Ulster Hurling Championship 2008

[ONeill]

Massive result for Monaghan, beating Donegal. They meet Derry in the quarters and not in the semis as reported by Aertel.

[Fear Bhun Na Sceilpe]

Great win for Monaghan. It makes a mockery of Jamsie Donnelly's comments in Gaelic Life that Donegal are not that far off Derry. Catch yourself on man! Outside Burt and maybe Setanta all the other Donegal clubs would be hammered heavily in Derry.

[Lamh Dhearg Alba]

London 2-13 Tyrone 1-6.

[plain and simple]

seen those comments by yer man from Donegal and i thought at the time he would be eating those words very soon. Well done Monaghan.

[hurl4ever]

billy the kid seriously do you even realsie what your saying. armagh beat london in the league, and they didnt even have a full team. they have lost a good 7/8 players from last year including the full back line that started the rackard final. (two of who have returned for the championship). And you say some of the older players will leave at the end of the year....the oldest player on the panel is paul mc cormack....and hes 28/29. and as far as going back this year, what are you going by, the national league??? they got more points than last year, conceded less than last year and scored more than last year!!! have they not pushed on?? and also they didnt ask to be moved to christy ring, because down and dublin had extra teams in, they were moved up. and even then the match between them and derry in the christy ring will be very hard to call!!! yeah fair enough they wont beat down, but there is a big gap between down and antrim, big gap between down and derry/armagh, and then there is a big gap between derry/aramgh and the rest. and as far as donegal overtaking armagh, rackard semi last year 4-28 to 2-10, monaghan beat donegal this year...seriously like!!! yeah and christy ring is lining out for cork this year!!!

[billy the kid]

Derry have beat armagh on all three occaisons they have met in the last year and havent had anywhere near a full team out once.  When Derry play Armagh in the Christy ring it will not be hard to call.  For yous it will be same shit different day.  The only light for yous is that derry trained last nite for the first time since the NHL finished, and there are club Football Championship games on the week leading up to the christy ring game.  But these things may give yous hope but not a real chance.  Yous have to many men who cant Poc a ball over 30/40 yards and B, Mallon in the corner cant hit it 20 if hes on the run.

[hurl4ever]

they got beat by 1 point in the national league against derry with their goalkeeper and entire full back missing. u obviously know nothing about armagh hurling if you think that this is the strongest panel that armagh can produce. god there getting pretty close to teams like derry with players that are unable to hit a ball over 40 yards.  they dont have a real chance...they got beat by a point the last two times they played, is that not a chance?? well sure we might as well give up now sure supposeably donegal is gonna overtake armagh and be the next big thing in ulster hurling. monaghan might have a different opinion.

[nrico2006]

Armagh will run Derry close enough but the problem with Armagh is the lack of quality forwards they have.  Your man Bradley is terrible yet he is a regular in the Armagh starting 15.  What is the likely Armagh team for the championship?  Is there not better keepers in Armagh than J Burke?

[billy the kid]

I know plenty about Armagh hurling with your 2 best clubs, keady and Middletown travelling up to play us many times over the last 5 or six years in the lead up to their championship and us beating them by anything from 15 - 30 points each time.  I would have to say though that keady are a much better team than Middletown who just try to beat lumps out of you and their stickwork is generally miles behind keadys (Cathal Carville apart who is a fine player) and the heavier beatings are usually dished out to Middletown.  The third team in Armagh would be Cuhullans and last year we sent our Reserves down to play them in a friendly and our reserves won easy without any seniors and with The Armagh City boys having a their strongest team out.

I Have been to the last couple of Armagh county finals and the matches have been error ridden wars of attrition played at a pedestrion pace.  As  i mentioned earlier Keady are much better than Middletown but always seem to allow Middletown to haul them down to their level of a slugfest which helps negate keadys superior skill.  In case anyone thinks Im a Keady fan think again i have no connections to either club but think Keady are the best of a relatively poor bunch.  They have some fine players like the McCormacks and ger enright (although he is very 1 sided) but they are also carrying quite a few men.

As regards the best keeper in Armagh J Burke is not the answer, although he did make a deadly sacve in the last 10 mins of the county final last year but over all he is not a good keeper (goal in nicky rackard final last year) but this is to be expected as the lad played out-field at underage and moved to nets because of fitness.  Bit of a pity as he was a very good outfield prospect earlier in his career when he could run a bit and before he started putting on the weight (sorry J B ) I remember seeing him play an absolute blinder against ST Galls from Antrim in the Ulster minor Championship a few years back when he was still an U16 think he was in h-f line that day.

The best keeper in Armagh by a country mile is Joe Mceldowney who plays for Killeavey. He was Derr Keeper last year.

Donegal arent gonna be the next "big thing" in Ulster Hurling, but then they dont have to be to overtake Armagh as they will in next year or 2.

By the way I didnt realise that the Armagh/London game was in Armagh and not Ruislip and think it will be a toss of the coin as London dont travel to well and never have even near a full team when they do travel as last weeks game against Tyrone showed (missing 6 players)

By the way well done to Monaghan on getting past Cavan and Donegal so far and its great to see them building on their success in the national league, you are my new second favourite team. Long may it last (but not at our expense)  

[seeheartalk]

The Armagh v London game is in Newry (Parc Elser) at 2pm. Be tight to make it for the Armagh v Dublin game in Cullyhanna at 3.45pm.
Armagh should beat Derry when they next meet. There has been little between the sides over the past two years.
As regards to Bradley. He has the same role as Martin O'Rourke as for Armagh football side. Turn possession over, retain possession and nick the odd score.
The keeper has been dodgy though.

