Armagh Club football & hurling

[Aghdavoyle]

a section of the Crossmaglen support got quite mouthy towards the end by abusing both the referee and some of the Dromintee players.  The Dromintee crowd, in contrast, remained dignified even in defeat.

Thats a point well made. It's something that happens at every cross championship game and somthing i wasn't going to bring up because it makes you look like a bad loser. The personal abuse vented on some of our players from the crossmaglen "support" was again disgusting. it has to be remembered that these are only lads and for 30 & 40 year old man to be screaming these things at them over a game of football is disappointing.

This has reared its head after every single match we've encountered cross but at the weekend there were men in the club saying they won't be going back to watch cross play our club or any other. it is very difficult to stand and listen to young lads who are your neighbours and members of the same club on the receiving end of the worst kind of vitriol, all for having the temerity to take to the same field as cross. every decision is a crime against the crossmaglen race and every piece of decent play by an opposition player is met with calls for legs to be broken the next time, questioning of parenthood or some other personal "accusation".

I have the utmost respect for the (vast majority of) crossmaglen players, management and football supporters, and every club has its idiots who you stand away from at games but cross bring things to the bottom of the barrell.

no matter which side of the ground you stood saturday there was no escaping it and it takes a tremendous amount of restraint to not take the bait and get into the neanderthol mud slinging. i stood not 10 yards from one empty vessel on the side opposite the road who will expect the full support of our parish later in the summer but yet managed to scream repeatedly that various dromintee players were (may have missed some).... scumbags, tubs of lard, britlovers (what?), knackers & gypsies.

yeah, i'll be cheering for him. not.

[man in black]

a section of the Crossmaglen support got quite mouthy towards the end by abusing both the referee and some of the Dromintee players.  The Dromintee crowd, in contrast, remained dignified even in defeat.

Thats a point well made. It's something that happens at every cross championship game and somthing i wasn't going to bring up because it makes you look like a bad loser. The personal abuse vented on some of our players from the crossmaglen "support" was again disgusting. it has to be remembered that these are only lads and for 30 & 40 year old man to be screaming these things at them over a game of football is disappointing.

This has reared its head after every single match we've encountered cross but at the weekend there were men in the club saying they won't be going back to watch cross play our club or any other. it is very difficult to stand and listen to young lads who are your neighbours and members of the same club on the receiving end of the worst kind of vitriol, all for having the temerity to take to the same field as cross. every decision is a crime against the crossmaglen race and every piece of decent play by an opposition player is met with calls for legs to be broken the next time, questioning of parenthood or some other personal "accusation".

I have the utmost respect for the (vast majority of) crossmaglen players, management and football supporters, and every club has its idiots who you stand away from at games but cross bring things to the bottom of the barrell.

no matter which side of the ground you stood saturday there was no escaping it and it takes a tremendous amount of restraint to not take the bait and get into the neanderthol mud slinging. i stood not 10 yards from one empty vessel on the side opposite the road who will expect the full support of our parish later in the summer but yet managed to scream repeatedly that various dromintee players were (may have missed some).... scumbags, tubs of lard, britlovers (what?), knackers & gypsies.

yeah, i'll be cheering for him. not.

britlovers? Sure didn't the brits pay them plenty of rent.

[brokencrossbar1]

Whoever these people are they have no place in the club.  As Aghdavoyle says every club has it's shower of morons and our own is no different.  I have been the subject of abuse down through the years and in fairness, it is water off a ducks back and I would say that I speak for most players in that regard.  The lads on the field in any game will generally get on with it, shake hands and forget about it.  I don't sit up losing sleep over the mentor from a club who told the man marking me, and I quote "break the big useless fcukers legs" when we were going for the ball.  It is not nice, is unacceptable but after the event is forgotten about.  Supporters have every right to be disgusted as generally this is being shouted in the vicinity of younger kids and that should not happen. 

All I can say about the people who shouted it is that they should not be associated with the club and I wish they were not. 

As for the game, I wasn't there as the drive might have been a wee bit I got the in depth analysis from the mudder yesterday and she basically echoed what has been said here.  Dromintee had their chances but Cross just seemed to have that wee bit extra.  A lot of that extra has to do with the confidence within the club and the tradition of Cross generally not losing finals.   

