Ulster Senior Football Club Championship 2012

[brokencrossbar1]

40 counties in total now, top of one particular tree anyway, 16 out of 17, not bad. I remember arguing many moons ago with Rufus and bennydorano about how many titles we would win. I said we wouldn't be far off the majority of the next 10 and that was when I had retired. They have won 6 since then out of 7 with it looking harder year on year for clubs to get closer. We'll hit the half century in less than 15 years as I know what is coming through the club.

A lot of comments I would like to make about todays game but I will hold counsel for now. Well done boys!

Do not be so grumpy! Thought Cross were not at their best but still Won. A credit to themselves. Pity a few more clubs in the county could not get closer to their standard. On saying that I thought Ogs Conor Clarke was man of match.

Not grumpy but some very dubious stuff happened today and while never shy from the fact that we have been cynical over the years I saw at least 3 clear deliberate punches to the face on our boys with 2 of them directly in view of either a lines man or the ref.  Anyway, Cups back where she belongs and the plans will begin for the Donegal champs now. 

Congrats lad. Great club.

are ye not sick if celebrating. What would a night of celebrating consist of in cross after lifting an armagh coumty title???

How would ye get sick of celebrating?  I wouldn't be to most after match celebrations bar the Ulster or AI as I am not in the town anymore. The lads will go out tonight and maybe tomorrow but it won't be anything wild.  They will be in the field Tuesday night and then that's that till Ulster is over.

More than JJ Clarke will do, the lad in dundonald with his jaw fractured in two places, the abuse he took today was shocking, even more shocking the officials failing to do anything about it!

I hope the lad is ok but as I said above there was a lot of it going on.  A few of our lads are lucky they were not sitting beside him. 

[Milltown Row2]

You took the bet before checking the odds, ye eejit.

I get out every now and again, you?

He didn't pm and still hasn't. I get out plenty

I posted, but in truth I was always going to check and lay it off, thats what punters do.

And I won't be. Your behaviour on this thread has been odd. I didn't make any odds up. I quoted your post. In my opinion, you took a bet and now have no intention of honouring it. That's fine. Not worth getting heated up over. My account is with Paddy Power and they didn't have odds for Ulster. They don't even mention Sneil for All-Ireland. Ladbrokes didn't have odds either. Even at 25/1 Slaughtneil are over-priced, I still will put £20 on them, not with you though.

We were the same odds today to beat Portaferry as Slaughtneil are to beat Ballinderry. Bookies can be out on the odd occasion also.

It looks like Cross will take some stopping though.

Odd? you quoted my post, which was before the semi final, you didn't even check any bookies other than PP  and Ladbrooks which is odd as you said you couldn't find the odds anywhere!! But sure I have already said I'd take it at the proper odds of 25/1.

[bennydorano]

There was an awful dirt today, both sides were at it & up for it, & you'd have to have a fair bit of cheek to be clambering for any moral high ground imo. Very enjoyable all the same, Shorty Clarke put in some shift alrite, had to be MOTM. Cross won because Jamie Clarke played.

[Sportacus]

Some of Jamie Clarke's touches were unreal, he's a class act.  Credit to Ogs for going at it hard from the start, but Cross's forwards carved them up for 3 goals and that was that - they have a lot of pace and power in their forwards.  Sorry to hear a lad got his jaw broke - but it wasn't one-sided when it came to the hard hitting on or off the ball. 

[Throw ball]

BCB in some ways I can understand what you were on about as there was one particular Ogs player who seemed to be on a mission of distruction. Apart from that it was 50:50 as regards the hitting. On saying that I do not think the game would have been considered overly dirty in many counties and I am sure you are old enough to remember when the game was a lot rougher.

[bennydorano]

The ref did a good job today in trying circumstances, good to see playacting not being rewarded for a change.

[Cold tea]

BCB in some ways I can understand what you were on about as there was one particular Ogs player who seemed to be on a mission of distruction. Apart from that it was 50:50 as regards the hitting. On saying that I do not think the game would have been considered overly dirty in many counties and I am sure you are old enough to remember when the game was a lot rougher.

Had he been red carded when he should have maybe the rest mightnt have happened - inept officials - ffs the ref couldnt keep up with the play, surely there are fitness tests for these guys!

