conceded their last game to Newbridge. I think they were talking about injuries and different things, but they conceded it. And maybe they lost a bit of momentum going into the championship. From watching the games, Swater were full value for their win. Osheen McWilliams was excellent, and overall they deserved it. And it leaves Lavi a pain. We've got to catch up. Osheen, as you know, it's not knockout, but the groups do help. Further up you finish in your group, you know, potentially the better knockout game you're going to have. So they're playing catch up now. Yeah, they're the same group of Schlock Neal, the founding champions. Yeah, and they meet this weekend, which is definitely a big game for Lavi. They met in the league actually quite recently, and Lavi bossed the first half, and looked very impressive. And then Schlock Neal turned the tables in the second half to win it. But they're a team, you know, you saw them yourself, Osheen, against Turman with the miners. You know, they're coming with an exciting bunch of young players. But how quickly it takes to bed that into the real world of senior, I suppose, is the place they find themselves now. Yeah, I suppose at times when you get a fantastic group of young men, that all of a sudden there's a very quick expectation of them, wasn't there, Michael? There certainly is, and you know, they haven't just came with one team that's been back on it up year after year, and they're back in the minor final again, against Moher Felt. So, you know, Lavi haven't won a championship since 1983, which is Boxing Day in 1983 in the snow. And it's a long time for Lavi, so they'll be mad to get back to the top table. I feel they will get there, but the Swatter game probably sets them back a wee bit on the fact that they're really lacking that wee bit of physicality around the middle that, you know, younger teams don't have. But if they ever got their hands on that John McLaughlin Cup, I think they'll get their hands on a lot more. Well, they've got a real test ahead of them this weekend against the holders, Schlock Neal. As you said, they met in the league recently, but this is championship football in bags. It's going to be the venue for it, and if you really want to see where you are, Michael, there's no better way to test yourself against the boys who won the Cup last year. Definitely not, and that's where I think that the Swatter game has, you know, chipped them up a wee bit, because if they were into this game with a one-on to their belt, they would see themselves as let's test Schlock Neal and see actually where we are against them. Now it's nearly, you know, it's not a must-one game, but they'll finish third if they don't want it, and that's as simple as that, but Schlock Neal are going fairly well. During the league, they didn't have all their players, and that saw a wee bit of a disadvantage because of the split-season model, but the thing about Schlock Neal is they've been playing together that long that it's nearly like flicking a switch again, that they're all back together, and it's a big, big test for Laby, definitely, but I feel Schlock Neal will come through it. Yeah, there's a couple of other big games this weekend as well. Before we look at those, who really are the sort of pretenders to the title of Schlock Neal? Who's there that can really take them on and give them a run towards then, Michael, do you feel? I think Glenn very much have been talked about, they've got, I suppose, it's been written and spoken about so many times how much the Dominion is on their heads, but they've got Malik who worked on his manager this year, and he's brought Ryan Porter with him, and even in itself that's a massive coup. They were in the final three years ago, which means they've been on the big day and they've tested that defeat in the big day, so that has to bring on a wee bit more. They will be huge pretenders. They're not, they're not firing at all cylinders at the minute, but to be fair, October is the real month when the championship starts, whenever it's real and somebody can get knocked out. I think it's, you know, they're the two main pretenders for me. In your intellects, Maharfelt, Laby, you know, Swater, Loop, whoever can jacket themselves into a championship run, you know, that's the sort of way it is, and in that too, a C-slap nail is favourite at the moment. Glen are playing Bill Ray this coming weekend after an opening round victory against Belahi, but a couple of other standard ties, as we've said. Belahi are playing host to Maharfelt, sort of a derby up there as well, so it is in Group D, but there's a lot can happen off the back of the result of this one, Michael. They can, because, again, the positions, the positions mean a lot towards the knockout, say the things. Maharfelt won the title two years ago, final last year, he said they're in crushes fourth season with them. They haven't been going well this year, but they've got a one on to their belt. They beat Kilray, they probably could have won by more, by all accounts, they missed a few gold chances, and they haven't clicked, but if they could get a win over Belahi, it puts them back in the race again. Belahi played Glen in the first game, they struggled, they struggled around the middle ashen. Glen won all 11 of their kickouts, and Glen won half of Belahi, so Belahi were basically living in scraps. From a Belahi point of view, they've won 21 championships, it's the most in derby, but they haven't won a knockout championship game, they'll hit me saying this again, but they haven't won a knockout championship game since 2015 for a club with that magnitude, so I'm sure that's something they'll be aiming for in October, and it means that if they could get a result against Maharfelt, it would fair turn their season around, but I would have