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Handy win for Monaghan tomorrow?

If Cavan are as poor as they finished the league it will be handy win for Monaghan. However this is championship playing the neighbours and live on BBC and RTE if no kick and competitive showing from Cavan it will speak volumes about them.

Cavan were pretty bad in the league but still were hard to beat. Meath for example should have had them beat out the gate by half time in Breffni but by the 60th minute Cavan were ahead.
Monaghan are brittle and low on confidence, plus they are missing their big attacking threats.

Best value bet is Monaghan ahead at HT but Cavan by a couple at the end.

I hope you go ahead and put a shít load of money on that one.
Anyway that's enough talk about other teams in Ulster, let's get back to chat about the AI Final Derry ('the second coming') V the Dubs

€30 at 17/2 worked out nicely. It was always going to happen

Handy win for Monaghan tomorrow?

If Cavan are as poor as they finished the league it will be handy win for Monaghan. However this is championship playing the neighbours and live on BBC and RTE if no kick and competitive showing from Cavan it will speak volumes about them.

Cavan were pretty bad in the league but still were hard to beat. Meath for example should have had them beat out the gate by half time in Breffni but by the 60th minute Cavan were ahead.
Monaghan are brittle and low on confidence, plus they are missing their big attacking threats.

Best value bet is Monaghan ahead at HT but Cavan by a couple at the end.

Beggan can have some dodgy moments as a keeper, but then there are times he does things on a pitch that look near-impossble. He is an iconic figure in the game.

Rian O'Neill isn't very consistent. He has as many bad games as he has good ones for an elite player. I accept he has a high ceiling but you don't see it often.

Great highlights reel, relatively little impact on big games

RTE as usual presented Crossmaglen as a stellar outfit before the game and in the commentary. lazy thinking based on the jersey colour not the current team.
They were less than dominant in a weak Armagh championship this year, were whipped by Ballybay this time last year, who themselves went no further in '22 and barely avoided relegation this year. Trillick on the other hand saw off a few strong teams in Tyrone including Errigal Ciaran in their own final.
 They were always going to beat a very ordinary Cross team. The well earned mythological status of Crossmaglen teams is over.

O Hanlon definitely lifted it off the ground. Monaghan lost due to running out of steam with 10 to go while Dublin were bringing on top class players as subs. Tough to take but zero to do with the ref.

Ball was off the ground.

Absolutely changed the game in a game so tight.

It was really tight but i think he did catch it on a (small) bounce. I blame the player more for not putting his toe behind it just to remove the doubt but it was a massive call for the ref to give at that time. Dublin scored the free and pushed on.

As a referee doing a lot of underage games I insist 100% on striking the handpass, toe under the ball, steps rule. The basics. Managers, parents and players absolutely hate it and shout for leniency on the details all the time. The call against O'Hanlon was a good reminder why we need to keep young lads focussed on these things.
Remove any doubt. 

.Mohan one, yes he had eyes on the ball, and initially couldn't understand the free, but on review, took the head of a Sub going for the ball, unsighted or not, so I call that a free. McManus one was obviously a free. As Fitzsimmons came into his back, didn't matter if McManus slowed down or not.

James McCarthy did the very same against Mayo on the 2nd half throw in. Result? Point for Dublin.

Who have Monaghan beaten to get to the AI semi final Clare in group stage Kildare &  Armagh on pens  they've beaten no one to get there

They can only beat what is in front of them but will get shown up next week for the average team that they are.

28 other teams would love to be as average as Monaghan right now

Monaghan got their first dose of reality today. A bigger dose of it on the way next week.

Who have Monaghan beaten to get to the AI semi final Clare in group stage Kildare &  Armagh on pens  they've beaten no one to get there

They can only beat what is in front of them but will get shown up next week for the average team that they are.

Get your popcorn

Bottom line is Armagh's fear of losing this year has been greater than their composure  to win. Should have won Ulster, should have beaten Monaghan. Can learn from these last two years though and are next in line for an Ulster title.

Are they really?

I honestly believe so. They really aren't far away.

Don't agree. They are miles off. I don't get this narrative about Armagh! Monaghan should have wrapped up the QF in normal time given the amount of chances they missed.
On what basis is the Armagh forward line so highly rated?

[Or do they say, f**k it, let's go out and die with our boots on and unlock the chains?]

It will be a difficult approach I feel, tactically do Derry stick with cautious defensive early approach and take advantages of counter attacking Kerry?

Or do they say, f**k it, let's go out and die with our boots on and unlock the chains?

Jesus no!!! We can't do that we'll get crucified like Tyrone did.

