Muineachán V Ard Mhaca USFC

[OverThePostsAWide]

I find it difficult to understand why people are annoyed with the ref using his assistants. Surely this should be a good thing?

Pure bitterness and irrational hatred? 

According to some, not only was he wrong in his decision to issue a red card but he was extra wrong not to make the wrong decision decisively and with certitude

We haven't a hope if a referee is lambasted for seeking a second opinion on a crucial marginal call. A call that the many professional pundits (not too mention the many more unprofessional pundits here) could not agree on.

[tevez]

Joke of a performance! Massive changes needed. My team for qualifiers
1. Hearty
2. Mallon
3. Donaghy
4. P.McKeown
5. Duffy
6. McKeever
7. Kernan
8. Toner
9. Lavery
10. Dyas
11. Ronan Clarke
12. Veron
13. Jamie Clarke
14. McDonnell
15. Forker

Vernon lucky to make team so is A kernan

[OverThePostsAWide]

On the positive side for Armagh:

1. Hearty's kickouts were good, he had no chance with the goal, and he saved a point by catching the ball on top of the crossbar. Well done Paul.

He got good distance in the first half but a few too many of them were just swept up by the Monaghan half-back line as they bounced over the far 65. He must have been told to wind it down a bit at half time as he noticeably started to "chip" them to the near 65 in the second half 

[maddog]

On the positive side for Armagh:

1. Hearty's kickouts were good, he had no chance with the goal, and he saved a point by catching the ball on top of the crossbar. Well done Paul.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

If you are looking for another positive i thought Duffy was excellent.

[davo]

poor result and performance from both the players and the management. on a side issue why the hell was barnsy o'rourke dropped from the panel completely when we are cying out for scoring forwards as yesterday highlighted? it's all well and good having big players but that's not worth a tuppence if you cant put the ball over the bar! at least with peter mc donnell in charge the armagh team would never have been beaten by that much 14 men or not!

i hope the team can dust themselves down now and have a rattle at the qualifiers. it all depends on the draw though

[mackers]

The next move will be to ban the shoulder charge altogether and I'm going to start watching real contact sports like hockey or something!!

Lot of knee jerk reactions going on here, in the cold light of day Monaghan are a more experienced outfit than this Armagh team. They are hell bent on getting an Ulster title that they feel they deserve and were by far the hungrier team. We are clearly a team in transition with a new management in place and we're playing without one of our two class forwards. We got promoted out of a very poor Division and the management need one if not two more years to develop us into a team challenging for honours. Divsion 1 football next spring will bring us on hopefully.

None of our much maligned HF line (the main source of our problems yesterday along with our CHB)  lined out in their positions on a regular basis for us before which especially in the case of Nippy Swift is an indictment of the previous regime. I would persist with Swift and AK in their positions and use Mackin as a sub. Our midfield was made up of two lads of about 23 who came up against a formidable and experienced pairing in Lennon and Clerkin. Vernon and Toner will be an outstanding pairing in a few years, ably assisted by Lavery (aged 23/24) who is a player that I didn't rate but he's much better than I gave him credit for. 

If we can get a handy draw in the qualifiers and get Ronan Clarke fit then we will achieve our aim for the year IMO which is to get to an AIQF. New teams and new management trying to change a style of play will lead to huge swings in performance like we have experienced this year. Hopefully the players will continue to work hard and keep their hunger and the management continue to learn from their mistakes.

23 is a fully grown senior inter county footballer. Bit old to be playing the youth card.

Rubbish..........at 23/24 McGeeney, McGrane et al were getting their arses whipped by Derry, they learnt from that, hopefully our lads will learn from this also. Players aren't in their prime until 26-28. The other thrust of my argument is that the lads of that age are only getting to play in their positions now (with the exception of Kieran Toner who has played a few years in MF at this stage).

[gander]

Joke of a performance! Massive changes needed. My team for qualifiers
1. Hearty
2. Mallon
3. Donaghy
4. P.McKeown
5. Duffy
6. McKeever
7. Kernan
8. Toner
9. Lavery
10. Dyas
11. Ronan Clarke
12. Veron
13. Jamie Clarke
14. McDonnell
15. Forker

Vernon lucky to make team so is A kernan

If Clarke is fit he should be in Full Forward, its his best position and the team need him up there with Stevie - bit late in the day for experiments imo.  Dont think Moriarity deserves to be dropped either, def not at the expense of moving A Kernan back to defense.  Dyas hasn't done anything in my eyes to prove he deserves to start

[mountainboii]

I find it difficult to understand why people are annoyed with the ref using his assistants. Surely this should be a good thing?

Pure bitterness and irrational hatred? 

According to some, not only was he wrong in his decision to issue a red card but he was extra wrong not to make the wrong decision decisively and with certitude

We haven't a hope if a referee is lambasted for seeking a second opinion on a crucial marginal call. A call that the many professional pundits (not too mention the many more unprofessional pundits here) could not agree on.

Well done. You've also missed the point.

