2018 NFL Division 3

[magpie seanie]

Sligo team selection was in some ways hard to believe. 6 or 7 debuts.......far too many at the one time. We're heading for Division 4 I think. We have some good young lads coming in but throwing them to the wolves like this is exactly what is not needed. Could be a long year.

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

Carew might be missed yet.

[sligoman]

Sligo team selection was in some ways hard to believe. 6 or 7 debuts.......far too many at the one time. We're heading for Division 4 I think. We have some good young lads coming in but throwing them to the wolves like this is exactly what is not needed. Could be a long year.

What other options have we Seanie?

The only player with experience on the bench today was Donovan, who made his first appearance of the season as a late sub last week, is now 35 and probably short on match fitness as I believe he had a minor knee surgery not long before Christmas.

Cian Breheny has hardly played in the past two season with injuries. Egan is injured at present, Kelly and McIntyre have not committed, Harrison doesn't seem to be available yet, Mark Breheny has retired, Kevin McDonnell must be carrying an injury at present. David Kelly has also not committed. There aren't any other options there. Eoin McHugh might be experienced in terms of age but he's only played about 4 or 5 times in Championship for Sligo.

Sadly that's as good as it is. Carew got a lot of stick for apparently not breeding enough new blood into the squad, now Corey is getting it for breeding too many new players. Right now we're in a very sticky period of transition and it'll likely get worse before it gets better. O'Hara said a few weeks back that he hopes Corey goes with new players even it means relegation to Div 4 and I think he's right. The Armagh game is our most difficult match on paper so hopefully these lads are quick learners.

Who would you have had starting today that was available to start?

[Shamrock Shore]

Sweet Jesus.

That was surely the worst Offaly side ever to put on the jersey.

Longford aren't world beaters, by any stretch of the imagination, but what I saw today was awful from Offaly.

Longford mentally togged in with 10 minutes to go and Offaly scored 6-8 points to take the shambolic look off the scoreboard.

That said, Longford's forwards had some great scores with Robbie Smyth and Rian Brady scoring some lovely points.

Ok - first game is over and we have Derry at home next Sunday. Looking forward to it already.

[LooseCannon]

Sweet Jesus.

That was surely the worst Offaly side ever to put on the jersey.

Longford aren't world beaters, by any stretch of the imagination, but what I saw today was awful from Offaly.

Longford mentally togged in with 10 minutes to go and Offaly scored 6-8 points to take the shambolic look off the scoreboard.

That said, Longford's forwards had some great scores with Robbie Smyth and Rian Brady scoring some lovely points.

Ok - first game is over and we have Derry at home next Sunday. Looking forward to it already.

We've quite a poor panel, with some good players. Doesn't look good for us. I reckon that it'll be similar to last year, a last minute escape from relegation.
Poor keeper.
We've no midfield.(Thank God Eoin Carroll is yet to come back)
Poor overall. I'm in bad form now.

[magpie seanie]

Sligo team selection was in some ways hard to believe. 6 or 7 debuts.......far too many at the one time. We're heading for Division 4 I think. We have some good young lads coming in but throwing them to the wolves like this is exactly what is not needed. Could be a long year.

What other options have we Seanie?

The only player with experience on the bench today was Donovan, who made his first appearance of the season as a late sub last week, is now 35 and probably short on match fitness as I believe he had a minor knee surgery not long before Christmas.

Cian Breheny has hardly played in the past two season with injuries. Egan is injured at present, Kelly and McIntyre have not committed, Harrison doesn't seem to be available yet, Mark Breheny has retired, Kevin McDonnell must be carrying an injury at present. David Kelly has also not committed. There aren't any other options there. Eoin McHugh might be experienced in terms of age but he's only played about 4 or 5 times in Championship for Sligo.

Sadly that's as good as it is. Carew got a lot of stick for apparently not breeding enough new blood into the squad, now Corey is getting it for breeding too many new players. Right now we're in a very sticky period of transition and it'll likely get worse before it gets better. O'Hara said a few weeks back that he hopes Corey goes with new players even it means relegation to Div 4 and I think he's right. The Armagh game is our most difficult match on paper so hopefully these lads are quick learners.

Who would you have had starting today that was available to start?

There are plenty of lads who were in and around the panel, most who got very little game time in Carew's tenure, who are worth a shot. One lad from my own club is among them. I'd be biased obviously but I was at games last year and people from other clubs were asking why he wasn't getting a run. I suppose at least he was making the bench at times last year. However, the policy now seems to be to go from one extreme to the other and this probably explains why a lot of lads have opted out. I just hope it works out. It's not a way to do things in my view....putting so many young lads in at once. I just find it very, very odd and it doesn't help those guys.

I've savage admiration for EOH and always have had but I don't understand his statement. It's most unlike him. I think we're good enough to survive in Div3 but things will need to improve a serious amount.

