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Playing the county final in cross if they are involved is another in a catelogue of disgraceful incidents of pandering to crossmaglen in the last ten years.

If the county board's answer is that its the only county ground available, then it is tantamount to putting their hands up and admitting they are incompetant fools. Everyone knew a year ago the athletic grounds and davitt would be closed. it is very simple to pass any number of other grounds in the county as a county venue - carrickcruppen for one. further, its is quite simple to get a ground passed under short notice as armagh have done a few times in the past with crossmaglen and carrickcruppen.

County final venue being a county ground is not in fact decreed from the official guide. It is adopted, or not, within county byelaws. each county makes it's own byelaws.

taking that all into consideration, the county executive have options in front of them.
1 - fix the final for cross
2 - have carrickcruppen passed (again) as a county ground
3 - fix the final for some other county ground - the marshes, dowdal's hill, blayney, etc.

3 would obviously be an embarrassment for them but they should have had a bit of foresightedness.

By the way, arguing that Cross playing the ogs in the athletic grounds last year is the same thing are wide of the mark. the athletic grounds are the county grounds and no club plays there. i doubt more than a handful of ogs players would have played a senior game in the athletic grounds when it was a home venue for them.

will Ambrose be on the bench if required?

Yep named in the subs

Seems neither Ambrose nor Fitzpatrick will start. People around Conor Maginn claiming he's starting

Straight red and can't see there being any way out of it for cross. wasn't at the game but the "dromintee view" on it has been unanimously that it was a filthy challenge

Keavney will take holding

Obviously we're both entitled to our opinion and mine would be very different from yours. there's a misguided belief among a lot of our younger contributers - and those who just don't know any better - that we need our 15 most skillful footballers on  the pitch and that there is some sort of development plan to be followed to "build" a team. the reality of intercounty football is that you put the best players on the field to win matches, whether they're 18, 40 or 28. you put players in position to do jobs. playing lads like feeney (and ak for that matter) in the half forward line is poor judgement.

Brian mallon is a fantastic footballer and a strong lad who'll win ball when its near him. he won't, however, go looking for work or win ball beyond his comfort zone.

The blinkers with mor in our own county regarding mor is astonishing, given that most counties in the country search high and low for that type of player.

mate, I'm 28 years old and not some pup who has watched 5 games and thinks he knows it all - I've been around the block a few times & I am well aware that we need horses for courses.

MOR will win break ball surely, but he will also kick 90% of that possession straight back to the opposition - he is well known for it. He is good at winning a free kick around the middle of the park, but is also as adept at giving these frees away and getting referees backs up. He has had his day and I dont think he should be anywhere near the line up. Counties do look for his "type" of player - but they would like one with some actual footballing ability as well as brute strength á la Dooher, McEntee etc - who can pick a pass or a score when they recycle the ball.

Agreed, B Mallon is a good player but to say he doesnt work or win dirty ball is an absolute joke! Watch the Derry match again and come back to me. He never stops running and has a knack of finding an orange jersey with a pass rather than an opposition one - see the first 15 mins against Monaghan as an example.

If you want a player who wins break ball, by all means pick MOR. If you want a player who wins break ball and then uses it properly, dont.

OF course you are entitled to hold that opinion, but i wouldn't subscribe to it. Don't know where the giving the ball line came from - must be from his poor shooting but it's certainly not true. in fact he's probably among the best distributers of direct ball in the county. then again i only watch him playing club football weekly and i don't know maybe.

not wanting to labour the brian mallon issue but he does not work at a sustained level and is not fit enough to play in the half forward line for me. The contributer who used mor's fitness and tracking back as an issue is having a laugh. in fact, the complete opposite of reality. there is not a harder worker for any team and in his career he has consistently been used to stifle the most attacking wing backs the opposition have.

A half forward to win us enough ball to win a game and use it well out of mor, swift, feeney, hanratty, mackin, kernan, vernon? mor top of that list for me but for other roles, swift, vernon and kernan have other strengths. this can be viewed as a superficial argument but armagh's lack of steel and work rate in this area has cost dearly this year.

By the way, replying to your post doen't make me your mate - you have to work much harder for that. and don't be so insecure as to outline your age and credentials to qualify your posts. we can judge the posts on their merits.

Obviously we're both entitled to our opinion and mine would be very different from yours. there's a misguided belief among a lot of our younger contributers - and those who just don't know any better - that we need our 15 most skillful footballers on  the pitch and that there is some sort of development plan to be followed to "build" a team. the reality of intercounty football is that you put the best players on the field to win matches, whether they're 18, 40 or 28. you put players in position to do jobs. playing lads like feeney (and ak for that matter) in the half forward line is poor judgement.

Brian mallon is a fantastic footballer and a strong lad who'll win ball when its near him. he won't, however, go looking for work or win ball beyond his comfort zone.

The blinkers with mor in our own county regarding mor is astonishing, given that most counties in the country search high and low for that type of player.

if mor had been injury free this summer armagh's development curve would have been a lot steeper. we can't win a ball around the middle for long periods and that could be fatal if we disappear in the middle third again tomorrow. certainly i wouldn't expect the white flag to be hoisted as it was against monaghan if he were playing

FFS

[Kildare have adjusted their game plan]

Yea I like the look of O'Connor, physically a different beast to when he first burst on the scene and the Biffo breeding gives him that bit of dog Kildare lads seem to lack at time, wouldn't be worried if he started at all.

Small consolation that the game is probably on TV, but Kildare have adjusted their game plan so it will be more Ulster fare than Leinster fare with plenty of bodies behind the ball with a poor crowd, not good TV will it make.

thats interesting. How have they done that?

I saw emile heskey score once

This has to be a hooker story?

To be fair to the ref, he likely didn't see it and what can he then do?

Sammy: Sylvia Herman: Cracking bit of posh.

I would

Dromintee beaten by cullaville by a goal. That's all i know  about it

What were ROG's comments during the week?

Jaysus he wasn't id - he wasnt even on the team early in the championship. good final though.

shannon was a starter in the early games and got injured.

McEvoy must be wondering at the double standards of a single mistake against down costing him his place while hearty... well hearty remains consistent.