Messages

He's not what you would call a GAA "legend" but according to Miceal O Muireachtaigh Martin Ferris TD of Sinn Féin was a star player on Kerry u21 teams in the 70s and won probably have been part of the great Kerry sides of the 70s if he hadn't been "otherwise engaged with Republican activites" (Miceal's description, not mine!)

I'd hardly say dreaming. Its still unlikely but if the polls from todays Irish Times hold then 10% will see SF with 12 seats or so (even taking into account their difficulties with transfers). With the PDs on the verge of destruction, SF added to the independents will probably prevent either FF/ PDs or the rainbow gaining the taoiseach's office. In that situation its all up for grabs and myt gut instinct would be  (and I could be very wrong) that given a choice between opposition and government with SF, Bertie will take the same option as his good friend Doc Paisley.

Well we didn't plan on Granemore calling off the match because somebody died but we all have to put up with these things in life. I would assume that we plan to play all our matches and win as many as possible with the hope that we'll do win well enough to gain promotion and win the intermediate championship. But then even the best laid plans can go astray at times. Perhaps the powers that be at the club have a cunning scheme to outwit all our competitors into resigning from the league out of frustation at their inability to get Cullyhanna to play a match. I'm not on the committee anymore so I wouldn't know. I'm guessing they'll go with the first option for a while though.

The St Pat's Granemore match was called off.

A home game aganst a team with little to play for - should be a routine 3 points but it rarely is at this stage. I have a bad niggly feeling this could be very difficult. 2-1 united but it'll be far from comfortable.

Its ironic that a couple of weeks after retiring Armagh might need Tony McEntee more than they have in years.

Scrap the current model of league & championship and split the competing teams into three tiers. Provincial championships to remain but will have no bearing on All-Ireland standing and be played in February/March. 12 teams for tiers 1 & 2 with remainder in 3, split into two groups of 6, play each other once guaranteeing 5 games minimum. First three rounds played on consecutive weekends in April, remaining two in May after a three week break - top team in each section qualifies directly into the semi-final, 2nd and 3rd place teams play-off in a quarter final, bottom team in each section plays-off for relegation, all games played the next weekend after round 5. Semi-finals take place last week of June or first week of July with the final taking place the Sunday before the (southern) August Bank Holiday.

Fionn either great minds think alike or you're a robbing hoor!

Brewster's kick in injury time in the 04 q/final to have gone wide. Pretty sure we would have won the replay convincingly and won the All Ireland that year. 2004 was the real one that got away. We could have won it in 99, 00, 05 and even 01 but 04 was the year I really think we were the best county but couldn't get the job done. But sure them's the breaks.

Its an added bit of hassle ticket wise but hopefully the poeple that were at the league matches should be ok. I can see where both countys are coming from on this one. Thought Brenfi Park might have been a decent compromise - bigger capacity but it isn't effectively Armagh's "home" ground. Add it a proviso that any replay would be in Ballybofey and I would have thought it was a iiar enough compromise. Still the decisions made so its off to Donegal.

It pretty much impossible to give a real assessment of whose likely to wint he All Ireland since so few have seen all the contenders in action. All I would say is that, since we were discussing size, the Armagh lads certainly won't fall down on this score. They were noticeable bigger and stronger than their Derry counterparts last week. Hopefully this will stand them in good stead.

To be honest I think the bookies have it about right. The top 2 teams in the betting are the 2 sides best equipped to win an All Ireland, in my opinion. Hard to see any team beating both of them to win an All Ireland although of course they mightn't have to. I'd accept that it looks as though Armagh's best days might be behind them, I'd still be hopeful there might be a last sting in the tale if our injury list gets smaller and soem of the u21s adapt well to championship football quickly.

I'll never know how he didn't win a free near the end, when we got our last point, it is routine to complain about the ref, but sometimes you wonder!

Didn't have a good view of that incident but in fairness the ref gave us a free in the second half when the Armagh man caught the ball and was knocked over by Stevie McDonnell! And we put the free over.

Aye that's Armagh in division 2 with the exact same record as we had last year. We ended up the best team in ulster in 06 so hopefully it'll be the same this year.

We were fortunate enough to win by 4 points. Dodgy Westmeath goalkeeping handed Stevie his second goal. To be honest we were lucky enough to get out of Cross with the win at all (as we were in the other 2 victorys). We should have had Westmeath dead and buried int he first half after missing 2 or 3 gilt edged goal chances in the first half but going on only 3 down at the break, Westmeath rallied and some excellent scores from Dessie Dolan could have inspired them to victory.

Again we're over reliant on Stevie, think he musta scored at least 2-3 today. Great to Marsden back to something approaching his best, if he can keep improving over the next month he'll be a real asset come Donegal. Lavery did some fine fielding at midfield before being taken off and Aaron Kernan had a good game, scored a mgnificent point int he first half and got a crucial late score.

Loughran was poor at full forward. Untill Clarke comes back, this will likely be Armagh's problem position. Oisin scored a great point within a minute of coming on but was quite int he second half although this probably had more to do with the lack of ball coming in. Thought we were very pedestrian for long periods of the second half and were lucky to get away with it. Still a lot of improvement needed before Donegal. Loughran and McKeever especially were very poor today and I really doubt if bringing Stephen Kernan on will be the answer. Still if we can get C McKeever and Andy Mallon back for DOnegal that should tighten up the backs rightly and hopefully Stevie, Diarmaid and Oisin can produce the scores between them. Anybody got any idea of the chances of Brian Mallon and Ronan Clarke seeing much c'ship action? I know Ronan said int he Gaelic Life he was aiming for the Donegal match and I'd thought his was the more serious injury of the two?

Any word on the venue for the final yet?

Thought we were quie decent on Wednesday night, certainly deserved the victory. To be honest, I think we were simply much too physically dominant compared to Derry, a lot of big strong lads on the team. A lot of the better players in the side didn't even play particularly well so hopefully if they play to their potential we should have a bit to go in the competition yet.

Tough game to call on Sunday although i think we'll win but will probably still need Derry to do us a favour as I can't see a 6 point victory. I'd agree that CHF should suit Marsden a bit better although he has seemed well off the pace so far in his league appearances, hopefully Sunday will see an improvement. Would agree with BC's analysis on the goalkeeper situation. I'd say its pretty much a 50/50 call as to who'll make the starting team come championship team. Would slightly favour McKinney myself.

Francie's return should tighten up the defence after last Saturday's debacle. Whatever else about him, he's a tight marker and that's exactly what we missed in Laois. I'm not convinced at all by Moriarty though.

The problem is getting the scores in the absence of mallon, Clarke and mcConville. Hopefully Paddy mcKeever can show a bit of improvement from last Saturday. It'll probably be although cause of relying on Stevie to get us over the line though.

Armagh by a couple of points.