Looking at it now form the outside a few things occur to me.  Many club structures must be very weak once they get to senior level.  As has been observed by a few here, until recent years we have not been overly successful at underage.  Not blowing my trumpet but it wasn't until the underage team that I played on came around that we started to dominate.  I was blessed with playing on a superb underage team which was the genesis of the current dominance.  We were, however, no more dominant in our age groups than say, Pearse Ogs were.  We won the 1989 and the 1993 minors.  Ogs won 4-5 in a row at minors during the mid 90's.  The 1989 team had Califf, Colm O'Neill, Joe Fitz, Gary McShane, Frank Shields who went on to the senior squad and the rest of the senior sqaud apart from a 2-3 old heads was made of the 1993 team.  We did not have the continued success that the Ogs had and they fell apart.  The Harps had similar success and haven't made the breakthrough.  It is very difficult to put a reason on this.  While we may have greater pick than say t Dromintee, we do not have the same potenial numbers that the city clubs have or the Lurgan teams. 

Also the whole success breeds success is a bit of a cop out in my view.  It certainly breeds confidence but it doesn't breed ability and a will to stick at it.  It may be easier for us to keep kids interested, but in 1995 whenever Mullaghbawn beat us it would have been very easy for a lot of the younger ones to say well f**k this we haven't won since 1985 we'll never win and we could just go on the drink or head off to Australia or whatever.  We didn't.  We had just been humiliated on television.  Some of you may remember the documentary done with the Down team of 1994.  We were humiliated on national television and it would have been easy to hide.  We had no success to fall back on, we had no senior medals(apart from Jim and Jarlath McConville), we had a manager being ripped apart within the club because of the way he been looking after the team.  We didn't hide and got on with it.  We may have been lucky but we made our own luck instead of excuses and we reaped the rewards. 

Congratulations to all involved, I hope it helps build on the other successes.  We may not win 20 in a row but we could give it a good rattle all things being equal.

Man in Black, Aghdavoyle spoke of empty vessels, it seems they were not just at the u-21 game

[illdecide]

Corn 02 i've been playing againt those lads for the last 10 years and they are very good footballers but i just think most of them fall short of County material with the exception of Aidan who has proved he can cut it at the top.

For the rest of you guys, how do we stop these Cross men, surley their dominance can't last much longer.

[man in black]

your non denial is well noted.

[brokencrossbar1]

They did not pay rent to the club.  Whatever they paid in compensation is none of you business and has no place on this thread.  If you have a comment on Armagh football please make it , if not f**k off!

[man in black]

They did not pay rent to the club.  Whatever they paid in compensation is none of you business and has no place on this thread.  If you have a comment on Armagh football please make it , if not f**k off!

compo, rent, call it what you want. yiz took it anyway.

[BenDover]

Anyone got the Amragh's starting line-up from yesterdays game?

[ExiledGael]

You are a truly sickening bastard MIB, clear off to f**k and leave people do discuss their GAA in peace

[Armagh Exile]

Ben,
This is the Armagh team, substitutes and scorers in yesterdays game against St Mary's

Ciaran McKinney; Andy Mallon, Kieran Toner, Paudie McCreesh; JP Donnelly, Brendan Donaghy, Tony McClelland; Philip Loughran, Gareth Swift; Peadar Toal (0-3), Malachy Mackin (0-2), Martin Ferris (0-2); Stephen McDonnell (0-3), Martin O'Rourke, Stephan Forker.
Substitutes were Kevin O'Rourke for Peadar Toal and Neil McSherry for Stephan Forker.

[lurganblue]

ILLdecide you obviously have not seen much of them Dromintee boys then.

i've seen them play a fair few times and i doubt they would get a game for louth at the minute. (except aiden).
but anyway, its probably a load of crap anyway. 

[man in black]

You are a truly sickening bastard MIB, clear off to f**k and leave people do discuss their GAA in peace

Sorry is it a sore subject?
ah bless

[illdecide]

DON'T KNOW ABOUT THAT LURGAN BLUE, THERE'S A HISTORY OF THAT CRAIC IN SOUTH ARMAGH. JOHN D WENT THAT WAY AND BACK AGAIN

[full back]

DON'T KNOW ABOUT THAT LURGAN BLUE, THERE'S A HISTORY OF THAT CRAIC IN SOUTH ARMAGH. JOHN D WENT THAT WAY AND BACK AGAIN

Yeah, a real history of that happening-1 player in how many years?

[el_cuervo_fc]

You are a truly sickening bastard MIB, clear off to f**k and leave people do discuss their GAA in peace

Sorry is it a sore subject?
ah bless

What are you even doing on this thread anyway.