Messages

Nolan show needs to go ... we've no need for a platform to give a voice to every bin lid in the country.

I'd imagine there is more to come around this, and today was just the IN casting their net.  Popcorn at the ready.

As mentioned above, the current Armagh team are in the mix and have a punchers chance on any given day, and with a little bit of luck/game management, could just as easily have been in consecutive All Ireland Semi-Finals, as well as Ulster Champions, so it's fine margins.

I definitely think a tactician needs to be added to the management team, as there is no hiding the shortfalls that occurred on the line on more than one occasion, and this resides directly with Geezer. 

I'm all for another year, but the backroom team needs to be strengthened as well.

Given the age profile of the team, McGeeney leaving now could result in quite a few high profile players at the same time e.g. Forker, Grugan, Campbell, Murnin as just a few ... personally, I'd be giving him one more year and leaving it at that.  What would be success for Armagh at this stage .. probably an Ulster title / All Ireland semi-final / promotion back to Div. 1.  Anyone recommending that the manager goes now would need to have a good idea as to who will replace him.  I'm not aware of any better players in the county who are not involved, would love to see Oisin O'Neill back again and hopefully that looks to be on the cards for next year.

This seems to be the vibe generally. Give him one more year. But what happens then? Say he gets promotion back to Div 1 (quite possible), and gets to another quarterfinal but beat by a big gun (Kerry / Dublin). No ulster title. McGeeney won't walk away. He will see it as another year of progress....

I just think changing management now, on a team that has potentially one serious roll of the dice left in 2024, would be counter-productive.

See Ethan Rafferty suffered a very bad injury in a club game last night, reports have varied from a straight leg break to a combo ankle dislocation / leg break or knee injury. Terrible news for him, sounds very serious.

Very sorry to hear that, here's to a speedy recovery Ethan.

Given the age profile of the team, McGeeney leaving now could result in quite a few high profile players at the same time e.g. Forker, Grugan, Campbell, Murnin as just a few ... personally, I'd be giving him one more year and leaving it at that.  What would be success for Armagh at this stage .. probably an Ulster title / All Ireland semi-final / promotion back to Div. 1.  Anyone recommending that the manager goes now would need to have a good idea as to who will replace him.  I'm not aware of any better players in the county who are not involved, would love to see Oisin O'Neill back again and hopefully that looks to be on the cards for next year. 

I find Grusch a little strange ... all of his testimony is based on information told to him by others, so nothing appears to be first hand witnessed by Grusch himself, which is a little strange since he had highest level clearance to some of the US's top secrets.  A lot of his answers yesterday were that he couldn't speak about them in an open forum.

Also, the US commentators use the line 'The American people deserve to know' ... why is this such a US issue, why is it centralised in the US or off US coastlines.  Why is all footage so grainy, do they not do 4k over there or what.  You'd think if we were being visited by Aliens and their tech, this is pretty fundamental to all humanity and not just our friends in the US.

If the US really do have crashed Alien vehicles, non-human species in some of the vehicles, as claimed by Grusch, why the hell are NASA spending gazillions in looking for microbial life on other planets and moons of other planets.  Something not right about that.

Are we alone in the universe?  I'd say most definitely not.  Are we being visited by Alien tech right now?  I'd say no, the answer could be a lot closer to home e.g. China.

RIP Sinead 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMZa1gExHv4

Most semi final referees don't get finals.. has he done one before? He'll not be too bothered if he has

He's done quite a few I reckon at this stage.

Sean Hurson is prob the foremost ref. in the country at the min imo.

It was a free any day of the week, any referee in any game would have given it ... with the exception of Joe McQuillan on Sunday.  It will cost Joe any chance that he may have had to referee the All Ireland Final, and rightly so.  Yes, its a difficult game to referee, yes, refs are amateurs etc. etc.  all of that doesn't matter a damn, Joe wasn't up to some of the big calls on Sunday and that's that.  More so, time keeping needs to be removed from the ref asap, they've enough to be doing never mind timekeeping ... and they should have no right to dictate additional time at their discretion beyond normal and injury time.  This allowing one more play to try to balance out earlier mistakes is making a mockery of the game, and Sunday wasn't the only example of it this year.

Whatever happened to plans for the training centre in Portadown, still on track or stalled?

[If that was the other way around and Derry keeper did that on Clifford what do yous think would have happened?]

No it is not. Turning so that your side takes the impact is completely natural.

I thought you couldn't break a tackle with both feet of the air, you can't in hurling anyway. Very cynical challenge and could have hurt the lad.

It was one of the more dangerous challenges of the entire match. He eyed up McGuigan beforehand and made sure he left something on him. When you consider some of the innocuous decisions that pass as fouls or even yellow cards in the modern game, the punishment (none) did not fit the crime. Would it have taken a concussion or a head injury for some people to claim that it was an actual foul, the player was not protected by the referee in that instance.   

I actually watched this one and it could have been a free when I watched it multiple times, watching it live I didn't give it a second thought.

I was watching live and couldn't believe how it wasn't a free and yellow at least. It sets a president that it's ok to ride the tackle off the ground.

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/dublin-ireland-16-july-2023-kerry-goalkeeper-shane-ryan-news-photo/1535749975

I think the keeper should have got red for that challenge. If that was the other way around and Derry keeper did that on Clifford what do yous think would have happened?

Are you suggesting an anti-northern bias in Joe McQuillan's refereeing of games? 

Derry gave their best performance of the year yesterday, they were superb for most of the game ... until they got mugged on the home straight.  As a neutral, I feel that the ref. unduly swayed the game in Kerry's favour ... some very soft frees one direction, yet blatant transgression by the Kerry goalkeeper went unnoticed ... McQuillan might as well have stuck the ball over the bar himself during that play.

Kerry are Kerry, unreal athletes and play the game in a way that is great to watch.  Clifford once again off the scale.

Back to the ref, time keeping needs to be really looked at .... too many examples of referees making up time for 'one last play' in an effort to bring a team back into it, maybe in an effort to make up for incorrect decisions earlier in the game ... it shouldn't be in the refs remit to decide the time, let's follow the ladies and take it out of the refs. hands.

Have two tickets (one adult and one juvenile) for Saturday, Lower Cusack, section 305, row BB, going for face value ... anyone in need, please PM, thanks.

Monaghan deserve to be at this stage and will give Armagh a serious test.

Wouldn't expect anything less in an All Ireland Q/Final.  So long as Conor Lane lets a physical contact sport proceed as planned amongst two Ulster teams going at it, then we should have a good game.