Sam Maguire Group 2 - Galway, Armagh, Tyrone, Westmeath

[Maroon Manc]

Could easily have played it in the Hyde to satisfy demand from Armagh huge support.

I think that Breffni would have better met this objective.

I was on a the windup as its a ridiculous suggestion as was Breffni.

[smelmoth]

Could easily have played it in the Hyde to satisfy demand from Armagh huge support.

I think that Breffni would have better met this objective.

I was on a the windup as its a ridiculous suggestion as was Breffni.

Breffni is now a ridiculous suggestion as there is the small matter of another game being played at the same time there. But I don't see why it was a ridiculous suggestion in the first place.

There isn't an absolutely ideal ground for this game but Breffni was as close as you could get.

As has been pointed out elsewhere the travel scenario looks very problematic (given other games ongoing and the absence of ring roads or dual carriageways) and the stadium is hardly big enough.

I would be very surprised if Armagh have not objected in some way to this. I am completely against the pointless appeals of disciplinary decisions but this fixture decision looks incompetent.

Journey times from Lurgan, Armagh and  Crossmaglen don't look too bad at just over 2 hours but the reality will be much, much more than that. A lot of Galway is much closer than that. Unless you are coming from Clifden the venue is hardly equidistant.

Armagh had easily 10k in Healy pk and would have more if the capacity allowed.

[An Fhairche Abu]

Disagree totally on Breffni, we may as well have had a toss for match to be there or the Hyde then, Breffni is unbelievably inconvenient for Galway support compared to Armagh.

[smelmoth]

Disagree totally on Breffni, we may as well have had a toss for match to be there or the Hyde then, Breffni is unbelievably inconvenient for Galway support compared to Armagh.

You could hardly argue that Breffni was more inconvenient for Galway than Carrick is for Armagh?

[seafoid]

I was looking at google maps. Mullingar is 90 minutes from Cross and probably more suitable than Carrick on shannon, all things being equal.

[larryin89]

What's the permutations for this group , Galway guaranteed top spot ?

[Manning18]

Disagree totally on Breffni, we may as well have had a toss for match to be there or the Hyde then, Breffni is unbelievably inconvenient for Galway support compared to Armagh.

You could hardly argue that Breffni was more inconvenient for Galway than Carrick is for Armagh?

Is this a joke? It's near the same distance for both.

You're saying above "There isn't an absolutely ideal ground for this game but Breffni was as close as you could get". For starters I can think of 4 grounds.

But to play your game, in which possibly way would Hyde Park Roscommon for instance not be as fair or fairer than Breffini? Why shouldn't it be played there?

[Redhand Santa]

Leitrim was about as neutral as you could get in terms of distances between the counties. Around 2 hours from both. No idea why anyone would think Cavan was more suitable if trying to pick a neutral venue.

Armagh had around 5,000 in Omagh last week and are likely to bring less to a game further away. It'll probably not sell out making the complaining look silly.

[smelmoth]

Could easily have played it in the Hyde to satisfy demand from Armagh huge support.

I think that Breffni would have better met this objective.

I was on a the windup as its a ridiculous suggestion as was Breffni.

Breffni is now a ridiculous suggestion as there is the small matter of another game being played at the same time there. But I don't see why it was a ridiculous suggestion in the first place.

There isn't an absolutely ideal ground for this game but Breffni was as close as you could get.

As has been pointed out elsewhere the travel scenario looks very problematic (given other games ongoing and the absence of ring roads or dual carriageways) and the stadium is hardly big enough.

I would be very surprised if Armagh have not objected in some way to this. I am completely against the pointless appeals of disciplinary decisions but this fixture decision looks incompetent.

Journey times from Lurgan, Armagh and  Crossmaglen don't look too bad at just over 2 hours but the reality will be much, much more than that. A lot of Galway is much closer than that. Unless you are coming from Clifden the venue is hardly equidistant.

Armagh had easily 10k in Healy pk and would have more if the capacity allowed.

The criteria that Croke Park use for the distance is from the county ground. There's 5 minutes difference from the Athletic Grounds & Pearse Stadium to Pairc Sean according to google maps.
The total attendance in Healy Park on Saturday was 9k.

On Healy Pk I stand corrected. Whilst the official figure you quote is complete nonsense I do accept that it wasn't a full house. Whilst Armagh had very significantly more than half the crowd it wouldn't have added up to 10k. My bad.

On distance between the counties I will take you at your word on what the official ruling is. It's a strange rule but I suppose there has to be one. Even weirder would be the failure to apply context. The context of getting from Lurgan or any of the towns in S. Armagh to CoS in match traffic when Tyrone are travelling to Breffni at the same time. The contexts of what towns you have to go through and their ability to cope. Going early to get a seat for children then brings in the earlier match at Breffni. In combination these fixtures look ill considered at best.

Presumably the Gardai have given it all their blessing.

[An Fhairche Abu]

What's the permutations for this group , Galway guaranteed top spot ?

