Back door is the front door

[armaghniac]

Letter from  Peter Makem, once Armagh manager. This version published in the Irish Times.

Madam, - The back door is now the front door. After Tyrone's defeat of Dublin in Croke Park in the All Ireland quarter-finals it is more and more obvious that progress in the championship comes down to peaking in mid-August instead of June or July. In other words it means getting out of the provincial championship as early as possible with minimum fuss and setting out on the lucrative back-door route. With the exception of Cork, all the other three provincial champions, Armagh, Galway and Dublin, have been decisively eliminated at the quarter-final stage.

It is now beyond dispute that if a county wants to go far in the All Ireland championship, the last thing they need is a provincial title. Armagh, Dublin and Galway have all peaked far too early and have paid the penalty for taking the provincial championships seriously.

In recent years, Kerry appear to have have simply handed the Munster final to Cork under the pretence of "being out of form" or having "lost their appetite for championship football". They led at half time against Cork by nine points in the most recent Munster final - a similar sort of situation to the previous year - and "collapsed" in the second half, trying to convince everybody that they were in decline and that an era was over.

But in reality they were postponing their championship surge until August, getting another month out of their annual bye into the quarter-finals which they have enjoyed for over 100 years. The back door system is a further blessing to Kerry's position of privilege. Apart from some annual first round bit of shooting practice against Waterford or Limerick, they can now leave the Munster championship to Cork and start things in earnest at the beginning of August when provincial champions have already exhausted themselves. Kerry's last two All Irelands were from the back door, and Galway and Tyrone each have a back-door All Ireland.

It could well be that last year's Ulster champions, Tyrone, finally decided that if they wanted to give the All Ireland another tilt, winning Ulster was, to put in mildly, not that important.

The back door gives space to grow, for the Tyrone side who lost to Down in June and the Tyrone who annihilated Dublin in August are an ocean apart. Dublin's four successive Leinster titles have proved to be a millstone round their necks, as have Armagh's recent Ulster wins.

People talk about the back door giving weaker teams much more championship exposure etc, but it merely lengthens their walk along the plank.

It was set up solely to bring in more revenue, for it is hard to believe that any organisation could propose and pass such a pathetic system for the sake of the game. The old provincial system was of course a very bad system of one-round knock-outs and needed to be replaced by giving every team a series of games with equality of opportunity for all. The reality now is that one bad system is being destroyed by an even worse system. - Yours, etc,

PETER MAKEM, Armagh Rd, Newry.

[comethekingdom]

Letter from  Peter Makem, once Armagh manager. This version published in the Irish Times.

Madam, - The back door is now the front door. After Tyrone's defeat of Dublin in Croke Park in the All Ireland quarter-finals it is more and more obvious that progress in the championship comes down to peaking in mid-August instead of June or July. In other words it means getting out of the provincial championship as early as possible with minimum fuss and setting out on the lucrative back-door route. With the exception of Cork, all the other three provincial champions, Armagh, Galway and Dublin, have been decisively eliminated at the quarter-final stage.

It is now beyond dispute that if a county wants to go far in the All Ireland championship, the last thing they need is a provincial title. Armagh, Dublin and Galway have all peaked far too early and have paid the penalty for taking the provincial championships seriously.

In recent years, Kerry appear to have have simply handed the Munster final to Cork under the pretence of "being out of form" or having "lost their appetite for championship football". They led at half time against Cork by nine points in the most recent Munster final - a similar sort of situation to the previous year - and "collapsed" in the second half, trying to convince everybody that they were in decline and that an era was over.

But in reality they were postponing their championship surge until August, getting another month out of their annual bye into the quarter-finals which they have enjoyed for over 100 years. The back door system is a further blessing to Kerry's position of privilege. Apart from some annual first round bit of shooting practice against Waterford or Limerick, they can now leave the Munster championship to Cork and start things in earnest at the beginning of August when provincial champions have already exhausted themselves. Kerry's last two All Irelands were from the back door, and Galway and Tyrone each have a back-door All Ireland.

It could well be that last year's Ulster champions, Tyrone, finally decided that if they wanted to give the All Ireland another tilt, winning Ulster was, to put in mildly, not that important.

The back door gives space to grow, for the Tyrone side who lost to Down in June and the Tyrone who annihilated Dublin in August are an ocean apart. Dublin's four successive Leinster titles have proved to be a millstone round their necks, as have Armagh's recent Ulster wins.

