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If Mark Harte isn't county standard, how come he was Tyrone's top scorer in the 2004 Championship? Of course he was county standard. Anyone who ends up top scorer in the championship for their county is obviously county standard.

In 2005, Mark Harte was just recovering from injury and the Ulster Final against Armagh was his first game in a long while. Its impossible to be match sharp after such a long lay off. What did the people of Tyrone expect him to do ? Come on and score five or six points off Francie Bellew? The entire Tyrone team, despite owning the ball for the whole of the first half, only scored five points in that first half. Eoin Mulligan also came on at half time and did very little as he was also just recovering from injury, but the Tyrone fans didn't criticise him like they criticised Mark Harte.

In 2006, with Mark Harte off the panel, Tyrone lost in the first round to Derry after missing umpteen frees that would have suited a left footed kicker. If Mark Harte had still been on the panel, he would have kicked every one of them and could have spared Tyrone's blushes.   

Paul Hearty is a great goalkeeper. He has saved Armagh and Crossmaglen on more occasions than I care to remember. Ciaran McKinney is also excellent. Armagh are very lucky to have two goalkeepers of such high standard.

Paul Hearty is a superb goalkeeper. Anyone criticising him for the goal against Donegal should remember that in The Ulster Final last year against Donegal, he made a great save from Stephen McDermott in the last few minutes. If that goal had gone in, Donegal would have been level.

Its interesting that very few pundits drew any similarities between Armagh v Donegal this year and last year's Ulster Final. A lot of people said after the Ballybofey game that if Ronan Clarke had been playing, Armagh would have scored a lot more. But they scored 1 - 8 in Ballybofey and 1 - 9 last year against Donegal and Clarke did play in last year's game.

Armagh's main problem in the last few years is that on occasion they don't score enough. Against Kerry last year they shouldhave scored more in the first half. Against Fermanagh in 2004 they only scored one point from the 46th minute onwards. Against Donegal in the last two years they've only scored 1 - 8 and 1 - 9. In the All - Ireland semi against Tyrone in 2005, they owned the ball in the first half but only scored five points.

They don't score enough on many's an occasion and yet they have good forwards and get lots of possession. Its not the forwards fault as these are good players. The fault appears to lie with the system of play. They keep so many men back to win possession that when they get the ball, there's hardly anyone in their opponents half. 

I would like to see Philip Loughran at full forward to win possession and feed Oisin and Stevie. I'd put Diarmaid at centre half forward and Aaron Kernan at right half forward. I would also have played Paddy McKeever or Peadar Toal but, like Aaron, they are left - footed. So I would probably play Martin O'Rourke at left half forward with Paddy McKeever and Peadar Toal to come on when Diarmaid and Oisin tire. I'd play Charlie Vernon in Aaron's position at half back.

One big problem is that Armagh no longer have a reliable long range ( 50 yards ) free taker. Oisin is the best in the business but he isn't able to take them off the ground any more with his injury and he's not as accurate from the hand, particularly for long range kicks. Stephen Kernan appears to me to be the best option as he can hit fifties and was very accurate from placed balls for the Under 21s. So he may be worth playing at left half forward instead of Martin O'Rourke to kick the long range frees. I thought Stephen did pretty well in Ballybofey - it was his first real start in the senior jersey apart from against Fermanagh last year.