[T Fearon]

Interesting to see if the Westmeath County Board will welcome Armagh's "horrendous" fans to the Dunnes Stores Arena in Mullingar next Sunday.We promise not to intimidate the natives nor drink the pubs of Mullingar dry like we did last July😂

[sligoman]

Sligo team selection was in some ways hard to believe. 6 or 7 debuts.......far too many at the one time. We're heading for Division 4 I think. We have some good young lads coming in but throwing them to the wolves like this is exactly what is not needed. Could be a long year.

What other options have we Seanie?

The only player with experience on the bench today was Donovan, who made his first appearance of the season as a late sub last week, is now 35 and probably short on match fitness as I believe he had a minor knee surgery not long before Christmas.

Cian Breheny has hardly played in the past two season with injuries. Egan is injured at present, Kelly and McIntyre have not committed, Harrison doesn't seem to be available yet, Mark Breheny has retired, Kevin McDonnell must be carrying an injury at present. David Kelly has also not committed. There aren't any other options there. Eoin McHugh might be experienced in terms of age but he's only played about 4 or 5 times in Championship for Sligo.

Sadly that's as good as it is. Carew got a lot of stick for apparently not breeding enough new blood into the squad, now Corey is getting it for breeding too many new players. Right now we're in a very sticky period of transition and it'll likely get worse before it gets better. O'Hara said a few weeks back that he hopes Corey goes with new players even it means relegation to Div 4 and I think he's right. The Armagh game is our most difficult match on paper so hopefully these lads are quick learners.

Who would you have had starting today that was available to start?

There are plenty of lads who were in and around the panel, most who got very little game time in Carew's tenure, who are worth a shot. One lad from my own club is among them. I'd be biased obviously but I was at games last year and people from other clubs were asking why he wasn't getting a run. I suppose at least he was making the bench at times last year. However, the policy now seems to be to go from one extreme to the other and this probably explains why a lot of lads have opted out. I just hope it works out. It's not a way to do things in my view....putting so many young lads in at once. I just find it very, very odd and it doesn't help those guys.

I've savage admiration for EOH and always have had but I don't understand his statement. It's most unlike him. I think we're good enough to survive in Div3 but things will need to improve a serious amount.

I presume that's Laffey you're referring to?

At this level, he is no more experienced than the lads that started today. We have little choice, Breheny  has retired, McIntyre and Kelly have not committed for whatever reason and David Kelly has opted out like he has done for pretty much the last two years - that is really it. I don't think there is much point in persisting with guys who have been given chances in the past few years and just aren't up to it.

It's not ideal we have had to blood so many new players together but I don't think its like Corey had a choice. I hope he is given plenty of time and patience, the rebuilding process has been long overdue and it may take time.

[stew]

Interesting to see if the Westmeath County Board will welcome Armagh's "horrendous" fans to the Dunnes Stores Arena in Mullingar next Sunday.We promise not to intimidate the natives nor drink the pubs of Mullingar dry like we did last July😂

Bunch of crying bitches! hope they get the result they deserve, Armagh by five points.

[Rufus T Firefly]

Good way to start off the league campaign yesterday with a comfortable win. Thought we made a very positive start, dominating around the middle and taking some excellent long range points with the aid of a strong breeze. Sligo seemed intent on using their full forward Pat Hughes but he was tightly marked by Aaron McKay who had a very good game. Indeed the whole defence was playing well at this stage of the game - tackling and covering that was both determined and disciplined. The one minor issue was Sligo's first point late in the half which was a free that was moved up into a scoring position because of back chat to the ref.   

With the score 10-2 at half time and Sligo with the breeze, I was concerned that shipping an early goal might make a game of it. However we got the opening goal, after great work by Mini McShane who used his speed to break the cover, with the ball being set up for Andrew Murnin to palm to the net. That score - despite coming early in the second half - essentially signaled the end of the match. We dominated for a period thereafter but began to get careless in our play and turned the ball over a number of times and indeed Sligo spurned a couple of good goal chances.

A good way to start the league but there will be clearly tougher obstacles ahead. Next week will be a case in point. However there seemed to be a positive vibe in the attitude of the team despite the number of players who have made themselves unavailable.

Purely on the basis of what I saw yesterday, Sligo will struggle.

[magpie seanie]

Sligo team selection was in some ways hard to believe. 6 or 7 debuts.......far too many at the one time. We're heading for Division 4 I think. We have some good young lads coming in but throwing them to the wolves like this is exactly what is not needed. Could be a long year.

What other options have we Seanie?

The only player with experience on the bench today was Donovan, who made his first appearance of the season as a late sub last week, is now 35 and probably short on match fitness as I believe he had a minor knee surgery not long before Christmas.

Cian Breheny has hardly played in the past two season with injuries. Egan is injured at present, Kelly and McIntyre have not committed, Harrison doesn't seem to be available yet, Mark Breheny has retired, Kevin McDonnell must be carrying an injury at present. David Kelly has also not committed. There aren't any other options there. Eoin McHugh might be experienced in terms of age but he's only played about 4 or 5 times in Championship for Sligo.

