St. Brigid's vs. Crossmaglen Rangers - All-Ireland Senior Club Semi-final 2013

[imtommygunn]

If ye hang on until after the game v Longford I would appreciate it.

If Longford beat Armagh they'll not only be sending for Cross' players, but also for a manager.

It's far from a given that Armagh would beat Longford.

a) Longford aren't a bad team
b) Armagh are far from the force they once were.

[stew]

If ye hang on until after the game v Longford I would appreciate it.

If Longford beat Armagh they'll not only be sending for Cross' players, but also for a manager.

Bollocks!!!

Can we please give our new manager time to at least get his championship squad together and maybe play a game or two in said competition before we kick him to the kerb?

[Syferus]

Is Barden still injured? If he was fit I'd give Longford a huge chance of beating Armagh even if they named two dozen Cross players on the panel. Glen Ryan gets far too little respect for what he's doing in Longford and their underage structures are starting to bare fruit as well. Absolutely nothing in the relative levels of Longford and Armagh right now.

[stew]

2-7 to 1-9 for Brigids. Everything went for them today.

Thought Deegan was poor.

Good for Armagh?

Who know's if it will be or not, now is not the time to ponder that, now is the time to let these lads licks their wounds, heal up and in a month start thinking about the county set up.

BTW, Cross are incredible, they are a machine and they will be back, and I for one take great pride in the fact that they are from Armagh............ Having said that the Harps have some tremendous young talent coming up and I am hoping that in the years to come they can knock the snout out of them.

Are you serious? Give them a month off and take them back in when the League is almost over? For some of them like McKeown, Morgan and Hanratty their county career has barely started and this is an opportunity for them to put their credentials on the line. If they require this week off I would give it to them but beyond that they should be involved for the following weekends match.

You are right, lets tell them not to worry about the fact they have being going at it for nigh on a year straight and that we dont give a feck about their health, lets throw them right into county play and dont give them a chance to process the Cross loss and the fact that their main goal of the past year has been crushed.

Bate them into the ground shure, after all there is said to be no rest for the wicked and everyone knows Cross are the evil empire.

What about all the other players in the squad who have had Sigerson committments, Decky McKenna who has been with Harps U21s, players training with U21 county have they not been flogged to death as well, only most of them had no success.

Cross took a months break after the Ulster campaign and began their preparation for the AI semi final around the turn of the year. They will have trained extremely hard in preparation for the AI semi final and your now suggesting a break of another month to help them digest a loss. Come on, its undoubtedly disappointing for them but plenty of other players have to take defeat and move on. In any case I think some of the players involved will be keen to integrate themselves into the county set up soon enough and some of them may even wish to play this weekend. I don't see any problem giving them a week off but after the Wexford game i would expect to see them back involved.

What it does do though is highlight the stupidity in playing the semi finals of a competition 12 weeks after the previous round. The hardest stage of the club series to fall at is probably the AI semi final since all the hard work has been done with nothing additional to show for it. In the interest of player welfare and indeed the momentum built around the club series it would be far better to play the final before Christmas.

Yes, other players play for their Uni's but none of them play near as much as the Cross men do, year in and year out and if a player wants to just jump straight in then great, I just think a break would do them the power of good, get them fresh, hungry and ready to go out and play for the County injury free.

[rodney trotter]

Is Barden still injured? If he was fit I'd give Longford a huge chance of beating Armagh even if they named two dozen Cross players on the panel. Glen Ryan gets far too little respect for what he's doing in Longford and their underage structures are starting to bare fruit as well. Absolutely nothing in the relative levels of Longford and Armagh right now.

He is, and Brian Kavanagh is in Boston for the year.

[emmetryan]

Later than planned, my tactical analysis of how St Brigid's adopted a lot from Basketball (and I'm not talking hand-passing) to beat Crossmaglen http://action81.com/blog/?p=6746

[ONeill]

Well done to St Brigid's. Stood toe-to-toe with the mighty men and came out the right side. Not many managed that.

[rrhf]

Is Cake in the sawdoctors or does every 45 + year old in the West come to look like that.  Big men should not wear that much lycra. 

[mackers]

Bollocks!!!

Can we please give our new manager time to at least get his championship squad together and maybe play a game or two in said competition before we kick him to the kerb?

Whilst I agree with your dismissal of armaghniac's silly post this statement does not sit alongside your other posts about giving the Cross lads a break. We will have five national league games in five weeks now.  How long of a break do you want to give the Cross lads??  The quicker they come back the more time Paul Grimley has to get his championship squad together and playing.  James Morgan and Paul McKeown have a massive chance to get a championship place cemented over the coming weeks, they need to be out on the field impressing their manager.  I'd imagine the Kernans will be back training immediately as they have always done this in the past, it'll be interesting to see how many others show up tonight.

[armaghniac]

Whilst I agree with your dismissal of armaghniac's silly post

I'm not particularly slagging Longford or Paul Grimley, but if we don't win our home games we are in danger of relegation and this would lead to criticism of the manager, whether you think it reasonable or not.