Down V Armagh - Newry 26th Feb

[Radda bout yeee]

did coulter feature at any stage?

[5 Sams]

did coulter feature at any stage?

Nope....didn't need him


Thought myself that Down were comfortable throughout despite the squeaky bum last 10 minutes.

We have a seriously strong bench. Garvey, McCumiskey and Colgan all did well and we still had Doyle and Clarke unused....young Murdock looks the part and was very quick off his line to block McDonnell.

There are few boys on here laughing at Ross Carr's MOM award for Murtagh......he won every ball that went in to him and used it well....then he effectively won the game with his two points at the end.....I might be biased but he deserved MOM for that alone.

Other plusses on the night were Dan's performance....in fact I thought our whole full back line looked solid and we still have Dee Raff and Dan McCartan to come back. Maginn's is maturing into a fine player and enough has been said about Danny Hughes on here already...

A satisfying night all round.....

[naka]

[I've heard the rumours of the players having no respect for the management before and it may or may not be true but Armagh look like a team playing on instinct alone which simply won't cut it in this day and age.

This is no knee jerk reaction to a defeat to Down either. Last season i thought we were in trouble tactically and there has been no improvement whatsoever this season.
feels like the dark days again..................................
[/quote]
i hear that POR et AL have approached a few guys in the county to sort out a forwards coach but have been turned down because they dont think the management team will be about that long, is this true ?
another annoying thing for me was pre match in that down went thru a thorough warm up yet armagh had a few shorts at goal, it all looked amateurish from an armagh point of view, what remit has mc gurn
interesting point for me was that i was sitting close to mc ivor in the stand who was barking out instructions to paddy tally to run on to the pitch and implement, yet we had our management team on the line watching impassively  .

[PAULD123]

Armagh tried hard but are lacking overall talent. Perhaps the Cross players will improve that. I wouldn't be banking on Ronan Clarke though, we have no idea what sort of player he will come back. Also with Cross winning, Armagh now have to play Mayo away and Kerry at home without those players. But Paddy is a disaster, he is indeed tactically inept. From the school of - "Get stuck in lads" management. I can't see Armagh improving while you have him in charge. As someone else pointed out most of the current Down team were available to him and we were beat out the door in each championship.

As for Down - if we become more ruthless we can challenge any team in the country. We were much improved in regaining possession in midfield, our defence kept Armagh to the 2nd lowest score in any Division 1 game this year, and we created 5 really good goal chances.

Next time against Cork is a serious challenge. We have had three games where we are making slight improvements each time. We've had the luxury of being below 100% and still getting away with it. Now we embark on a series of away games that we need to have the errors corrected and perform pretty much to our full ability. It has been a good schedule for us from that point of view.

[redandblackareback]

I said here on friday it would be a comfortable 5/6 point win, it should have been if danny hughes had scored at the end but it was the most comfortable one point win Iv seen in a long time.

I feel a bit sorry for Armagh because they actually do have some very very good players, they have a couple of cracking minor teams coming through but unfortunately along the sideline they have a very inept management team who are clearly out of their depth.

Justin mc nulty has proved a hit with Laois and I feel Paddy will regret not replacing him before the summer is out.

[Ethan Tremblay]

Are people actually serious here?? 2 narrow defeats to, arguably, 2 of the top 3 teams in Irealand last year and POR is getting a bollocking for it! Sum people need to realise that little fact before the crucification begins. 

As regard to andy getting "skint alot this last while", the poor fella's usually assigned the task of marking the oppisition best players.  I feel that not 1 player in the country could contain the likes of brogan when hes being supplied with countless oppertunities! 

Finally, the Ciarian mc Keever issue.  Hes a first class dickhead! But we should take solace in the fact that hes are dickhead, he gets in players heads and on their nerves.  Id rather see him playing chb for the orchard than anybody else!

P.S., if and when the 2 clarkes return i could almost guarentee these close encounters will sway are way (am pretty confident them boys could muster together a few scores )

[mountainboii]

Are people actually serious here?? 2 narrow defeats to, arguably, 2 of the top 3 teams in Irealand last year and POR is getting a bollocking for it! Sum people need to realise that little fact before the crucification begins. 

You presume all criticism stems from this year's displays alone. It does not.

As regard to andy getting "skint alot this last while", the poor fella's usually assigned the task of marking the oppisition best players.  I feel that not 1 player in the country could contain the likes of brogan when hes being supplied with countless oppertunities! 

Conor Laverty is not next nor near Down's best player. And Mallon did not mark Brogan in the Dublin game. Mallon has high standards, and by these standards he hasn't been great lately.

[Brick Tamlin]

To be fair to Andy Mallon theres wasps that couldnt catch conor laverty.

