Armagh Club football & hurling

[yellowcard]

O'Rourke not expecting further retirements

New Armagh manager Paddy O'Rourke is confident that the Orchard County won't suffer any further retirements ahead of the new season.

Aidan O'Rourke announced his inter-county retirement in September, following in the footsteps of Paul McGrane and Francie Bellew who bowed out on the eve of last summer's championship.

There had been speculation that Enda McNulty, Paul Hearty and even Steven McDonnell were considering their futures, but O'Rourke expects them to be available for selection in 2010.

"Nobody other than Aidan has decided to retire, it's just him," the Down man said.

O'Rourke is expected to be without injured team captain Kieran McKeever as well as Martin O'Rourke and Stephen Kernan for the McKenna Cup campaign in January.


Can anyone clarify the 35 man panel named recently? I've heard a few names that were dropped but wouldn't like to speculate until I have heard it confirmed from a reliable source.

[winsamsoon]

Enda Mc Nulty needs to go and make way for the younger fitter lads that undoubtedly exist in the county he is taking the place of a lad with potential and should really be told if he hasn't got the gaul to go himself. Why does new managers come into county squads and keep loyalty with guys like this. For the life of me i cannot understand it. If Armagh are to move forward they have to have someone at the helm that is ruthless.

Steven Mc Donnell needs to train very hard for at least two months, from what i seen of him last year he had lost a lot of pace and in some games looked very uninterestested. Whether it was fitness or he just knew the team wasn't going to go very far and wasn't too concerned (if so this was stinking attitude) I am willing to give Mc Donnell a chance though as i believe the potential is still there, A big year for Armagh this year lads and we certainly can't afford to carry any passengers. I don't expect to win anything but a good backbone of young lads should be brought in and worked with imo

[Goats Do Shave]

Is keeping Enda on board a cheap way of utilising his mental prep skills?

[umgolaarmagh]

Enda is simple still one of the best corner backs in armagh

[thewanderer]

umgola are you serious, he couldnt even mark you?? mind you the old mind games might be different

[thewanderer]

surely someone like gerard barton or gerard mc coy of the ogs would deserve a chance other than someone who has served the county well but who has now lost the edge

[judas1]

surely someone like gerard barton or gerard mc coy of the ogs would deserve a chance other than someone who has served the county well but who has now lost the edge

wat about chris rafferty, wanderer did you forget about him.

[DuffleKing]

surely someone like gerard barton or gerard mc coy of the ogs would deserve a chance other than someone who has served the county well but who has now lost the edge

How do we know this or how have you arrived at that conclusion?

[thewanderer]

watched him with mullabawn and didnt shine the 3 times i saw him and he didnt play for armagh last year, ps chris did deserve a further chance but where happy to see him play regularily for the ogs, great club player.

[rattle-the-net]

The u21 final was a game of two halfs!! the wind dictated the game, cross went all out the first half to score as much as they could and then defend for their lives second half.

Cruppin didnt get it right first half in my opinion, they should have pulled more bodies back to cope with the wind. Yet in saying that some of cruppin players didnt want to know first half but came out fighting second half and i think scored 7 8 points in the first 10 minutes and had cross rattled but then a young lad for cross got hurt and game was stopped for about 6 7 mins!

This took the momentum away from cruppin and when cruppin was going on the attack got caught at the back to concede a goal late on which killed the game as a contest.

Cross by far the better team on the day, pity game was played in such bad conditions, would have being great to see what the two teams could have produced on a good day!

[mountainboii]

Doubt if Enda is fit for much more football with the county, but still wouldn't mind him around the set up in any capacity. No better man to let the newer additions know what it takes to reach the top. Remember watching him in a McKenna cup game a couple of years ago, and although the legs had gone a bit even then and he was struggling himself, he was constantly talking to the young lads around him, telling them where they should be for kick outs, reminding them which side of their man to stick on, etc. Having that sort of experience around the place is priceless.

[thewingedlady]

The day I knew Enda's game was up was the Dublin County Final in 2005 when a very yoing Mark Vaughan absolutely roasted him in the first half, scoring 5/6 points off him before Na Fianna made a change. That's just over four years ago! He must be in there for his expertise in sports psychology because, whilst once a great player, he's simply not that standard anymore.

[davo]

surely someone like gerard barton or gerard mc coy of the ogs would deserve a chance other than someone who has served the county well but who has now lost the edge

wat about chris rafferty, wanderer did you forget about him.

Very surprised rafferty didnt get another call up. was on the armagh championship panel last year and didnt even get a trial this year when he was centre half back on a championship winning team and was consistently good all year. armagh's loss is ogs gain i feel.

How many of the dromintee lads are on it? looking forward to seeing the full list of the panel.

[winsamsoon]

Listen lads if Mc Nulty is in the panel for any other reason only football then he should be part of back ground staff and he shouldn't be taking the place of another lad. It's a joke but then again so is Armagh. I have seen Chris Rafferty play this year and he certainly didn't do anything wrong i would have said he deserved a shot.

[DuffleKing]

I haven't seen McNulty play for so long that i couldn't give an assessment on him.

I guess neither have the new management and maybe they need to assess him? Are we sure he's on the panel?

There's a lot of hopeful names being bandied about that in our heart of hearts we know aren't going to make county footballers.