Sadly that's as good as it is. Carew got a lot of stick for apparently not breeding enough new blood into the squad, now Corey is getting it for breeding too many new players. Right now we're in a very sticky period of transition and it'll likely get worse before it gets better. O'Hara said a few weeks back that he hopes Corey goes with new players even it means relegation to Div 4 and I think he's right. The Armagh game is our most difficult match on paper so hopefully these lads are quick learners.

Who would you have had starting today that was available to start?

There are plenty of lads who were in and around the panel, most who got very little game time in Carew's tenure, who are worth a shot. One lad from my own club is among them. I'd be biased obviously but I was at games last year and people from other clubs were asking why he wasn't getting a run. I suppose at least he was making the bench at times last year. However, the policy now seems to be to go from one extreme to the other and this probably explains why a lot of lads have opted out. I just hope it works out. It's not a way to do things in my view....putting so many young lads in at once. I just find it very, very odd and it doesn't help those guys.

I've savage admiration for EOH and always have had but I don't understand his statement. It's most unlike him. I think we're good enough to survive in Div3 but things will need to improve a serious amount.

I presume that's Laffey you're referring to?

At this level, he is no more experienced than the lads that started today. We have little choice, Breheny  has retired, McIntyre and Kelly have not committed for whatever reason and David Kelly has opted out like he has done for pretty much the last two years - that is really it. I don't think there is much point in persisting with guys who have been given chances in the past few years and just aren't up to it.

It's not ideal we have had to blood so many new players together but I don't think its like Corey had a choice. I hope he is given plenty of time and patience, the rebuilding process has been long overdue and it may take time.

I'm not advocating persisting with guys who have had plenty of chances and failed in the past. I just think we have some more physically mature players we could use rather than throw in so many young lads against a Kieran McGeeney managed team. Blend them in gradually I would have thought was the sensible approach. I believe a more subtle approach could have been taken....you think we have no other players so it's the only option. We'll have to agree to disagree but it's amazing we were able to field teams at all last year! I'd be concerned at so many players opting out including a good few guys who have plenty to offer at this level. McIntyre and Kelly not playing are two massive hammer blows, both were automatic selections for me. Not sure why Ross wouldn't have started either, think he played in last FBD game. Kyle Cawley and Cian Breheny came on but surely could have started? Maybe it's just a difference in approach but I'd have liked to see a solid start and build from there.

Think you're overreacting by your hope Corey is given time comment. It's possible to have a difference of opinion or be surprised at something without wanting to sack someone. By and large we all agree these lads are the backbone of the team for years to come....I just hope beatings like yesterday don't impact their development.

Huge game next week. We really need to go all out to get these two points against Wexford.

[tonto1888]

Good way to start off the league campaign yesterday with a comfortable win. Thought we made a very positive start, dominating around the middle and taking some excellent long range points with the aid of a strong breeze. Sligo seemed intent on using their full forward Pat Hughes but he was tightly marked by Aaron McKay who had a very good game. Indeed the whole defence was playing well at this stage of the game - tackling and covering that was both determined and disciplined. The one minor issue was Sligo's first point late in the half which was a free that was moved up into a scoring position because of back chat to the ref.   

With the score 10-2 at half time and Sligo with the breeze, I was concerned that shipping an early goal might make a game of it. However we got the opening goal, after great work by Mini McShane who used his speed to break the cover, with the ball being set up for Andrew Murnin to palm to the net. That score - despite coming early in the second half - essentially signaled the end of the match. We dominated for a period thereafter but began to get careless in our play and turned the ball over a number of times and indeed Sligo spurned a couple of good goal chances.

A good way to start the league but there will be clearly tougher obstacles ahead. Next week will be a case in point. However there seemed to be a positive vibe in the attitude of the team despite the number of players who have made themselves unavailable.

Purely on the basis of what I saw yesterday, Sligo will struggle.

Cant argue with this. Looking forward to the trip to Mullingar and see what type of welcome we get after the Summer

[lurganblue]

1st 25 mins the Armagh defence turned over a mighty amount of ball but they were also aided with a good few wayward passes by Sligo that were easily mopped up.  Armagh seemed to take their foot off the gas after their 1st goal and could easily have conceded 1 or 2 goals themselves.  Rallied again towards the end.

I went expecting a much tougher day at the office but was pleasantly surprised.  Rafferty hit some lovely scores.

[FermGael]

Could Derry be in a spot of bother ?

[screenexile]

Could Derry be in a spot of bother ?

Possibly. We have a new management team who want to put their own stamp on things so they've left out a few lads and brought in some young lads too. Along with that the missing Slaughtneil contingent doesn't help things.

Promotion should be our main aim but I think that will quickly change to survival!