[brokencrossbar1]

There was an awful dirt today, both sides were at it & up for it, & you'd have to have a fair bit of cheek to be clambering for any moral high ground imo. Very enjoyable all the same, Shorty Clarke put in some shift alrite, had to be MOTM. Cross won because Jamie Clarke played.

Would never portray us as whiter than white but what did annoy me were 2 incidents, one in full view of the ref and the other beside the linesman where 2 of our lads were openly struck in the face as they were on the ground. The officials saw them and ignored them. As I say though we give and take in equal measure but we had more cutting edge today, simple as that and we actually didn't even play overly well. The full back line and Hearty were the best of our players on the field.

Throwball I agree. The player you refer to is the hardest man in his own house and that's about it. He was involved in one of the incidents I refer to above and in reality he is not even that tough anyway. The game was a niggly game with lots of pulling and dragging but few real hard belts. Certainly a lot tamer than some games I remember!

[bennydorano]

Aaron Kernan punched a man in the bake twice right in front of us in the first, they were tame enough to be fair, but as Eamon Coleman used to say........ The JP/aherne tackle was poor stuff, other than that it wasn't that major.

I'd agree Cross were poor, Jamie made all the difference, the 3rd goal broke Ogs spirit, up until that point i thought they were much the better team.

[Cold tea]

Aaron Kernan punched a man in the bake twice right in front of us in the first, they were tame enough to be fair, but as Eamon Coleman used to say........ The JP/aherne tackle was poor stuff, other than that it wasn't that major.

I'd agree Cross were poor, Jamie made all the difference, the 3rd goal broke Ogs spirit, up until that point i thought they were much the better team.

Tell JJ that !

[Throw ball]

There was an awful dirt today, both sides were at it & up for it, & you'd have to have a fair bit of cheek to be clambering for any moral high ground imo. Very enjoyable all the same, Shorty Clarke put in some shift alrite, had to be MOTM. Cross won because Jamie Clarke played.

Agree with all of this. Very good entertainment even if neither side played as well as they could have. Whatever about the dirty stuff, there were some unreal honest hits over the sixty minutes. JP's scud on Hanratty was one of the best I've ever seen. Ogs were probably the better team between the two 21s but they just couldn't get ball to stick in the FF line, while at the other end Jamie Clarke was unplayable.

Agree about Clarke. Even more so when you consider Barton marking him had a fairly good game too. Cross managed to get an extra runner at the full back line while at the other end also seemed to be able to get another defender back to cover. In the end that was the difference between the teams.

[ogshead]

Aaron Kernan punched a man in the bake twice right in front of us in the first, they were tame enough to be fair, but as Eamon Coleman used to say........ The JP/aherne tackle was poor stuff, other than that it wasn't that major.

I'd agree Cross were poor, Jamie made all the difference, the 3rd goal broke Ogs spirit, up until that point i thought they were much the better team.

Tell JJ that !

How exactly did JJ break his jaw? I heard something about it in the club last night but didn't want to mention it here until I got my facts right.

[DuffleKing]

Was this the incident with Morgan coming off at half time?

[Smokin Joe]

Was this the incident with Morgan coming off at half time?

Was that incident not with JP?

I can't remember JJ receiving an actual strike to the face, but there was no doubt that Morgan stuck tight to him all day.

[Armamike]

The game kinda fizzled out a bit early in the second half, which was disappointing from a neutral point of view.  At half time it seemed set up to be a much tighter contest.  In the end Cross won again, pulling up.  If you look throughout their team there weren't that many star performers outside Jamie Clarke, or players you would spot as top county men but it's just a real team effort with them.

Credit to them for keeping their focus and hunger year in year out.  I was hoping some years back that the success of Cross would inspire other clubs within the county to raise their game and match them but unfortunately this hasn't happened. Ogs and Dromintee have took turns to have a go but outside these two it's disappointing that other clubs haven't been able to make a breakthrough.  With Cross it's about their mindset as much as their quality at this stage, and other clubs just don't have that mentality, edge, work/team ethic instilled.  But the same can be said for the rest of Ulster.  It's hard to see who's going to challenge them in Armagh at least over the next few years.