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How did Loughmacrory do last year at u 17 level. I see they are in the grade 2 at minor level this year

They would have been one of the stronger teams, just behind Donaghmore. I have heard that their better minors have been told to concentrate on Senior football and won't be playing minor.
Maybe one of the down sides of running u16's early and u18's at the tail end.

A lot of clubs taking this approach apparently:
Loughmacory with Donaghy and McElholm, Ardboe with Devlin, Donaghmore with Grimes, Hughes and Clarke, Omagh with Daly and Haigney, Fintona with Donnelly. All not playing minors to focus on Senior.
The problem is, if for example Loughmacory, dropping to division 2 might be fine missing those players. But when seniors finish and minor potentially still going at the knockout stage do those players then rejoin and create massively one sided games.

That is poor form the lads should be a minor first and senior player second. 

any single tickets going folks?

county board office open to 330pm with limited number of tickets said on their facebook page.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/07/12/darragh-o-se-anything-can-happen-in-an-all-ireland-semi-final-but-i-dont-see-derry-or-monaghan-winning/
Kerry will just want to stick with their kicking game, same as they did against Tyrone. They will get chances, through David Clifford and Seánie O'Shea obviously, but they also got some good return from the bench the last day as well, through the likes of Tony Brosnan and Stephen O'Brien.

Do Derry have a kicking game?

Yes - Odhrán Lynch always kicks the ball out - never fails.

This could be a game where Lynch is exposed think hes a poor keeper, his contribution out the field has improved but think Derry to win AI with him in goals.  Is there any potential competition coming forward for Derry seem be badly short in this area. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-66167757

#culture

Early mentions of Malachy O'Rourke to replace Graham. Whatever you think of him as a candidate, it's hard to imagine he won't be in the county board's thoughts.

Would be a great appointment. 

Would limiting access to the pitch help a bit? It's not something I'd take lightly as I think it's great to see the kids on the pitch at HT and FT but in other sports, once someone accesses the pitch there's usually stewards after them whereas in GAA nobody would bat an eyelid until it might be too late?

Would agree with this. Was nervous at the end of a few intercounty matches this season, most seemed to end with a pitch invasion. Feel like it's an accident waiting to happen

Yeah I agree.  An accident  waiting to happen .  And I can't imagine all  players  are happy with these  post match invasions

I  remember watching  a game  involving Armagh in  the league.  Think it might have been   the late defeat to  Galway. Anyway,  when the whistle went ,  youngsters streamed onto the pitch , one lad  ran  up to  jarlath og burns , and stuck a  camera in his face.  No harm to the lad , but jarlath had to stand there  seconds after  gutting defeat and  put on his best face  for a selfie.  It's hardly appropriate

Let the teams do their warm down , get into their  huddle. Stick  a track top in them at least , then any youngsters  who stay behind ,  can have a  selfie/autograph  when the players have regained their thoughts somewhat and it can be done in a  safe and controlled manner

+1. 

Heard stories of county goalkeepers getting dogs abuse for not giving his gloves to children from parents after a game. 

Malachy O'Rourke or McGuinness etc would have their eyes on a much bigger prize than a small limited county like Armagh with no real AI pedigree.

(I don't think McGuinness will manage again in GAA FWIW)

They'd be targeting teams with in the top 4 consistently over the last 20 years.

Is that right Mal/Jim?

So the Derry job for example would not interest MOR? Knows the club scene worked with some of their players and had success with them.  Derry minors in 7 of last 9 ulster finals, but 1 AI so that wouldn't be a job any manager would be interested in. 

Monaghan were no world beaters or in your words had no pedigree when he took over there either. 

Looks like £50-55 mil will get Onana.

That is the £120 mil budget essentially used up.

Reckon united should be clearing at least 80m in sales this year if not more, although we are notoriously shite at selling players!

Potentially up for sale are Henderson, Fred, Elanga, Maguire, Telles maybe McTominay too.

I would throw Martial and Sancho in there but on their wages they will be very hard to shift.

