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[Ballymacnab v Mullaghbawn (Mickey Leonard) at Silverbridge (6.00)]

Ballymacnab v Mullaghbawn (Mickey Leonard) at Silverbridge (6.00)

I reckon mullaghbawn will have too much senior championship experience and knowhow for the nab. despite all the scoring potential being on the ballymacnab side i'll go for a narrow bawn win

Carrickcruppen v Harps (Gary Smith) at Keady (6.00)

Tough one to call with teams around similar levels. the clown of a referee for this one might even sway things. i'll go for cruppen's winning habit and u21 success to scrape them a narrow win

Killeavey v Maghery (Ger Devlin) at Pearse Og Park (6.00)

another tough call. i think maghery put killeavy out last year? killeavy have the experience of a successful div one campaign under their belt and with the firepower thy theoretically have they should just beat a relegated maghery outfit.

Clann Eireann v St Michael's (Jimmy McKee) at Abbey Park (2.00)

two more evenly matched teams but i'll go for newtown's battling qualities and a bit more cuteness to prevail by 4 or 5

Granemore v Whitecross (Rory Robinson) at Cullyhanna (2.00)

Given that i think big toner is injured and that whitecross were a division one team last year, i'll guess that whitecross should have a big championship performance in them and i'll take them to win by 3 or 4

Crossmaglen v Dromintee (Jim Slevin) at Carrickcruppen (6.00)

A more interesting tie than most people think i believe. Cross are rumoured to be without big McKenna and and maybe a couple more with injury. i'll go for a dromintee win now that noone actually expectsthem to run cross close.

Pearse Og v Tir na nÓg (Oliver Hearty) at Davitt Park (6.00)

pearse og could get things very sticky here and once again the ref appointed could make a hames of things. until reaching the county final last year, og's championship pedigree has been woeful in recent years but i think they should have enough to beat the div 2 high fliers

Clans If barry john is available the lurgan aristocrats should do just enough to get themselves in the hat for quarter finals

I think there's more than that, there's definately 3 Monaghan men and 3 from Armagh

who are they bandit?

Some disaster if liverpool go out tonight

Didn't think tipp rose was in the top 5 lookers but sure that's not what the rose of tralee is about....

20 20 cricket

                                         Reina

                      Arbeloa Carragher Agger Aurelio

                                  Alonso Gerrard
                        El Zhar                     Benayoun

                                Keane
                                         Torres

Much as it pain me to say it, that is not good side

Ballymacnab v Mullawbawn  in SIlverbridge - M/BAWN BY 2
Carrickcruppin v Armagh Harps  in Keady - CRUPPEN BY 3
Killeavy v Maghery in Pearse Og Park - MAGHERY BY 2
Granemore v Whitecross in Newtownhamilton- WHITECROSS BY 3
Clann Eireann v St Michaels in Abbey Park  - NEWTOWN BY 4
Pearse Og v Tir na Nog in Davitt Park - TIR NA NOG BY 1
Crossmaglen v Dromintee in Carrickcruppin - CROSS BY 8

Ballyhegan v St Peters in Portadown - B/HEGAN BY 3
Crossmaglen 2nds v St Pats Cullyhanna in Silverbridge - PATS BY 10
Annaghmore v Wolfe Tones in Maghery - ANNAGHMORE BY 1
Clonmore v Madden in Pearse Og Park - MADDEN BY 6

I'd say Mickey'd be happy enough - sort out a bit of deadwood from his panel for next year without much fuss!

Should declare Armagh bias from the outset of course and all the criticism which that brings!

Even still there are few shoe ins for all stars. Good league and provincial performances can get you nominations but all stars are won from quarter final on. that said, i've seen players win them on final performances alone. off the top of my head, nominations that would be there or there abouts might be:

Murphy, cluxton, Quirke.

o'se, Bradshaw, malone, Henry, Lynch, Hanley, Sherry, Keane, Griffen,

O'Se, Morris, Morrissey, McKeever, O'Mahony, O'Rourke, Cullen, Cahill, Ennis,

O'Se, Ryan, McGrath, O'Neill, Flannagan, Galvin.

Walsh, Cooper, Sheehan, Connolly, Barry, Woods, Little, Joyce, Cavanagh,

Brogan, Ryan, Donaghy, Clarke, McDonnell, Freeman, kingston, Forde, Meehan,

Kerry - 9
Dublin - 8
Wexford - 5
Galway - 4
Armagh - 4
Cork - 3
W Meath - 3
Fermanagh - 3
Limerick - 2
Monaghan - 2
Tyrone - 1
Laois - 1

I heard over the weekend that Dromintee will be without all of the o'rourkes for good. not sure how reliable the fella who told me is but he's a dromintee man

I heard that the clans game was definitely still on tomorrow night? clans couldn't find an alternative date to play it so it will go ahead?

I was a big advocate of the 'Joe Kernan way' and always will be, but I'd have to say that the change has done Armagh the world of good. He knew not to wield the axe, and has reinvigorated some of the older players.

I'm not sure about that bandit. Armagh haven't met top quality opposition yet and some of the old guard are showing signs of wear and tear are they not? McGrane and Bellew have struggled at times and McNulty and McConville are more or less shelved. there's not much of 2002 left in this team

Stephen Kernan was one of a number of players coming out of those successful u21 sides who had the potential to make it at senior level.

For the following 2/3 years you would have a hard time seperating the likes of kernan, austin, loughran, swift, vernon, courtney, lavery, mackin and toal to name some of the potentials. It annonyed people that a similar level of potential from Stephen to the others merited constant national league and frequent championship appearances in that period when his performances at senior level did not merit them. The previously named players got much less opportunity to stake a claim and therefore develop into senior football.

The most annoying part came then when big joe felt that his previous potential merited championship inclusion in front of, not only those with similar potential, but also in front of players like paddy mc keever, marty o'rourke, etc. all of this before he had produced any sort of football for armagh.

thankfully now stephen has shown his worth throught the league and first two championship games and we, as armagh men, are all the better for it.

i believe he would have arrived at this point much earlier in his career had he not been fast tracked and and put in intolerably pressurised situations by his father before he was ready. he's in good form and lets hope the pressure of expectation does not dent that from now on.