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I think the posting by Oakleaf County should be removed immediately as it is deeply offensive to our Travelling Community and to avoid possible litegation

Excert from today's Irish Examiner
When asked what kind of relationship he had with the Donegal manager and his backroom team and would there be any banter between them Horan responded: "I wouldn't think so, no. Although maybe we've more banter with other teams, that might be a better way to say it. Look it, Jim McGuinness and Rory Gallagher on the sideline, they do their thing. When I'm on the sideline, I just focus on. What can I do to help the team that's on the field. That's all I do. I try and stay as composed as I can."

It was suggested the body language between the managers was cold and Horan said: "Maybe show me a team that has good body language towards Mr McGuinness on the sideline! Maybe that's a better question!"

When will details of the replay be announced?

Still no word ??

The date, time and venue of the replay will be decided by the CCCC on Tuesday 20 March 2012.

I know that if a player is sent off for a second yellow card in a club game for the second time within 48 weeks he is automatically suspended for 2 weeks but what would happen if he is sent off for a second yellow card offence 6 months after doing the two weeks?

[Paddy Doherty]

If Down have produced a better player than Paddy Doherty I have yet to see him.

A cube-shaped ball would be a good compromise.

Or even a Square Ball. 

[Fitzsimons Cup: Armagh overcome Cavan]

Anyone know how Armagh faired against Cavan today?

Fitzsimons Cup: Armagh overcome Cavan
23 October 2011

Armagh 3-11
Cavan 1-16

Armagh overcame the challenge of Cavan in the Fitszimons Cup, a senior intercounty football competition organised by the Gaeil Colmcille club, at a wet Pairc Tailteann.

Mickey Brennan put Cavan on the scoreboard first and after ten minutes the Breffni men led 0-4 to 0-0. Armagh's opening score was a well taken goal from half foward Sean Moore. The accurate free taking of Cavan full foward Ray Galligan and some fine scores from Brennan and Niall McDermott insured that the led at the break 0-9 to 1-4.

Galligan put more daylight between the sides when he flicked a Dane O'Dowd pass to the Armagh net to leave the score 1-9 to 1-4. But Armagh battled hard to get back into the game and a goal from Eugene McVerry left the minimum between the sides.Points from half backs Mark Shields, Aidan Forker and Michael Stevenson brought Armagh to within a point again 2-8 to 1-12. A second goal from McVerry had Paddy O'Rourke's men ahead 3-8 to 1-13 with ten minutes left. A Galligan free levelled the match 1-14 to 3-8. But Armagh finished the stronger and points from Brian Mallon and substitutes Paul Carville and Conor White put the Orchard County men into the final where they will met Meath.

Armagh: Ryan Magennis, David Lavery, Declan McKenna, Adrian Conlon, Mark Shields (0-1), Aidan Forker (0-1), Michael Stevenson (0-1), James Donnelly, James Lavery, Pauric Gribben, Brian Mallon (0-1), Sean Moore (1-1), Eugene McVerry (2-0), Stefan Forker(0-3), Stefan Campbell.
Subs: Sean Hughes, Ryan Rafferty, Paul Carvill (0-2), Conor White (0-1)

Cavan: Fintan Reilly, Oisin Minagh, Sean McCormack, Daragh Tighe, Barry Watters, Joey Jordan, Dane O'Dowd, Ray Cullivan, Declan McKiernan, Stephen Jordan, Declan Meehan, Michael Brennan (0-3), Niall McDermott (0-2), Ray Galligan (1-10), Conor McClarry (0-1).
Subs: Barry Tully and Kieran Galligan

Referee Joey Curley Meath

www.hoganstand.com

[KIERAN McGURK]

