Is it time to consider new management?

William Of Orange

Well-Known Member
That article in the IN was a stupid thing to run , while the points may be valid and I would believe that it is an ex player , as the paper would not run it if he was not , they were always going to leave themselves open to criticism , imagine if the player had come through here , the questions that would be fired at him , no doubt people would question his credentials. Surely an editor or journalist would realize this , if they player has no got the balls to front up with then why should anyone listen to what he has to say .

What’s the motivation to run it , stir the shit or a slow news week I am not so sure .

Just to nail my colours I hope Geezer stays on for at least another year , I have been critical of him here but at the end of the day you have to weigh up what’s best for Armagh and I think , although it’s finely balanced , we could have our best team since the late noughties, as other have said I would like a reshuffle in the back room team , I feel we need a Crossmaglen presence but I don’t know if that would be possible .
 

Rufus T Firefly

Well-Known Member
Another massive loss was Declan Mckenna, he was first class against cullyhanna last night,

Decky McKenna is a County player in everything but name. When we won the Championship in 2017 he was imperious, but somehow lost out for the Player of the Championship. In my opinion, he would be on the Armagh first fifteen if we had access to our best fifteen.

I've said it repeatedly but happy to say it again. I could not, and still cannot, understand the dropping of James Lavery from our County panel. He has been consistently the best fielder of the ball in our County and could have added so much to our team. However, that is the nature of opinions. The County management wanted to move in a different direction.

As I understand it, Aaron Kernan, back in 2015, could not fully commit and made an offer to managment that would have seen him continue but not commit fully. Management decided they could not accommodate that, which is of course their call. Unfortunately that denied us a player who is consistently one of the top three footballers in our County.

Not sure of the story with Gavin McParland. I do feel - like Eugene McVerry - that he never really fulfilled his true potential in an Armagh jersey.

Caolan Rafferty - as far as I know - emigrated with work. It would take a particularly frenzied Geezer critic to blame him for that one.

I'd love to know though, if management had their time again, whether they would do things differently as regards Decky McKenna and Aaron Kernan. The County would definitely have benefitted if they had.
 

ragingbull

Well-Known Member
Decky McKenna is a County player in everything but name. When we won the Championship in 2017 he was imperious, but somehow lost out for the Player of the Championship. In my opinion, he would be on the Armagh first fifteen if we had access to our best fifteen.

I've said it repeatedly but happy to say it again. I could not, and still cannot, understand the dropping of James Lavery from our County panel. He has been consistently the best fielder of the ball in our County and could have added so much to our team. However, that is the nature of opinions. The County management wanted to move in a different direction.

As I understand it, Aaron Kernan, back in 2015, could not fully commit and made an offer to managment that would have seen him continue but not commit fully. Management decided they could not accommodate that, which is of course their call. Unfortunately that denied us a player who is consistently one of the top three footballers in our County.

Not sure of the story with Gavin McParland. I do feel - like Eugene McVerry - that he never really fulfilled his true potential in an Armagh jersey.

Caolan Rafferty - as far as I know - emigrated with work. It would take a particularly frenzied Geezer critic to blame him for that one.

I'd love to know though, if management had their time again, whether they would do things differently as regards Decky McKenna and Aaron Kernan. The County would definitely have benefitted if they had.
James Lavery got a serious head/neck injury a fews years ago as far I know his head/neck was in a brace maybe the lad only wants to play club football at this stage of his career because of it
 

Rufus T Firefly

Well-Known Member
James Lavery got a serious head/neck injury a fews years ago as far I know his head/neck was in a brace maybe the lad only wants to play club football at this stage of his career because of it


That could be true bull, but my recollection is that James Lavery stated that he was available for his County if management ever changed their minds. I recall commenting on the old forum that it showed a bit of class on his part to take such a mature outlook.
 

Pat Cully

Well-Known Member
Wouldn't Jamie Clarke be the classiest footballer we have ever had play for Armagh? It would certainly not be Aaron Kernan. With a bit of thought I could name at quite a few classier than Aaron, although he was an excellent footballer
Sorry your right I shouldn’t have wrote that
 

Ard Mhacha 13

Well-Known Member
Decky McKenna is a County player in everything but name. When we won the Championship in 2017 he was imperious, but somehow lost out for the Player of the Championship. In my opinion, he would be on the Armagh first fifteen if we had access to our best fifteen.

