Armagh Club football & hurling

[stephenite]

Congrats to Cross and welcome to the very, very elite club of 13 in a row...... now will someone please beat them next year.

[illdecide]

Time has come for a senior final to have an official from outside Armagh - some of the decisions today defied belief - as for 2 minutes of injury time - wish I had a watch like that, the work day would fly through!!!!!

Congratulations to Cross (fecking machines them men) and congrats to Harps minors...

[BerfArmagh]

Congrats to Cross, fully deserved winners yesterday, in what was a very poor game of football, refereed very poorly as well. The Ogs though only a point down at half time, never convinved me they could win, there was'nt any big characters on the filed to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. On the other side Cross stepped it up when the going got tough against the wind. I thought the Mc Entee's & John Donaldson were outstanding. Francie i fear has seen better days, his game is reduced to pulling & dragging, clarke was winning everything, the yellow francie got mean't he had to go off ronan, but it did'nt matter as Ogs never got any quality ball in & did'nt have the forwards to cause cross problems. Both Goal Keepers were shakey today, Mc Kinney in particular was almost caught out the field on 2 occasions. Once Clarke had to come out to mid field the game was over.

Overall i thought the basic skills were lacking today, how many players kicked straight into the oppositions hands was unbelievable. From a neutrals point of view (in the senior game  ) officiating needs to be sorted out in Armagh. Thon wee fella the lines man (Who did'nt see francies indescretions in the semi) was seen shaking hands & arms round the back with Murtagh before the game. Very pally! 20 mins later he did'nt see Oisins blatant strike in the tackle from 5 yards. The referee was very whislte happy, however there was a lot of fouling and cycnical play. Indeed there is a hug amount of gamesmanship coming into the game nowadays. Some call it experience, but as a spectacle it really spoils the flow of the game, I counted at least 8 occasions in the second half when Ogs were finally starting to get some fluidity in their play, a cross player being fouled & then going down for 2-3 mins treatment.

I don't know what cross will do when oisin packs it in, because some of the scores he took form frees today were outstanding. I don't think this cross side is as strong as in previous years & would fancy St Galls but sure how many times have i said that.

The Harps minor team were brilliant today, totally annilihated cross, theres hope for the future 

[mackers]

Thought at half time that we were going to see an exciting second half but Cross turned it into a war of attrition in the second half that they were always going to win. Although the yellow was a factor in Francie being taken off Clarke I also think that Cross decided that the best way to nullify Clarke was to stop the ball coming into him and loaded midfield with the big hitters and snuffed out whatever ball the Ogs got in midfield.

[bennydorano]

Congrats to Cross and I'm sure they'll be back to surpass the joint record next year.  I actually thought the game was up for Cross at HT, only leading by a point with a huge wind, but they stepped it up again.  Thought JP Donnelly was outstanding for the OGs, what were they doing taking sean moore off? 0-2 from play and doing well, moved him to FF were the ball never came and then off to be replaced by a sub who never touched leather.  Their weakness in Mf came home to roost in the second half. I must be the only one at the match who thought Rory Robinson had a good game.

Some performance by the minors, I suppose we were confident of victory but not too many saw that one coming.  Great to think that 13 of that team are eligible again next year!  Congrats to the management team, they delivered a year earlier than most people expected.

[Smokin Joe]

Yesterday's programme said that the game yesterday was John Mac's 33rd championship final - that is some going.  BC (or anyone else) can you name them?

If only Cross had the Harps midifeld diamond.............

[goh4205]

Congrats to Cross and I'm sure they'll be back to surpass the joint record next year.  I actually thought the game was up for Cross at HT, only leading by a point with a huge wind, but they stepped it up again.  Thought JP Donnelly was outstanding for the OGs, what were they doing taking sean moore off? 0-2 from play and doing well, moved him to FF were the ball never came and then off to be replaced by a sub who never touched leather.  Their weakness in Mf came home to roost in the second half. I must be the only one at the match who thought Rory Robinson had a good game.

Some performance by the minors, I suppose we were confident of victory but not too many saw that one coming.  Great to think that 13 of that team are eligible again next year!  Congrats to the management team, they delivered a year earlier than most people expected.

I also thougth he had a good enough game Benny.

Paul Duffy was down for 3Min's & he played 2Min's injury time at the end of the first half.  Then Clarke no.11 going down near the end of the half to try and kill more time cause the Ogs were just 1 behind at that stage. There was a few other incidents which cross supporters could be aggrieved by some of his decisions.  Ogs No.2 kneeing Bellew in the face, if it had been the other way round there'd have been uproar or when McKenna was nearly raped at the end & didn't get a free.
regarding Bellews yellow card it was 50/50 between him and clarke, I seen the umpire warning Clarke at least once for pulling, but nothing more happened about it unfortnately Franice always gets the wrong end of the stick.
If posters are going to comment on only one side, I think it protrays a very uneven view, at least been consistant and honest with what one writes.

[Candyman]

I thought RR was trying to even it up at the end especially when as stated Titch McKenna was nearly raped by at least 3 or 4 Ogs men and got nothing for it. Some of the passing was a bit wayward at times and it wasn't really a great game at all.
One good thing to come from it though is I think a lot of teams will have some hope for next year. Even though its another title for Cross, they dont look invincible anymore and the fear factor has gone I think... When the twins, JD and Oisin go it'll be a whole new ball game!!!

