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Still think we would have won the 2003 final if he hadn't been wrongly sent off.

Such a crowd of whingers.

Rufus, can you shed any light on the U-21 fixture with the Nab.

Just waiting on the county board?

I would assume Spirit that it might have to take a back seat until the Nab are out of the Ulster Club - and that might come quicker than expected if the noises emanating from Danny Murphy are anything to go by! 

It was commented on here at the time, certainly by Hardy if my memory serves me well, that the ref effectively killed the Francie v Donaghey contest with his use of the yellow early on and the immortal line "once more and you're off!" It was after this that Donaghey did the damage.

At the risk of coming across a little bit high and mighty which is not the attention, I would suggest Francie killed the contest by fouling him so many times and forcing the Ref into doing this. It's not like his card was unwarranted, he had been blatantly hanging out of Donaghy all day. Blaming the Ref is a little bit disingenuous to my mind.

I will say this - it was harsh on Francie that of the nominated full backs, he was the only one that actually had to mark Donaghy this year, the other two were untested in that regard and it's fair to say that they mightn't have done any better. Francie failed a test that neither owens nor Canty sat, as it were.

No, that's fair enough Lone Shark - what I would say is that I watched Owens do something similar to Ronan Clarke over 140 minutes plus and he was never in any danger of leaving the pitch. I just get the impression with Francie it's a case of 'give a dog a bad name'.   

Just a reminder to Harps punters here that the Annual Mass in memory of deceased members is in St Malachys tonight at 7.30pm.

Wasnt Owens fecked outta the way like a little boy by Clarke in the ulster Championship

Not sure, I didn't see it. Everyone saw what Donaghy did to Bellew. To suggest Bellew should have got the Allstar is a joke and an example of the kind of shit that loses us good contributers on this board.

New Board; same old same old. Francie did not really deserve one, but to claim otherwise is not the fantasy that you suggest.

It was far from a vintage year as regards full backs and it could have gone to others. Francie was shortlisted, so him getting it would not have been inconceivable as Owens didn't particularly stand out.

It was commented on here at the time, certainly by Hardy if my memory serves me well, that the ref effectively killed the Francie v Donaghey contest with his use of the yellow early on and the immortal line "once more and you're off!" It was after this that Donaghey did the damage.

Edit - forgot to add - congratulations to Ronan Clarke - well deserved! 

Voted for Geezer with Paul McGrane I would suggest closest. Oisin was immense up to 2003 whilst Stevie has been immense since 2002.  To my mind, they are the only four that could be considered for such an accolade.

Two words cost us the match. Louis Saha! For f**ks sake how the f**k did they lose to Celtic?

Since we have lost Stew and none of the Harps crew have leapt in, it is up to me as his schoolmate at Greenpark CBS to nominated Jonny Corvan as the most naturally talented in Armagh.  Unfortunately, his talent was largely badly managed and lost. Even the College boys would agree with Corvan's nomination as the most naturally talented Armagh player.

I have nothing further to add!

On second thoughts I have - if we are talking natural talent only, then Corvan has no peer in Ulster! Simple as that!   

Refereeing mistake:

2003 All Ireland semi final - the referee's inexplicable failure to send off John McEntee for his forearm smash on Barry Monaghan with less than ten minutes to go, the game on a knife edge and the ref standing a couple of feet away. McEntee contributed to Armagh's two injury-time scores that won the game. In the same match, Ray Sweeney was sent off early in the second half, while Kieran McGeeney stayed on despite persistant fouling.

Don't worry J70 - the persistant fouling was well highlighted in the post match analysis, to the extent that at the handshake in Armagh's next match, the first words by Brian to Geezer were, "You watch the fouling'. It seemed to play on Brian's mind in the first half of that game! 

You have me at a bit of a loss here: I don't remember the details of Brian McGuigan's performance against McGeeney in the final!

Or are we talking about some other "Brian"?  Did Brian White ref the final?

Never thought of Brian McGuigan - you're correct - I'm referring to Brain White!

Refereeing mistake:

2003 All Ireland semi final - the referee's inexplicable failure to send off John McEntee for his forearm smash on Barry Monaghan with less than ten minutes to go, the game on a knife edge and the ref standing a couple of feet away. McEntee contributed to Armagh's two injury-time scores that won the game. In the same match, Ray Sweeney was sent off early in the second half, while Kieran McGeeney stayed on despite persistant fouling.

Don't worry J70 - the persistant fouling was well highlighted in the post match analysis, to the extent that at the handshake in Armagh's next match, the first words by Brian to Geezer were, "You watch the fouling'. It seemed to play on Brian's mind in the first half of that game! 

I know you said no stupid scenarios but I have two q's
1. Right, a player cannot hand pass the ball to the bet, but if it gets a slight deflection, will it be counted?
2. Can someone hand pass the ball to themselves, ie over someone's head?

My understanding would be that in scenario 1. the goal would stand - a bit like the scenario in soccer where an indirect free kick is deflected in, and in 2. you can hand pass the ball to yourself IF it bounces, but you can not take it on the full!   

Isn' it funny how mistakes in the first 65 minutes that lead to scores never seem to cost games. Still those scores are there on the scoreboard too, along with the 'real' scores from the last five minutes.

Spot on Hardy - last years Armagh v Tyrone semi-final is getting mentioned quite a lot here. Armagh players and management were guilty of some bad mistakes that led to Tyrone's last two points.

Yet I know a fella that knows Stevie, and he told me Stevie was haunted by a straightforward chance that he blazed wide, from in front of the nets (going for a point), midway through the second half. Stevie cut in froim the left, on to his right foot, and a simple tap over was there for the taking! I remember it well!   

By the way - just to point out - I'm not blaming Stevie - just highlighting the fact that the final score is an accumulation of many mistakes over seventy minutes!   

Bud

We are all getting tarred with the one brush, by the actions of a few. - As far as I am concerned all ye Alaskan's are the same. There is no point in blaming Tony Fearon because collectively ye post so much rubbish in one day than most anyone could post in five years



Seriously Bud - it really is time to hit the high seas! 

Well lads, the big day has arrived !!
After a few years and several thousand posts, the real slim shady will now have to stand up.

I will now explain.
When todays referee waved a red card at cargins goalkeeper adrian craig. the manager JC turned to the bench and wagged the finger at none other than Mr S.Shady !

With craig going to get a suspension, it looks like our main man will have the No.1 on his back for the replay next week in Clones.

You see the way slim always talked on this board you would have thought he was cargin's star man. Well now he has the chance.

Good luck mate. Your in the spotlight now. If you drop a clanger next week, the irish news, daily star, daily mirror, UTV Live, newsline - everyone will be on your back - and i cant see much sympathy been dished out on here !!

Goakeeper's union time!

Do the bizzo next week Slim - I'll be watching out for you on the Sports round up - no problem Kid! 

Now that things have died down a bit anybody else feel that the Aussies underlined how ordinary we are at our national game.Like the English soccer public we often talk big about our footballers, unlike the English we don't have a World Cup to show us poorly we play the game we invented. Futher evidence  can be taken from the weekend just past when talented well prepared club teams from around the country failed to get more than 5 scores in 60 minutes of football   

Regarding your opening question, my answer is no. Many people for some reason view The International Rules/Compromise Rules as being closer to Gaelic than to Aussie Rules - the round ball is highlighted as the reason. In my opinion the tackle far outweighs the round ball argument and renders the notion, that last week's game is comparable to Gaelic, as obsolete.

It follows therefore that nothing about the skills of our players can be read into last week's fiasco.