[mountainboii]

Joke of a performance! Massive changes needed. My team for qualifiers
1. Hearty
2. Mallon
3. Donaghy
4. P.McKeown
5. Duffy
6. McKeever
7. Kernan
8. Toner
9. Lavery
10. Dyas
11. Ronan Clarke
12. Veron
13. Jamie Clarke
14. McDonnell
15. Forker

Vernon lucky to make team so is A kernan

If Clarke is fit he should be in Full Forward, its his best position and the team need him up there with Stevie - bit late in the day for experiments imo.  Dont think Moriarity deserves to be dropped either, def not at the expense of moving A Kernan back to defense.  Dyas hasn't done anything in my eyes to prove he deserves to start

He's played so little football that there's no way Clarke would be fit enough to play out the field anyway.

[illdecide]

Armagh got what they deserved and that was nothing, their performance was gutless and spineless. The ref gave us feck all and P O'Rourke gave us feck all, as for the sending off i went mad at the the match and called the ref a few names but when i seen it last night it wasn't as clean as a shoulder as i thought when watching it from the terracing.

Aaron Kernan is not a CHF (end of story) either we play him wing half back or use him as the sweeper (if Armagh continue to play this way) if he can't be fitted in then bench him. Mal Mackin & Eddie Martin are not good enough for this level and to drop Henderson was another mistake, if the rumours are true that he has walked out on Armagh then i don't blame the lad at all. Whenever we continue to carry 3 passengers in the forward line then don't ever expect to win anything other than a McKenna cup match against very weak opposition.

It may be possible to sacrifice one (thats 1) half forward as a third midfielder other than that we need 5 scoring forwards, i hope the players are hurting today as they should be. The fact that they gave up and let Monaghan make we boys from them was more disappointing, they just bent over and took it (you know where)

[Throw ball]

Illdecide. I think I saw Henderson warm up a couple of times yesterday.
Can anyone explain why Armagh did not use all their subs yesterday. It was a hot day. Players like McKeown and Anto Duffy could have been tried without a worse result!

[lecale4]

Well done Agent O'Rourke - mission accomplished!

[Throw ball]

Looking ahead for Armagh. With Mallon out the next day will MOR get a game. Will Ronan Clarke be fit. Will the defence see any changes?
As for Monaghan, they should win next day out and I would fancy them to beat Down. But if they meet Tyrone do they have a really big game in them. No doubt Big Paul would love to get one over them!

[A Quinn Martin Production]

Joke of a performance! Massive changes needed. My team for qualifiers
1. Hearty
2. Mallon
3. Donaghy
4. P.McKeown
5. Duffy
6. McKeever
7. Kernan
8. Toner
9. Lavery
10. Dyas
11. Ronan Clarke
12. Veron
13. Jamie Clarke
14. McDonnell
15. Forker

Vernon lucky to make team so is A kernan

He will be busy at the World Cup (as someone called tevez should know)

[INDIANA]

The next move will be to ban the shoulder charge altogether and I'm going to start watching real contact sports like hockey or something!!

Lot of knee jerk reactions going on here, in the cold light of day Monaghan are a more experienced outfit than this Armagh team. They are hell bent on getting an Ulster title that they feel they deserve and were by far the hungrier team. We are clearly a team in transition with a new management in place and we're playing without one of our two class forwards. We got promoted out of a very poor Division and the management need one if not two more years to develop us into a team challenging for honours. Divsion 1 football next spring will bring us on hopefully.

None of our much maligned HF line (the main source of our problems yesterday along with our CHB)  lined out in their positions on a regular basis for us before which especially in the case of Nippy Swift is an indictment of the previous regime. I would persist with Swift and AK in their positions and use Mackin as a sub. Our midfield was made up of two lads of about 23 who came up against a formidable and experienced pairing in Lennon and Clerkin. Vernon and Toner will be an outstanding pairing in a few years, ably assisted by Lavery (aged 23/24) who is a player that I didn't rate but he's much better than I gave him credit for. 

If we can get a handy draw in the qualifiers and get Ronan Clarke fit then we will achieve our aim for the year IMO which is to get to an AIQF. New teams and new management trying to change a style of play will lead to huge swings in performance like we have experienced this year. Hopefully the players will continue to work hard and keep their hunger and the management continue to learn from their mistakes.

23 is a fully grown senior inter county footballer. Bit old to be playing the youth card.

Rubbish..........at 23/24 McGeeney, McGrane et al were getting their arses whipped by Derry, they learnt from that, hopefully our lads will learn from this also. Players aren't in their prime until 26-28. The other thrust of my argument is that the lads of that age are only getting to play in their positions now (with the exception of Kieran Toner who has played a few years in MF at this stage).

Lavery looks like the only one with the required tools. Armagh are at a crossroads One wonders will that little wizard off their minors at corner forward last year be given a shot at it. Or simply be deemed too small. The latter I'd suspect. A sea change is required in Armagh football in my view. Talent has to supercede size. Currently in Armagh the latter is king IMO.