KIERAN McGURK
My good friend on the journey

By Brendan Tierney

Time seemed to stand still on Monday afternoon all around Armagh and Ulster as people became aware of the tragic and premature death of former Armagh footballer Kieran McGurk.
Former clubmate and Armagh manager Brian McAlinden summed the man up perfectly yesterday when he described him as "a colossal person and player".
Kieran's impact on everyone associated with Armagh, both at club and county level, was immeasurable.
I wouldn't pretend to know him any better than anyone else, but in the six or seven years I played with him, and in the time since his retirement, I have never heard anyone utter a negative or cynical comment about this popular and amiable character which, in today's society, is quite remarkable.
In my first training session with Armagh seniors, on a cold night in Ballymacnab in 1989, I remember changing in silence and, being just a raw 19-year-old, I was somewhat in awe of all the household names around me.
As was the case in those days, the first 10-to-15 minutes of every training session was taken up by the dreaded four-lap warm-up. I nestled quite easily at the back of the pack, which incidentally was the position I was to assume for most of my Armagh training sessions, I remember feeling out of place and isolated as the players, who all knew each other, chatted and joked freely.
Then I saw one break away from the group and join me at the back. He was instantly recognisable to me with his perfectly groomed moustache and mullet.
It was Kieran McGurk.
"Well young Tierney, don't be too embarrassed when I stick a few past you tonight," he said.
I watched him take it upon himself to welcome and babysit every new recruit or rookie on their first night of county duty for years to come in his unobtrusive and casual manner.
I christened him 'The Grinder', which was the nickname of Cliff Thorburn – a snooker star of that era – because he resemembled him so much and because he could control a ball with his sublime left foot as well as the Canadian world champion could do with a snooker cue.
Away trips to Kerry and Cork in those days were so much craic and fun and Kieran played his part in the socialising department with aplomb – he loved that aspect of being a county player as well which is frowned upon nowadays.
It was my ambition on those away trips to be accepted into the revered but dangerous, poker school with players (crooks), which always took place in either McGurk's room or Marty Toye's and consisted of Jim McConville, Martin McQuillan and Houli (Ger Houlihan), all men who knew how to bluff in more ways than one.
I was always reticent about playing poker with these men because, quite simply, I was a student and precious little dough.
However I was accepted unanimously along with the 20 punts which was also supposed to last me the whole weekend.
I think it took nearly three minutes before I was out of the game, bereft of my money which Jim McConville had pocketed, laughing a bit too heartily for my liking as he bade me farewell in my maiden, and all too brief, poker venture.
I went off to my room cursing my ill fortune and bad investment and was asleep long before Kieran, who I was rooming with, left the smoke-filled gambling den.
When I woke up the next morning I got dressed and started to prepare myself for the daunting task of playing in goal against Cork.
I was still smarting from my financial debacle the night before when I reached into my pocket and found two 10 punt notes.
Bemused, I asked Kieran if he knew anything about it and he just smiled and said he didn't know how they got there.
I knew where they had come from, as did he, but he wanted neither thanks or publicity – that was the measure of the man.
Don't get me wrong, he was no angel and he and Martin McQuillan formed an unholy alliance between north and south Armagh in practical joking and prank department.
I was the intended target on some of them, and others I aided and abetted.
One of the most memorable was when he and McQuillan replaced Jarlath Burns' hair gel with a new freeze gel which was supposed to be used for treating injuries.
The gel worked by first cooling down the injury only to gradually heat up to quite a level to help treat the required area.
Jarlath, who at that time was quite fond of other people's toiletries, took three liberal scoops and styled his considerable mane, only to have us rolling about the floor for the next 20 minutes as his scalp received third degree burns.
As a footballer, Kieran was an exceptional talent, not blessed with pace but an abundance of natural ability. He was also probably the best penalty taker I ever faced. He used to tell me it was his natural body swerve that confused goalkeepers but, to this day, I think he was only trying to confuse me more by saying that.
He was a physical, but fair, player. And while I wouldn't label him a hard man, you always felt a lot safer and more protected when he was in the vicinity.
He gave a lifetime's dedication to Armagh in an era when success did not come as frequently as it has in the last decade and was a huge influence in terms of his skill, leadership and positivity.
Three years after Kieran retired, Armagh won their first Ulster title in 17 years and he appeared in the changing rooms, more excited than any player that day, with two Clones stewards hanging off him.
They failed miserably and I suppose therein lay the humility of the man – even though he was no longer part of the set-up his unwavering loyalty and unbridled joy, when many could not even have faced going to the game in his situation, was obvious.
When us 'oul has-beens who represented the Orchard county meet and look back on days gone by we reminisce about player who were not as lucky as us and did not bet out of football what they put in.
Three names are consistently mentioned: Neil Smyth, Martin McQuillan and Kieran McGurk.
Liam Sheedy spoke recently at The Irish News Ulster Allstars. He said that, for a lot of county players, their careers are about the destination and not the journey.
Well, for me, looking back it was all about the journey and that journey was made all the better and more enjoyable for meeting Kieran McGurk, an absolute gentleman who influenced all who knew him.
To his wife Geraldine, daughter Ciara, son Ryan and extended family, and to the Highmoss Sarsfield's GAA club, I offer my sincerest condolences on the heartbreaking loss of Kieran who, as a footballer, gained huge recognition but, as a person, contributed so much more.
Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.

