For me Blaine's kick outs where excellent, the kick out strategy kills me, we have some serious height in oisin O'Neill, Rian O'Neill, jarly og, crealy, Duffy, murnin, I dunno how we can struggle as much as we do, but I am very optimistic for the league we can give some lads a good run and not have it as cut throat as division 1
McKenna Cup 2024
- Thread starter Ed Ricketts
- Start date
Looked like a lot of poor communication across the group on Derry kickouts. When we pressed higher up we gave up space around the 45 for an easy kick, then when we let them have the short kickout they were able to progress to our 45 far too easily.
Hughes had a mostly very good game, though I thought he tried too many risky pinpoint balls that didn’t come off. Not many of the ones we lost were long balls to the big men in the middle.
No one standing out in defence for defending is a concern, our half back area looked very weak at stopping their cutting runs inside and we were far too easily manipulated when Derry overloaded one side and switched the play. No idea who was actually picking up mcguigan, looked like he was left to zonal marking rather having someone dedicated to stick to him. A strange decision by management to not trial a dedicated man marker there when it’s something the squad lacks.
Diarmi
Well-Known Member
Should we not mention the negatives?
Crealy tries hard, but I also feel he is not up to the required standard. For his height he does not win many high balls and his kicking is just ok. But he is not mobile enough ' I think we have better midfielders in Grimley, Jarly Og, Mackin, 2 O'Neills etc.
Ed Ricketts
Active Member
Chill out Diarmi, it’s the McKenna Cup.
Derry lined out with 9 men that started last year’s Ulster final. We started with 0. That’s your frame of reference here. So no one should be surprised when they look a lot more coherent and organised, especially around kickouts.
It was a brand new Armagh midfield pairing, surrounded by several other inexperienced players, trying to field kickouts from a keeper who hasn’t started for the county in a couple of years. Is it realistic to expect that lineup to win a midfield battle against a host of recent All Star winners and nominees?
I thought we competed rightly for 55 mins, before running out of steam. Delighted to see some new and some returning men contribute so well.
Hughes was very good in goals, a couple of super saves and got the ball away well until Derry turned the screw; Conlon made an excellent contribution and looks one for the future; Crealey took a great point in the first half and was generally solid, he maybe hasn’t shown it yet for Armagh but there’s a high ceiling for him if he can continue to develop; Kieran still looks raw but his pace was a handful for them at time, that’s an asset I can see us turning to at times this year; McConville continues to grow into the team and was very busy, he’s a very clever player; and it’s just terrific to see Oisin O’Neill complete another full match for us.
Two defeats and only one win, but for me it was a very encouraging McKenna Cup campaign. Roll on the league.
Derry lined out with 9 men that started last year’s Ulster final. We started with 0. That’s your frame of reference here. So no one should be surprised when they look a lot more coherent and organised, especially around kickouts.
It was a brand new Armagh midfield pairing, surrounded by several other inexperienced players, trying to field kickouts from a keeper who hasn’t started for the county in a couple of years. Is it realistic to expect that lineup to win a midfield battle against a host of recent All Star winners and nominees?
I thought we competed rightly for 55 mins, before running out of steam. Delighted to see some new and some returning men contribute so well.
Hughes was very good in goals, a couple of super saves and got the ball away well until Derry turned the screw; Conlon made an excellent contribution and looks one for the future; Crealey took a great point in the first half and was generally solid, he maybe hasn’t shown it yet for Armagh but there’s a high ceiling for him if he can continue to develop; Kieran still looks raw but his pace was a handful for them at time, that’s an asset I can see us turning to at times this year; McConville continues to grow into the team and was very busy, he’s a very clever player; and it’s just terrific to see Oisin O’Neill complete another full match for us.
Two defeats and only one win, but for me it was a very encouraging McKenna Cup campaign. Roll on the league.
ragingbull
Well-Known Member
It only being a McKenna Cup game isn't a excuse
ragingbull
Well-Known Member
Is it a 29 man squad that has to be named before the start of the league
Can you only name 29 men for the league? That doesnt sound right. If you pick up 4 injuries then you cant even fill your 26 for a match day?