[winsamsoon]

Benny i would actually agree with you on Robinson who i thought did fairly well. A few posters are complaining about how Oisin should have walked, I personally didn't see the incident but i did see the Number 30 for the og's strike a dig to the stomach of Mc Conville i think it was. One of the two that were umpiring the bottom end put his hand up and the other guy seen he was doing it and then put his hand up. The ref went over to both of them and after a discussion he produced a yellow card. Oh and by the way the number 30 was also trying to dig at the physio when he came on to treat the player he struck. Now if the umpires told the ref that this lad lifted his hand it should have been a straight red card. So both them decisions would have evened each other out. Granted that young lad wouldn't have had the same impact as mc Conville. But i have been highlighting these inconsistencies on this board for some time and some folk accused me of being bias. I guess it changes when it is your own team on the other end of it. I thought the umpires could have been doing a hell of a lot more yesterday. They are in a better position to see incidents occuring in the full back line ie Francie constantly pulling at Ronan Clarke. They should have been putting the hand up everytime it happened and they never once it was only when the ref saw it that Francie was booked.

As for the actual game i thought it was a typical Cross performance where they just done enough in the first 45 minutes and then stepped it for 10 and the game was over. Donaldson even had time for a fist salute to the crowd with about 5 minutes to go. Cross looked the more direct team. The ogs tended to try and play almost too much football which allowed the Cross to get in and spoil them. This is meat and drink to the Cross. The Og's should have been getting the early ball in particulary in the second half with the wind at their backs. They failed to do this and this is where the game was lost. They could have played till today and they would have won it . All in all though it has to be said it was a galiant effort by some of the lads on the Og's side. Well done to the Cross and harps minors great achievement for both.

[snappiered]

How come Andy Mallon wasnt able to play? Sorry if it has been mentioned here b4?

[full back]

Typical Cross. Always seem to be able to pull something out of the bag when the going gets tough. Even when Cross have a bad day, teams dont seem to be able to put them away (Harps).
JD, the twins & Oisin were very good, as they always seem to be in the big games
Fair play to them & they will be a tough nut to crack in Ulster, as per usual

Cullyhanna destroyed Culloville on Saturday. The tactics of Culloville were very poor. They packed their defence in the 1st half & when they did win the ball they just kicked it up front to their only 2 players in the Cullyhanna half. St Pats have some quality players & should give a good representation of themselves in Ulster.
As for Culloville, thats 2 in a row now & they will find it very hard to come back from it

Harps have some hope for the future with their minor performance, but the big job now will be to keep this group of players together & not let them go the way of city minor teams of the past

[mackers]

Congrats to Cross and I'm sure they'll be back to surpass the joint record next year.  I actually thought the game was up for Cross at HT, only leading by a point with a huge wind, but they stepped it up again.  Thought JP Donnelly was outstanding for the OGs, what were they doing taking sean moore off? 0-2 from play and doing well, moved him to FF were the ball never came and then off to be replaced by a sub who never touched leather.  Their weakness in Mf came home to roost in the second half. I must be the only one at the match who thought Rory Robinson had a good game.

Some performance by the minors, I suppose we were confident of victory but not too many saw that one coming.  Great to think that 13 of that team are eligible again next year!  Congrats to the management team, they delivered a year earlier than most people expected.

He did well when he was on the ball but I thought he gave John Mac way too much room and John Mac beat him to every break ball.

[Handy]

Congrats to Cross and I'm sure they'll be back to surpass the joint record next year.  I actually thought the game was up for Cross at HT, only leading by a point with a huge wind, but they stepped it up again.  Thought JP Donnelly was outstanding for the OGs, what were they doing taking sean moore off? 0-2 from play and doing well, moved him to FF were the ball never came and then off to be replaced by a sub who never touched leather.  Their weakness in Mf came home to roost in the second half. I must be the only one at the match who thought Rory Robinson had a good game.

Some performance by the minors, I suppose we were confident of victory but not too many saw that one coming.  Great to think that 13 of that team are eligible again next year!  Congrats to the management team, they delivered a year earlier than most people expected.

I also thougth he had a good enough game Benny.

Paul Duffy was down for 3Min's & he played 2Min's injury time at the end of the first half.  Then Clarke no.11 going down near the end of the half to try and kill more time cause the Ogs were just 1 behind at that stage. There was a few other incidents which cross supporters could be aggrieved by some of his decisions.  Ogs No.2 kneeing Bellew in the face, if it had been the other way round there'd have been uproar or when McKenna was nearly raped at the end & didn't get a free.
regarding Bellews yellow card it was 50/50 between him and clarke, I seen the umpire warning Clarke at least once for pulling, but nothing more happened about it unfortnately Franice always gets the wrong end of the stick.
If posters are going to comment on only one side, I think it protrays a very uneven view, at least been consistant and honest with what one writes.

Try telling Kelly of the harps about poor Francie. 

[full back]

How come Andy Mallon wasnt able to play? Sorry if it has been mentioned here b4?

Heard he got injured last week but it was kept very quiet

[BerfArmagh]

Andy Mallon broke his wrist in training during the week