AIQF 2017 Tír Eoghain vs Ard Macha, Sat. August 5th @4pm

[JoG2]

Hoping for a tight competitive match. Hard to see beyond a Tyrone win though, but in sport, you never know.

Both this weekends quaters are only on Sky again by the looks of it, that's 6 big games in the last 3 weeks only available if you help swell Murdoch's coffers to watch our amateur footballers...HQ should hang their heads in shame

[Walter Cronc]

What will the ticket allocation be for this?

4 counties each getting 20k tickets or Dubs getting the majority you'd imagine?

[mackers]

It's going to be a real clash of styles.  Armagh's exciting, attacking style of play against Tyrone's old school defensive dirge.  We have struggled against defensive teams all year and there's no more defensive team in the country than Tyrone.

Do you depend on Pat Spillane for your football insights?

No.

[Armamike]

Wonder will there be any sightings of Datsun and Mazda this week?

Any Armagh Tyrone games i've seen over the past 30-40 years have never had more than a few points in them either way.  Apart from the hammering we dished out in 1987.       Tyrone represent the ultra defensive set up that we really struggle against (we couldn't break down Antrim in the league!)  so it will be interesting to see if we've learnt much from earlier in the year.  If we carry the ball  down the middle and into Tyrone traffic then they'll pick us off and it will be manna for them. We don't have the power to run through them.  Use the width of the pitch, create overlaps and  take our chances for long range scores when we can.  Would rather the ball's kicked wide than coughed up on the counter.

[vallankumous]

Hoping for a tight competitive match. Hard to see beyond a Tyrone win though, but in sport, you never know.

Both this weekends quaters are only on Sky again by the looks of it, that's 6 big games in the last 3 weeks only available if you help swell Murdoch's coffers to watch our amateur footballers...HQ should hang their heads in shame

And help pay for other sports to pay their players crazy money. Also it put struggling publicans under pressure.

[quit yo jibbajabba]

19 pages. still a week to go. great stuff! footballs back! Gaaboards back!

[brokencrossbar1]

19 pages. still a week to go. great stuff! footballs back! Gaaboards back!

Hark back to the good old days of Bog snorkelling and tractor reversing and wrong day hotel bookings. Hardy being the grammar nazi extraordinaire and O'Neill not being sure who he is logged in under!!!  Barbarous attacks and caustic replies and buckfast swillers v hobbits from the bushes. Ah the good old days!!!

[Redhand Santa]

Hoping for a tight competitive match. Hard to see beyond a Tyrone win though, but in sport, you never know.

Both this weekends quaters are only on Sky again by the looks of it, that's 6 big games in the last 3 weeks only available if you help swell Murdoch's coffers to watch our amateur footballers...HQ should hang their heads in shame

Anyone in the country that wanted to go could easily have got a ticket for any game they wanted and watched it. If not most people have family or friends with sky so could have gone there. Beyond that could have visited a local bar had a drink and watched the game. Online links to games another option. Don't really buy into this theory of people not being able to see games. The amount of people in the country who aren't fit to leave the house, don't have Internet or can't afford sky for a few months would be limited.

[Taylor]

Anyone hoping for a tight game Saturday evening will be disappointed.

At times on Saturday when Kildare had numbers back Armagh looked clueless and could not penetrate. Problem was Kildare didnt get numbers back often or quick enough. The same wont happen to us. We will have numbers back.

Cant see Armagh scoring more than 10/12 points against us.

We should be able to rack up 16/18 scores given the forward talent at our disposal.

Our problem is that we are going to go into the Dublin game not tested at all

Arrogance of the highest order, not sure at this stage the Dubs would even test you. 

How so?

We are playing a division 3 team and if we have realistic hopes of lifting Sam we will need to be winning well - this will be the same as all the games we have played to date.

It means we will meet Dublin in the semi UNTESTED

[Fuzzman]

Yeah it's great to have Armagh back at the party as they've been away too long and we've not really liked having Donegal as new rivals the past 5 years.
I brought my young lad into the games on Sat night and as a young Dub (I know, I know) he hadn't a clue who to support and couldn't believe the games were actually exciting and close to call.
I couldn't quite decide myself who to support though the Down lads in front of me had me in stitches with their anti Armagh chants and waving every Kildare score.

I can detect on here a certain respect for Tyrone yet a very strong underlying belief (maybe just hope) that Armagh are capable of surprising Tyrone. A lot of posts list reasons why Armagh could cause us bother yet nearly every post ends with "Aye but Tyrone will be too strong"

BTW, Kerry yet again are in an AI semifinal "Untested"
I can't see it being a dirty game to be honest as modern day football is all about running and fitness and if a team goes a man down these days it's a huge loss. As Rois said Tyrone are a very disciplined team now who work really hard not to give away frees. Now of course we still pick up the off black card but you won't see many punches off the ball any more (unless Mattie D is riled up).
To say this Tyrone team are cynical is just a biased comment from the past.
Down tried their utmost to get a reaction from some Tyrone players but nobody took the bait.

