Armagh management :Paddy O'Rourke!!!

[lynchbhoy]

wonder how armagh will get on next year without Francie at full back !

[armagh leg-end]

wonder how armagh will get on next year without Francie at full back !

he wasnt their this year and one of the best men we had playing was brenden donaghy at full back so i'd say we can cope without francie.

[DuffleKing]

I don't see why you are criticising the players in this instance. They are doing what sensible poster on here have been doing for weeks – calling stop, asking what the feck is going on and how can Armagh get the best man for the job in place – be he grimley or someone else. Only difference between us and them is they carry enough clout to be listened to. The argument about who's players now, yesterday or tomorrow is pedantic and a smokescreen. It's a badly thought through excuse by someone clutching at straws to find a reason why the players shouldn't have a voice.

As for revamping the squad getting rid of hangers on, that is a ridiculous statement. You cannot appoint a manager and then say "by the way, the first thing you have to do is...." You appoint a manager who is capable of doing the job. He has to be trusted to make judgement calls from the outset or he shouldn't be there. Certainly, how can we know who are the best players and support staff for the county from this distance? Those are decisions for people at the coal face.

Interesting that you feel qualified to criticise Paul McGrane because of your own idle speculation that he disbanded the selection committee because he couldn't get his own way, yet defend the county board because you "suppose" they "paniced". Understandable logic there all right. McGrane has no authority to disband the subcommittee – he is only a constituent member and this must be done by the chair with the support of the majority. But you work away with your assumptions and your supposes.

Who indeed would want to deal with this rabble.

The sooner the county executive are removed and the county can put professional people in place to run football in Armagh the better.

Good post - though I don't think the players going public was a help - they should have kept their views known to the CB and committee and out of the papers to be honest - at least for the time being.

Players had already gone through that process and got nowhere.

County board deliberately defaulted on the agreement they had in place with Grimley, knowing he'd throw the head up

Players should have kept out of the media.

The County board never defauted (this year) on any agreement.

Yes they did...

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

There is no professional  GAA county board in Ireland. County boards have a max of one full time posistion. The rest are volunteers.

Agree with this. Been away for the last week and only catching up on events. It was depressing before I went. Sinking to new lows now.

I don't know much about the County Board. What is it they're doing that is causing the outcry. And if they all resigned today, are there better people to replace them?

Not sure who will get the managers job, but based on the fact there is no obvious candidates within the county, then I would like it to go to someone from within the County who understands the football structures and has proven ability at some level and is hungry for the role.

Please God, not Houlie and Oisin. Donal Murtagh, Justin, Aiden O'Rourke etc. Names that have actually managed at a high enough level.

Whoever gets it if they don't get full support  from CB, clubs, players and supporters, then we may keep this thread open for this time next year

To be fair Donal Murtagh's record isn't dissiminilar to Big Joe's before he took the job. I'd be happy enough at this stage if he got the post.

[Logan]

I don't see why you are criticising the players in this instance. They are doing what sensible poster on here have been doing for weeks – calling stop, asking what the feck is going on and how can Armagh get the best man for the job in place – be he grimley or someone else. Only difference between us and them is they carry enough clout to be listened to. The argument about who's players now, yesterday or tomorrow is pedantic and a smokescreen. It's a badly thought through excuse by someone clutching at straws to find a reason why the players shouldn't have a voice.

As for revamping the squad getting rid of hangers on, that is a ridiculous statement. You cannot appoint a manager and then say "by the way, the first thing you have to do is...." You appoint a manager who is capable of doing the job. He has to be trusted to make judgement calls from the outset or he shouldn't be there. Certainly, how can we know who are the best players and support staff for the county from this distance? Those are decisions for people at the coal face.

Interesting that you feel qualified to criticise Paul McGrane because of your own idle speculation that he disbanded the selection committee because he couldn't get his own way, yet defend the county board because you "suppose" they "paniced". Understandable logic there all right. McGrane has no authority to disband the subcommittee – he is only a constituent member and this must be done by the chair with the support of the majority. But you work away with your assumptions and your supposes.

Who indeed would want to deal with this rabble.

The sooner the county executive are removed and the county can put professional people in place to run football in Armagh the better.

Good post - though I don't think the players going public was a help - they should have kept their views known to the CB and committee and out of the papers to be honest - at least for the time being.

Players had already gone through that process and got nowhere.

County board deliberately defaulted on the agreement they had in place with Grimley, knowing he'd throw the head up

Players should have kept out of the media.

The County board never defauted (this year) on any agreement.

Yes they did...

No ... not the CB

Get your facts right before you go making accusations

[DuffleKing]

Yip, they did.

got my facts perfectly thanks...

[Logan]

Then it'll be no trouble for you to explain and back them up if they're supposed to be true ...

[Logan]

Armagh board set to engage with players

Gaelic Games
By Kenny Archer
12/09/09
ARMAGH County Board officials will meet with player representatives on Monday evening prior to a full county committee meeting concerning the vacant senior football manager's job.