[amallon]

A good result for Down but the performance was error ridden.  We need to be more clinical up front for the three big away games coming up.  Danny Hughes was my MOM by a mile.

[pintsofguinness]

[I've heard the rumours of the players having no respect for the management before and it may or may not be true but Armagh look like a team playing on instinct alone which simply won't cut it in this day and age.

This is no knee jerk reaction to a defeat to Down either. Last season i thought we were in trouble tactically and there has been no improvement whatsoever this season.
feels like the dark days again..................................

i hear that POR et AL have approached a few guys in the county to sort out a forwards coach but have been turned down because they dont think the management team will be about that long, is this true ?
another annoying thing for me was pre match in that down went thru a thorough warm up yet armagh had a few shorts at goal, it all looked amateurish from an armagh point of view, what remit has mc gurn
interesting point for me was that i was sitting close to mc ivor in the stand who was barking out instructions to paddy tally to run on to the pitch and implement, yet we had our management team on the line watching impassively  .
[/quote]
Who was approached

[naka]

will ask my source cani confirm names
fyi tierney confirmed this as well in his column in the irish news last week that people had been approached but turned it down

[mackers]

Also with Cross winning, Armagh now have to play Mayo away and Kerry at home without those players.

They should only be missing for the Mayo match. We play Kerry at home on the 20th of March. In fairness to the Kernans they always come straight back in after their club matches and hopefully Jaimie Clarke and Paul Hearty will do that also. I'd imagine a home tie against Kerry will be a big enough carrott to encourage them all to come back immediately, especially with relegation hanging over their county team.

will ask my source cani confirm names
fyi tierney confirmed this as well in his column in the irish news last week that people had been approached but turned it down

He didn't cite the same reason as you for them turning the job down though.
We badly need someone to get the forwards moving in a more cohesive way.

[Ethan Tremblay]

Forgive me for presumming the criticism does spawn from this year, after all we are posting on the down vs armagh page(reading through posts most references are made about armaghs 2 defeats), not the POR should be axed page .  If these matches were won would we even be having this conversation??  But fair due, last years championship was a bit of an anti-climax with that hiding by Monaghan, and blame should be put towards management!


My mistake regards mallon, assumed he marked brogan (missed match ), after all the lack of natural corner backs in the county could a could only assume... the point im getting at is that it even a player of mallons standard will slip up, nobodys perfect 100%!

[NaomhBridAbú]

was at the game last night - impartial, as im a tyrone fan.

Had a yearning for Div 1 football, I suppose.

NaomhBridAbú

Don't be using that username about Cross'

I dont have a hang up about Armagh as a neighbouring county - was down to see a good game of football and was a bit dissappointed to be honest, with the exception of parts of the second half.

Will be supporting Cross all the way on st pats, and willntry and get to the game.

Not sure how warranted the slagging of the managment team is - I'd like to see a list of all those players that have been overlooked for games so far - excluding the 4/5 from Cross, and a few injuries, the management team are not overlooking any better players.

Secondly, they played against a good Down team - not a great one, and one that is also in a period of transition...the Armagh management team is looking at surfing in Div 1, I'd say as a priority. All other focus would be on June onwards, and the team selection should be a bit different then.

Its wrong to be blaming a management team at this time of year in a competition, which let's face it is only relevant to your over all strategy NEXT year, should youbget relegated.

Peaking is key in GAA, arguably more so than in soccer and youll not enjoy the false sense of security that goes along with winning the Th McKenna cup or NFL...Anglo celt and Sam is what really matters

[NaomhBridAbú]

was at the game last night - impartial, as im a tyrone fan.

Had a yearning for Div 1 football, I suppose.

NaomhBridAbú

Don't be using that username about Cross'

When I say surfing, I probably meant surviving

I dont have a hang up about Armagh as a neighbouring county - was down to see a good game of football and was a bit dissappointed to be honest, with the exception of parts of the second half.

Will be supporting Cross all the way on st pats, and willntry and get to the game.

Not sure how warranted the slagging of the managment team is - I'd like to see a list of all those players that have been overlooked for games so far - excluding the 4/5 from Cross, and a few injuries, the management team are not overlooking any better players.

Secondly, they played against a good Down team - not a great one, and one that is also in a period of transition...the Armagh management team is looking at surfing in Div 1, I'd say as a priority. All other focus would be on June onwards, and the team selection should be a bit different then.

Its wrong to be blaming a management team at this time of year in a competition, which let's face it is only relevant to your over all strategy NEXT year, should youbget relegated.

Peaking is key in GAA, arguably more so than in soccer and youll not enjoy the false sense of security that goes along with winning the Th McKenna cup or NFL...Anglo celt and Sam is what really matters