Revisiting with another post after last night. We have a number of issues that just haven't been addressed over the years, we are too open and exposed down the middle, we are too slow to transition from defence too attack, when we arrive at the opposition 45 we lack urgency and ultimately revert to lateral passing (I'll come back to this), and we have a non existent kick out strategy.
A number of posters, myself included, were anxious before last night's game. We have been around long enough to know that we were not 13 points a better team than Cavan, though nor are we 6 points a worse team than Laois and this is where part of the problem lays. How many times over the years has an Armagh team been 6 or 7 points down at half time and come out all guns blazing, the net result us always the same, fight back to within 1 to 3 points with all the momentum and revert to type. I called it at half time last night and low and behold 15 mins in to second half and it had happened again.
We then ran out of ideas and impetus. It's a major problem of this team, when we play well I never feel like we truly drive at a team and cut them open, more we work the ball to the opposition 45 and our shooting accuracy from what I would call 50/50 pot shots is just higher than normal. Against Cavan in the first half we scores 6 points from unlikely scoring angles and shooting positions. They could just as easily have went wide. We do not attack with directness and with pace and we do not go for the jugular. Why is this? Are we coached to take to safe an approach?
Kick outs, they are poor, put us under pressure and they are not allowing us a base to build from. Our movement on kick outs is criminally absent, and no keeper is going to have a better success rate or better performance in this area until we actually move. We never hit a runner from a kick out, we hit a static player and this puts us under immense pressure instantly. This point may seem small but it's influence is huge.
We need to plug the backline somehow. I'm sick of runners tearing through us at pace. Gearoid McKiernan down it time after time for Cavan but wasted chance after chance. It happened last night, it has happened for a decade.
I didn't mean this to be a negative post. There are genuinely decent players in areas of this team, and very few county teams have stand out quality 1 though 15 and on the bench. So we have to mould a team and a system. This is where coaching and tactics come in. And unfortunately this is where we have been lacking for a decade. So serious questions need asking and answered. That is not berating management and players, it is genuinely asking for analysis and direction of future travel for this team.
Kildare up next, they will let us play and I think we can get a result against them. I also think we can get a result one of Clare and westmeath.
This team is not ready for division 1 and it may never be ready for it without uncovering significant additional quality. Let's target the 7 points I think we need to stay up. Teams will beat each other. We have went down on 6 points before. Armagh are a division 2 team, not a division 1 team or a division 3 team. We need 3 or 4 years consistency playing division 2 football and then see can we push on. That's what it's always been like for us and I think the majority will accept that.
Was a long post. Sorry.
