The free fest in Celtic Park (Armagh v Derry)

Armaghtothebone · May 17, 2010, 10:04:58 PM

Agaist my better judgement I watched the " highlights" on RTE last night, and then listened to the sage views of Kieran Whelan and Anthony Tohill.
They and the smug presener(Des Cahill?) pontificated on how poor the game at Celtic park was, citing the number of stoppages as evidence.
When will we ever learn to differentiate between technical frees and physical frees?
I cant be bothered to watch the video and count but I'd hazard a guess that between 1/3 and 1/2 of the frees were for technical offences( illegal hand pass/ foul lift/ overcarrying).
Then on at least 3 occaisons when a quick free was taken the ref called back the play.hardly going to lead to an open and flowing game

Did someone in power at Croke Park look at the new rules in the league and think which ones would make the game more attractive to watch.....and then ditch them all?
Yesterdays game cried out for "the mark", but instead we got the bunch tackle.
You makes the rules ya gotta live with the consequences

Armaghgeddon · May 17, 2010, 10:21:03 PM

How many times were Armagh called back when they took a quick free? Whenever Derry did he let the game carry on.

tonesfirstandlast · May 17, 2010, 10:22:42 PM

Excellent Post. We seem to have administrators hell bent on making the game as difficult as possible to play. As a result, the players foul the ball more often which makes the game terrible to watch.
Even more important, the rules which make it more difficult to play the ball legally will result in less young players taking up the game, opting for the more simplistic games of rugby, soccer or hurling.

PS. this is my reply to the person who started thye thread!

jodyb · May 17, 2010, 10:23:24 PM

Quote from: Armaghgeddon on May 17, 2010, 10:21:03 PM
How many times were Armagh called back when they took a quick free? Whenever Derry did he let the game carry on.

Yeah that's why he called Wilkinson back and hopped the ball

..... He was shite for us at least as much for yous

Armaghgeddon · May 17, 2010, 10:27:18 PM

Quote from: jodyb on May 17, 2010, 10:23:24 PM
Quote from: Armaghgeddon on May 17, 2010, 10:21:03 PM
How many times were Armagh called back when they took a quick free? Whenever Derry did he let the game carry on.

Yeah that's why he called Wilkinson back and hopped the ball ..... He was shite for us at least as much for yous

He was indeed. Therefore we shouldnt really be concerned about the referee. Both teams had to endure shite refereeing, however it didnt really have an impact on what the result would have been.

Bogball XV · May 17, 2010, 11:39:23 PM

Quote from: Armaghgeddon on May 17, 2010, 10:27:18 PM
Quote from: jodyb on May 17, 2010, 10:23:24 PM
Quote from: Armaghgeddon on May 17, 2010, 10:21:03 PM
How many times were Armagh called back when they took a quick free? Whenever Derry did he let the game carry on.

Yeah that's why he called Wilkinson back and hopped the ball ..... He was shite for us at least as much for yous

He was indeed. Therefore we shouldnt really be concerned about the referee. Both teams had to endure shite refereeing, however it didnt really have an impact on what the result would have been.

i disagree, you got 2 or 3 very soft frees in the first half that if you'd not got would have left you with a bit of a mountain to climb. I should add that McDonnell took at least 2 of them brilliantly. The Bradley sending off was crucial and imo harsh, although I did see him throw a boot out petulantly before that (but missed by the ref), we could argue that the armagh goal came about with the help of a shove too, I also think there could have been a few armagh me lined for persistent fouling throughout the second half, you'll counter that the penalty was soft, and you should have had one too - i'd agree he missed giving you one, but Bradley was taken for the penalty imo.
Whilst that may seem like sour grapes and probably is, even with all that I acknowledge that Armagh were better because we were simply clueless. The referee did not help what was always going to be a bad game of football. Only if one team had been able to build up a bit of an early lead could that game have ever opened up, and that's a shame, wouldn't we rather be watching flowing games of football like Derry v Down in '94 rather than that absolute dross on display yesterday?

naka · May 18, 2010, 09:27:35 AM

Quote from: jodyb on May 17, 2010, 10:23:24 PM
Quote from: Armaghgeddon on May 17, 2010, 10:21:03 PM
How many times were Armagh called back when they took a quick free? Whenever Derry did he let the game carry on.

Yeah that's why he called Wilkinson back and hopped the ball ..... He was shite for us at least as much for yous

i would tend to agree with you, he was poor for both teams, also at one stage in second half stevie fouled a derry defender and the ref was going to book him and then suddenly realised that stevei was on a yellow card

Armaghtothebone · May 18, 2010, 10:16:16 PM

Lads,
The whys and wherefores of a slim win for us are for another thread.
Only realosed that the Wicklow v Carlow game was a free fest as well.
the powers that be need to take a serious look at the rules, and I dont mean tinkering at the edges with the mar or square ball etc.

Case in point(and look at my username)
Owen Bradley was repeatedly fouled yesterday, I dont think even the most blinker Orchard fan could disagree with that, yet he got the line for 2 fouls neither of which were dirty or malicious or even sneaky.

The player has trained all year for this game , continually is subject to fouling and then gets sent of for 2 innocuous fouls.
That cant be right can it?