McKenna Cup 2024

W

Wee man

Well-Known Member
armaghtimmy said:
Must say, excited seeing these teams and more so about the strength on the benches, we could have 25 lads get a starting jersey and nobody would have too many complaints (apart from the usual bed wetter's) and that can only be a good thing, healthy competition is what all top counties down the years have had and hopefully if we can avoid any big injury issues, it is possibly the best placed squad since probably 2008. Roll on the league. My only small concern is around the FB line and possible lack of pace with Morgan forker and mckay although in the modern game with defensive walls along the arc/45 this is much less exposed than years gone by... il go with;

Rafferty

Forker, Mc Kay, Paddy B

Mc Quillan, C O'Neill, Burns

Rian (Free role), Grimley, Mackin

Duffy, Grugan, Kelly

Oisin, Murnin

Subs; Blaine, Higgins, Morgan, Mcgrane, Rowland, Mc Cabe, Connaire Mackin, Mc Cambridge, Crealey, Mc Partlan, Hall, Soupy, Turbo, Nugent, Cian

Haven't even included o'hanlon, cumisky, conaty, Kierans, sheilds, and a few others who no doubt will be pushing hard.... serious depth.

Those 4 in bold could make some impact last 20 mins against tiring defences
Click to expand...
would understand soupy as impact sub but for me, the future lies with Turbo in starting 15.
but serious options
young mcgrane at cb also has to in the equation - granted only basing this on one game
 
Diarmi

Diarmi

Well-Known Member
Wide ball said:
We could nearly have 2 teams in division we have that much depth,
Team 1. - Team 2.
Rafferty. - Hughes

Burns - finn
Forker. - Higgins
Mckay. - Mccambridge

C O'Neill. - Mackin
McCabe. - Rowland
Jarly og. - Shields

Crealy. - Grimley
Mackin. - Mcpartlan

Hall. - Mcquillan
Grugan. - O oneill
Campbell. - Duffy

Nugent. - Mcconville
R O'Neill. - Murnin
Turbitt. - Conaty

I'd say both those teams would do well in division 2

That's without including
Magill
Morgan
Ohanlon
Cumiskey
McElroy
Kelly
Kierans
And a few others I am sure iv forgotten
Click to expand...
Finn not with the panel anymore
 
H

Hoops

Member
Rowland plays 6 better than anyone else we have, provided he’s fit he’s almost certain to get that spot back. These teams being named with burns c O’Neill McCabe McKay etc at half back don’t fill me with much confidence. Id want to see rowland at 6 with two athletes on the wings like jarly og, mackin or mcquillan. Adding a few reliable scores a game from that line would be huge for us and would take the pressure off the forwards, who sometimes buckle under it.

Turbitt has his work cut out to keep that corner forward spot. He did well at times last year but didn’t do it when we needed him most against Tyrone and Derry, and monaghan to an extent. Oisin O’Neill would be much more reliable for scores in those types of games. I have the same issue with Duffy, with all this squad depth & competition you’d think the playing workhorse role wouldn’t be enough to get a forward spot, we need to be playing lads who get scores on the board.

There’s a lot of love for grimley to play midfield here, but our highest potential midfield pairing is clearly crealy & mcpartlan, hopefully they can get a run together in the league as it was mcpartlans first season last year and crealy had a fair few injuries. They bring a good balance of fielding ability, defensive work rate and attacking quality.
 
G

GAAGael

Active Member
Hoops said:
Rowland plays 6 better than anyone else we have, provided he’s fit he’s almost certain to get that spot back. These teams being named with burns c O’Neill McCabe McKay etc at half back don’t fill me with much confidence. Id want to see rowland at 6 with two athletes on the wings like jarly og, mackin or mcquillan. Adding a few reliable scores a game from that line would be huge for us and would take the pressure off the forwards, who sometimes buckle under it.

Turbitt has his work cut out to keep that corner forward spot. He did well at times last year but didn’t do it when we needed him most against Tyrone and Derry, and monaghan to an extent. Oisin O’Neill would be much more reliable for scores in those types of games. I have the same issue with Duffy, with all this squad depth & competition you’d think the playing workhorse role wouldn’t be enough to get a forward spot, we need to be playing lads who get scores on the board.

There’s a lot of love for grimley to play midfield here, but our highest potential midfield pairing is clearly crealy & mcpartlan, hopefully they can get a run together in the league as it was mcpartlans first season last year and crealy had a fair few injuries. They bring a good balance of fielding ability, defensive work rate and attacking quality.
Click to expand...
At his best, yes. However, I fear Rowland’s best days are behind him. I hope I’m wrong, but I think he’ll find it difficult to break back onto the team this year.
 
N

niall1980

Well-Known Member
Hoops said:
Rowland plays 6 better than anyone else we have, provided he’s fit he’s almost certain to get that spot back. These teams being named with burns c O’Neill McCabe McKay etc at half back don’t fill me with much confidence. Id want to see rowland at 6 with two athletes on the wings like jarly og, mackin or mcquillan. Adding a few reliable scores a game from that line would be huge for us and would take the pressure off the forwards, who sometimes buckle under it.

Turbitt has his work cut out to keep that corner forward spot. He did well at times last year but didn’t do it when we needed him most against Tyrone and Derry, and monaghan to an extent. Oisin O’Neill would be much more reliable for scores in those types of games. I have the same issue with Duffy, with all this squad depth & competition you’d think the playing workhorse role wouldn’t be enough to get a forward spot, we need to be playing lads who get scores on the board.