If we get rid of 3 or 4 of them, coupled with the saving in wages, that should be enough to buy Hojlund

There is also the potential to loan Greenwood to Atalanta for a year and take on Hojlund on loan, with an option to buy in 12 months.

Gets Greenwood off our case and if he plays well someone might buy him in 12 months or by then we might be willing to take him back and hope he can cope with the pressure.

Although personally, I would rather not see him in a United shirt again.

Not a bad idea re greenwood if getting it tight with the FFP.  No doubt United will either overpay for Hojlund one way or the other or bring in a donkey who works hard and is a presence while all along paying for greenwoods wages.

On another subject (lets change focus)

i see Eglish u16s claimed the Grade2 league and championship double at a canter last nite
how was this allowed to happen..its a disgrace that a team that won the Ulster Og Sport u15 last year were allowed to drop into grade 2 and a bigger disappointment that the Eglish club allowed/wanted it to happen

Donaghmore dropping into Grade2 u14s is another example

they did it at minor a few years ago also

,

Surely the CCC need to stop this sort of stuff happening

These types of things will be to the clubs detriment in the long run when they have to go to the well to win tight games won't always be like that for them

If Geezer goes, who would actually want the gig, when likely 4-5 senior players will hang boots up too?

Tony Mac
Oisin
Jim McCory
AOR
Jim McGuinness
Malachy O'Rourke

Three of those mentioned are already in jobs and would be unavailable for next season. I wouldn't want Jim McGuinness, we want to move away from negative, defensive football and he was the initial instigator of what we call modern gaelic football. Jim McCorry was a good coach but his time has probably passed at county level now. I'd still rather give it to an Armagh man though.

I think the best option is to give Geezer another year and look at making a change in 12 months time. I believe he has another year left on his contract anyway unless he decided to walk.  I'd rather have one last go at it with the current side and set up but the bigger issue is trying to sort out the underage set ups for next season and starting at the bottom, otherwise we will fall further behind when the older players move on.

Looking back to St Ronans winning the Hogan in 2018, the last real success story of underage football in armagh,  only 1 player made it through to date (Tiarnan Kelly) into the Armagh setup.  5 of the starting team are from Antrim 2 of which are involved with antrim (luke mulholland, Adam Loughran).  Strange that they never got more through from watching club football none of them have really kicked on to be county level players though they are still relatively young. 

The westport team they beat in final had rory brickenden, jack carney, mark moran and eoin mclaughlin who have all played for Mayo.

I think we got more from the previous st ronans team. Turbo. McCambridge. Ryan Owen.

Owens has had awful run with injuries and size would be against him at county level.  He would be older than other 2 lads by a year I think.  Turbitt and McCambridge team were beat the year previous by a Rian O'Neill inspired St Colmans in Athletic Grounds in Macrory semi after winning the mccormick cup.

How many have we had through from St Pats recently?

The sideline eye said used 42 players this year across mckenna cup, league and championship I make it the following ex st pats: Murnin, Duffy, McElroy, Kieran, McPartlan with Murnin being nearly 15 years ago.  No surprise they haven't made a macrory final since 2000. 

If Geezer goes, who would actually want the gig, when likely 4-5 senior players will hang boots up too?

Tony Mac
Oisin
Jim McCory
AOR
Jim McGuinness
Malachy O'Rourke

Three of those mentioned are already in jobs and would be unavailable for next season. I wouldn't want Jim McGuinness, we want to move away from negative, defensive football and he was the initial instigator of what we call modern gaelic football. Jim McCorry was a good coach but his time has probably passed at county level now. I'd still rather give it to an Armagh man though.

I think the best option is to give Geezer another year and look at making a change in 12 months time. I believe he has another year left on his contract anyway unless he decided to walk.  I'd rather have one last go at it with the current side and set up but the bigger issue is trying to sort out the underage set ups for next season and starting at the bottom, otherwise we will fall further behind when the older players move on.

Looking back to St Ronans winning the Hogan in 2018, the last real success story of underage football in armagh,  only 1 player made it through to date (Tiarnan Kelly) into the Armagh setup.  5 of the starting team are from Antrim 2 of which are involved with antrim (luke mulholland, Adam Loughran).  Strange that they never got more through from watching club football none of them have really kicked on to be county level players though they are still relatively young. 