This year's panel met in the Armagh City Hotel on Thursday night and issued a hard-hitting statement that was exclusively revealed by The Irish News yesterday. In it, the players spoke of "growing disillusionment" with the search for a successor to Peter McDonnell and criticised the "flawed process" and "personal agendas" that they felt had "overlooked" the desire of most clubs and players to appoint "a primary candidate to whom the players remain supportive."

Although he was not named, that was clearly a reference to Paul Grimley. However, the Pearse Og clubman, who had been assistant to McDonnell's predecessor Joe Kernan and then to Kieran McGeeney in Kildare for the past two seasons, will not be the new Armagh boss.

As revealed by The Irish News on Thursday, Armagh officials did have hopes of persuading Grimley to change his mind – and some senior players met him – but those hopes were dashed by Grimley, who said he will honour his agreement to become assistant manager of Monaghan.

Apart from the players' gathering, a meeting of the county management committee was also held on Thursday night at which the chairman of the managerial selection committee, Dr Eugene Young, was present. At this, it was agreed to convene a meeting of the county committee on Monday, a development that satisfies at least one of the players' demands.

Armagh County Board chairman Kevin Brady declined to comment on the situation last night, saying only that he would wait until after the clubs were consulted. Nor was any official response forthcoming to the players' statement. However, it is understood that the board would have preferred it if the players had held off on issuing a statement until after meeting with county board officers.

One well-placed source did say: "This has got a wee bit out of hand with mis-information, rumour, and personal agendas coming into it."

Yet the source denied that there was an agenda against Paul Grimley, arguing: "I would say that the opposite is probably the case."

Grimley was the clear choice of Armagh's clubs, but was reluctant to be interviewed, apparently aggrieved at how he missed out on the job when McDonnell was appointed.

The source added: "There was a process that he didn't want to go through....but we couldn't just brush aside the other candidates, some of whom are solid and genuine Armagh people."

Former Armagh captain Paul McGrane has stood down from the selection committee, but a way forward has been outlined to possibly continue the process under the chairmanship of Derry native Young.

TYRONE LEGEND SWITCHING ALLEGIANCE?

TYRONE legend Plunkett Donaghy has emerged as a shock contender for the Armagh senior manager's job, writes Kenny Archer.

The Irish News understands that the Red Hand icon was sounded out at a meeting held in Dungannon on Thursday night about the possibility of his name going forward. Donaghy declined to comment when contacted yesterday.

However, The Irish News believes that the Moy man did not discount 'crossing the Blackwater'.

A former inter-county manager from another county has also expressed his interest in the Armagh post, it has emerged. If either man were to be appointed by Armagh, he would be the first outside manager since Derry-born Gerry O'Neill – brother of well-known soccer boss Martin. Gerry O'Neill had two spells in charge of Armagh, 1970-72 and 1975-81, leading them to the

All-Ireland final in 1977, having ended a 24-year drought without an Ulster title earlier that season.

Moy Tir na nOg clubman Donaghy won three Ulster SFC titles with Tyrone, in 1984, 1986, and 1989, and won an Allstar in 1986 at midfield after helping the Red Hands to that season's

All-Ireland final.


In yet another twist, former Ireland rugby fitness coach Mickey McGurn, from Fermanagh, has apparently been approached about training the Armagh senior footballers.


_______________________________________________________

So Armagh were/are keen on Grimley and went to him above everyone else have lined up McGurn to train the team ... I'd say a good young manager like McNulty with McGurn and McConville and one older head might be a right good mix for th elonger term now - seeing as pretty much all other options are gone.


To get McGurn is a good coup though - not many GAA teams could get an international coach as their fitness coach!

[DuffleKing]

You've fairly changed your tune on McGurn

[Logan]

Still think it's a great coup for Armagh considering everything that's gone on, if they have good football people there too - if they can get everything else in order ...

Now maybe you'll be as quick and answer my other question and back up your unproven allegations about the CB's dishonesty?

[DuffleKing]

How would you expect me to prove a verbal agreement?

[umgolaarmagh]

How can the county board go and approach a trainer when they havent got a manager

surely the manager would appoint his coaching team etc

Sounds like a load of Bullsh*t to me

[Logan]

How would you expect me to prove a verbal agreement?

Provide some source or evidence there was ever an agreement between Grimley and the CB - There never was.

There may have been between Grimley and others - but not the CB - which is your allegation ... and as yet unproven.

[Logan]

How can the county board go and approach a trainer when they havent got a manager

surely the manager would appoint his coaching team etc

Sounds like a load of Bullsh*t to me

That's my thinking ... unless he was part of Grimleys package (along with the others) and he couldn't bring him to Monaghan?

Maybe that's spin from someone - or maybe the IN is wrong.

[armaghniac]

It is all a bit of a mess. I cannot help thinking that if the campaign to undermine PMcD had not been so insistent that a new trainer and possibly new assistant to freshen things up might have been better than the chaos we are in now.