There’s a lot of love for grimley to play midfield here, but our highest potential midfield pairing is clearly crealy & mcpartlan, hopefully they can get a run together in the league as it was mcpartlans first season last year and crealy had a fair few injuries. They bring a good balance of fielding ability, defensive work rate and attacking quality.
Click to expand...
does anyone actually have a breakdown of our scorers last season?
 
W

Wide ball

Well-Known Member
Hoops said:
Rowland plays 6 better than anyone else we have, provided he’s fit he’s almost certain to get that spot back. These teams being named with burns c O’Neill McCabe McKay etc at half back don’t fill me with much confidence. Id want to see rowland at 6 with two athletes on the wings like jarly og, mackin or mcquillan. Adding a few reliable scores a game from that line would be huge for us and would take the pressure off the forwards, who sometimes buckle under it.

Turbitt has his work cut out to keep that corner forward spot. He did well at times last year but didn’t do it when we needed him most against Tyrone and Derry, and monaghan to an extent. Oisin O’Neill would be much more reliable for scores in those types of games. I have the same issue with Duffy, with all this squad depth & competition you’d think the playing workhorse role wouldn’t be enough to get a forward spot, we need to be playing lads who get scores on the board.

There’s a lot of love for grimley to play midfield here, but our highest potential midfield pairing is clearly crealy & mcpartlan, hopefully they can get a run together in the league as it was mcpartlans first season last year and crealy had a fair few injuries. They bring a good balance of fielding ability, defensive work rate and attacking quality.
Click to expand...
If your talking 20 years ago yes we would have Rowland at 6 and our best scoring forwards, but those days are gone, we have to half a team that is fit to run and can work and do a bit of everything, if your talking about football the way it was in the 00s there would be many changes to the team that plays now, Duffy gets on because he works hard and has good fitness can tackle, has decent speed can shoot and can field a ball, if we played our 6 best forwards who are out and out forwards we would get murdered because teams defend deep and everyone attacks and defends
 
H

Hoops

Member
Wide ball said:
If your talking 20 years ago yes we would have Rowland at 6 and our best scoring forwards, but those days are gone, we have to half a team that is fit to run and can work and do a bit of everything, if your talking about football the way it was in the 00s there would be many changes to the team that plays now, Duffy gets on because he works hard and has good fitness can tackle, has decent speed can shoot and can field a ball, if we played our 6 best forwards who are out and out forwards we would get murdered because teams defend deep and everyone attacks and defends
Click to expand...
Perhaps I didn’t word it well. My point is that good competition for places should mean everyone is working hard, putting in tackles etc, so that should be a basic requirement to get the start, then the player who does that plus gets scores should be starting. Our 3 most important games and worst defeats last year were Derry, tyrone & Monaghan, Duffy started all 3 in the forwards and didn’t score in any of them. Turbitt scored 1 from play and 1 free kick vs Tyrone and didn’t score in the other two. That can’t be good enough if there’s genuine competition for places. Either they start scoring or someone else should get a turn.

Don’t know what the 00s have to do with anything, most other current teams have a range of scorers apart from really Kerry relying on Clifford. We heavily relied on free kicks and rian last year, or Ethan making a bursting run forward. In the ulster final our starting forwards got 2 points from play, both were rian. I’m sure they tackled plenty if you want to check those stats, but that’s not enough.
 
W

Wide ball

Well-Known Member
Hoops said:
Perhaps I didn’t word it well. My point is that good competition for places should mean everyone is working hard, putting in tackles etc, so that should be a basic requirement to get the start, then the player who does that plus gets scores should be starting. Our 3 most important games and worst defeats last year were Derry, tyrone & Monaghan, Duffy started all 3 in the forwards and didn’t score in any of them. Turbitt scored 1 from play and 1 free kick vs Tyrone and didn’t score in the other two. That can’t be good enough if there’s genuine competition for places. Either they start scoring or someone else should get a turn.

Don’t know what the 00s have to do with anything, most other current teams have a range of scorers apart from really Kerry relying on Clifford. We heavily relied on free kicks and rian last year, or Ethan making a bursting run forward. In the ulster final our starting forwards got 2 points from play, both were rian. I’m sure they tackled plenty if you want to check those stats, but that’s not enough.
Click to expand...
I actually like Duffy and he would be one of my favourite players tbh, I agree last year we didn't have as many scorers but the year before in championship we had 7 scorers against Donegal and 10 v Tyrone and Galway, I actually think we have loads of players who can chip in with pointsl
 
G

gael_force_orchard

Well-Known Member
Wide ball said:
Must be a behind door game as well somewhere as not many named on bench, interesting team, I'm happy enough with that team, can't see us winning with the team Derry have out but good to get minutes in the legs of players
Click to expand...
It's pre season, bit of fitness for some players, likely plenty going on in challenge matches etc. can't really read into it. Would like Kierans to do well as he has been around the panel a few years now.
 
A

Armaghball

Well-Known Member
Great to see Ciaron O’Hanlon back, as good a player as we have only for injuries plaguing him.

Again be reading nothing into that team theres probably another 2 full teams or close to it not named. Would have liked to see McGrane playing again as thought he was very good the other night but I’m sure we will down the line.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top