Armagh v Mayo March 3

[Lar Naparka]

Must say I enjoyed the game thoroughly. I suppose that's natural enough since my side came away with the points but there were plenty of secondary reasons as well.
The ground was in magnificent condition and the standard of play was quite high for a game under lights at this time of year.
I thought the ref had a reasonable game under the circumstances. I was sitting in a section of the stand where there was a fairly balanced mix of supporters and the cheers and groans were coming from both camps in equal measure.
(IMO, that's the only way to gauge a ref's performance—when both sides are effing him out of it, he must be doing something right. )
As for the game itself, there wasn't a championship 'bite' to it but it was keenly contested at the same time. I thought it was a clean and tough game throughout with very few incidents.
For the first couple of minutes I thought Armagh were going to run Mayo ragged. Their hand passing and running off the ball were top class and, given Mayo's tendency to start slowly, I expected the very worst.
The Mayo started picking off scores almost at will for a short spell.
Those 10 minutes or thereabouts puzzled me last night and still does. What happened to bring that extraordinary transformation about?
ASAIK, Armagh suffered no injuries and Mayo made no changes or positional switches to account for the visitors going seven points up without bother.
I'm going to watch a rerun of the game to try and make sense out of what happened.
Credit is due to Armagh for fighting back and making a good game out of it right to the closing minutes but in my (unbiased of course) view Mayo always seemed capable of stepping up a notch if they needed to.

Armagh did impress me throughout with their general fitness levels and their hand passing and backing up but after a while I realised they were getting nowhere. Yet they seemed unwilling to change their tactics right to the end.
Hell, I'm not complaining or anything like that.
Still, I think we need to keep the result in perspective. Armagh were without the Cross contingent and Steve Mac was also missing. If we should meet up during the summer, we mightn't get to score 1-4 inside 10 minutes.

[borderfox]

''Iwouldn't say that Armagh suporters Booing is ironic because their reknown for it throughout the country.  That the Soccer mentailty that they got''

Dear Here comes 6,

Please stop raping me.

Yours,
The English language

[Armaghgael]

''Iwouldn't say that Armagh suporters Booing is ironic because their reknown for it throughout the country.  That the Soccer mentailty that they got''

Dear Here comes 6,

Please stop raping me.

Yours,
The English language

[Applesisapples]

Felt it a bit ironic, to hear the Armagh supporters booing, when one of our own was blew up for over-carrying when surrounded
by five or six defenders! We used to applaud our defenders for showing discipline and not fouling in those circumstances!

Iwouldn't say that Armagh suporters Booing is ironic because their reknown for it throughout the country.  That the Soccer mentailty that they got

I wouldn't say it's just the preserve of Armagh fans, there was plenty from the Kerry fans in Tralee, and quite a bit in Newry yesterday too.

[Applesisapples]

Whilst not a result to be overly disheartened with it certainly puts in perspective the euphoria after the Cork and Kerry games. It also nails the lie that only one or two Cross players would make the team. It does howver also reaffirm the fact that under Paddy O'Rourke Armagh have failed to reach a consistent level of play. Perhaps that will change next day out.

[moysider]

On reflection, I can really see our forwards struggle. I think we might have only 2 championship forwards in there.

I'm curious as to who you think will be Mayo's 6 starting forwards come championship time? IMO Alan Freeman,Alan Dillon,Conor Mortimer & Andy Moran will be starters.

Moran and O'Connor definites.
Freeman, Dillon, McLoughlin and Mort if they are in good health and good form.

Dark horses:
Doherty: if he is flying like in the League last year;
Varley: has done ok but needs to catch fire sometime;
Kirby: 4 goals from FF on his first start fairly catches the eye and can't be ruled out;
Conroy: Can always do a job and could easily get in at 15;
Trevor Mort: too good not to consider if he is flying fit
AOS: I think Barry and Seamus could play midfield with AOS at 11 and Cillian in the FF line.

Back to the Armagh game. Glad to see Keane getting another go, the other 5 look stronger with Caff at 3 and Richie at 5, so he should have an easier first half than the last day, hopefully. Midfield will do fine but it is a funny looking front 6. Freeman is being moved about a lot after bursting on the scene in an otherwise disastrous 2010. I would like to see him allowed to settle at 14 or 15.