People talk about the back door giving weaker teams much more championship exposure etc, but it merely lengthens their walk along the plank.

It was set up solely to bring in more revenue, for it is hard to believe that any organisation could propose and pass such a pathetic system for the sake of the game. The old provincial system was of course a very bad system of one-round knock-outs and needed to be replaced by giving every team a series of games with equality of opportunity for all. The reality now is that one bad system is being destroyed by an even worse system. - Yours, etc,

PETER MAKEM, Armagh Rd, Newry.

Looks like this Peter boy should do a fact find before he writes in to the Times - poor knowledge of football from someone that should know about but I guess when you start whinging about poor armaghs lack of success compared to Kerry and Tyrone its hard to be reasonable! (he must have had a right oul cry with S McDonnell about the dreadful backdoor system!!!!!)

[ONeill]

I don't think teams go out to lose but I honestly shook my head at the Armagh players and supporters who celebrated relatively wildly the Ulster titles recently, thinking it was a step closer to Sam. Steven McDonnell was gesturing like a man who'd won the lottery on the podium this year. For teams who harbour serious designs on Sam, provincial titles are simply gongs you pick up on the way but present a route that'll leave you under-prepared for teams who have been playing white heat games week-in week-out.

Unless you have exceptionally talented and manically driven players like Kerry have, you'll struggle to compete in August if you go the front door.

[Yes I Would]

Alot of merit in what Makem says, although its debatable whether Armagh peaked at any stage this year.

[Kerry Mike]

In recent years, Kerry appear to have have simply handed the Munster final to Cork.

Pure shite, Cork have won 4 Munster titles in the last 10 years. 1999, 2002 after a replay with Kerry, 2006 after another replay, and this year, we have won the others, hardly a team simply handing the Munster title to Cork. Winning the Munster title is still very important to Kerry, and some years Cork will beat us and Limerick have also given it a good rattle recently, but winning the Munster title gives the best and direct route of getting to a quarter final.

It is now beyond dispute that if a county wants to go far in the All Ireland championship, the last thing they need is a provincial title

Ahem.............2004 & 2007 Kerry - Munster and All Ireland Champions.

They led at half time against Cork by nine points in the most recent Munster final

T'was only 8 we wanted to give them some chance.

Kerry's last two All Irelands were from the back door,

2006 yes correct, but in 2007 we won Munster but never mind the facts drive on with your rant.

getting another month out of their annual bye into the quarter-finals which they have enjoyed for over 100 years.

Surely if we were handing the Munster title to Cork we would then be into the qualifiers and not the bye into the quarter finals as stated. And as the quarter finals are only around since 2001 it make a total laugh of his statement.

Wait until Mike Sheehy gets hold of this article, lads ye are only throwing petrol on his fire.

The is the kind of crap that passes for letters in the Times these day. Can someone lock the door on this fool in the padded room and take the crayons off him before he harms himself.

[ziggysego]

The is the kind of crap that passes for letters in the Times these day. Can someone lock the door on this fool in the padded room and take the crayons off him before he harms himself.

Another Armaghian has been getting away with it for years.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

The editor of the Irish Times hates ye as well KM 

[armaghniac]

Even if I posted the letter, I don't really believe this myself. This should not turn into another thread about Armagh specifically, but winning Ulster did not stop us beating Wexford. Over the years there has been some problems with large gaps between games, but the Ulster replay ensured that this was not the case this year. The year Armagh did win Sam we played Tyrone in the first round, so much for taking it easy in the early stages. What has happened though is that Kerry do take it a bit easier in the Munster final, whatever KM says. Then other provincial champions ended up playing Kerry in the quarters, Armagh 2006 and Galway 2008 didn't reach the semi finals because Kerry had dropped into the qualifiers, had they been reached the semis they might have ended up being beaten by Kerry in the final instead, which would put a different look on things. Armagh may have been complacent against Wexford, but surely Tyrone had enough experience for Dublin not to underrate them, I am not sure that it is the fault of the Leinster championship.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Whatever about Munster, and the rest of the provinces, I think the fact that we were dumped out of the Ulster Championship by Down not only did that not harm our chances, it actually enhanced them very considerably (as I believe I said at the time). Suddenly, expectations were non-existent and the spotlight and pressure were off, which allowed the team to get down to the serious business in hand unhassled and unhindered, and just stocking up on the reserves of determination to prove the doubters and the pessimists wrong (job not nearly finished yet).

