Ulster U20 and Minor Championships 2024

[Captain Obvious]

Starts tonight, will be a surprise if Tyrone don't retain the title, Derry would be there or thereabout also but will Rory Gallagher allow some of Derry's best players to take part in this competition?


First round  Wednesday 22nd March

Monaghan v Armagh - Castleblayney 7:30pm

Quarter finals Wednesday 29th March

Fermanagh v Derry - TBC
Donegal v Antrim - Ballybofey
Tyrone v Down - Healy Park
Cavan v Monaghan/Armagh - Breffni or Athletic Grounds

Semi finals Wednesday 12th April

Tyrone/Down v Monaghan/Armagh/Cavan
Fermanagh/Derry v Donegal/Antrim

Final  Wednesday 26th April


Tonights match live on here https://page.inplayer.com/ulstergaatv/item.html?id=3594911

Teams https://ulster.gaa.ie/ulsterchampionship2023/programmes

[armaghniac]

Monaghan v Armagh postponed owing to wet pitch.

[Wildweasel74]

Brutal timing with the Senior ulster championship round the corner, should played the championship off Feb/ March, then U-20 who good enough straight onto training with their senior team.

[Blowitupref]

Tonight's game has been refixed for this Saturday 25th March at 3.30pm in Clones.

[Dreadnought]

Tonight's game has been refixed for this Saturday 25th March at 3.30pm in Clones.

Tough ask on young lads to be ready for another game on Wednesday. My county the beneficiary here possibly, but that's tight going on underage players

[Captain Obvious]

Half time Armagh 0-5 Monaghan 0-4

[armaghniac]

Monaghan 0-09 Armagh 0-07
Monaghan stuck at their work, and could have had a goal when they hit the post , but Armagh had a ridiculous series of wides in the second half, missing chances that you would expect a team to put away. They did a lot of the hard work and fluffed the finish.

[GlenMan]

Why are Armagh so poor at underage? They haven't challenged for a thing in the past decade +. Rarely reaching even semi-finals.

[pbat]

Why are Armagh so poor at underage? They haven't challenged for a thing in the past decade +. Rarely reaching even semi-finals.

Obviously there's not the drama with Armagh underage and academy's as Donegal but surely its time for some questions to be asked about what is going on. We are pathetic year in year out, as you say rarely winning a first round match at minor or under 20.

[Blowitupref]

Why are Armagh so poor at underage? They haven't challenged for a thing in the past decade +. Rarely reaching even semi-finals.

Good question and one i don't have any answer for. One should also wonder why so many think Armagh seniors should be doing better than they currently are? Given their underage record i think they are arguably punching above their weight to be in Div 1 for a 3rd year in a row and reaching the last 8 of the championship only losing on penalties.

[armaghniac]

Obviously there's not the drama with Armagh underage and academy's as Donegal but surely its time for some questions to be asked about what is going on. We are pathetic year in year out, as you say rarely winning a first round match at minor or under 20.

The point is that we are not pathetic, a lot of work has obviously been done and they are talented players. But the whole seems less than the sum of the parts, and different people have been involved with the management. This has been the case for years.

[pbat]

Obviously there's not the drama with Armagh underage and academy's as Donegal but surely its time for some questions to be asked about what is going on. We are pathetic year in year out, as you say rarely winning a first round match at minor or under 20.

The point is that we are not pathetic, a lot of work has obviously been done and they are talented players. But the whole seems less than the sum of the parts, and different people have been involved with the management. This has been the case for years.

I disagree Armaghniac, while I am not saying the lads as individuals are pathetic I believe the structures, teams and tactics/set ups are and the results back this up. We were hammered out the gate last year by Donegal at u20, the excuse was that we were a very young team and most were available again this year. After watching today I cant see anything better than last year if anything lads have regressed. Who is the Armagh's Karl Lacey?

[Aaron Boone]

When one reads that, then it's impressive that Tyrone are there or thereabouts each year.

[bennydorano]

When one reads that, then it's impressive that Tyrone are there or thereabouts each year.

I made a point in the Ulster Colleges thread about Tyrone being a relatively very large county with a lot of in built advantages, applies double at county underage level, the volumes of numbers (& thus a better quality pick) are a different level to smaller counties with only Donegal in Ulster really comparable in numbers & size. Having said that the Armagh underage set up seems poor enough and Tyrone seems very professional.

[general_lee]

When one reads that, then it's impressive that Tyrone are there or thereabouts each year.

I made a point in the Ulster Colleges thread about Tyrone being a relatively very large county with a lot of in built advantages, applies double at county underage level, the volumes of numbers (& thus a better quality pick) are a different level to smaller countries with only Donegal in Ulster really comparable in numbers & size. Having said that the Armagh underage set up seems poor enough and Tyrone seems very professional.

Armagh is a small county with too many clubs and too many of those clubs are small clubs; many of whom have to amalgamate at some or all age levels. Every year there's some new team thrown together that I've never heard of. There's even been a rake of clubs at junior level that have appeared and then fizzled out, why they were ever given the green light is beyond me. All the while the potential in the urban areas remains completely neglected.

Apart from the odd anomaly, it's the same clubs at underage doing all the heavy lifting. While I'm all for promoting our games, it doesn't lend itself to a good environment for producing good county teams at underage.

Schools wise you've two (maybe three depending on what St Paul's Bessbrook have coming through) mediocre schools at MacRory level. Yes there's St Colman's and Abbey but even they're not producing teams that can challenge. St Ronan's on size alone should be perennial challengers for MacRory honours.

Tyrone is virtually the opposite of Armagh in terms of numbers of clubs proportionate to the size of the county, standard of clubs, standard of schools, etc

Perhaps when the new centre of excellence is built Armagh will turn a corner at underage.