All-Ireland QFs: Armagh/Roscommon, Dublin/Galway, Donegal/Louth, Kerry/Derry

[tonto1888]

Derry looked like they went out to stop kerry rather than to win.

Had some brilliant individual performances from Glass and Rogers in particular. Mcguigan in the first half too.
Mcevoy mostly did a job on O'Se and Chrissy did much better on Clifford this year than he did last year.

But, we were toothless.
Ball too slow to get forward, and not enough off the shoulder runs. Final 3rd passes went to kerry unforced. Then rash shots too.

Kerry were far from impressive and only pulled away a bit when we had to chase a 3pt lead.

Derry subs were made too late, and took off the wrong players.

Disappointed, but not that unexpected.
Championship to forget.
Harte....hasn't brought much.
We look like the team that had just come out of div 3 a few years ago.

You are looking at it this morning thinking we got so much right in terms of match ups. If someone told you before that Clifford wouldn't be seen after the first 10 min, Paudie would barely get a kick from Conor Doherty, Seanie oshea would be wrapped up by McEvoy and McGuigan would be the best player on the pitch you'd think we'd have a great chance but then the performance was just so flat when we needed to kick on. We needed a few things to go our way in the last 20 min but once Kerry got that 2 or 3 point lead it was over. We didn't get anything from our defenders in an attacking sense which is unusual but I suppose we had to go back to basics after the championship hammerings. It definitely feels like we've went back during this championship.

Armagh are better than us right now and have the ability to beat Kerry but I will always question their ability to get over the line until they do it. Expect a very close game.

a fair point. I am hoping the win on Saturday is a monkey off the team's back and they get a big boost from that. Kerry probably heavy favourites - no point Armagh turning up if you listen to some - so that will suit us also

[Mario]

Derry looked like they went out to stop kerry rather than to win.

Had some brilliant individual performances from Glass and Rogers in particular. Mcguigan in the first half too.
Mcevoy mostly did a job on O'Se and Chrissy did much better on Clifford this year than he did last year.

But, we were toothless.
Ball too slow to get forward, and not enough off the shoulder runs. Final 3rd passes went to kerry unforced. Then rash shots too.

Kerry were far from impressive and only pulled away a bit when we had to chase a 3pt lead.

Derry subs were made too late, and took off the wrong players.

Disappointed, but not that unexpected.
Championship to forget.
Harte....hasn't brought much.
We look like the team that had just come out of div 3 a few years ago.

You are looking at it this morning thinking we got so much right in terms of match ups. If someone told you before that Clifford wouldn't be seen after the first 10 min, Paudie would barely get a kick from Conor Doherty, Seanie oshea would be wrapped up by McEvoy and McGuigan would be the best player on the pitch you'd think we'd have a great chance but then the performance was just so flat when we needed to kick on. We needed a few things to go our way in the last 20 min but once Kerry got that 2 or 3 point lead it was over. We didn't get anything from our defenders in an attacking sense which is unusual but I suppose we had to go back to basics after the championship hammerings. It definitely feels like we've went back during this championship.

Armagh are better than us right now and have the ability to beat Kerry but I will always question their ability to get over the line until they do it. Expect a very close game.

This sounds v like Tyrone defeats in the 2010s to Kerry

You are probably right. There is a common denominator.

I'll probably regret this very soon after but I hope Armagh beat Kerry. Kerry are infallible in the southern media. It takes two to tango and they played an equal part in that shit match.

[imtommygunn]

Is a common denominator not also that the forwards just weren't / aren't there on the team being beat by Kerry...

[Armamike]

Derry couldn't beat Kerry because they still don't have enough of a scoring threat across their forward line. Far too reliant on one forward.  I thought Kerry looked fairly ordinary yesterday, and their corner forwards were very poor.  But, would expect they will improve for the semi.  I think (hope!) Armagh will stretch Kerry more than Derry did, but will that be enough if Kerry improve on yesterday?  It's going to be difficult!  Kerry will really fancy their chances.