The Irish News
Wednesday September 28 2011 


http://www.armaghgaa.net/forum/

Is Darragh Maloney out of the picture now the the premiership is back?

Darragh Maloney was doing the radio commentary with Tony Considine.

Why is this not on the County section?

[Armagh must act now or face total decline]

Good article by Peter Mackem this week in the observer. Talks a lot of sense on the bigger thinking thats needed, rather than focusing solely on the manager.

What were the main points?

Armagh must act now or face total decline
By Peter Makem

There's a difference between the problem of Armagh senior football and the problem of the current management.
In an article two years ago and largely repeated this time last year, I proposed that whoever became the new Armagh senior manager was on a loser if totally fresh foundations were not laid beforehand. I proposed that the problem was bigger than any manager and we were fooling ourselves unless competent people within the county sat down and took long and serious stock of the situation to undo the decline that had set in since the demise of the All-Ireland team around 2004-2005. We needed to go back behind the starting line, create a whole new system, develop players in a new manner and push back the boundaries of the game even further.

I also pointed out in last year's article that if the above development was not undertaken, we would be no further on in twelve months time, nor in the year after nor the year following that and so on. In other words the decline would continue, and that we would end up where we were in the mid-nineties and indeed back to the mid-seventies. That's exactly where we are now.

The past few championships have seen the tide go out as far as it did in those days. But even then, it was only marginally a problem of a manager. As a general rule going away back into the sixties, the managers were competent people who knew their football, Paddy O'Hara, Jimmy Whan, Mal McEvoy and so on and there were plenty of good and very good players around. That was not the problem. There was nothing to manage. There was no structure or order of things, and it was a good night when five or six turned up for training at all – with the dressing room before a match full of strangers to each other.

By structure does not mean an assembly of training and weight "specialists", specialist coaches, psychologists, stats people, and so on. Armagh has all that now and is going nowhere. In fact every county in Ireland has such an array of staff but again, it makes no difference to the vast majority. All the psychology in the world, all the weights programming and huddles is useless if the player doesn't know what to do when he gets the ball, or where to take a pass. All the physical fitness in the world is useless in the long run if players have no system to perform in.

Structure is a basic simple thing and the approach to it will vary from county to county depending on how high they genuinely aim. To achieve a new structure in Armagh – as the old one is dead and gone – it means first of all clearing the decks totally of everybody involved including the players and management setup. Next, people of experience and thought in the county will sit down and work out how the game can be brought to a new level through a new system of play. They will then carefully select players of potential – some of whom are already on the panel – and fit these into an effective system of football where everybody knows their role and all it geared toward the maximum scoring facility. It will take five or six months from now to do this preparatory work involving setting up a system of individual training to bring the player toward a new level of physical and mental ability – but only after he knows his role in the grand design. The bringing in of a manger is part of this new structure and system, in other words, he is the pilot of the new ship that is built.

CANNOT HIDE BEHIND EXCUSES
But although there has been no development of the Armagh team under his management, Paddy O'Rourke is not the source of our ills. The problem is not managerial but structural. Paddy had limited success with Down and there was no evidence that he would have any more with Armagh, especially an Armagh with little momentum left. The mindset that made the appointment instead of concentrating on the creation of a whole new system and structure is the problem. Armagh were not facing up to the deep realities of what was wrong and instead threw the job at somebody and get that much off their backs. But that merely of course, merely deepened the problem.

