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[Sunday July 13th, 2014]

http://www.gaa.ie/fixtures-and-results/national-fixtures/gaa-football-all-ireland-senior-championship/

Sunday July 13th, 2014

GAA Football All Ireland Senior Championship 2014 Round 2B

3 00 PM
Tyrone vs. Armagh
Healy Park, Omagh 

Referee: TBC
Extra time playable

[Round 3A - Saturday July 12th]

Can anyone confirm if the backdoor 3rd round draw will be held tomorrow (Monday July 7th)? The Round 3A games are scheduled to be played next Saturday July 12th.

http://www.gaa.ie/fixtures-and-results/national-fixtures/gaa-football-all-ireland-senior-championship/

The draw will involve the following teams playing against each other

Round 3A - Saturday July 12th

1. Laois
2. Sligo
3. Tipperary
4. Limerick

Round 3B - Saturday July 19th and Sunday July 20th

1. Cavan or Roscommon
2. Carlow or Clare
3. Down or Kildare
4. Tyrone or Armagh

A simple answer to this ongoing issue is as follows: Have 8 groups of 4 teams and seed teams based on what league division they finish in each year. New York (and Kilkenny) would play in a qualifier vs division 4 opposition to enter the "group phase". The 16 teams who finish in 3rd and 4th position in each of the 8 groups would play for the All-Ireland "B" championship while the 16 teams who finish in 1st and 2nd position in each of the 8 groups would play for the Sam Maguire.

Does anyone know why there's a round 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B in this years back door?

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/all-ireland-championships

Saturday, June 21st
Qualifiers Round 1A

Saturday, June 28th
Qualifiers Round 1B

Saturday, July 5th
Qualifiers Round 2A

Saturday, July 12th
Qualifiers Round 2B, Round 3A

Saturday, July 19th
Qualifiers Round 3B

From an Ulster and Armagh point of view this would be the best draw...

Armagh v Waterford (at Athletic Grounds)
Tyrone v Down (at Omagh)
Derry v Clare (at Owenbeg)
Fermanagh v Leitrim (at Enniskillen)
Cavan v Longford (at Breffni)
Kildare v Galway (in Newbridge)
Louth v Roscommon (in Drogheda)
Laois v Wexford (in Portlaois)

Does anyone have a link to watch the game?

A big part of the problem is the GAA Club fixtures calendar. The 2012 All-Ireland club series should be completely finished in 2012, it shouldn't be running on until March 2013. If Cross win Ulster again this year then it won't make a difference who the new Armagh manager is - they'll only have about 2 months blending the Cross players into the Armagh team in preparation for the championship.

From Oisín McConville...

43m The BBC Championship ‏@bbcchampionship
Oisín: "There's an apathy about Armagh football. There's a chip on peoples shoulders about the 'Cross' thing."

52m The BBC Championship ‏@bbcchampionship
Oisín's on a roll now: "Armagh's problems run a bit deeper than this result. This is as low as I've felt about Armagh football for a while"

54m The BBC Championship ‏@bbcchampionship
Oisin on Paddy O'Rourke's Armagh future: "I don't think he has a future, no disrespect to the man."

56m The BBC Championship ‏@bbcchampionship
Oisín: "This is one of the worst results ever for Armagh."

Roscoomon leading 1-8 Armagh 1-7

Malachy Mackin into the book and now its level Roscommon 1-7 Armagh 1-7

Armagh 1-7 Roscommon 1-6

1.  P McEvoy
2.  A Mallon
3.  B Donaghy
4.  J Morgan
5.  A Kernan
6.  C McKeever
7.  F Moriarty
8.  D McKenna or J Lavery
9.  C Vernon or J Hanratty
10.  A Forker
11.  M Mackin
12.  S Kernan
13.  C Rafferty or M Stevenson
14.  B Mallon
15.  J Clarke

http://www.derryjournal.com/community/columnists/brolly-s-bites-north-men-south-men-comrades-all-my-arse-1-3674549

Published on Friday 30 March 2012 10:30

"I'm not prejudiced but if a c**n moved in next door, I'd move, like most white people would. If my daughter came home with a n****r, I'd go mad. But I'm only being truthful and normal."

So said Anfield legend Tommy Smith in an interview with author Dave Hill in 1988. At the time, black soccer players like Justin Fashanu and Cyril Regis were running the gauntlet. When they took to the field on Saturdays at 3pm, the stands erupted in gorilla chants. Bananas were thrown onto the field. When West Brom broke new ground by signing Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Brendan Bateson, they were promptly christened "The Three Degrees" and amended lyrics from the American group's hits were sung at every ground. When Regis was selected to play for England, he received a bullet in the post with a note reading: "If you play for us at Wembley, one of these will be shot into your knees, you black b******." This is racism.

The Armagh County Board last week accusing a Laois player of "racism" after he repeatedly taunted their captain Ciaran McKeever, alledgely branding him " a British bastard" and shouting "God save the Queen" in his face. British? Affordable housing, safe banks, steady employment and a stable infrastructure? On one view, it's not much of an insult. And it isn't racism.

What it is however, is an unpleasant attack on the ethos of the GAA, betraying as it does a certain partitionist mentality. In his book, Big Joe Kernan recalls " One of the few times as Armagh manager I really lost my temper was in a league game against Laois. One Laois man, who was part of the official party squared up to John Rafferty and called us 'orange b*****ds'. While I should have laughed at it, I was infuriated. I felt like laying him out with a punch, but managed to restrain myself."

