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"A bag of sugar was the difference in weight between Armagh and Tyrone in the 2003 final. (and 3 points). "

Yes O'neill, i remember that stuff in harte's diary that year, he reckons he was reading the pen profiles the day before the final. As i said armagh had a strong spine of strong men. I remember i line joe brolly wrote in 2002 before they won it saying that the armagh team all had the build of a rugby league team, apart from stevie and oisin, who didn't need it.
I realise he was hyping alot as usual, but i always found tyone around 03 like a bunch of annoying wasps, just running around trying to hit hard. Conor Gormley was a tank, the rest nowhere near it. Don't confuse this with a slagging match about armagh-tyrone, i was a big admirer of the tyrone teams from the 05 and 08 finals when they refined their style!

I don't mind either way jinxy. I play a good bit of ball myself at midfield and would count myself average height compared to most. Before our armagh team of 2002 came along i always admired the meath team of the 90's for the physical approach they took. I thought cork last year were superbly conditioned in terms of having a lot of big men who were also fit, mobile and fast. I'm no expert on strength and conditioning but I'm very interested in it. My comment wasn't a slight on the Dublin defenders for example, as i think mobility and pace are far greater assets.

My gripe is with media analysis down the years using this term, and too be fair a lot of county players using it in boring interviews when describing other teams, but sure what else would they say i guess!

I thought about posting this on the thread below about gym monkeys but it looks like the dublin guy that started it is only trying to get a rise out of people. Anyway, this term that you constantly hear, mainly about dublin this year as been "big and physical", kind of does my head in, as does most lazy analysis.

Firstly, I'm delighted to see the dubs win it, always have been my second favourite county for the hype and colour they bring to the game, and have made a lot of good dub mates from playing football abroad. I would agree they have brought fitness to a new level, along with kildare and donegal, who i think will make even greater strides next year. Dublin are very fit, but how are they any more physical than other teams. Their fitness allows them to work like dogs, have numbers and break forward and continue this for 70 minutes. I think its great.

They are not big men. Our armagh men in 2002 were all around 6ft, average height, but were built like tanks. I laughed when Tyrone then picked up this tag. There are no big men in Tyrone, I've been beside hub hughes and cavanagh before, average men and I'm only 6.1 ft. Tyrone, like Dublin now, worked harder and tackled better than a lot of teams before them.
I was looking at the 6 Dublin backs, apart from Ger Brennan they are skinny looking rakes, granted they are only around 22 and will fill out yet. Dublin were much more into their weights 3-4 years ago, and the only tanks they have are the likes of fennell and McConnell on the bench.  Monaghan got this tag as well, and i remember even dick clerkin saying in an interview one time how rubbish it was, that in fact they were mostly small men including himself by midfield standards, but they did of course take a physical approach.

Cork are the only current team that stands out any more than others, numerous men the past few years over 6.5 ft, and superb athletes. Sorry about the long rant guys, just wanted to see what others thought.