[Mario]

Is a common denominator not also that the forwards just weren't / aren't there on the team being beat by Kerry...

It's not a forward thing it's a tactical approach imo. Forwards can look bad if they have no support.

Despite this McGuigan was the best player on the pitch as he so often is. Murray didn't perform yesterday maybe partly due to tactics and lack of service but you can't deny he has the ability to be a top level forward and has shown it. Ethan Doherty is as good a whf as there is. Our best forwards were no worse than Kerry's yday. The otherside is that if we did go more attacking we could have got tanked but I don't think we would have given the good individual match ups. Maybe it would have just ended up a narrow defeat again who knows. The confidence wasn't there to do that though.

[imtommygunn]

With Murray having a poor day yesterday though and Cassidy being off form you had two forwards in Mulholland and McFall who would nearly be more at home in defense and two forwards who were ineffectual leaving you with McGuigan and Doherty really. (McFall a great player but dunno his best position at all)

In reality it's probably a bit of both I think.

[Ethan Tremblay]

For the Derry folk, what would have constituted a good season?

What meaningful progress would they have had to have seen to be count this as an honorable end to the year? Another semi final at the least?

[tyrone08]

Mickey brought exactly what ever tyrone fan knew he would bring. A hard to defeat team very limited in offensive football and a team with disciplinary issues.

Bringing in a manager who failed to beat either dublin and Kerry in 15 years was mental. Mickey's biggest achievement was managing to beat mayo after penalties, he previously failed to beat them for the last 15 years or so as well.

[Mario]

For the Derry folk, what would have constituted a good season?

What meaningful progress would they have had to have seen to be count this as an honorable end to the year? Another semi final at the least?

Based on expectations at the start of the year I think par would have another semi final. The league was brilliant and beating the Dubs in a classic league final shouldn't be laughed at given this team was in Div 4 5 seasons ago. We've taken a step back but we had taken 10 steps forward so we can't be too disheartened.

Glen won the AI, our u20s were very unlucky to lose to Tyrone on pens and they won the AI, our minors are in the AI final.  Next year we'll prob be ranked 6 to 8 in the country instead of 3. Lower expectations might not be a bad thing if there is a new mgmt in place.

It's hard to see Derry dropping outside the top tier in the next 5 years. We have a few players that turned 30 this year but most of the team are in their prime or approaching it. There have been worse times for a Derry fan.

[tiempo]

Mickey brought exactly what ever tyrone fan knew he would bring. A hard to defeat team very limited in offensive football and a team with disciplinary issues.

Bringing in a manager who failed to beat either dublin and Kerry in 15 years was mental. Mickey's biggest achievement was managing to beat mayo after penalties, he previously failed to beat them for the last 15 years or so as well.

I don't remember Mickey kicking the ball wide from scorable positions, or falling in a heap when hair ruffled, players need to take responsibility

[From the Bunker]

Harte is a good manager to set the ground work for a county. Bringing him in at the end stage is just madness. 

[Mario]

Harte is a good manager to set the ground work for a county. Bringing him in at the end stage is just madness.

What other choices did we have? It wasn't the plan to get rid of our manager last year. O'Rourke didn't want it, Meenagh didn't want it.

[trueblue1234]

Mickey brought exactly what ever tyrone fan knew he would bring. A hard to defeat team very limited in offensive football and a team with disciplinary issues.

Bringing in a manager who failed to beat either dublin and Kerry in 15 years was mental. Mickey's biggest achievement was managing to beat mayo after penalties, he previously failed to beat them for the last 15 years or so as well.

What manager would you have brought in that has experience of beating Kerry and Dublin? They're not exactly two a penny.

[screenexile]

For the Derry folk, what would have constituted a good season?

What meaningful progress would they have had to have seen to be count this as an honorable end to the year? Another semi final at the least?

In the round it's not a terrible season winning Div 1 and getting to an AIQF but the manner of the Donegal and Armagh defeats leave a sour taste and we've definitely gone back a bit compared to last year.

[Armagh18]

Kerry were as guilty if not more guilty of the puke football yesterday as Derry.