National League 2019

[Big Jim]

To be honest all has been covered in the comments so far. For hard men they [Donegal] sure went down very easily. Can anyone tell me how so many of them have tattoos if their pain threshold is so low????

Didn't see the Sheridan incident but that sounds vile to me. Really hate to be down on one of ours, but we can't complain about others if that's what we lower ourselves to.

I genuinely thought we were the much better team tonight, but didn't do it were it counted. I'm not saying we were good, but more that Donegal were woeful. No wonder Fermanagh bate them. They just were determined not to have that two weeks in a row by the look of things. Again we can blame the ref and management all we want, but players have to take responsibility for their own inactions and lack of intelligence. Shot selection was awful and why oh why when we're 14 or 15 metres out we play the ball out to 65 metres before having a crack at scoring. Fist it over the bar and reset. With the talent we have up front, that should be routine.

 

[Big Jim]

Agree with much of this. I also got annoyed at the goading after the Donegal goal.

Anyone any idea why Armagh goal was disallowed.

Yeah ref definitely held his hands up crossed for a square ball. Strange too as it was from open play and the ball seemed as if it was tracked in. Ironic when you look at the Clare goal which was given when it wasn't and got them a draw!

 

[cailín beag88]

Donegal are experts in winning frees and stopping the game.
My sister had watched the game on gaa go and said goal was disallowed for square ball but that the rain was that bad so couldn't actually see what was on the tv. She had texted me to say Donegal were very cynical. Soupy was injured tonight. I have decided that the bagpipes are an awful instrument. No 8 for Donegal started everything tonight.

 

[Applecore]

Yeah ref definitely held his hands up crossed for a square ball. Strange too as it was from open play and the ball seemed as if it was tracked in. Ironic when you look at the Clare goal which was given when it wasn't and got them a draw!

It’s was from an offensive mark and square ball rule must still apply to offensive marks.

Saw the Sheridan incident when I got home- absolutely shocking and indefensible.

 

[Bert]

Our lack of discipline is shocking. The lack of guile along the line can only be matched by the likes of Vernon in particular, mackin Sheridan, campbell and a few others on the pitch.

I felt the game was over when murphy scored the goal. He might be half fit and nearly done but he was too much for us to contend with.

Any management should be judged on whether they are getting the best from what they have to work with. It pains me to say this, but this management are not getting the best of the players available to them. Fair play to Rian O'Neill and clarke for committing this year but they must be wondering why they've bothered. I know geezer has asked various people to assist him over the years and they have declined but people such as Hollywood and McKeever are holding us back and are not what we need right now. I would have thought mccorry would have helped when he came on board.

Our lack of leadership can be best summed up by our captain, Rory grugan. I thought some of his antics were disgraceful tonight. Timid, cheating, going out of his way to get involved in things he can't handle or sort out. Embarrassing.

I find it hard to be positive at the moment. We are missing lads who should be starting - burns, oisin O'Neill, donaghy, murnin, forker, McQuillan.

 

[POINTMAN]

Our lack of discipline is shocking. The lack of guile along the line can only be matched by the likes of Vernon in particular, mackin Sheridan, campbell and a few others on the pitch.

I felt the game was over when murphy scored the goal. He might be half fit and nearly done but he was too much for us to contend with.

Any management should be judged on whether they are getting the best from what they have to work with. It pains me to say this, but this management are not getting the best of the players available to them. Fair play to Rian O'Neill and clarke for committing this year but they must be wondering why they've bothered. I know geezer has asked various people to assist him over the years and they have declined but people such as Hollywood and McKeever are holding us back and are not what we need right now. I would have thought mccorry would have helped when he came on board.

Our lack of leadership can be best summed up by our captain, Rory grugan. I thought some of his antics were disgraceful tonight. Timid, cheating, going out of his way to get involved in things he can't handle or sort out. Embarrassing.

I find it hard to be positive at the moment. We are missing lads who should be starting - burns, oisin O'Neill, donaghy, murnin, forker, McQuillan.

I agree - the line is still a weakness. Poor management - we have won one out of five - better win the next 2!!!!

 

[Dogboy74]

No one has yet mentioned the punch in the chest Stephen Sheridan took from the Donegal number 8, Hugh McFadden. He was at it at all night, pushing & shoving & also played a part in the melee, yet no card!!!
Also how did the player who put in the dangerous tackle on Jemar walk away with no card, unbelievable.

Donegal appear to have been watching Tyrone matches on repeat given the diving they put on show tonight. Our supporters can talk about our lack of discipline but seriously every time a Donegal player was touched he went down like a felled tree & appeared to be trying to get our players booked & most times it worked. I'm sorry but to me that is just cheating, plain & simple. We can wrap it up in words like "cute hoors" & "playing the ref" but it still comes back to cheating. We & the rest of the country have watched Tyrone do this for YEARS & now other teams are following in their footsteps, the GAA need to crack down on this, it is so frustrating to watch.

Also at one point the referee had blown for a midfield mark towards the sideline closest to the stand before the Donegal player had caught the ball. He didn't win the ball it came off his knee & went over the line. The referee laughed at his own error & hopped the ball. The standard of refereeing I have seen thus far in our league campaign really makes me question what referee assessors actually do!!!!

No excuses for what Sheridan did. He will get banned and rightly so. We will be without Campbell Morgan and Sheridan For next week. All the positive vibes from the start of the season truly gone now. A character test to avoid relegation.

