Laois v Armagh - NFL Round 5 - Sunday 18th March

[mountainboii]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17479438

We're Anzhi.

[trileacman]

Right lads, shake hands and pretend nothing happened. Otherwise Laois you'll get Paudi Hughes for your championship match and Armagh you'll get Mr Duffy Again.
No harm but for the Armagh County board to come out with such a strong statement was premature and foolish unless they were willing to stand by their convictions no matter what pressure was put on them, but now they look weak, pathetic sore losers.
If I was McKeever I'd be well pissed off at his CB. First they state that he was called this and that and then they say well in reflection it wasn't that bad. They should never have named him directly and ran to the press leaving him out to dry.
All that happened in the tunnel was a bit of pushing. I know in the past he may have escaped the odd deserved yellow or red but not this time. If McKeever had hit or kicked out he would have got a hell of a lot more than the minimum sentence. They would have gladly thrown the book at him.
The Armagh CB have made a complete mess of this matter which still needs to be stamped out. They should have raised the issue at the CCC meeting and possibly brought a proposal on sledging and player respect forward at the annual congress. Maybe the GPA could for once do something positive and put pressure on its members to cut out the verbal abuse dished out or we could wait for the powers at HQ to get off their asses and sort it out.   

I agree, sledging or whatever you want to call it has no place in the GAA, we all want it stamped out. Hate when I see our players do it.
Running to the papers wont get rid of it though.
I've said this before, I can see why Armagh people are aggrieved with the match and suspensions accruing from it but their county board have lost them a lot of sympathy.

Lads have been winding each other up in sport since the year dot.
People would want to harden the f*ck up as the aussies would say.

The only team with an unblemished record as regards sledging is Kilkenny footballers.

[Dinny Breen]

[Throw ball]

Somewhere along the line this will raise its head again. I am suspicious about the whole statement. On Tuesday the Star reported that Armagh were claiming sectarian abuse then later that day Armagh release a statement. Today the same paper reports that following discussions with Croke Park the Armagh chairman has to be persuaded not to resign. Later that day a statement is released which is at odds with the first statement. Now the Armagh chairman is a highly respected and honourable man. Did he wish to resign because Croke Park were putting pressure on Armagh to retract a statement which he believed was true and fair or did he want to resign because he did not know of the initial statement before it was released and did not approve. Too many questions remain unanswered.

[Leo]

The Armagh statement to the press was one of the most bizzare and outlandish ever issued by any county committee of the GAA in my memory. It was so far over the top I can only assume that the wrong sort of diesel was in use. It was also the wrong forum...

Surely if this was more than the usual (but regrettable) verbals that goes on then the Armagh board should have interviewed each player, compiled a report and gone to HQ with it - they could at the same time have questioned Ciaran McKeever closely on what (if anything) happened in the tunnel - and any of his colleagues who could throw light on it; there is no evidence that they tried to do any of this properly and it is hard to have any sympathy or respect for them after the ill-advised public tantrum.

Now there is a pitiful climbdown and it all smacks of a sourness in the Orchard of sulking child proportions and toys out of the pram.

I suspect some of these officers should be looking at their position as this has done a disservice to Armagh GAA.

[rrhf]

County board aside.  I have a feeling Grimley might not stick the pressure.  Aside from that, the county board should be suspended from saying anything again. 

[here comes 6]

looking in from the outside Armagh seems to be in a bit of a mess?  correct or incorrect?

[Applesisapples]

I suspect that the statement issued to the press was done so without the County Executive's sanction and most likely at the behest of the team management or an element in it. It raises the question of accountability of paid county officials not only in Armagh but in other counties. We have seen examples of this in Cork and Tyrone in the past. I suspect also that Armagh were told in no uncertain terms by the GAA centrally that they would have to agree to play this issue down. Some of the reporting on the issue and accusations attributed to Armagh both here and in the press do not accurately reflect the ACB's statement. The retraction as such is open to interpretation and does not actually withdraw but in fact accepts that there were inappropriate verbal excahanges. It remains the case that the ACB or the County Secretary took the wrong option in dealing with this. Gregory Campbell must be laughing in his cornflakes. I do think that Ciaran McKeever who at all stages has remained silent is to be commended. If I was a betting man, knowing the history of the alleged perp in this case I would say in the words of the CCC it is more likely to have happened than not. In all of this we again need to focus on the abdication of his responsibilities by the official who chose McKeever as the easy option.

[winsamsoon]

Theres no doubt thisa whole things was handled incorrectly by the county board and the higher authority. I agree with BC the use of certain words was an over the top reaction and the incident was neither sectarian or racially motivated. It was merely Sheehan trying to be a political smart ass. As many lads have stated Sheehan is not on his own with these beliefs and comments.

