NFL Division 2 2019

[Throw ball]

Have to say today was very frustrating.
We did a great job in the first half of containing Armagh against a very strong breeze .
Hurson has a decent game in the middle apart from the blantant pull back from Jamie Clarke in the first half which should have been a black. 
Fermanagh contained the Armagh forwards but we couldn't get a hold of the ball in midfield.
Though the Armagh midfield bossed the entire game. They were the platform for the Armagh success.   Charlie Vernon had a great game.  I actually cannot remember Fermanagh winning a clean ball at midfield the whole game. 
The second half was just awful stuff from a Fermanagh point of view.  We had a very strong breeze and we just didn't play anybody up front until the last 5 minutes .
We have played like this before but this year we have been attacking at pace and en masse.  We didn't do that today.  Everything was far too slow and sideways.  Armagh then started to up their game and hit some fine scores .  The goal was well taken and that was the game over.
At this point Fermanagh put Tom Clarke on the edge of the square and lumped the ball into him.
We created 4 goal chances and missed them all.  Pity we hadn't done it earlier as The Armagh full back line is not comfortable under the high ball.

A win for Meath tomorrow means they are promoted.  The worst they can do after that is a three way tie and their scoring difference is much much better than Fermanagh's and Donegal's.

Fairly sensible post although a pull back is a yellow not black. A pull down would be black.

[Throw ball]

Fermanagh are winning games on their own terms and f**k everyone else to be honest. I would not fancy any of this current Div 2 crop to do much damage next year in Div 1 mind.

Gallagher's plan will run out of steam. It relies on huge player commitment and isn't much fun to play. The compensation for the players is results. But they are short term results. Promotion to Division 1 will trigger defeat after defeat. What is the upside then? Any player drop outs will force Rory to look towards a shallow pool of talent especially if you are looking for club players at the required fitness level

In the meantime it's brutal to watch. The game wouldn't be viable for long if a majority of teams decided to play this type of sh1te

You should go and watch Fermanagh play this year before you pass judgement.
The only games we played this year where we were hard to watch was the opening two games against Cork and Tipperary. The players looked nervous .  As the league has progressed our attacking intent has developed. Against both Kildare, Donegal and Clare we were by far the superior team. We hit alot of wide's in all three games and missed alot of goal chances .
Certainly without the ball we drop men back but when we have the ball we attack with pace.
It's a lazy narrative to call Fermanagh negative and gives the players or management no credit.
Fermanagh had lost a third of the starting championship team from last year through injury, retirements and lads dropping off. Seamie Quigley, Tomas and Ruairi Corrigan, Michael Jones and Barry Mulrone. We have a very small panel of players buts its a testament to our underage academy ( St Michaels Ennniskilen) that we are able to replace these lads and push on.
These were all massive players for Fermanagh and I think that's what makes the current league position so good.
Add to that the fact that the Fermanagh players also took serious abuse from the national media when they basically ousted  Pete McGrath as well.
Would be great to play in division 1.
As others have said it happened before.  I remember Fermangh beating Dublin in Brewster the last time we were there.
It wasn't that long ago that I was in London watching Fermanagh getting dumped out of the championship.
Feck the begrudgers.

I did. Pure poison. Div 1 won't be interesting but it will be informative. No wins. No glory. Just defeats and utter boredom. Football will die in Fermanagh and what for? A few boring Div 2 wins?

As custodians of the game Fermanagh have a f**k you, f**k tradition, f**k entertainment, the game is worth nothing and is there to be abused or at least exploited sort of attitude. A plague on their house

Fermanagh and Armagh have gotten to know each other very well over the past few years in league and championship.
A few boring Div 2 wins ?  Is that not what Armagh have managed under McGeeney?
Don't worry about football dying in Fermanagh.  It's done that several times and we have managed a few resurrections. 
Custodians of the game ? Lol.  Tradition lol.
Armagh played the ball backwards today for most of second half. 
I have no issue with it as it is the obvious way to show up the Fermanagh mass defence. 
Fair play to the Armagh management for doing it.
But if they were to be true custodians of the game then they should have attacked.
Must keep you up at night

I think you will find that to go all our attack against a blanket defence would be suicide.

[FermGael]

Completely agree with you.
That's the point I was trying to make .

[FermGael]

When does Meath play Clare?

Tomorrow.

[thejuice]

So if Meath win today Fermanagh will have to go all out attack next week if they want promotion to have a better scoring record than Donegal.

[tonto1888]

Fermanagh are winning games on their own terms and f**k everyone else to be honest. I would not fancy any of this current Div 2 crop to do much damage next year in Div 1 mind.

Gallagher's plan will run out of steam. It relies on huge player commitment and isn't much fun to play. The compensation for the players is results. But they are short term results. Promotion to Division 1 will trigger defeat after defeat. What is the upside then? Any player drop outs will force Rory to look towards a shallow pool of talent especially if you are looking for club players at the required fitness level

In the meantime it's brutal to watch. The game wouldn't be viable for long if a majority of teams decided to play this type of sh1te

You should go and watch Fermanagh play this year before you pass judgement.
The only games we played this year where we were hard to watch was the opening two games against Cork and Tipperary. The players looked nervous .  As the league has progressed our attacking intent has developed. Against both Kildare, Donegal and Clare we were by far the superior team. We hit alot of wide's in all three games and missed alot of goal chances .
Certainly without the ball we drop men back but when we have the ball we attack with pace.
It's a lazy narrative to call Fermanagh negative and gives the players or management no credit.
Fermanagh had lost a third of the starting championship team from last year through injury, retirements and lads dropping off. Seamie Quigley, Tomas and Ruairi Corrigan, Michael Jones and Barry Mulrone. We have a very small panel of players buts its a testament to our underage academy ( St Michaels Ennniskilen) that we are able to replace these lads and push on.
These were all massive players for Fermanagh and I think that's what makes the current league position so good.
Add to that the fact that the Fermanagh players also took serious abuse from the national media when they basically ousted  Pete McGrath as well.
Would be great to play in division 1.
As others have said it happened before.  I remember Fermangh beating Dublin in Brewster the last time we were there.
It wasn't that long ago that I was in London watching Fermanagh getting dumped out of the championship.
Feck the begrudgers.

