Armagh v Kerry 20/3/11 2.30pm Athletic Grounds

[bennydorano]

Mal Mackin. (Shakes head and walks away.)  Must go to the Why Thread on the other side.

Very unfair, another decent shift today, he is what he is - a workhorse, no point expectin Steviesque  points.

[Maguire01]

I though Mackin was decent enough - at times one of Armagh's better performers, but Kerry bossed that game and should have won by much more. In the first 15 minutes they must have had 70-80% possession and only 3 points on the board. They also eased off a bit after going 7 up in the second half.

[bennydorano]

I found that a bit disheartening today tbh, POR and team have been getting a bit of stick for lack of tactics but i think it's fair to say there's abit more going on in that department of late, trouble is it's all pretty negative stuff.  The first 10 minutes were embarrasing, BJP standing in the CHB position and his man Brosnan just dandered into MF to give them an extra man there for as long as they liked.  It's not as though there was a gale blowing and BJP's sweeping was required after 1 minute, he could have at least competed for the kick outs, a primary school coach wouldn't let it happen.

The shortcomings of the forward line don't need to be dissected again, but I'd say that's young Grugan's last game until next year's McKenna Cup.  He should be put on a diet of spuds, stout and weights for the rest of the year.  Nippy and Stevie did ok.

MF did rightly, but thought David Moran bossed it for the last 20, Vernon seemed to play WHF for 90% fo the game to try and curb Tomas O'Se I asssume, a couple of mighty catches from him and Mackin & Toner at various times as well - thought Toner faded midway through the 2nd half.  Good games from most of the defenders, especially Duffy, but Ciaran McKeever really is a different class, the hier to McGrane and McGeeney.

[fitzroyalty]

Our problems are in the forward line though. People can blame O'Rourke all they want, we haven't got scoring options. Whatever about his (lack of) tactical awareness, he can't magic scoring forwards out of nowhere. McDonnell and Swift looked like the only men capable of showing for/winning ball and taking scores, but apart from that there was little support. Kerry on the other hand had men showing and men coming off the shoulders to pop it over. Can't be that hard for Armagh to master?

[DuffleKing]

Its the management job to construct an attacking plan which suits the personnel we have. i don't accept for one second we don't have the forwards.

One thing that really bothered me today was how many players exuded an air of inferiority during the game. far too much respect shown to kerry for long periods.

Unfortunately we could and should have been beaten by more. There were positives in there with the attacking threat duffy provided, cv able to win ball in this company and we weren't out worked. there were long periods of the game where we couldn't buy a break and we needed a martin o'rourke in the last 20 minutes after moran came on in particular.

If they want to play a sweeper then bjp is so the wrong man for the job. the goal in mayo illustrates the first reason why - he's not a defender and on occasions where he's left to deal with a decent forward he's beaten. secondly, he offers no attacking platform. the free man at the back must launch counter attacks. the obvious men for it are McKeever and Dyas. McKeevr has the all round game for it and Dyas can probably get away with the defensive aspect and can be devestating coming out unopposed.

Anto Duffy made a decent impact and has to be getting close to this team but the other substitutions made my heart sink. are young watters and johnny hanratty representative of the best we have to come in and change a game for us?

[mountainboii]

Our problems are in the forward line though. People can blame O'Rourke all they want, we haven't got scoring options. Whatever about his (lack of) tactical awareness, he can't magic scoring forwards out of nowhere. McDonnell and Swift looked like the only men capable of showing for/winning ball and taking scores, but apart from that there was little support. Kerry on the other hand had men showing and men coming off the shoulders to pop it over. Can't be that hard for Armagh to master?

A couple more Stevie McDonnells would make his job a good bit easier, but he deserves criticism for the failure to develop anything resembling an attacking strategy. The movement going forward is terrible. It's within the management's remit to sort this out. Most of what has been good going forward has been off the back of some exceptional individual play by the likes of McDonnell and Vernon. But we can't just rely on one or two men doing something special every once in a while if we want to rack up scores big enough to compete with the top sides.