to say they had a consistent leak, they finished third in the league after getting by Belahi in the first round, so they have had a good consistent season Belahi, but this is a big test for them. Well, there are standout games, if somebody said a number of years ago that Newbridge will be beaten Ballendaria in the championship as a city beforehand, we've done this under you Michael, we've seen this as a surprise, but it's not the case now, and Newbridge are looking to follow that up with another victory, they're playing on Rook, Colrain over the weekend, and Owen Begg, on Sunday afternoon, so there. I just touched on that game, I was at that game, and Newbridge were comfortable, they always looked comfortable against Ballendaria, I felt Ballendaria didn't score from play until stoppage time, which is not like Ballendaria, when they were top dogs in Derry, they had a forward lane on the bench that would get on most senior teams, that was how scary they were, but things have changed, and they're very much in transition. Newbridge actually managed by Killian Collin, a Ballendaria man, he goes on against Colrain, I watched Colrain a couple of times this year, and they took a couple of hammer-ins, and you're starting to wonder, are they on the way in? You know, their team's not getting any younger, but they were excellent against Banner, Lorcan McMullan up front, and Kieran McGoldrick were both excellent, and they put themselves back in the mix again, I would have to say. The Newbridge team is very, very young, they've started to get people back into the Derry scene again, Potty McGregor and Connor Dougharty from Newbridge, and Mark Dougharty, who was on the minor team, so they've done a lot of good work at their underage, getting players, playing great A underage football again, and they're an exciting team, you talk about a team that's trying to make progress, you can fire Newbridge into that bracket as well, and to beat Ballendaria was a good result for them, because last year they lost to Ballendaria after Extured Heim, and an absolute epic, but if they could beat Colrain this weekend, which isn't beyond them by any matter, it means it would be a great step in their development, and I wouldn't rule it out, I actually put it down for the draw, I couldn't call it, to be honest. We interest in sideline that Newbridge, we know when you're talking about the Nile Morgan factor and the Clarkson factor and the goalkeeper factor, they put their midfielder, Nathan Rocks, into goals for his kick-out, and I think he won all but three kick-outs against Ballendaria, so that's something that they feel they need to try and give them a wee bit of an advantage around the middle. So again, I'm looking forward to that one, a draw. I don't know where I changed my newspaper prediction now that we're sitting talking about it, but I'm looking forward to going to see it put it that way. Point or two either way, still sitting on the fence. Yeah, well that's another highlight to look forward to in the senior championship. What's the standard game in the intermediate this weekend, Michael? I think it's Jim Sernan Greenlock. Jim Sernan won the league and played a great brand of football, I would have to say three out of five, playing two or three times, and Greenlock won the championship last year, and Greenlock lost their midfield to Nile Bradley to a very serious knee injury, but they have Nile Lachlan and Endolin both backfitted again, and they brought in a young fellow Patrick Feeney for money more, he transferred to them, which gives them an extra attack and boost, and Stephen Bradley, so they would probably be fancied again to come through an intermediate level. Steves Town were beaten in the final last year, but this one was from Sernan, it would be a good game and I wouldn't rule them out, I wouldn't rule out a meeting further down the line in a semi-final or a final. In the previous round of the intermediate, there was a wee bit of a story where Deria Trazna didn't feel in the intermediate because of player unavailability and COVID and that type of thing, which means that in Deria, you have three grips and the three winners go into the quarter-final and the best runner up, and because of that concession score difference and potentially the runner up in that group could have a high score difference because they're playing Glac and Deria Trazna teams that are in the junior level. So it hasn't went down too well that that has happened, but the CCC don't really have any choice. They can't really do anything else about it, so it's going down to score average over the game, so whoever wins this one here is definitely in the quarter-final and the thing about it is next year's league is dependent on championship. So if Drumsun fail to make the quarter-finals of the championship, they'll actually be relegated to junior football despite winning the intermediate league and Greenock could be the same, so that's an extra wee incentive for Drumsun and Greenock this weekend, but I probably think Greenock will maybe come through it. Right, okay, pivotal game for sure. Listen, Michael, thanks for joining us as always and have a busy weekend ahead for you. Just finding where to let you go. What's the crowd's been like at the Deria Championship because up until pre-COVID, Deria was renowned for having huge numbers of supporters at the championship games at club level. Are they back yet, are they, Michael? Are they coming out in their numbers? There's good crowds at them to be fair. There's been a decent level of interest. There always is in the club game in Deria and they've streamed one game live every week and the rest of them are up online, but now there's a good crowd at all the games I've been at so far. Good stuff. Good to talk to you, Michael. Enjoy the weekend. Thanks, Joshy.