Armagh Club football & hurling

[illdecide]

Rufus i know where your coming from and i think the main problem is the big town or City in your case, the South Armagh lads don't have the same distractions that we have. From the lads that i played minor with I'm the only one still playing (just about), if you go to a bar in Lurgan the amount of guys sitting watching live soccer with their pints in their hand who were unbelievable Gaelic footballers is scary. South Armagh don't have the soccer in the scale that we have to compete with and as i mentioned half of the young lads ending up alcholics.

Another big issue you mentioned was the size of Lurgan, but you didn't mention the many clubs we have 1. Clan Na Gael 2. Clan Eirena 3. St Paul's 4. St Peters 5. Eire Og 6.Wolfe Tones 7. Sarsfields and there are even more soccer clubs, in south Armagh their main sport is GAA (and rightly so) and they are a more closely knit community not like the main big towns or cities

[Aghdavoyle]

It's difficult for us to compete in this conversation about ogs, harps and cross and transforming underage success into senior as we've never won a thing at underage. even s armagh leagues are beyond our realms of competitive possibility.

I'm not sure how relevent it is to the discussion, but dromintee's task is to try to garner the 1 or 2 players from each minor team who are fit for b football the following year and keep them interested. every so often we then try to make a senior player out of these guys.

our underage teams don't have the numbers and certainly not the quality to be top 4 in the s armagh leagues. for example, our minors operated with about 18 players this year, 6 of whom were u16. maybe 2 of these minors will be good enough to train with the senior / b panel next season.

This may leave us open to ridicule but thats what we have and we're happy enough. we've been lucky in the last 5 years to have brought through some real quality players like the o'neills, mick o'rourke and dyas and that has allowed us to compete at senior championship level. to be honest, we don't see any more gems on the horizon and as players disappear out the top, they won't be replaced from now on.

with my freud hat on, our senior players have obviously won nothing at any stage of their development with the club and i'm sure that inhibits their mental approach when playing cross. only the likes of the o'rourkes, eddie martin,etc who have been exposed to higher levels of football play with total competitiveness against cross.  more usually, our players have grown up losing by 15 or 20 points to the likes of cross, mullaghbawn & killeavy. interestingly, we always struggle against s armagh teams in the championship but have no inhibiting respect for the likes of clans, ogs or harps.

[Armagh Exile]

We had Donal McKenna over us last year - an outrageous man!

McKenna is a very shrewd manager.  Was Big Joe's right-hand man when Crossmaglen won 3 All-Irelands.
Who is he with this year?

[Horatio Kane]

Have to agree with Rufus. The advantage Cross have is that any young talent coming through can be eased onto the senior set up, eg the young Kernans coming through to play alongside "old heads" like Oisin, Francie, the Macs, whereas the Harps youth have no players to look up to like that.

Imagine the current crop of Harps youth joining a set up that included "old heads" like John Rath, Adrian Moore, Dom Clarke, the Twins, John Toner, the McCoys etc.......i think it's all about timing, but hats off to cross....they have set the bar very high and it's going to take a tremendous effort to compete with them.

Here's hoping.

[David McKeown]

Im not sure about this argument that young players and success at underage level doesnt make a difference.  About 10 or 12 years ago we had for the only time my brother (whos much older than me) can remember our own Under 14 team (as opposed to being part of the amalgamted St Johns Under 14-s) and we were very successfull in winning an under 14 league.  That couple with appearences from St Johns in under 16 and minior finals in the last 5/6 years (different age group to the earlier under 14's) has left us with a crop of very good (by our divisions standards) young players coming through who know how to win.  It is probably no coincedance therefore that these good young players coming through such as Shane Smyth and John McCormack and Micheal McQuade etc have resulted in us contesting two junior championship finals (winning one) and winning two promotions in the last three or four years.

Not sure how this relates at the top level of Armagh football but lower down the leagues it appears that youth success can be very helpful for senior success down the line.

Another point I remeber hearing an RTE commentator in 1998 after Galway won the All Ireland saying that good minor teams usually form the backbone for good senior teams when the players on it reach 27 or 28 i.e. 9/10 years after minor level.  Armagh won minor Ulster titles in 1992 and 1994 and have had remarkable success at senior level 10 years later, again this may just be coincedance

[illdecide]

Aghdavoyle maybe if you showed a bit more respect to the likes of the Clanns, Harps and the OGs you might win somthing for once

[corn02]

Aghdavolye

I think you being slightly harsh. Having played along side those boys at underage level I can assure you that there a few more who are capable of making an impact on our senior team. The Rocks, Colum McGuiness and Anthony Fearon have already alot of senior action under the belts and the likes of John Molloy, Thomas White and Ruari Murphy will be doing similar. Getting beat by twenty points rarely happened.

I do understand with your judgement that there are no stars coming through but do not be too quick to judge.

[brokencrossbar1]

our players have grown up losing by 15 or 20 points to the likes of cross, mullaghbawn & killeavy. interestingly, we always struggle against s armagh teams in the championship but have no inhibiting respect for the likes of clans, ogs or harps.

In fairness Aghdavoyle, I have no memory of beating Dromintee by 15-20 points, in fact the opposite happened a few years back.  It provided motivation for at least 2 championship wins

[Aghdavoyle]

Illdecide... the point was simply that we rarely have any  trouble with any of those teams in the championship and therefore i can't see any reason why we should adjust our players' mindsets towards them.

Corn, i appreciate what you are saying and certainly that particular age group contributed the most players as a group to the senior ranks of any minor team. that said, i don't thin any of those that you name will play senior championship football this year?

bc... i'm referring to underage games as our players come up through the ranks, not senior games in which, hopefully, we are competitive.

[brokencrossbar1]

I know you are Aghdavoyle, hence the wee smiley. 

In fairness, Dromintee were one of the harder teams I played against at underage.  Players like Alan Johnston, Morgan, Leo McGee and Toal would have been great senior players if they were there, (even if Mickey and Alan were like roadies for Bon Jovi ).  We played Dromintee and Mullaghbawn probably more in underage finals than anyone else. 

I know maybe the younger lads like Shannon and younger may not have had the same quality in numbers but for a good few years there were quite a few players coming through.

The reality is that some clubs have more resources than others, but some don't make the most of them.

[Candyman]

John Morrisson quoted TODAY.... Armagh Harps have had 44 transfers from the club over the past 3 years!!! any other club had such a devastating loss?? (BTW, dont know where he gets his stats...)

[Candyman]

Morrisson may be a bit "wild" but he's never far wrong!!! from what i can remember most of those were youths who had finished minor but weren't getting football at senior level so they went to small rural clubs, i.e Grange & Mullabrack where they would get a game....

[umgolaarmagh]

Aghdavoyle

"the point was simply that we rarely have any  trouble with any of those teams in the championship "

Sweeping statement from a team only in senior football for a decade or so and with a hint of arrogance which i wouldnt associate with the Dromintee lads that i would know  .

My last senior championship match was against Dromintee not too long ago (5/6yrs) in Cross and i think we won with a few points to spare

[BenDover]

Morrisson may be a bit "wild" but he's never far wrong!!! from what i can remember most of those were youths who had finished minor but weren't getting football at senior level so they went to small rural clubs, i.e Grange & Mullabrack where they would get a game....

Who are Mullabrack I thought this was the Harps third team 

[Candyman]

bow wow benny... They are known as the Harps C team (thirds would be associated with hockey/cricket/rugby)