I met a few old Armagh friends at Croker on Sat evening and even though some of their fans are hard to listen to (as are some of our own)  , they really do bring something extra to matches like colour, passion, noise and rivalry.

Well done to Geezer and the Armagh squad for keeping their heads and coming back from their shock defeat to Down to come through the qualifiers to get to a quarterfinal. I'd say it gives Geezer some breathing space and will keep his job. I'd say he'd "LUV IT" if he sent Tyrone and Mickey Harte packing as they did to his playing career.

[BennyHarp]

Hoping for a tight competitive match. Hard to see beyond a Tyrone win though, but in sport, you never know.

Both this weekends quaters are only on Sky again by the looks of it, that's 6 big games in the last 3 weeks only available if you help swell Murdoch's coffers to watch our amateur footballers...HQ should hang their heads in shame

Anyone in the country that wanted to go could easily have got a ticket for any game they wanted and watched it. If not most people have family or friends with sky so could have gone there. Beyond that could have visited a local bar had a drink and watched the game. Online links to games another option. Don't really buy into this theory of people not being able to see games. The amount of people in the country who aren't fit to leave the house, don't have Internet or can't afford sky for a few months would be limited.

That's Micheal Duignan's dad you're talking about there.

[tonto1888]

I genuinely have nothing but respect for Armagh football. They won the AI before us and made us realise we were good enough to win it too. After the 2003 final, every Armagh supporter I met was very magnanimous and gracious in defeat and congratulated us on the win. Our battles in 2005 where the defining games of that decade in my view, two of the best teams of that era at the top of their game. The semi final was just the most gut wrenchingly tense experience I think I've ever had in football. That Armagh team should have won more than 1 All Ireland and it's good to see them back playing on Croke Park in August. Having said all that, I hope we hammer the feckers next weekend and I can't wait! 😀

If we hadn't won it in 2002, would Tyrone have won it in the subsequent years?

The real question is if Tyrone hadnt won it in the subsequent years would Armagh have won more?

I think the back door cost Armagh more than you guys winning in 03

[tonto1888]

Yeah it's great to have Armagh back at the party as they've been away too long and we've not really liked having Donegal as new rivals the past 5 years.
I brought my young lad into the games on Sat night and as a young Dub (I know, I know) he hadn't a clue who to support and couldn't believe the games were actually exciting and close to call.
I couldn't quite decide myself who to support though the Down lads in front of me had me in stitches with their anti Armagh chants and waving every Kildare score.

I can detect on here a certain respect for Tyrone yet a very strong underlying belief (maybe just hope) that Armagh are capable of surprising Tyrone. A lot of posts list reasons why Armagh could cause us bother yet nearly every post ends with "Aye but Tyrone will be too strong"

BTW, Kerry yet again are in an AI semifinal "Untested"
I can't see it being a dirty game to be honest as modern day football is all about running and fitness and if a team goes a man down these days it's a huge loss. As Rois said Tyrone are a very disciplined team now who work really hard not to give away frees. Now of course we still pick up the off black card but you won't see many punches off the ball any more (unless Mattie D is riled up).
To say this Tyrone team are cynical is just a biased comment from the past.
Down tried their utmost to get a reaction from some Tyrone players but nobody took the bait.

I met a few old Armagh friends at Croker on Sat evening and even though some of their fans are hard to listen to (as are some of our own)  , they really do bring something extra to matches like colour, passion, noise and rivalry.

Well done to Geezer and the Armagh squad for keeping their heads and coming back from their shock defeat to Down to come through the qualifiers to get to a quarterfinal. I'd say it gives Geezer some breathing space and will keep his job. I'd say he'd "LUV IT" if he sent Tyrone and Mickey Harte packing as they did to his playing career.

Pretty sure Geezer didn't retire atfer that game

[omagh_gael]

The draw rose the nostalgic blood in me so I fired together this wee video reminding us of our glory days...

https://youtu.be/MRKMtmY58d0

[RedHand88]

Hoping for a tight competitive match. Hard to see beyond a Tyrone win though, but in sport, you never know.

Both this weekends quaters are only on Sky again by the looks of it, that's 6 big games in the last 3 weeks only available if you help swell Murdoch's coffers to watch our amateur footballers...HQ should hang their heads in shame

Anyone in the country that wanted to go could easily have got a ticket for any game they wanted and watched it. If not most people have family or friends with sky so could have gone there. Beyond that could have visited a local bar had a drink and watched the game. Online links to games another option. Don't really buy into this theory of people not being able to see games. The amount of people in the country who aren't fit to leave the house, don't have Internet or can't afford sky for a few months would be limited.

Exactly. People getting to bring children to biig games for €5 and still not happy.