When Saint Mary's CBS Grammar school from Belfast played and defeated Doon CBS from Limerick in the colleges All-Ireland 'B' hurling semi-final a fortnight ago, the Belfast students complained afterwards that they were subjected to incessant racial abuse by the opposition. The father of one of the lads described in a local newspaper how when he went to celebrate with his son at the final whistle, he was told by one of the Doon players to "Go back to Britain and play your f***ing games up there."

It is a dirty secret. It is widespread. Yet the authorities pretend it doesn't exist. The hierarchy was reported to be "furious" at the Armagh Board's public statement, written by chairman Paul Duggan, a man of the utmost integrity. Yet his complaint, instead of sparking an immediate inquisition, was brushed under the carpet by Croke Park. Within a day, a very bland joint statement was released by the Armagh and Laois boards suggesting that nothing had really happened at all. Meanwhile Armagh's assistant manager Paul Grimley was pointing out that both the referee and the linesman spoke to the Laois player in question during the game and asked him to refrain. Can you imagine what would happen if the Ulster RFU alleged that Rory Best had been told to "Go back to Britain you orange b******d"during an interprovincial game at Donnybrook? The IRFU would come down on the culprit like a ton of bricks. Yet when the exact same thing happens in our game – and it happens all the time - it is buried.

There has always been a slightly uneasy relationship between elements of the Irish people north and south. After the Derrytresk/Dromid incident a few months ago, Joe Duffy had outraged southern-folk queuing up to vent to their spleen about those dirty northerners. Two "Liveline" shows were devoted to the scandal and still they jammed the switchboards, each new caller more indignant than the last. A man from Kildare summed up the mood when he suggested, "The Northern Ireland crowd should be told to play their football up in Northern Ireland."

A few days later, petrol was poured on the Dromid fire by the request from Dr Crokes' Killarney chairman Vincent Casey that their supporters be segregated from Crossmaglen's for their recent All-Ireland club semi-final. Casey had other demands: "We are also looking for an increased number of stewards at the venue and a bigger Garda presence than last Sunday." He seemed to think that Crossmaglen's supporters would be arriving sporting black berets, dark glasses and AK47s. It was of course nonsensical, but again, it illustrated a certain mindset.

Culturally, we are no doubt slightly different. In a way, northern Gaels are more ferocious about our Irishness because we had to fight harder for it. My father, a veteran republican, fluent Irish speaker and traditional musician steeped in all things Gaelic quipped to me during the week, " Don't be too hard on the southerners Joe, some of them are almost as Irish as we are." Our experience explains why we are far more fervent about our province than the other three. When I began working in RTE I was amazed that Cork people didn't support Kerry when they got out of Munster and Mayo folk didn't support Galway. Up here, we rally round whoever gets through because we feel we are all in it together. When Tyrone scored their killer goal in the 2005 final against Kerry, a Derry man sitting in the stand jumped up, punched the air in delight and roared, "Come on you Tyrone b******ds!"

In 1998, Michael McGimpsey, the Unionist Minister for Sport gave the IFA a £9million grant for the development of local soccer. The GAA – as was usual then - got nothing. The Ulster Council issued discrimination proceedings and the Department settled out of court for £6.7 million. The gates had been prised open and we have kept them open since. A high ranking official in Croke Park remarked snidely to me some years ago that, "You boys up there are experts at taking the Queen's shilling."

In 2009, ex Roscommon goalie Shane Curran, in his weekly column in the "Roscommon Champion" insisted the northern counties' success had little to do with ability- and more to do with financial assistance from the 'British' government. He wrote, "The emergence of the northern counties owes as much to the peace process and the financial assistance afforded to them by her Majesty than any real innovation. Money has played a significant part in the development of Tyrone and to a lesser extent Armagh." The fact that he felt secure enough to write this in an Irish paper speaks volumes.

When Martin McGuinness announced his presidential campaign, vitriol flowed. Appearing on RTE's Frontline he was asked by one young woman: "Why are you running in this election, you are not Irish, why do you not go back up north, you belong to a different state, this is the Republic of Ireland, not Northern Ireland".

When northern teams were winning nothing, coming down to get an annual hammering, we were patronised left, right and centre. "It's great to see ye keeping the game alive up there." When we started winning and winning regularly in the 90s and noughties, begrudgery was the new theme. Armagh were robots. Tyrone? Puke footballers. Suddenly, we are British b*****ds who should go back to the north.

Northmen, Southmen, comrades all my arse.

Can anyone confirm if its still possible for both Armagh and Down to get relegated to division 2? If both Armagh and Down lose on April 8th and also assuming Mayo pick up 2 more points would this mean Down and Armagh get relegated?


POS   TEAM   P   W   L   D   F   A   POINTS
1   KERRY   6   5   1   0   96   71   10
2   CORK   6   3   2   1   84   66   7
3   DOWN   6   3   3   0   78   90   6
4   DUBLIN   5   3   2   0   92   70   6
5   ARMAGH   6   2   3   1   78   100   5
6   MAYO   5   2   3   0   65   66   4
7   DONEGAL   6   2   4   0   75   88   4
8   LAOIS   6   2   4   0   79   96   4

Down 0-16 Armagh 1-12 about 6 mins left