I did. Pure poison. Div 1 won't be interesting but it will be informative. No wins. No glory. Just defeats and utter boredom. Football will die in Fermanagh and what for? A few boring Div 2 wins?

As custodians of the game Fermanagh have a f**k you, f**k tradition, f**k entertainment, the game is worth nothing and is there to be abused or at least exploited sort of attitude. A plague on their house

Fermanagh and Armagh have gotten to know each other very well over the past few years in league and championship.
A few boring Div 2 wins ?  Is that not what Armagh have managed under McGeeney?
Don't worry about football dying in Fermanagh.  It's done that several times and we have managed a few resurrections. 
Custodians of the game ? Lol.  Tradition lol.
Armagh played the ball backwards today for most of second half. 
I have no issue with it as it is the obvious way to show up the Fermanagh mass defence. 
Fair play to the Armagh management for doing it.
But if they were to be true custodians of the game then they should have attacked.
Must keep you up at night

I thought we had a good mix of attack and not attack in the second half. We probed when we could and were patient when we needed to be. Also thought we mixed pressing your defence well. We did at times, forcing errors, and at times we let you be. Management came up with a good game plan and it worked today. The crowd got very frustrated with our playing the ball back at times but it needed to be done

[Throw ball]

Good win for Armagh against an ultra-defensive Fermanagh. It's probably as well as this Armagh team has played against a negative team.  It was far from perfect with the final ball letting us down when the scoring opportunities arose but still a good improvement on what has gone before.  Ethan Rafferty made a telling contribution when he came on. Soupy played well also.  From a selfish club perspective very disappointed for Pearse Casey who played full forward and had one over-hit pass kicked into him in the 20 odd minutes he was on the field and was called ashore.
Fermanagh were shockingly poor.  I don't believe they even had a shot on goal for the first 20/25 minutes of the second half with 15 men in their own 45 for the majority of that time.  They only came out to play when Armagh scored the goal and looked dangerous when they did with some excellent defending from Armagh keeping them at bay.  The Fermanagh fans around me were very frustrated, understandingly so.  Those saying fair f**ks to them mustn't have played against them much.  The football Gallagher has them playing is a scourge on the game and I'm glad we won to allow this rant without it sounding like sour grapes.
The game was refereed well by Sean Hurson BTW with black cards given to both teams when there were cynical tackles.

Agree with you Mackers. On Gallagher the amount of instructions he shouts at his team during the game is incredible. They mustn't be allowed to think for themselves. The perspective is that he is getting results so that is unlikely to change. His system is damn hard to play against and even harder to watch.

Also you are spot on about the referee. He has been the best we have had this year - although to be fair the competition isn't very tough 

[David McKeown]

I was very impressed with the Armagh game plan yesterday and it's correct to say they mixed pressuring well against sitting off and cutting Fermanagh's options. I don't think the wind had that much of impact it seemed more diagonal than straight down the pitch and seemed to make little impact on where goal kicks were landing.

Hurson I thought had a very good game although I missed the Clarke incident discussed above save for his yellow card on Forker for a high tackle having already previously adjudged two high tackles by Fermanagh defenders to be only worthy of frees but that's me being ultra critical.

As for the Fermanagh style of play I have to say I think it's fascinating to watch and I know I'm in the minority (possibly of one) here. I really enjoy the tactical battle of watching teams try to break them down as well as try to deal with their transitioning. Unlike when say Armagh go ultra defensive Fermanagh seem particularly good at it. Similarly those who transition know when to break and when to conserve energy. I really enjoy watching teams try to adapt to that. I think most of the criticism they are getting is unwarranted. There were times in the first half that there were 29 men inside the Fermanagh 45 yet within 20 seconds Fermanagh had scored its simply a different style of football and to me it makes the sport more interesting.

[thejuice]

Meath 0-08
Clare 1-04

Half time

We started strongly with 4 unanswered points but we've struggled since even with the wind. Clare winning it on balance at midfield.

[Cunny Funt]

Meath 7 ahead with less than 10 mins to play are they promoted with a win today?

[thejuice]

Meath 1-12
Clare 1-07

Strolled to victory in the end.

Fermanagh would have to hammer us to stop us going up now.

[Captain Obvious]

Good win for Armagh yesterday and for once good discipline was displayed. The two draws in games Armagh should have won will cost promotion by the looks of it.

[tonto1888]

Meath 1-12
Clare 1-07

Strolled to victory in the end.

Fermanagh would have to hammer us to stop us going up now.

I can't see fermanagh hammering anybody

[FermGael]

Meath 1-12
Clare 1-07

Strolled to victory in the end.

Fermanagh would have to hammer us to stop us going up now.

Meath are up.
Dead rubber for them next week 
Sure we can shake on a 9 point win for Fermanagh next week.
That way you are up on points difference and you will  get a handier final as well.
Easy 2 points for you next season in division 1 as well

[thejuice]

Will all the throw in times be the same? We can have the Donegal match played over the loadspeakers in PT next week and we can adjust our performance and the score line accordingly. We'll just tap the ball around the park until Donegal score then we'll let ye have it.