On todays game i think there was quite a few good performances amd players have put their hands up for league minutes.
My main concern would be there doesn't seem to be any real system in place, derry sauntered through our defence time and again and everything seems off the cuff.
No, you name 29 before each game.
ragingbull
Well-Known Member
Going into the league it's going to be basically much same squad as last year apart from Oisin O'Neill being fit
Armaghniac
Well-Known Member
Oisin O'Neill might have been worth a point in games last year if he had been present and fit, and that would have made us Ulster champions and playing in the AI semi-final.
ragingbull
Well-Known Member
Of the starting 15 today only 6 play in division 1 senior football
Wouldn’t be too worried about that. Need to find players to fill out a McKenna Cup squad. Neither will be anywhere near the 26 for a championship match
JoeH
Well-Known Member
No you don't
It's 26
Armagh_paul
Well-Known Member
I hope we have a tactic and it isn't a case of management having their head buried in the sand - that is an excuse that shouldn't have been used from day one but fear it might still be the case. We seem to have found more forwards but there isn't a lot going on defensively again.
Some have said I think it was concerning McConville that he would not get on the team unless they show they can be dynamic i.e. play as a defender. I get the purpose for having this but when we clearly have shown an inability to defend this is unfair.
Second half was hard to watch
Thought Derry were cruising
Remember it was 0-16 ( with a fair few easy misses ) to 2-7
For me Blaine did ok as his knockouts were awful after half time
Conlon was excellent as was mc conville
We struggled and for the save after 5 minutes we could have been destroyed
I still don’t understand why some of you keep coming and coming talking about mcconville. He is an out and out finisher, that is what got him onto the county. Yet in 2 games against weakened McKenna cup sides, he scored 0-1 from play in the 2 games. He is a good player. But have you not once thought that he hasn’t kicked much football for Armagh in the last 3 years, not because mcgeeney doesn’t like him, not because he’s being hard done by, but because he hasn’t been performing in training. If he had been performing, why would mcgeeney chose to ruin his chances of victory by blatantly not playing him?
We are saying he played well the last 2 games on weaker sides, he is an out and out scorer but how many scores have we from play those 2 games? Not many, wee have played far weaker sides than the opposition and with mass defenses it's hard to get any space for a shot, both Tyrone and Derry had loads of wides where we had few shows we didn't have many shots, I think the more he is played the more confident he will get and then the better he will play, for me he is good enough for the team, but we have loads of quality forwards, id like to see him play the first couple of league matches see how he gets on
Armaghball
Well-Known Member
Rate him very very highly but he has his work cut out to get into our starting 6 forwards. I reckon Rian and Oisin will be certain starters come the proper games. Murnin as well and Soupy if he plays like he was at times last year. That leaves 2 spots between Cian, Turbo, TK, Grugan, Duffy, Nugent, McQuillan, Jemar, Conaty and Kieran and whoever I’ve forgot.
Don’t think he’s going to take Duffy’s work horse role of getting up and down the field as he doesn’t have the size for kickouts like Duffy does. Would ideally have him playing inside feeding off one of his cousins or Murnin, but be interesting to see what happens with him.
Not too serious
Member
Very open yes but consider the possibility that no first choice defenders were playing and a middle third who could not win contested possession makes it a different game.
The thing about kick outs, regardless of who is in nets, if any team press up against Armagh and there are not players capable of winning primary possession or break balls, as was the case last night, your return on your own kick outs will be awful.
Hughes hit some excellent kicks to wide areas when the opportunity presented itself. When there were no options available the long kick to midfield is the only thing a keeper can do, if your team is unable to win a fair share of these then blame has to lay at the outfield players. Where else are they meant to kick the ball to?
Dependent on injuries or maybe 1/2 curveballs would expect something like:
1. Hughes
2. McCambridge
3. McKay
4. Forker
5. C O’Neill
6. McCabe
7. J Burns
8. Mackin
9. McPartland
10. Hall
11. Campbell
12. Kelly
13. Turbitt
14. O O’Neill
15. Murnin