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Think Armagh will win this one pulling up.

Nah not really. Going to be a tough bruising encounter (punching the back of a plastic seat does that).  Hope Armagh keep the performance level up from the past few games and keep it competitive going into the last 10 minutes.

One of the big differences this year from previous, and which has seen Armagh progess much further, is the lack of reliance on Clarke.  Previously everything was kicked into Clarke and now the play is more varied and structured to bring other forwards and backs into the scoring zone.  Armagh obviously have worked on getting the ball and players into the main scoring zone, which the conversion chances are much higher. Hasn't happened by accident and credit to the management for changing things around so much the past few months.  Having said all that it would be great to see Clarke light up tomorrow but Donegal don't do romance.

There are several counties where you could do a factual article, but people would think it was a spoof!

A few quickly spring to mind. The white van/Dom Corrigan episode in Sligo is one.  Paudie O'Se getting attacked by an 80 year old on the sideline etc.

I see Paddy Heaney is urging the apple chompers to call an end to it. I think he has written that article a couple of times now over the years.

His thinking is that the players will look back in years to come and think they missed out in fully appreciating their great fun. Wise up Paddy.

He's tried a few different approaches over the past few weeks. This is his latest tact - the guilt trip (think of the proud daddies and mummies that are missing out).  Fact is Armagh are talking to the likes of John Campbell in the Bel Telegraph and this probably doesn't sit too well with Paddy.

Don't really agree with it all myself but can understand why the management has had issues with some of the reporters over the past few months.  One or two guys in the IN and Bel Telegraph printed stuff after the Cavan game that was out of line imo and stuff they could not stand over.  I'm not sure how some of those guys really expected to get a favourable response for interviews after that.  Having said that i would rather the management had come out and addressed those reporters and their views directly rather than tarring everyone.

and he is still playing so is likely to add to that this year.

Sickening arrogance....

It's realism unfortunately.

The Sunday Game is laughably inept. There were 3 major bloopers - got the Monaghan championship record badly badly wrong, the Mallon brothers thing was cringeworthy (McHugh could really have embarrassed them if he had spoke up), and McHugh's spake on Cooper was absurd. If he has two tricks (whatever that means) they're two very decent tricks. 

McKeever out for the season is a big blow especially in a game against Donegal which is likely to be a war of attrition. Slightly fearful of this one now, we need to get e few points up early to prevent Donegal from sucking us in and controlling the game. There will be a big onus on McAvoy to secure possession from kick outs since Donegal will give you the opportunity to hit short ones due to them retreating into defence.

We need to attack down the flanks since running up the middle against this Donegal side will see you running straight into traffic and either coughing up possession or being forced backwards and sidewards and eventually turned over. I think we are not without a slight chance but think that Donegal will eventually grind us down and force us to lose patience.

Seems to be the general consensus on the way it will pan out.  Donegal are better than Armagh at the moment, further down the line in terms of conditioning, experience, game plan, and throw a few all star footballers into that mix as well.  If Donegal do what they're capable of, they should see this one out with 4-5 to spare. Will be really interesting to see how much Armagh have learnt from the league game.  That day they continually ran into traffic and lost possession.  A good bit more width now and early kickpassing is needed to stretch Donegal and the signs from the championship to date are that Armagh have been developing this type of play quite nicely.  Will also be interesting to see if the management move Clarke further out the field for this one. He got bottled up in the Meath game and stayed close to goal for the most part.  Not sure there's much to be gained by leaving him in there with 2 or 3 Donegal players around him.

Some major injury news in Armagh
Will have major impact on Saturdays game.
It's preferable not to name the parties

Would be par for the course for us this year. Horrible run of luck with injuries all year.  Hopefully nobody else will manage to get crocked before Saturday.

It's hard to know. Sometimes the star names from the big clubs don't work out and it's the slightly lesser lights that are picked up from the less glamorous clubs that do the business.  I'm not that fussed where Liverpool get the players from - the key thing is that Rodgers gets the backing from the owners to go for the players he has identifed can fit into his system and style of play.  The vibes are that this has been the case this summer.  It's fine talking about the likes of Sanchez but players like him have to want to come to the club and he clearly didn't, preferring the bright lights of London.

Don't know what the ROS minor team is like but it's going to take a very good team to beat Donegal imo.

Seafoid's right in one respect - Galway are mediocre.

It's a really hard one to call. Arguments can be made for both teams.  I don't think Armagh will be reading too much into Meath's defeat to Dublin.  Last year we met Galway off the back of their drubbing by Mayo and who weren't expected to be up to much.  They turned their game plan around completely in the space of a few weeks and really tightened up.  Would expect Meath to react in a similar way and to have learnt a good bit from the Dublin game.

Very sad indeed. RIP.

Meath were just a bit too cute and had a bit too much quality in the likes of Giles and Geraghty.  Armagh sat back too deep in the second half of that game and the missed chances at the start of the second half did for us (though from memory they were half chances under a lot of pressure).  Came away from that match thinking that we needed more forward power. Luckily enough we unearthed two more gems in the following couple of years that eventually got us over the line.