We have to play our usual game in defence (which was superb at the weekend bar the goal). I'm just hoping we've been keeping some offensive moves and formations to keep Kerry on their toes but we'll still play our ultra conservative game.

I thought Tyrone were defensive

Tyrone weren't defensive, and haven't been all year. Their intensity in tackling has been poor in 2023. The reason  people gave them a chance v Kerry was due to their attack. Think for yourself and don't let the lazy SG  analysis cloud your judgment!
Derryvon the other hand...

This game was a carbon copy of the Ulster final. Eeerily similar. Same style of play from us and the opponent, same black card incident, penalties and same outcome. I don't think it's a coincidence or bad luck that we've found ourselves in two penalty situations this year, and one last year. We haven't been able to finish the job in normal time. I've found the lack of goals very frustrating. We created goal chances on Saturday but again couldn't take one. Monaghan didn't create any, unless you count the one half chance that blazed over the bar. In these kinds of matches, we take one of those chances and it's probably enough to get the win. We just are lacking that level of certainty and decision making in front of goal. It shows itself in the option to take a fisted point rather than throw a dummy and side step the keeper. We see it too when the ball is laid off to another forward who inevitably gets smothered by the keeper and gets blocked, or has to take the fisted point. It's hurt us badly this year and last. I haven't heard this mentioned much in all the post match analysis this year and last. The area that the Sunday game focused on, and all the podcasts will too probably, is the sitting deep tactic. We just don't do it very well. Sitting deep is fine in itself if it leads to turnovers and counters. But looking at the Derry and Monaghan games, we got very few turnovers, and of the ones we do, we tend not to translate them into counters that lead to scores because we can't counter quickly enough or have an out ball for us up the pitch. We don't get turnovers because we sit off too much. In the games I've been at this year, Derry, Westmeath and Monaghan all had the time to pretty much do what they pleased with their possession building out from the back and when getting into our half. If they wanted to keep the ball for 2, 3.4 minutes and then decide to take a shot, they could, and we were relying on them kicking it wide by that stage. Sitting deep keeps out the goals, but it doesn't prevent the other side kicking points. It's a tactic that's not working for us as we've been beaten (Derry/Monaghan) or been very close to losing (Westmeath). Gaelic football is about intensity and passion or as it used to be called, getting stuck in. Standing off isn't an option. Looking at Kerry against Tyrone, they sat deep, but they made bloody sure they were breathing down their necks, getting a hand or foot in to get the ball away and making life very uncomfortable for the Tyrone forwards who were playing with their back to goal and not able to get turned. Contrast that to us sitting, 2 or more yards off and letting them play in front of us. The other thing I thought hurt us badly against Monaghan was just not enough movement from our forwards when we were trying to break them down. There were times when we needed somebody to break away from their marker and try a run in behind into space for a quick ball over the top of the defender. It just wasn't happening enough.

All in all a very frustrating feel to the season and a sense that we've let key matches slip through our fingers. A lot of unknowns now looking forward to next year. Unfortunately unless you're a Kerry or Dublin most seasons end in pain for their supporters. Our's is at the higher end of the pain spectrum because of the nature of the defeats and the feeling that there is an Ulster in this team. I don't think Derry and Monaghan are particularly great (in terms of AI potential) or any better than us, and the semi finals will be as far as they can go. But the nagging feeling will be that we could and should have beaten both of them this year.

The simple fact is that Armagh's 'great forward line' is bit of a media creation. Campbell- flashes of class but goes walkabout when the chips are down. Murnin- a bit too nice. Jemar Hall and Jason Duffy won't trouble the scoreboard. Rian O'Neill- 1 point from play the last day. Tubritt- anonymous when man marked. Grugan, a bit like Murnin good footballer but will he really win you the big games? These are all good mid-range players but no superstars among them. That's the truth of it.
 

Some dive by McManus at the end, but once again, Armagh stupid fouling haunts them again,

Jarly Og Burns- Dive for a pointed free
Aidan Forker- Dive for a pointed free
Stefan Campbell- Dive for a black card
Conor McManus- knows the drill

Just saw mcgeeney interview, thought he was going to cry.
Some bit if yapping.

Plain and simple, Armagh are not good enough.
Mcgeeney isn't good enough.
Players don't have the strength of character to hold the nerve in a penalty shoot out. Couldn't even beat a derry team that lost their manager a few days before an Ulster final.

I don't buy this talk about them having better players than they show.
Forker is a top player, after that nobody you could rely on.
As for Rian, Armagh played better without him in their last game. He gets 1 point from play at the end of extra time yesterday, good point it was but you need more from a supposed star.

100% agree
Who are these supposed great Armagh forwards? And why didn't they hit a few penalties?

Joe McQuillan playing with Derry here...