Armagh v Monaghan round 1 qualifier

[Main Street]

There are not many but it looks to be one of the outstanding fixtures before the Connacht Final in mid July.
Its likely that the fixture will be hyped out of proportion to what will be on offer on the pitch.
It's not real championship, that intensity will have gone. We will have a first qualifier round intensity which looks to be similar to a league game.
So league form might apply

[stew]

I wish the gaa would stop letting provincial sides meet in the early rounds of the back door portion of the championship, Armagh playing Kerry for example in the first round would be more attractive to me than Armagh Monaghan. Ulster is hard enough without having to meet your local rivals in back door play as well.

[donelli]

Tough draw for both counties.
No venue advantage for either team as both teams are well used to it.
even though its a saturday evening game, i'd expect a good crowd, maybe just over 15k.

[balladmaker]

Perfect game for both Armagh and Monaghan, in a strange way.  Whoever wins will find their season revitalised. 

At the end of the day, if Armagh can't beat Monaghan and vice versa, then they should not be in the championship.  There can be no excuses after this game for the losers.

[Maguire01]

At the end of the day, if Armagh can't beat Monaghan and vice versa, then they should not be in the championship.  There can be no excuses after this game for the losers.

By that logic, with Armagh and Monaghan arguably being the 2 strongest teams in the first round of the qualifiers, none of the other 14 teams should be in the championship either. Maybe we should just let Tyrone, Kerry and maybe Cork and one other team battle it out for the Championship?

[donelli]

With Freeman ruled out, i'd expect Hanratty and Downey to both get the nod, with ronaghan relegated to the bench.

Banty may go with Woods at FF, as he worked well there against Armagh in the league.

[JMohan]

Na, I'd see him throwing a big man in FF and expect the breaks to scatter to Downey and someone like Hanratty 

[Maguire01]

I thought Downey was very unlucky to be denied a starting place in the Derry game, after an impressive league campaign for a new player. He should defintely get a starting place for this game. I'd have Hanratty starting and Ronaghan as a sub (half time at the latest) if it wasn't working out for Hanratty.

[JMohan]

I thought Downey was very unlucky to be denied a starting place in the Derry game, after an impressive league campaign for a new player. He should defintely get a starting place for this game. I'd have Hanratty starting and Ronaghan as a sub (half time at the latest) if it wasn't working out for Hanratty.

Hanratty has apparently been terrible this year for club and county
Would you not start with Ronaghan to run around and bump into men - then bring on the speed when some tiredness has set in?

[donelli]

Hanratty may be hitting a purple patch now.
seen him last week in action for his club, and he was the stand out player in the game, scoring 8 points.

hopefully he can show similar form next week

[Maguire01]

Hanratty will come good for Monaghan. And in the absence of Tommy he's likely to win some frees at least.

[donelli]

If the weather holds out like this til Saturday, i think i'll make a good long day out of it in clones...

[FarneyMan]

No sure how reliable this is but was talking to someone at the weekend and they are convinced Freeman will be getting off all charges on Tuesday night..........apparently some legal loophole is to be exploited or something like that................

[bingobus]

Is Freemans hearing over or is it tonight?

Hear Monaghan have 3 major injury doubts for Saturday and it's looking bad for 2 of them.

[full back]

Has Vernon took much part in training recently?
Any chance of him playing a part on Saturday?