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[clown Hughes]

Courtney skelped donnelly by the looks of things

http://www.sportsfile.com/id/336379/5000/

Who in their right mind put that clown Hughes in charge of an important Sigerson match like this?

Respect !!!! He's one of the top refs in the country at the moment. And it does look they boxed in front of him - so what else was he supposed to do ?.

You must be joking.  Sigerson football had always been played on edge and rarely ruled with cards like this.  It may not be right but has helped make Sigerson what it is.

I couldn't agree more but the powers that be don't want this sort of football anymore - they want non contact, a pile of scores, good behaviour - a wee bit like basketball I suppose. So you can't really blame the referees.

Not sure if you were at the match Orangeman but Hughes cannot be absconded simply because of 'the powers that be' ........... I'm not even talking about the sendings off (though Courtney's looked highly dubious from my view,) but all a player had to do whilst in possession was run in to an opposing player/s (preferably a group) and they were given a free.  Irritated me all game long and I'm sure many people would share a similar sentiment?  Agree with you about how they seem to want football to evolve though.

Just back from the Dub, a game spoilt by the pernickety Paudie Hughes.  UUJ won courteous of a well organised game plan, nullifying Queens diagonal balls into the FF line and pressurising the QUB kickers around the congested centrefield.  Added to that UUJ largely dominated midfield, especially in the 1st half.  Darren Hughes was my man of the match at CHB for the Poly, swept up a lot of possession and drove out of defence with authority.  A great late point rounded off an excellent display.  Colm Cavanagh had a superb opening half, winning ball out in front and in the air (some of the kickpasses into him in the first half were first rate,) plus kicking a few points.  The Poly deserved the win, but on another day their wayward freetaking could have been more costly.

Donegal full back was Eamon McGee, who I have witnessed curbing Stevie McDonnell quite effectively in the past.  Whilst he is probably not Donegal's first choice for full back, he is certainly not a bad player and is better than a lot of full backs across the country. 

Cheers for keeping the league results etc.. updated Ferm Pundit. 

Think the Harps will take Tempo, physically stronger and ability to score goals should be crucial.  Not really sure about the other game, two attack minded teams and both have the ability to score (and concede) high scores.  Though it being a derby throws all predictions out the window really.

I'd have given McGinley POTY. McElroy of Fermanagh was the best half back this year and is also missing. No Armagh player should be on that side for annually choking in Croker.

Tommy McElroy was Fermanaghs best player over the year IMO but for some reason tends to be overlooked by everyone, including his own county.  If it was based on the Ulster Championship then Clarke had to be a shoe in.  If not, then McGinley would certainly challenge him.  As far as I am aware it is based on the qualifiers as well.  Think McGrath's comments showed he was almost embarrassed to get it .

Predictions:

SFC. Devenish v Tempo.  Hard game to call.  Could see one team actually running away with, not sure which though.

IFC. St. Joseph's v Brookeboro.  Hesitant nod to Ederney after a good weekend.


SFC. Kinawley v Derrygonnelly.  Neither side playing particularly well at the moment but if DG tie up Doherty then should be enough to nullify Kinawley.


SFC. St. Patrick's v Teemore.  St Pats picking it up at the right time, but Teemore have the defence to contain their threat.



Newtownbutler v Enniskillen.  Hard to look beyond the Gaels (favourites?) but NTB will push them to the finish

I would put Meehan and Sheahan a good bit ahead of everybody else for free taking (though I haven't seen Mulligan). They are the only two that seem to me to be reliable from any distance. Meehan shades it for me - you are almost certain he'll score from anywhere inside about 60 metres, whereas I'm sure I've seen Sheahan miss a few. Does anybody have statistics on their hit rates?

Sheehan shades it for me, although Meehan looked awesome at the weekend (as he did with his 0-11 against Sligo a couple of years ago?)  Seen a fair bit of both players, whether in schools, university, underage and now senior, and Sheehan just seems to have a range beyond everybody.  In terms of frees, I believe he can become the best ever (no exaggeration attached.)  Conversion rates would be interesting, but I don't think they always tell the full picture.  I recall a player in my club, probably about a 80% conversion on anything inside 35yards (100% on frees with no pressure and about 10% on any with pressure!)

Yes Moyna is the name, Des or Niall as I recall.  Fermanagh could do a presentation on how underhit point attempts lead to fisted goals, it doesn't mean we should all be trying it though!  Seriously though, it is suggestions like this that baffle me.  There are too many percentages and statistics thrown up to support things that one cannot really understand without an appreciation for the game.  Maybe that accounts for DCU's 1 Sigerson title despite having the best squad of players for a number of years running now.  If someone like Micko had them I doubt he would need the presentations, and I would doubt he would only have 1 Sigerson.

Oops, sorry hijacked this thread to talk about Fermanagh, didn't notice it was about the Cork game!

I believe McCluskey is a problem for Fermanagh and O'Rourke may need to push him back into the corner or play him wing forward next year. So much ball goes through his hands but he's so concerned with keeping possession he simply solos (sideways) or fist passes. this is starving the forwards of early ball in space. if he would (or maybe he can't?) kick pass the ball you'd have fermanagh forwards collecting ball closer to goal and in more space. depending on the quality of the kicking they might even collect the ball within the scoring zone as Clarke and mcdonnell do for armagh

Exactly.  Most people I talk to read far too much into 'ball retention.'  Kieran McGeeney made a living out of driving 60 yard diagonal balls that were far from being 100% balls, but it is a far more effective way of playing IMO.  The effects of excessive ball retention, in defence, further up the field is not tangible, and thus people tend to overlook the consequent problems that arise and cite how effective a player is at keeping possession

In a fit, last night, I sat through the Kildare - Fermanagh first half last night to see what went on again. As I sometimes like to do, I decided to diagram where the teams were taking shots from, and missing, to see if I could see a pattern. As I went through it, a clear pattern actually emerged, especially in relation to Fermanagh, and I think a lot of it comes down to Kildares' defence, and Fermanagh's lack of a Barry Owens. Taking my geekiness to new levels, I plotted the shots onto a map of a pitch, and I've posted it below. As you can see Kildare forced Fermanagh (or the lack of a target man forced them) to take shots from angles. Not one of Fermanagh's shots could be termed as in front of the posts. If Kildare can do that again to Cork, especially if Michael Cussen can be neutralised, they will take beating again. I was impressed with Kildare's defence on second viewing, at times it was like the Mighty Duck's Flying V formation, forcing Fermanagh down the channels, away from the front of the goal.

