Messages

I think the Armagh camp will be happy enough with this game. It might have been important to Donegal to beat Armagh, but it doesn't have the same importance the other way around. With the McKenna cup final supposed to on the weekend when Cross' were playing in Mullingar, it wouldn't suit Big Joe and a lot of Armagh people, a big "derby" against Tyrone when so many players were unavailable didn't have that much to recommend it. It is much more important to say in Division 1. The league offers Joe a chance to try out any players that caught his eye in the McKenna cup campaign. You can't draw much by way of conclusion about the championship from this type of game, except to say that there are some prospects for the current panel and others who might make a decent team in the future when the old faces are permanently unavailable. The defensive work yesterday was sound, but the transfer of the ball forward was poor, while this is not a strong point of Armagh at any time the lack of organising figures like McGrane did not help the shape of the team. Some of these players could look better in a settled lineup.

On a lighter note, I see Paul Hearty scored a great point at the all-stars, could our Armagh's forward problems be solved!

He told me Down men never supported Armagh. EVER. Best advice any Down man could give his son. Advice I have always adhered to.

Begrudgery runs in families so. Note that Down's minor success in 1977 was cheered on by the large Armagh support present.

They single-handly revived the Dr. McKenna Cup.

their main contribution to the GAA, in fact.

Yes, in fact it should be renamed the Dr Tyrone Cup.

or perhaps the Tyrone doctored cup.

P.S. At least the NI flag is in the Ulster team's colours.

So is the Japanese flag. Perhaps the team should amend their colours to that of their proper flag.

That said Brennan was well out of line even if they guy he biffed was making sectarian comments. You can't have professional sports players leaping in the stand and clocking people, especially large rugby players who are almost by definition able to beat the crap out of a seated spectator.

No doubt, people with sectarian flags might also be capable of sectarian comments.

Where were you when you were shit?

it being about 32 years since Armagh were as shit as Antrim, many of the Armagh posters on this board were not in a position to attend Armagh games at that stage, and some had not yet come in existence! 

I'm very VERY confident Armagh won't win Sam.

Armagh's chances of winning Sam as about the same as Antrim's chances of winning an Ulster championship game. Could be better I suppose. 

When we have the pleasure of meeting the shell suit saffrons in a similar white hot environment

If you ever think you are playing Antrim in an All-Ireland senior football final, then you should stop messing with the drugs! 

One thing on all of this, has anything been bulldozed yet at Lansdowne? ? If not why not use that for any home semi finals?

thats the most sensible suggestion I've heard all day. Even if work had started then surely demolition could start at one end of Lansdowne in any case, allowing a capacity of 25,000 or so, which would be ideal.

The IRFU messed up somewhat by redeveloping Thomond while Lansdowne Rd was also closed. However the point here is that the gesture will never be returned, neither Lansdowne Rd not Thomond will be built at a size that will allow GAA games be played there. The GAA suit themselves by having a policy of not allowing Rugby games, the IRFU build walls to do the same.

The point is that the Union is not delivering benefits to Scotland. NI is kept in by the prejudice of union supporters towards the natives, which has hardly been helped by the events of the last 40 years, and a big subvention. If things are peaceful and people are working together the type of issues that lead to discontent in Scotland will also become more important in NI.

UK's existence is at risk - always good to hear some good news in these dark January days!

Surely the Brigids v Cross game should have been fixed for Cavan..

Cavan is on the main Crossmaglen-Roscommon road. I exect Mullingar won out as it in a different province.

Strange that they are not being played on Paddy's Day.

Surely the senior final should be pride of place on that day.

Pint, the 1600 figure was a very rough division of the nationalist population of Armagh divided by the number of clubs, I wasn't suggesting that other neighbouring clubs to Cross had this population.

The NI census has EDs and wards, I haven't yet found a map of the EDs, but the ward called Crossmaglen comprises most of the Rangers catchment and all of Cullaville. This happy district has 2918, I suppose Cullaville can claim a 1000 of those.

http://search2.nics.gov.uk/highlighter/highlighter?qt=crossmaglen&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk%2Fcensus%2FGeography%2Fmaps%2Fnewrymourne%2Fcrossmaglen.htm

Their Creggan ward has 2631, I expect some of these think of themselves as Bridge people, Cullyhanna fans and some as Rangers supporters.
http://search2.nics.gov.uk/highlighter/highlighter?qt=creggan+ward&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk%2Fcensus%2FGeography%2Fmaps%2Fnewrymourne%2Fcreggan.htm


If you had a map of EDs (or list of townlands) you could work out the club catchment areas pretty exactly.

Culloville, Co Monaghan  starts 100m from the Cullaville Co Armagh stadium.

The potential pick is not so far out of line, there is an average of 1600 people or so per club in Armagh, Cross have perhaps 2000? The Armagh city clubs have more and and the likes of Keady as many. The question of what else there is to do may be more important as the GAA in Upper Creggan gets the full use of that pick without even road bowls to compete. Other comments on this thread suggest that other clubs with big potential populations are getting the underage players, but are not getting a strong senior team from this. Cross' is just a size where there is the basis of a good team, yet everyone still knows everyone else and there is a close identification with the club. Its a bit like the intercounty scene, Kerry have the tradition and the organisation, some lack of alternatives and the expectation of success. This continues to bring them the players that keep the success going. However a county with a big pick like Cork or Dublin should win some and a well organised county with a smaller pick like Offaly or Armagh will make the breakthrough from time to time.