The only ball we won at midfield against the Dubs was when Barry caught it, I would prefer as Mac2 said Andy out at hf winning breaking ball. Richie should improve things here too. Doherty at 12 is interesting and worth a look as he is a good man running straight at a defense.

O Con. Andy and Kevin McLoughlin shoe-ins on 2011 form. Dillon also anywhere near his best. I would think Harte too if he gets back to his pre-injury best. Freeman a cert on 2010 type form and form before he broke the hand last year.

But it s unlikely all will be right and others will come into it. Conroy and Kirby would be 2 I d be interested in seeing. Dark horses? Michael Forde and Evan Regan. Unlikely we ll see them before the U21 championship but they re going to make a big impact sooner than later I reckon.

[ross4life]

Dillon is one of Mayo most experienced,influential forwards he doesn't score as often as he did but most of the scores comes from his good play nowadays. The Mort didn't come back to sit on the bench so he'll be a starter come championship time.

[Mayo4Sam]

Can't see Conor or harte starting come championship.
I see KMcL, Freeman, Dillon, COC, Andy, AN Other

[Mac2]

Harte has never really convinced at this level and Mortimer has an awful lot to do if he's to nail down a place, there's a lot of fellas snapping at his heals. Mcloughlin's a good footballer, not sure if the forwards is his best position though.

[armaghranger12]

Where Mayo as good at the papers say or where Armagh just poor?  This could be the reality check that Armagh need.  Armagh are not as good as their win over Kerry suggests they are

[moysider]

Harte has never really convinced at this level and Mortimer has an awful lot to do if he's to nail down a place, there's a lot of fellas snapping at his heals. Mcloughlin's a good footballer, not sure if the forwards is his best position though.

We ll need either Harte or Kirby to give us a bit of size in the hf line where we were raped v Kerry last August. Ive been more than convinced by Harte down the years. A good goal threat too. Unfortunately too often he was expected to play as an out and out midfielder in the past and it s not his best spot. If he s fit he ll be in. I suspect Conor is being given every chance to see if he can play a team game. Kilcoyne and Parsons were playing games this time last year.

[Cosmo Kramer]

Can't see Conor or harte starting come championship.
I see KMcL, Freeman, Dillon, COC, Andy, AN Other

I could still see Mort as the AN Other in your list with Varley as an impact sub. However we have still to see a few in the league and anyone out of Kirby/Regan/Forde/Doherty still have a chance. Or Geraghty perhaps? Doherty deserves a couple of games at corner forward to see if he can put pressure on our current starters, it seemed a waste of time playing him wing forward the last night.

If I was going to put a big midfield type player on the 40 I'd go for SOS before Harte. Harte is another who might make more of an impact off the bench.

[moysider]

Harte more pace and a greater scoring threat. Anyway we ll need 20/21 players who are serious summer footballers. Last year we didn t have impact from the bench. If we lose nobody from last August and add Barry Moran, Harte, Conor, Regan and say Forde and maybe a couple of backs like McHale, Walsh and Keane can play a bit we ll be considerably stronger this year.

I could see 5/6 changes from last August's team come the championship.

[bennydorano]

Whilst not a result to be overly disheartened with it certainly puts in perspective the euphoria after the Cork and Kerry games. It also nails the lie that only one or two Cross players would make the team. It does howver also reaffirm the fact that under Paddy O'Rourke Armagh have failed to reach a consistent level of play. Perhaps that will change next day out.

Shows we cant afford to be without Ciaran mckeever - not much else.

[brokencrossbar1]

Division 1 is very odd and producing strange results.  The reality is that this result is probably reflective of the quality of the team Armagh had out against the quality of the team Mayo had out.  Add in McKeever, AK,Morgan, Vernon for the hour, Toner/Hanratty/Titch, Stevie and Jamie and you have a completely different prospect.  A few pluses in Forker and Colm Watters, a few minuses.  The reality is that mid Division 1 is a good place for this Armagh team to be and 2 wins from the lst 4 games will guarantee this.