[rolloutking]

Pity about the result today. The difference really was one player.

I fear that barring a good run the in the Christy Ring, Mattie and Rogie could walk away come September.

It has to be said that contrary to what many club players and managers think about themselves and others, Mattie DID get the best players playing for the County at one stage or another and this can has been reflected in the County's rise in standard.

I played under the two guys for a while and their approach is top class and they are the two best coaches i have trained under. You get such a love of the game and dedication when you start to play for them.

However they and the rest of Armagh hurling folk are fighting a losing battle with regards numbers in the county playing. The county league is a waste of time as in reality it's only Keady and Middletown blooding players for the Championship. The amount of clubs who read too much into facile league wins is ridiculous.

I got disillusioned with the game in Armagh last year and add the international opportunities and attractions of other sports (not gaelic, rugby or soccer), and a bit of a disagreement with the club I played for, took an extended break, and can't see myself going back.

Untill more clubs are set up in the county and more players take up the game nothing will change. The county board are all for football and only pay the minimum amount of attention to hurling and don't really care about its promotion. For example last year every single one of the eight GAA summer camps were held in Football Clubs: Maghery, Mullabawn, Dromintee, Silverbridge, , Clann Eirann, Harps, Ballymacnab and Ballyhagen. All of these clubs have no local hurling club with the exception of The Harps and we were fighting a losing battle trying to coach the kids hurling because all they wanted to do was play football.

However it must be said that the Development squads are starting to pay off and some of the young hurlers see a certain bit of 'coolness' in being on the squads, with trips like the U-14's going to Waterford last year. None-the-less there is really only one person pushing these projects along and it beats me where he gets his energy and drive from.

So tough luck to the guys today. They are probably the best prepared and trained team to come out of the county and if Mattie stays at the helm the could make the breakthrough hopefully.

[laoisgaa]

I posted this in another thread but it's as relevant here

Having been at something like 30 press conferences in the past month (including four in one day) there's a simple formula which could be followed and it's actually the formula which the GAA are trying to employ but let them down last Thursday.

A couple of players and the managers to promote a particular game, media get what they want,players and managers aren't disturbed in lead up to match and everyone is happy - simple formula.

What I believe and I admit myself and my colleagues didnt write about was that other than what i've posted above the presser ran reasonably smoothly, one on one interviews for whoever wanted and there was plenty of copy.

The other way is what the Kilkenny County Board employ for their hurlers (too the best of my knowledge no one else does it) - that's a selector takes charge of media queries for interviews with players, you ring him an give him a name, he gets onto the player and if the player doesn't want to talk, he doesn't have too and someone else is provided in his place. Everyone's happy - Journo has interview in the can, players who want to speak can and there's no ill-blood - sponsors are happy too and it's good publicity all-round.

However bigger questions need to be answered. Today's treatment of the Armagh and London hurlers in Newry was shocking. A Down/Cork SF Challenge getting precedence over an important Ulster SHC Quarter-final tie (cracking match)

I got locked out of the Cork/Down game in Newry which took place at 11.45 this morning, behind closed doors. However I managed to cope with that but because Cork and Down took over the four dressing rooms with physios and the like in the second ones for each, Armagh and London were left waiting outside for them to exit, and the hurling match didn't start untl 2.38 - 38 minutes after the original throw-in time.

[plain and simple]

i sympathise with the views expressed by rolloutking with regards to hurling in Armagh. I guess ,besides Antrim, that it is a similar story everywhere in Ulster-county boards just paying lip service to Hurling. I know it has been mentioned on different threads but the treament of the Derry minors is a disgrace. You have peopole giving up there time to coach and manage teams but are faced with obstacles from their own county board and now ulster council.
Another example of paying lip service to hurling is the appointment of development officers by either county boards or local councils. I have heard thats some council officers in a nearby council are only allowed to dedicate one eighth of their time to hurling because that reflects the make of clubs in the area-well i thought the ethos of development is make stronger the weaker parts i.e. hurling, camogie and ladies football. However that would make to much sense and would be far too hard work for coaches, who by the way, have football backgrounds! Would it not make more sense to appoint a hurling only coach, who copuld dedicate their time to developing hurling in the schools and also in the existing football clubs.
I think one thing is for sure is that if hurling is going to improve in Derry, Armagh, Donegal etc is that we need more clubs playing swinging the ash. At the minute there are no incentives or encouragement from county boards for that to happen. In Derry there have no clubs since Eoghan Rua to have taken up Hurling seriously- i actually see more moves in Donegal (aided by school system) and Tyrone (who successfully hosted Feile this year). I guess that it is a similar story to Derry in Armagh.
By the way good luck to Derry minors and seniors today!

[Two Hands FFS]

That is a complete & utter f**king disgrace about that match starting late. I feel sorry for the Armagh & London players. I was going to say did the Ulster Council not do anything about it...but I just realised there was probably only there from the Ulster Council. It'll be a differant story today at Brewster Park when they'll be falling over each other.

[ONeill]

London are talking the talk and walking it too.