The real issue at present is the very mindset that allows the current situation to continue. All the underage work – which is very substantial and well organised including the Minor achievements of recent years – disintegrates when things reach senior level because the very thing it aspires to, that is, the senior team, is a void, emptiness. There are good structures everywhere in Armagh except at the very place when they are most required for ultimate development. It's like a hypothetical system in education where children go to primary school into secondary, get their 'A' Levels or other qualifications but find the Third Level institutions like Queen's and Jordanstown no longer offer degrees.

Accordingly there is a real sense that O'Rourke is a scapegoat and a cover for deeper failures in Armagh to address the points I mention. The bottom line, and it seems to be obvious to everybody, is that the County Board simply cannot continue with present setup or dress it up in some other way as this is not facing up to the reality of the problem.

Decline sets in to very institution and it goes on and on unless deliberately stopped. This is why every so often, a totally new momentum has to be created, a new and original system thought out and the whole train set in fresh motion. To realistically aim for the Sam Maguire in the near future Armagh requires the creation of a team to do extensive groundwork as indicated in new ways of team building and training before even thinking of a manger. As things stand, it doesn't matter who we appoint as there is no system to manage. But under a new system, the appointment is critical.

What is happening is all wrong. Promising players throughout the League have just vanished from the scene, one after the other. Our talented midfielders have not progressed at all nor is there proper cover in this department. Younger players from the Minor grade have not appeared. The team keeps changing from game to game and Stephen McDonnell, lone survivor of 2002 and one of Armagh's three or four greatest footballers of all time, is still the central figure on the team. Nobody appears to know what anybody else is doing on the field and things change from game to game. This is all because a total halt was not called to the drift some years ago, and a totally new system introduced.

Talk of maintaining Division One status as a sign of progress is nonsense. Many of the teams in Division One because they can stay there without breaking sweat in a competition that in reality is a series of challenge games that confers no status at all. It is not like the English Premiership where the league is the championship for the GAA; the All-Ireland champions could have Division Two status. If Armagh's Division One status is a sign of progress why are we collapsing in the championship?

Nor can we hide behind the usual waffle that "the players are just not there." Only last year Armagh gave Donegal a bad beating at Crossmaglen, a Donegal side that contained twelve of the players who are now in the All-Ireland semi-final. I met Brian McEniff over month ago in Bundoran and he said that Donegal were now a very different proposition and was confident they would win in Ulster at least, that Jim McGuinness had restructured the whole scene, that Donegal went back behind to the drawing board an took stock as to what had been going wrong for the past nineteen years and moved in a new direction.

It's never a question of the talent available. It's what you do with the talent available and Armagh are drifting year by year toward disintegration at senior level – not because of lack of talent – but because of lack of organisation.

Tyrone had players as good in the past as now but they were never remotely as organised. Their system has remained unchanged for the past ten yeas and new players just fit into it. Kevin Heffernan won an All-Ireland with Dublin in 1974 in his first year as manager with a group of players who struggled earlier in the National League of that year. He created a system and moulded the talents available into a superb team where not six months previous people were saying that "the players were simply not there". From a superficial perspective it always appears that success comes because a group of talented players arrive on the scene at the same time and the logic of tis is that you have to wait on this to happen for success. All the evidence points to the opposite. Success comes through the intensity of organising the planning and in the case of teams who have no tradition; it involves creating a totally new system of play and approach.

Armagh did this to win the All-Ireland in 2002 – which was perfected by Tyrone to win their three All-Irelands – and adopted by every other successful team including Kerry and taken to a new intensity recently by Donegal.

The proof of this is the great innovation by Down in the late fifties, a county that had scant tradition at senior level and whose mentors in 1957 decided to stop waiting on the fates and take things into their own hands by working out how to create an All-Ireland winning team. They build the players available into an idea, into a totally innovate structure of training and teamwork so that it appeared in hindsight that Down were lucky that a group of exceptional players just happened to arrive at the one time. But the truth is that there was only a blank sheet in 1957 when the new structures were set up and not an All-Ireland winning player in sight. It was a supreme victory of organisation and innovation.