The one thing that i find unnacceptable is, whatever you think of Mc Keever as a footballer or a person he shouldn't have to be subjected to this tyrant of abuse by anyone. People are using the old tongue and cheek one "what happens on the pitch stays on the pitch" this is not the case anymore because what Sheehan said was very offensive both in terms of teh background which Mc keever has had (ie brought up in a very troubled area regarding politics) and secondly because Sheehan was actually questioning his identity. This is a man who trains for his club and county and dedicates his time to the cause of the GAA and buys into the ethos of the GAA which is inclusive of a 32 county Ireland. No player that volunteers his time should be subjected to that abuse by another player and certainly offcials shouldn't be permitting it to happen.

For those posters who say the anti northern sentiments don't exist then they clearly are living with their heads buried in the sand. I will also acknowledge there are sentiments from the Northern end where some folk believe themselves to be more Irish because they are in their eyes still fighting the war that the Freestaters started. These points only distract from the fact that this incident shouldn't have happened and should be dealt with

[Fuzzman]

Well said winsamsoon
I agree a lot with that and I'd say if nothing else its given Sheehan a good slap on the face and he'll get slated now by any Ulster teams he meets now.

I haven't read all the pages in the last few days but are we still mainly saying that McKeever didn't strike out or do anything wrong?

Can't believe I am saying this now but I kinda feel sorry for McKeever now that he'll get a hard time now as well from Southern teams. I'd say he's glad not to be playing v the Dubs this weekend.
I wonder will they give Donegal some colourful songs. 

[Tubberman]

Well said winsamsoon
I agree a lot with that and I'd say if nothing else its given Sheehan a good slap on the face and he'll get slated now by any Ulster teams he meets now.

I haven't read all the pages in the last few days but are we still mainly saying that McKeever didn't strike out or do anything wrong?

Can't believe I am saying this now but I kinda feel sorry for McKeever now that he'll get a hard time now as well from Southern teams. I'd say he's glad not to be playing v the Dubs this weekend.
I wonder will they give Donegal some colourful songs. 

Why?

[Jinxy]

Another headline in the Independent today containing the words 'racist abuse'.
Sean Óg o hAilpín saying the GAA needs to take action to deal with this type of thing even though he never got any racist abuse while playing for Cork.
Seriously some county boards should get written permission from Croke park before opening their stupid gobs.

[AQMP]

Another headline in the Independent today containing the words 'racist abuse'.
Sean Óg o hAilpín saying the GAA needs to take action to deal with this type of thing even though he never got any racist abuse while playing for Cork.
Seriously some county boards should get written permission from Croke park before opening their stupid gobs.

Stop this sort of thing that doesn't happen??

[Dont Matter]

Winsamsoon and Fuzzman, the allegation was withdrawn. There's no proof that anything was said. Looks like the mud will stick however.
I'm not satisfied with the conclusion of this, either sectarian abuse occurred or not. If it did then the Laois player or whoever should get a ban, if not then Armagh should be forced to apologise and whoever made up the story should get an extra ban.
You say Fuzzman "it's given Sheehan a good slap on the face and he'll get slated now by any Ulster teams he meets now." His name has been dragged through the mud and so has the name of Laois GAA and as we see from your statement people believe it to be true even though Armagh have confirmed their allegations were not accurate.

[haranguerer]

Another headline in the Independent today containing the words 'racist abuse'.
Sean Óg o hAilpín saying the GAA needs to take action to deal with this type of thing even though he never got any racist abuse while playing for Cork.
Seriously some county boards should get written permission from Croke park before opening their stupid gobs.

Stop this sort of thing that doesn't happen??

So, because Sean Og never got any racist abuse about being from fermanagh or whatever ( ), he shouldnt be commenting on what way the GAA deal with racist abuse?

The indo is an utter rag. Rarely read it, but saw it yest and they were beating the GAA and the Armagh co board with angles and spin all over the place. looked to me like they invented a story about the armagh chairman (or secreatary or something) having resigned, just so he was utterly discredited in the story around it. (Not that he needed much discrediting, but its shocking journalism). Then Breheney coming out with utter bullshit too...Cant wait to see the media in Dublin get exposed a la the london media at the min.

'Dont matter', reading between the lines, it was def said. Cp have got the lads together and started a clean up operation, thats why its been revised, no other reason. Its not sectarian abuse tho, nor racist, thats the bit thats stupid. Thats not to say its not serious abuse and deserves a good ban, just its not in those categories.