[tevez]

The only people you can blame for this farce of a management team is the County Board! They are an absolute disgrace for first of all giving this POR the job and for now allowing him to keep the job! In the two yrs he has been in charge there has been no gameplan put in place to try and help us in an attacking sense. He has just carried on with what we were doing and has put no work into the forward line! The County Board need to take a long hard look at themselves. I would go as far as calling for all of their resignations. POR had achieved nothing to warrant being givin the armagh job and its a disgrace that players who train so hard arent givin a chance of competin because of the ineptitude of our management! Sorry but has to be said!

[Slicker]

Kerry obviously the better team with better options coming off the bench. We were in it until about 15mins into the second half.
McAvoy was having a good game until he went off injured at half time. The replacement keeper was solid however.
Andy was given a tough time at the start but settled well, Donaghy was give an awful time of it the entire match was not much support for him. Finn Mo tried hard to keep gooch limited which is almost impossible no matter who is on him
Dyas was quieter than last week, his man did nothing but he should have made more of an impact where duffy was the opposite, his man caused us a difficulty but he was good getting forward. Mckeever was very solid at centre back and much better than last week.
We won midfield the first 15/20 mins then Moran came on and dominated. Toner and Vernon worked hard without much substance really. Toner took the goal well however.
Mackin put in a solid shift i felt and won a few kickouts, played his role pretty well. Grugan, Swift and Mallon were too much out of the game and that says enough really considering they are the half forwards! Stevie fought away on his own living off scraps and making the most of what he got. Billy joe was ineffective as the sweeper in my opinion.

[ExiledGael]

The only people you can blame for this farce of a management team is the County Board! They are an absolute disgrace for first of all giving this POR the job and for now allowing him to keep the job! In the two yrs he has been in charge there has been no gameplan put in place to try and help us in an attacking sense. He has just carried on with what we were doing and has put no work into the forward line! The County Board need to take a long hard look at themselves. I would go as far as calling for all of their resignations. POR had achieved nothing to warrant being givin the armagh job and its a disgrace that players who train so hard arent givin a chance of competin because of the ineptitude of our management! Sorry but has to be said!

Jesus Christ, where do you think Armagh should be exactly? How many Armagh players today would make it into that Kerry team, or the Cork or Dublin teams for that matter? Andy Mallon, McKeever, McDonnell and Vernon, that's about it.
They are competing in Division One, in the top eight, and will probably stay there. It's not exactly time to be calling the manager and the board a disgrace and demanding all of their resignations.
What would constitute an achievement for Paddy O'Rourke?
I was at the game today and they did look clueless going forward at times but if he hadn't pulled back a sweeper in front of Donaghy and Gooch you'd be calling him a fool. Ass a result they looked bare up front. He can't exactly bring on Paul Galvin and Declan O'Sullivan like the opposition did.

[bennydorano]

I actually think there is a style of play there.  It's all about support play when defending, moving the ball out of defence with short hand passing, getting into MF area and then longish balls into the FF line, this could make our Hf line look worse than it actually is as they are all back defending.  We look to be playing a system along the lines of:

Keeper
3x FB
4xHB
3 in MF
2 HF
2 FF

Thought there were a few decent passages of play from us today but it can be hard to watch.  If we had a fit Ronan Clarke and jamie Clarke in the FF line along with Stevie roaming, the current tactics that seem so woeful could be ideal.  The personnel isn't there at the minute.

[fan01]

just wondering why john murtagh is still down in the programmes as a crossmaglen club man and him playing with a Dublin club.

[Family guy]

just wondering why john murtagh is still down in the programmes as a crossmaglen club man and him playing with a Dublin club.

What dublin club is he playing with??

[el_cuervo_fc]

just wondering why john murtagh is still down in the programmes as a crossmaglen club man and him playing with a Dublin club.

It didn't say Crossmaglen under his name in the program today

[Maguire01]

just wondering why john murtagh is still down in the programmes as a crossmaglen club man and him playing with a Dublin club.

It didn't say Crossmaglen under his name in the program today

Yep, says Parnells.

[bennydorano]

Fairly brutal assessment of Armagh by Bernard Flynn on the highlights show, not unwarranted either.