The westport team they beat in final had rory brickenden, jack carney, mark moran and eoin mclaughlin who have all played for Mayo.

I think we got more from the previous st ronans team. Turbo. McCambridge. Ryan Owen.

Owens has had awful run with injuries and size would be against him at county level.  He would be older than other 2 lads by a year I think.  Turbitt and McCambridge team were beat the year previous by a Rian O'Neill inspired St Colmans in Athletic Grounds in Macrory semi after winning the mccormick cup.

If Geezer goes, who would actually want the gig, when likely 4-5 senior players will hang boots up too?

Tony Mac
Oisin
Jim McCory
AOR
Jim McGuinness
Malachy O'Rourke

Three of those mentioned are already in jobs and would be unavailable for next season. I wouldn't want Jim McGuinness, we want to move away from negative, defensive football and he was the initial instigator of what we call modern gaelic football. Jim McCorry was a good coach but his time has probably passed at county level now. I'd still rather give it to an Armagh man though.

I think the best option is to give Geezer another year and look at making a change in 12 months time. I believe he has another year left on his contract anyway unless he decided to walk.  I'd rather have one last go at it with the current side and set up but the bigger issue is trying to sort out the underage set ups for next season and starting at the bottom, otherwise we will fall further behind when the older players move on.

Looking back to St Ronans winning the Hogan in 2018, the last real success story of underage football in armagh,  only 1 player made it through to date (Tiarnan Kelly) into the Armagh setup.  5 of the starting team are from Antrim 2 of which are involved with antrim (luke mulholland, Adam Loughran).  Strange that they never got more through from watching club football none of them have really kicked on to be county level players though they are still relatively young. 

The westport team they beat in final had rory brickenden, jack carney, mark moran and eoin mclaughlin who have all played for Mayo. 

Some positive notes around the Onana deal, player appears to be keen and the clubs don't seem to be too far apart money wise when add ons included.

This does ramp up the need then to speed up the exit of some of the fringe players, if they are to land a striker of any description in this window.

I can't believe they don't seem to be making much progress with a striker especially as the best striker Russo has left the club. 

On a serious note, if Mason Mount is getting £300k a week as has been quoted then united clearly haven't learnt anything in relation to transfer business in the recent past. 

Do Armagh persist with the Rafferty experiment? Bar a fluky goal v Galway in league, has been been a success this year?

Would a "real" goalkeeper have given us a better change in the 3 pen shootouts?

Would he not be an option at FF? Great hands and left peg

Blaine Hughes while a very capable goalkeeper at club level, I think lacks the height/presence to be top level intercounty goalkeeper and stepped away after the Rafferty experiment.  The no2 goalkeeper currently Shea Magill would not inspire me with confidence.  I don't see why not at this stage as there is no glaring alternative. 

Niall Morgan plays outfield for Edendork as far as I am aware plays similar role for Tyrone but this never gets mentioned.  I presume this is because Rafferty actually played outfield at intercounty level.  Shane Ryan think did the same.

I am on the fence with what happens next. 

McGeeney has got basically every player who should be on the panel there and buying into the thing.  Theres probably only a year or 2 left in the 09 minor team on the panel grugan murnin(who had a brilliant year)morgan and soupy and a change of management may make them consider their inter county future.  Armagh are always competitive in any game they play. 

You often hear the phrase win or learn, my concern would be that we learnt nothing from the Derry game as the game on Saturday ended up in the same scenario with Armagh playing passively when they had the extra man in extra time.  Armagh are a front foot team and played into Monaghan's hands the way they approached the game on Saturday.  I thought Croke Park would suit Armagh and saw in league game a few years ago against Dublin when moved the ball quickly by foot they were a joy to watch.  The under usage of Cian McConville who has been probably best club forward in Armagh over the past few seasons is also a strange one. 

If a better option became available then a change may be good but sometimes you need to be careful for what you wish for.