Nothing guaranteed, Armagh win well next time out and they can top the group on score difference or head to head if Tyrone don't win.
Tyrone can only get top spot if both Tyrone and Armagh win and Tyrone are left with best score difference,
Only team that can't get top spot is Westmeath.
Armagh win/draw coupled with a Westmeath win and Tyrone are out.
Galway have most scope to finish top as they have best score difference at the moment and a draw will do them but could finish 3rd just as easy if Tyrone and Armagh win well.

[Redhand Santa]

What's the permutations for this group , Galway guaranteed top spot ?

Still plenty up for grabs. Galway the only team definitely through. Armagh could get top if won by 6/7 and Tyrone game went right way. Tyrone could still get top with a big win if Armagh beat Galway. If Westmeath beat Tyrone and Armagh win Tyrone go out. If Westmeath beat Tyrone and Galway beat Armagh it'll go down to scoring difference between Tyrone Armagh and Westmeath.

[Redhand Santa]

Could easily have played it in the Hyde to satisfy demand from Armagh huge support.

I think that Breffni would have better met this objective.

I was on a the windup as its a ridiculous suggestion as was Breffni.

Breffni is now a ridiculous suggestion as there is the small matter of another game being played at the same time there. But I don't see why it was a ridiculous suggestion in the first place.

There isn't an absolutely ideal ground for this game but Breffni was as close as you could get.

As has been pointed out elsewhere the travel scenario looks very problematic (given other games ongoing and the absence of ring roads or dual carriageways) and the stadium is hardly big enough.

I would be very surprised if Armagh have not objected in some way to this. I am completely against the pointless appeals of disciplinary decisions but this fixture decision looks incompetent.

Journey times from Lurgan, Armagh and  Crossmaglen don't look too bad at just over 2 hours but the reality will be much, much more than that. A lot of Galway is much closer than that. Unless you are coming from Clifden the venue is hardly equidistant.

Armagh had easily 10k in Healy pk and would have more if the capacity allowed.

The criteria that Croke Park use for the distance is from the county ground. There's 5 minutes difference from the Athletic Grounds & Pearse Stadium to Pairc Sean according to google maps.
The total attendance in Healy Park on Saturday was 9k.

On Healy Pk I stand corrected. Whilst the official figure you quote is complete nonsense I do accept that it wasn't a full house. Whilst Armagh had very significantly more than half the crowd it wouldn't have added up to 10k. My bad.

On distance between the counties I will take you at your word on what the official ruling is. It's a strange rule but I suppose there has to be one. Even weirder would be the failure to apply context. The context of getting from Lurgan or any of the towns in S. Armagh to CoS in match traffic when Tyrone are travelling to Breffni at the same time. The contexts of what towns you have to go through and their ability to cope. Going early to get a seat for children then brings in the earlier match at Breffni. In combination these fixtures look ill considered at best.

Presumably the Gardai have given it all their blessing.

You don't go through Cavan when going from Lurgan to Leitrim. You can also avoid it when going from South Armagh as well. I don't think there'll be massive traffic issues in Cavan anyway - can't see a huge crowd there and it'll be well spread out with the two games.

[smelmoth]

Disagree totally on Breffni, we may as well have had a toss for match to be there or the Hyde then, Breffni is unbelievably inconvenient for Galway support compared to Armagh.

You could hardly argue that Breffni was more inconvenient for Galway than Carrick is for Armagh?

Is this a joke? It's near the same distance for both.

You're saying above "There isn't an absolutely ideal ground for this game but Breffni was as close as you could get". For starters I can think of 4 grounds.

But to play your game, in which possibly way would Hyde Park Roscommon for instance not be as fair or fairer than Breffini? Why shouldn't it be played there?

On CoS it looks like it's c1hr15mins from Tuam and Ballinasloe. No part of Armagh is remotely as close.  1hr50 from Galway city is still a bit shorter than any part of Armagh. But the number of towns that people travelling from any part of Armagh is going to drive match day travel time way up. There will be match day traffic coming from Galway as well and nobody is going to achieve satnav projected times but it looks way worse for armagh.

On Hyde vs Breffni. Again Hyde is 38 mins from Ballinasloe and 54 from Tuam. That's a bit long from even the nearest parts of Armagh.

But again none of the above takes in the context of the other matches.

Objectively all parts is Armagh to Roscommon is more difficult than any part of Galway other than the extreme west and the islands to Breffni. So no, not a joke.

[smelmoth]

Rumour that it was originally Cavan and Galway objected. Then moved to CoS and now Armagh objected. Don't know if either is actually true.

[bennydorano]

Leitrim was about as neutral as you could get in terms of distances between the counties. Around 2 hours from both. No idea why anyone would think Cavan was more suitable if trying to pick a neutral venue.

Armagh had around 5,000 in Omagh last week and are likely to bring less to a game further away. It'll probably not sell out making the complaining look silly.

It won't sell out, it looks like it's been designed not to. Making no one happy will work in crowd management.