The diagram below shows red circles where kicks from play were wide (the players number is in the circle), greens are scores from play, blues are wides from frees. I think it's quite startling to see where Fermanagh were kicking from. From Kildare's perspective, it was much more spread out across the field.

PS. Before ye start, yes I am aware this is fairly nerdy

That is well done AZ, I fully support your nerdiness   I had thought of doing something similar earlier on in the Championship to outline how I felt Fermanagh were limiting their ability up front by their own doing.  From a Fermanagh perspective I believe I can offer some additional thoughts on the positioning of some shots.  Clearly there is the lack of a target man, which does not help as you have outlined.  Many of the shots came from players running from deep into the space and striking from distance (Marty mainly) and others came from laboured approach play.  The ball is 'recycled' back and forth and across the pitch until options are limited and eventually all options are exhausted and a player takes it upon himself to shoot out of a lack of a better idea (Kelly mainly in this instance, Eamon an extent.)  Whilst I cannot be sure, I would assume that all missed shots came from either of these two scenario's.  Conversely, our two scores came from two kick passes (from Kelly diagonally to Keenan and T McElroy to Maguire.)  Possibly the only two pieces of incisive play we had in the half, where we kicked a ball (in the opposition half) over 30 yards.  In these two instances we did not require a 'target man' but a fast release of the ball to the inside line. 
My problem is that we built the ball up from defence with a succession of short passes (backwards, forwards, sideways) which looked good and retained possession 99% of the time, but allowed the opposition to filter back and limited the space that our smaller forwards craved (and thus led to our sideways passing amongst the forwards.)  By the time we had passed the ball around in defence and we looked up, there was no space apart from on the wings.  The only two defenders who provided any forward momentum were McElroy and McDermott (Murphy's goal chance came from his initial burst through the middle.)  Little also offered this when he was deep, however he is also reluctant to kick the ball.
This is just a small point from a Fermanagh perspective, so Dinny and co do not take it as an 'excuse,'  it is a general problem I have noticed from the beginning of the year, and our style of play.  It was a contributory factory IMO, along with your good defending obviously (as AZ and Uladh pinted out.)  I know we won some good games this year, but in the championship our conversion rate was relatively poor throughout.  In Division 3 we could get away with it, but not in the championship.  Constantly it is said that we are as good 1-9 in the country (the reporter today) but I feel that if we are to increase our conversion rate, then our forwards need to be given a fair opportunity with quick released ball.  Bradley referred to Mulgrew's era in the Herald where they played a game at training, which involved the ball being moved from one end of the pitch to the other in 12 secs (open to correction.)  I doubt we crossed the half way line in under 20 secs on Sunday.  Pretend for one second that every ball that McCluskey got on Sunday, he hit it as far as he could into the forwards straight away.  If we gained half of that ball kicked I guarantee we would  have scored more than 5 miserly points.  It may not have meant a 100% ball retention rate for McCluskey, but it would have left our forwards with the potential to utilise some of the space it would create in not allowing opposition players to filter back as effectively.  A problem for next year I guess.   

Congratulations to Armagh, deserving winners on the day.  We have nobody else to blame but ourselves, it is not neccessarily the amount we missed but the relative ease of the chances that is more upsetting to me.  I was glad to see Goan show the defender that he is, he really stood up to the challenge that McDonnell presented him.  OTB made some good points earlier, our confidence seemed to wane with our profligacy.
As for McDonnell goading Gallagher, well TBH he probably deserved it.  I don't think he would behave in that way without provocation.  However, M O'Rourke leaves me with a sour taste every time I see him on a football field.  It is one thing to react to provocation, which invariably you end up regrettting, but to actively seek out and incite a reaction from every opponent you face on a pitch, game in game out is just downright pitiful.  Added to this he throws himself to the ground at the slightest touch and engages in verbals with anyone who is stupid enough to humour him.  When we played Armagh in the McKenna Cup in Jan 2007 up in Lurgan, I left the game with the same sour taste.  I cannot even remember the result of the game as the overriding feeling was disgust.  Normally I can accept some level of these antics but he really just takes it a step too far for me.
There is no point people looking at the performance of Armagh and discounting them for that sole reason, they came to win and they did just that.  Whoever they play in the Quarters will be an entirely different game.

Must be fear EG .  I think the insinuation was being hard on the field, not much point getting all macho on here!

Oh and Screen Exile, you risk annoying some Armagh folk with comments like that, tut tut.  You are not even a WUM either, why would anyone outside of Fermanagh possibly think we can win ?

How did McCarey play at full forward for Monaghan?  Looked good against Fermanagh, but I only saw the second half on Sun and he disappointed me.  Hughes at CHF looked the makings of a fine player, as did Coney for Tyrone.

Yeah, should have been for the dive. can lads get booked for diving?
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Unless the ref can categorise it under something else there is nothing in the rulebook.  Sure Martin O'Rourke wouldn't last a game if there was