Sam Maguire / Anglo Celt

[Main Street]

This is the best thread ever on Gaaboard.
Monaghan 5th and nobody blinks an eye


FWIW this would be my view of the 12

1.Tyrone
2. Kerry
3. Cork
4. Galway
5. Dublin
6. Wexford
7. Armagh
8. Monaghan
9. Mayo
10. Kildare
11. Down
12. Fermanagh or Westmeath

[Maguire01]

What have Derry done recently to merit such as high ranking? And Donegal,Wexford what have they done this decade?

For some reason, people always feel the need to rate Derry higher than they actually perform. Although you could argue that Derry and Donegal won the past 2 leagues and both were put out this year by Monaghan - a team many are also now ranking in the top 10.

Why would Westmeath not be in it either?

They probably should.

What have Armagh or Derry done to be above Dublin?(or Monaghan for that matter)

Well Armagh beat Dublin well in the league. Dublin got hammered by Tyrone, so they're no great shakes. Monaghan went doen narrowly to Kerry and drew with Dublin in the league.
Again, Dublin are a bit like Derry - the hype and the odds are never matched by the results at the end of the summer.

It's hard to be too scientific about these things at the same time. Given that Dublin beat Wexford by 23 points and Tyrone beat Dublin by 12 points, on paper Tyrone should have beaten Wexford by 35 points. But it doesn't quite work like that.

[ildanach]

Mayo also should be higher.

Having contested two all ireland finals in 04 and 06 a league final in 07 and a league semifinal in 06 and 05 you would imagine we would be higher all right.

[Frank Casey]

Having contested ?two all ireland finals in 04 and 06 a league final in 07 and a league semifinal in 06 and 05 you would imagine we would be higher all right.

[Lazer]

I think that analysis of armagh is fairly lazy lads. armagh were far superior to wexford on that day but missed a glut of scoring chances and fell to a sucker punch goal.

I heard this arguement from the RTE commentators on the day of the match too.
If Armagh were such a superior team - they woulod have won! The fact that they couldnt finish off the scores and lost the games makes them the inferior team on the day!

[J70]

Armagh just can't get enough scores at the moment to put teams away. They've been caught by "sucker punches" by Donegal, Derry and Wexford in the last year alone. It doesn't matter if you physically and possession-wise batter the other side - if you can't get more than two or three points in front, you're always leaving yourself vulnerable to a goal or a good spell by the other side. For example, Donegal got a very, very lucky goal to beat them last year, but despite being overrun by Armagh for 20 minutes of that second half, Donegal were only two points behind with a five or six minutes to go. If Devenney's shot had been a few inches further on and went over the bar instead of through Hearty's fingers, Donegal would have been only a point behind with two minutes left and all the momentum with them. Derry caught them late last year in similar circumstances, and as did Wexford this year. Armagh might dominate matches, but that doesn't mean they deserve to win them.

[J70]

Its hard to know how to rate anyone outside the top few. All much of a muchness to me and thus the rankings outside of Tyrone, Kerry and maybe Dublin would be very fluid from year to year even with basically the same sets of players in all cases.

Tyrone /Kerry
Dublin/Cork/Wexford/Galway/Monaghan/Armagh
Derry/Fermanagh/Mayo/Down/Donegal/Westmeath/Kildare/Limerick/Meath

[armaghniac]

Other Tyrone and Kerry (who have won nothing), the next tier should include the provincial winners who achieved something and who subsequently did not have a further opportunity to show what they could do after a defeat. Wexford might get in there too for their performances and perhaps the League champions too.

[SidelineKick]

This is the best thread ever on Gaaboard.
Monaghan 5th and nobody blinks an eye


FWIW this would be my view of the 12

1.Tyrone
2. Kerry
3. Cork
4. Galway
5. Dublin
6. Wexford
7. Armagh
8. Monaghan
9. Mayo
10. Kildare
11. Down
12. Fermanagh or Westmeath

kildare and down are not ahead of fermanagh. derry could be included ahead of either of them too.

[under the bar]

I think that analysis of armagh is fairly lazy lads. armagh were far superior to wexford on that day but missed a glut of scoring chances and fell to a sucker punch goal.

That's similarly lazy analysis since Wexford totally dominated Armagh for the last 10mins.  If the game had gone on longer Armagh would prob have lost by more as their legs were gone.    In a similar note, how many times have Armagh been getting beaten in Championship game only to win by a sucker punch or late couple of points?  And how many times have they come from behind to snatch an undeserved draw in recent years?

Wexford probably spared Armagh getting the hiding from Tyrone that they were well overdue.

[SidelineKick]

I think that analysis of armagh is fairly lazy lads. armagh were far superior to wexford on that day but missed a glut of scoring chances and fell to a sucker punch goal.

That's similarly lazy analysis since Wexford totally dominated Armagh for the last 10mins.  If the game had gone on longer Armagh would prob have lost by more as their legs were gone.    In a similar note, how many times have Armagh been getting beaten in Championship game only to win by a sucker punch or late couple of points?  And how many times have they come from behind to snatch an undeserved draw in recent years?
Wexford probably spared Armagh getting the hiding from Tyrone that they were well overdue.

last 10 mins, the game is 70 mins long.

u tell us when armagh snatched undeserved victories. they didnt deserve to win that day but u seem to have an issue with armagh.

[Uladh]

Or took a hiding

[Lazer]

This is the best thread ever on Gaaboard.
Monaghan 5th and nobody blinks an eye


FWIW this would be my view of the 12

1.Tyrone
2. Kerry
3. Cork
4. Galway
5. Dublin
6. Wexford
7. Armagh
8. Monaghan
9. Mayo
10. Kildare
11. Down
12. Fermanagh or Westmeath

kildare and down are not ahead of fermanagh. derry could be included ahead of either of them too.

Down did knock the All-Ireland champions out of Ulster, so i think we deserve some credit for that. And, although its a warm up competition we did beat Derry in the Final of the McKenna up (actually we completely trashed them)

What exactly do fermagh have that mean they deserve to be ahead of Down?

[SidelineKick]

league final and ulster final? quite an achievment, they actually should have won both of them.

[Maguire01]

What exactly do fermagh have that mean they deserve to be ahead of Down?

This?

20 Apr 2008
Down 0-13 - 1-12 Fermanagh

or this?

Allianz National Football League Division 3
  Team              P W D L  F     A   +/- Pts
1 Fermanagh      7 6 1 0 8-80 4-75 17 13
2 Wexford         7 5 2 0 9-80 4-71 24 12
3 Down             7 4 0 3 7-89 10-73 7 8