I've said it repeatedly but happy to say it again. I could not, and still cannot, understand the dropping of James Lavery from our County panel. He has been consistently the best fielder of the ball in our County and could have added so much to our team. However, that is the nature of opinions. The County management wanted to move in a different direction.

As I understand it, Aaron Kernan, back in 2015, could not fully commit and made an offer to managment that would have seen him continue but not commit fully. Management decided they could not accommodate that, which is of course their call. Unfortunately that denied us a player who is consistently one of the top three footballers in our County.

Not sure of the story with Gavin McParland. I do feel - like Eugene McVerry - that he never really fulfilled his true potential in an Armagh jersey.

Caolan Rafferty - as far as I know - emigrated with work. It would take a particularly frenzied Geezer critic to blame him for that one.

I'd love to know though, if management had their time again, whether they would do things differently as regards Decky McKenna and Aaron Kernan. The County would definitely have benefitted if they had.

That is not the version I was told 1st hand. Management were willing to do whatever they could to accommodate Aaron but he couldn't commit. I lay no fault with either the player or management, there are occasions when things just don't work out. I would agree Aaron had more to offer county football but when he did choose to retire he owed us absolutely nothing, an excellent servant to our county.
 

h754136

Active Member
Does that Cavan display necessitate a re-evaluation of our performance this year? Their last two games suggest that they are absolutely miles off the top teams, but they still beat us.
 

Bo Darville

Active Member
Does that Cavan display necessitate a re-evaluation of our performance this year? Their last two games suggest that they are absolutely miles off the top teams, but they still beat us.

Was just going to post something similar. It’ll be easier to judge after the Mayo game but if we use Cavan as the benchmark we were lucky to avoid Tyrone. A hammering from them would have been hard to take.
 

Ard Mhacha 13

Well-Known Member
Does that Cavan display necessitate a re-evaluation of our performance this year? Their last two games suggest that they are absolutely miles off the top teams, but they still beat us.

No, we should have beaten Cavan first day out & had a poor day for the replay. We improved for our performances against both Monaghan & Mayo, the Mayo match being another we could have won.
 

Kem

Active Member
Was just going to post something similar. It’ll be easier to judge after the Mayo game but if we use Cavan as the benchmark we were lucky to avoid Tyrone. A hammering from them would have been hard to take.
Of course we couldn't have met the old enemy at least at this stage. Tyrone were impressive. Harte has always gone for athletes when assembling a squad. Could we not copy?
 

h754136

Active Member
No, we should have beaten Cavan first day out & had a poor day for the replay. We improved for our performances against both Monaghan & Mayo, the Mayo match being another we could have won.
Sorry, but that reads like an awful lot of spin to make things seem better than they were.

'we should have beaten Cavan first day out & had a poor day for the replay' - Reality: we had two goes at beating them and failed. For the first we even had an extra man for half an hour. The second time we were easily enough beaten.

'We improved for our performances against both Monaghan' - Reality: that Monaghan team were also beaten fairly easily by Cavan. They really fell off a cliff this season, dangerous to read too much into that display.

All of note we're really left with it the gallant defeat to Mayo. We'll see how they go for the rest of the year.
 

Ard Mhacha 13

Well-Known Member
Sorry, but that reads like an awful lot of spin to make things seem better than they were.

'we should have beaten Cavan first day out & had a poor day for the replay' - Reality: we had two goes at beating them and failed. For the first we even had an extra man for half an hour. The second time we were easily enough beaten.

'We improved for our performances against both Monaghan' - Reality: that Monaghan team were also beaten fairly easily by Cavan. They really fell off a cliff this season, dangerous to read too much into that display.

All of note we're really left with it the gallant defeat to Mayo. We'll see how they go for the rest of the year.

Some people will always find negatives others have a more positive outlook. You have your opinion & I have mine.

I'm guessing if Mayo go on to beat Galway it will only be because "Galway are a poor team" :)
 
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h754136

Active Member
Some people will always find negatives others have a more positive outlook. You have your opinion & I have mine.
That's true, but it's important to have a balance. Too much positivity can blind you to the reality of situations. There's an element of Devil's advocate with what I'm saying, though. As I've already stated on this thread, I believe we probably have made progress this year. But I worry that this progress may be somewhat exaggerated by some of our more optimistic followers.

Mayo win and reach the Super 8s anyway. I actually think they were better against us last weekend. Galway a bit rudderless tonight, probably the end of Walsh and a change of direction needed there.
 
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