National League 2019

Great to get win. Annoying to think what could have been but another year in division 2 will do us no harm at all. Fermanagh are an awful side to watch.Thought Jarlath Og had a great game.

PatMustard said:

@Calm1

Cup of tea, McMenamin?

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Now you're really talking s**te

McQuillan differs from shin splints. That could well have been the reason he hasn’t been playing. If he’s good enough he will get his chance. Injury permitting

Delighted with the win yesterday not only from our own point of view but also to stick it to Fermanagh who have now disgraced themselves as a county. I understand that they have a small pick and they need to maximize their chances of winning but what I witnessed yesterday is an abomination and has no place within the GAA. The amount of diving and playacting was a disgrace, always trying to get inside the officials heads that they were being fouled and going down holding their heads to try to get our players sent off. In the first half I was standing at the fence on the far side of the field where Aidan Forker and Aidan Breen were and Breen spent most of his time calling Ciaran Brannigan saying he was being pulled by Forker which was total bullshit. Forker was simply doing what any good defender should do by keeping a hand on his jersey to let him know he was there. Then at another stage after a free was awarded to Fermanagh, Quigley made a bee line for Brannigan to remonstrate with him again trying to influence the linesman. Indeed every time a Fermanagh player was awarded a free he stayed down for a long time. Thankfully the officials were having none of it and Hurson even called a free against Fermanagh when it looked like Hall had pulled a player down, he gestured that in fact it was the other way around. Add to that the Fermangh crowd cheering any scores we missed and generally being hateful it just left a bad taste in the mouth. Luckily beer and wine was able to remove this and this long winded post has been the perfect mouthwash.

I was really impressed with how we approached the game today, I thought tactically we were excellent. Faced with the the most heavily fortified defense in western Europe, a few Oscar nominees and Tom Daly impersonators we utilised a running game with a particular liking for the left corner of the field. It was a bit like a rugby game where we seemed to pick a weakness in the opposition and work to exploit it continually. It was the right move as it forced Fermanagh to foul in the scoring zone. I thought Brendan Donaghy was excellent and really proved his value to this team, he is the glue that holds that defense and gives confidence to the other defenders.
Grimley was immense today and made wee boys out of the much lauded Fermanagh mid field. He continually rose highest and they had no answers. I was delighted to see Charlie have a good game also. Previously I had expressed concern that he may struggle to get back into the first 15 but on today's performance he will be hard to leave out. Also very impressed with Jarly Og, he really got stuck in and appeared happy to be involved with winning the dirty ball along with some high fielding and good running.
Up front I thought Jemar was very industrious and effective. He is one of those players you would hate to be playing against as he is very hard to handle and a great man to win a free (not in a "oh my god I have just been stabbed in the face by one of those nasty boys on the orange" type way). Jamie is a very different player than before. He is excellent at winning ball and laying it off to the on-running players but I would still like to see him running at defenses a bit more and getting on the score-sheet. Ethan was a great addition when he came on because he offered something totally different which threw Fermanagh a bit. Really strong on the ball and as someone mentioned previously, speed, where did that come from???
I forgot to mention Paul Hughes, he was excellent yesterday. He has great speed and is very cool on the ball.
I don't like being too critical of individual players but I do think we benefited from Morgan's suspension yesterday. Our tackling was much sharper and didn't give the ref any reasons to doubt that. James is a good player but his style is a open invitation to easily swayed referees which cheating teams like Fermanagh love to exploit.

I think this win will give the boys confidence. We are safe in the division and could easily be pushing for promotion were it not for some fine lines. It's nice going into the final game with no pressure, I'm really looking forward to it, it's been a long time since we were in that position.

Excellent summations as usual @Diarmi woukd point out the fermanagh no 9 was mouthing at the ref every time Grimley took a free. Spot on regarding the free for Hall. I thought it would go Fermanagh’s way but the ref was wise to it.
Someone earlier said Clarke didn’t have a good game. Nonsense. He did. He isn’t scoring as much these days but offers so mich more

A random rant first.

The Fermanagh supporters in the stand annoyed the head of me cheering wides, calling for non existent frees etc.. Many Armagh supporters called out in frustration as our players continually recycled the ball even when this was normally the right thing to do.

My point. We mightnt like the way Fermanagh play but their supporters get behind them. Maybe we should get behind our team more too. In the championship in Newry full support should be guaranteed!

On to the match. First up the referee had a good game.

For Armagh most have mentioned those who played well. I would also add Kennedy who I felt had his best Armagh match.

Fermanagh were as poor as they could be. Hopefully that was because Armagh made it that way. The match seemed to last an eternity such is the effect of the way matches against Fermanagh have to be played.

We can all look forward now with no pressure next week. Maybe young McQuillan will get a chance.

Claire and meath game being played today. Be a small crowd would think and should be reserved for clubs final.

If McQuillian is going to Aussie rules how can he be available to Armagh. Can someone out there tell us if he’s going or not? If he’s not going there must be some reason we haven’t seen him play. Is he injured? Answers on a post stamp please (since no one knows what the Feck is going on).

He suffers from shin splints. Could be a reason he hasn’t featured

Had shin splints myself. They’re no fun, that’s for sure. I was told they are linked to flat feet, which I have (you can probably tell from the way I walk)...

PatMustard said:

@Calm1

Cup of tea, McMenamin?

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Ah go on go on go on!!!!!

PatMustard said:

So now, I look stupid instead

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NOW!!!!?????????

JoeH said:

Sometimes our best young players need to learn to play county.
Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't O'Neill our best U20 player

Anyhow I'd rather we stayed in division 2 than played all the young guys and possibly went down.
For a few stupid mistakes against Kildare and Clare, better options taken against Donegal we'd be on ten points.
Small margins

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Correct Joe and there are so many reasons why a player isn't picked, available or playing. Most likely completely different and not a comparison, but for a long time I was amazed Robbie Tasker wasn't playing. Turns out he just wasn't interested. Some supporters must have been seething Ronan Clarke wasn't playing even though he just wasn't capable. Now that WAS one of the best ever seen in this county, possibly only overshadowed by Oisin McConville.

Funny how even the most blinkered of us (me obviously) can see we're playing at our level right now even if we can see no wrong in the set-up

Meath 1-12 to Clare 1-07 result

24th March
Meath vs Fermanagh
Donegal vs Kildare
Armagh vs Cork
Tipperary vs Clare

i expect Donegal to finish 2nd therefore play Meath in the league final
also expect Tipperary to beat Clare next week to escape relegation

As a PPS and not necessarily football related, it was nice to see big Joe Kernan yesterday helping out at his club as a steward. A gentleman like that as a former high profile county and international team manager, could easily sit back and leave it to others, but he was helping out like everyone else. Well done and good on ya.

PPPS I'm aware others do this without acclaim on a regular basis, just mention it because of his profile and I thought it a positive from the day.

ragingbull said:

View attachment 192
24th March
Meath vs Fermanagh
Donegal vs Kildare
Armagh vs Cork
Tipperary vs Clare

i expect Donegal to finish 2nd therefore play Meath in the league final
also expect Tipperary to beat Clare next week to escape relegation

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Funny I see Meath beating Fermanagh and Kildare to bate Donegal putting Kildare into the final. Interesting day next Sunday!