I'm not saying that MH went out to deliberately seek an early ejection, more that he very purposely did not attempt to peak for any of the Ulster games, and instead intended to use the games themselves primarily as a vehicle for fitness, and if an Ulster flowed from that then so be it. Similarly with the Qualifier games, again without any great pressure or weight of expectation, the fitness levels improved with each game until they reached something of an explosive peak against Dublin. High risk perhaps, in that had the Dublin game not been postponed by a week we may not have been as fresh, but a risk worth taking nonetheless.

So, whatever about the rest (of the provinces), the Ulster Championship is a definite handicap, it would appear.

[J70]

Maybe the Ulster championship is a handicap, but there are no guarantees in the qualifiers either. Look at Monaghan this year: we're no worldbeaters ourselves, but we came very, very close to beating Monaghan, as did Derry, before Monaghan got stuck with Kerry again. Had Monaghan drawn Kildare instead of Kerry, there is a very strong chance that they would be in an All Ireland semi-final now (or at least would be licking their wounds after losing narrowly to Kerry on Sunday!). Now obviously the better teams will benefit from tough games, provided they win them of course, but this year's purge of provincial winners was at least partly down to the luck of the draw in Galway's (and probably Cork's) case, and complacency in Dublin and Armagh's (I'm not saying Tyrone would not still have won, but the Dubs are not 12 points the inferior of Tyrone).

[20leg-end08]

They don't Makem like they used to.

Good man 

[Mike Sheehy]

Wait until Mike Sheehy gets hold of this article, lads ye are only throwing petrol on his fire.

Yerra, these days there is no need to wind them up at all...they do it themselves....I'm not sure whether O'Mahoney deserves a boot up the hole for his actions on Sunday or a medal for his good work in winding up nordies !  Its hilarious 

[Tyrones own]

I'm not sure whether O'Mahoney deserves a boot up the hole for his actions on Sunday or a medal for his good work in winding up nordies !  Its hilarious 

Now now Mikey it's plain for all to see that your "merchant material" took one hell of a beaten this past weekend
Think we'll leave any reversing, be it psychology or otherwise to Molly backing in to ye in the auld barn
In the mean time, we'll all wait with abated breath for the day that you actually post something constructive on a kerry   thread
on this board and leave the obvious obsession with Tyrone behind ye...that's what's hilarious to all bar yourself
Now in to your Peter the Great Jammies and off to bed with ye 

[feetofflames]

If Peter Makem is the first person in Armagh to realise this then hes also the shrewdest.  Listen when Tyrone lifted the Anglo Celt last year half the crowd were already in their cars.  Its meaningless these days to concentrate on Ulster if it stops you achieveing All Ireland winning momentum.  Comapre this to the hysteria of Mc Donnell and Mc Keever doing the tango on the steps of the Gerry Arthurs in front of a packed pitch.  This was Armagh saying we are satisfied and content weith our lot and happy to be the best team in the Ulster tournament.  Note I said the tournament because I deem the Anglocelt as reduced to the level of a tournament which is nice to win fior a bit of bragging.  (Heres one how many times have Armagh beaten Tyrone in the overall championship since 1999.  Arm - 2 wins,  Tyrone 3 wins with  1 draw)    Im sure the Wexford manager Jason Ryan watched these celebrations, took out his notebook and pen and wrote down in 30 seconds how Wexford were going to beat Armagh.  I fully expect in year 2 of O Donnells reign a much superior and focussed outfit but the fans must share in that focus and not lose the run of themselves at beating the Fermanaghs of this world in Ulster finals. 

[Aghdavoyle]

I don't think teams go out to lose but I honestly shook my head at the Armagh players and supporters who celebrated relatively wildly the Ulster titles recently, thinking it was a step closer to Sam. Steven McDonnell was gesturing like a man who'd won the lottery on the podium this year.

Comapre this to the hysteria of Mc Donnell and Mc Keever doing the tango on the steps of the Gerry Arthurs in front of a packed pitch.  This was Armagh saying we are satisfied and content weith our lot and happy to be the best team in the Ulster tournament.

Of course none of this actually happened, but don't let he facts get in the way of your rant lads....