However, Down went into a slow decline as the sixties progressed culminating in a serious defeat by Cavan in the Ulster final of 1967. It was at this point that mentors decided to sit down and take stock and find out what had gone wrong and to end the drift. So they brought out the blank sheet again, took back the best of the old team of 60/61 merged with largely members of the Minor team of two years previous and began a fresh momentum with a new system of play to end the drift. The following year they won the National League and the Sam Maguire.

COUNTY BOARD NO CHOICE
This is a much darker hour for the Armagh senior team than we imagine. The truth is this, that the powers that be have no choice but to do something radical regarding the critical situation at present, and a patchwork job, which is always the temptation, will merely mock the present generation of up and coming footballers who want to represent us at the highest level of completion.

To repeat, Armagh will continue to drift at senior level, moving deeper and deeper into the fog of the bad old times unless we go back behind the starting line with a blank sheet and work out a totally new enterprise. There is absolutely no hope without this.

We did it twice before in the mid seventies and the mid nineties and we have a solemn duty to do it again for the dignity and pride of Armagh and for the thousands of supporters and the new generation of footballers who all long for a return to the glorious days.

INSPIRED
I am always inspired by the heroic figure of former chairman Tommy Lynch back in 1974 when single handily, lit Horatio on the bridge, he held Armagh together in their darkest hour, and initiated the revival of the county team in one of the great acts of leadership in the county's history.

Conversely, I always feel bad when I think of the Armagh team of 1961 whom I saw as a boy narrowly losing the Ulster final 2-10 to 1-10 to All-Ireland champions Down at Casement Park, and still cannot forget the lost potential of that outstanding group of footballers who had the class to be All-Ireland champions the following year instead of being allowed to slide into oblivion.

I remember giving a talk at the O'Fiaich Library a few years ago to a group that included many of this team. I had one question for them. What happened the following year? Why did they disintegrate whereas they should have been primed to win the 1962 All-Ireland which was there for the taking? No one was saying much, but the real reason I suggested was that they were allowed to disintegrate. No genuine effort was made to sit everybody down, take stock of what went wrong, work out deeply what was needed in the team and plan a new assault on the coming championships. I looked down the hall and saw Kevin Halfpenny, Jimmy Whan, Harry Loughran, Johnny McGeary, Harry Hoy, Felix McKnight and the others who formed that side, and one thought arrived that would not go away – "We let that generation down". I remember standing on the podium while a debate went on realising that the say was true of the Armagh senior players of the thirties and forties who did not win an Ulster title and were narrowly beaten by Cavan or Monaghan time and time again. The county let them down as well. A good measure of justice was done to the footballers of the early fifties with two Ulster's and an All-Ireland appearance and efforts made to develop the minors of '49. But the 1953 side quickly disintegrated and apart from the single promise of 1961, several generations of footballers were allowed to drift into oblivion, into a barren age that lasted a quarter of a century until the mid seventies.

So as a new generation of Armagh players begin to knock at the door of destiny, I hope that we will be true to them and that somebody down the years ahead will not sit down and lift their pen to write – "We let that generation down".

Taken from www.armaghgaa.net

Who has replaced Billy Joe Padden in the Mayo team now that he is lining out for Armagh?

Darren Hughes aside, it's basically the same inexperienced Monaghan team that started against Galway.
But Hughes coming in, importantly frees up Dessie Mone to go in at CHB.
Armagh have to be warm favourites to win.

Is there any better radio coverage than the Cavan infested Northern Sound?

Radio Ulster 1341MW

[GPA/GAA deal ratified by Central Council]

GPA/GAA deal ratified by Central Council
The €8.5m, five-year deal between the GAA and the Gaelic Players Association was ratified unanimously by Central Council on Saturday.
The deal was expected to pass, although the fact that it got through without any opposition will come as a surprise to many.
Reports emerged during the week suggested that several Ulster counties were expected to vote against the deal, but fears of the issue driving a wedge between north and south appear to have been unfounded.
The deal will now see the GAA provide €8.5m in funding to the players' representative body over the next five years, equating to a maximum of €2m per annum.

www.hoganstand.com

Surely this cannot be true as it is my understanding that some counties had mad-dated their delegate to vote against this proposal?

People pay to go to U-13 games?

This has to be a misprint surely.
No wonder it has been so long since Cavan won an Ulster title.