 

[Berfaboy77]

Bert with the greatest respect I think your post is a little reactive. Consider the conditions last night, it is wrong to judge any player or management team when the goal posts are wobbling like Marty morrisseys ice cream and jelly. I thought the boys battled hard last night, like they always do. I thought we missed forker last night and if shields and Mc Elroy had of come on earlier we could have nicked it. Donegal were disgraceful in their play acting and feigning injury, they are what they are. Sheridan did wrong and I’m sure he’ll hold his hand up, I certainly ain’t going to crucify him for it though. I don’t know what Morgan got sent off for, it was just handbags if anything it was grugan who threw anything like a punch. Our tackling and discipline was poor on the night, but the ref gave them some very soft frees, at least 4 which was very frustrating

 

[Applecore]

Our lack of discipline is shocking. The lack of guile along the line can only be matched by the likes of Vernon in particular, mackin Sheridan, campbell and a few others on the pitch.

I felt the game was over when murphy scored the goal. He might be half fit and nearly done but he was too much for us to contend with.

Any management should be judged on whether they are getting the best from what they have to work with. It pains me to say this, but this management are not getting the best of the players available to them. Fair play to Rian O'Neill and clarke for committing this year but they must be wondering why they've bothered. I know geezer has asked various people to assist him over the years and they have declined but people such as Hollywood and McKeever are holding us back and are not what we need right now. I would have thought mccorry would have helped when he came on board.

Our lack of leadership can be best summed up by our captain, Rory grugan. I thought some of his antics were disgraceful tonight. Timid, cheating, going out of his way to get involved in things he can't handle or sort out. Embarrassing.

I find it hard to be positive at the moment. We are missing lads who should be starting - burns, oisin O'Neill, donaghy, murnin, forker, McQuillan.

Fair play to all the lads for committing this year... don’t know why we need to single out just 2 lads in that respect.

I think it’s unfair to single out Hollywood and Mckeever as holding us back. Ultimate responsibility must lie with the manager. And I agree- he isn’t getting the most out of the players we have. We have 3 or 4 forwards who could win the game on their own. But they end up playing in defence with a monster gale at their back. I don’t know where this preconception that under mcgeeney Armagh have this real positive approach to playing. One game against Roscommon we threw the shackles off and went for it. Why do we not leave 3 players up field and go for it, as opposed to be cautious and negative. That’s when Armagh play their best football. Playing into the breeze- drop as many back as you want. Completely understandable- but to allow Donegal to kick the ball across the back line unchallenged with a huge gale at your back was stupid.

Grugan has been poor enough this year. Last night was happy enough to take the ball off the keeper from kick outs... get a few touches. Hiding in my opinion. In other games he has kicked a few points and then not touched it for 20 mins. There is so much more in him and hopefully we see it in the last 2 games and beyond.

As for the players listed as missing- yes it would be nice to have them available but realistically if your relying on Patrick burns, a corner back to win you a game you are in trouble, O’Neill and mcquillan are great young players but unproven at county level for one reason or another so I don’t see how you can say with certainty they will make a huge difference, Donaghy and Murnin are injured and yes would be great to see them back playing and forker, arguably Armagh’s worst player over the first 3 games.
If all these boys should be starting- I’d love to see your starting 15...

I think the frustration for supporters is that Armagh are not playing particularly well and drawing or losing by very little. I fancy Armagh to win the last 2 games and that will hopefully give them some confidence coming into the championship.

 

[Big Jim]

It’s was from an offensive mark and square ball rule must still apply to offensive marks.

Saw the Sheridan incident when I got home- absolutely shocking and indefensible.

Ah sorry I thought it was from open play. That would have been it then.

Totally agree on Sheridan although I will add that it may not have been as bad as it looks as the no. 7 just got up and walked off without any affect. That's not excusing it as it could have been really dangerous and deserves punished, just feel they made the most of every opportunity. There were quite a few incidents where our lads were simply taken out off the ball in obvious black or yellow card fouls and they were ignored or missed.

Just as an observation and lack of maths, anyone know the measurements on a field? Just at one stage the ref gave Donegal a free on the outside edge of the "D" and moved the ball up for obvious dissent - not sure if it was Soupy or Jamar, but the free was moved to the 13 metre line. I thought the arc of the "D" was 13 metres so moving the ball to the 20 metre line would have been easily worked out but another 7 metres in those conditions???? I really didn't think it was a discretionary rule although it happens a lot!

On Morgan's red card, I'm not sure what he did that was any worse than any of the others in all the pushing and shoving. It was actually Donegal's no. 12 that started it when he charged head on into Jamar. How he escaped a card never mind a red for that is beyond me. It was certainly dangerous at the least with full body contact against the head and neck

 

[ragingbull]

Without Morgan Campbell Sheridan Forker next game Armagh will struggle to beat Fermanagh,Armagh still rely so much on Campbell & Clarke up front for scores

 

[JoeH]

Fermanagh game is Saturday 16th

 

[PatMustard]

Without Morgan Campbell Sheridan Forker next game Armagh will struggle to beat Fermanagh,Armagh still rely so much on Campbell & Clarke up front for scores

Squeaky bum time again. I thought we’d got to the stage where we would be comfortably holding our own in Div 2.

Ok, a lot of tennis to be played yet, but it seems like when in Div 2 this last few years, we’re always looking in our rear view mirror.

 

[niall1980]

2 weeks to fermanagh game. How bad was Campbell’s injury? He wasn’t looking that bad coming off. Maybe donaghy back and Rafferty fit to start too

 

[ShiftYa]

Our lack of discipline is shocking. The lack of guile along the line can only be matched by the likes of Vernon in particular, mackin Sheridan, campbell and a few others on the pitch.

I felt the game was over when murphy scored the goal. He might be half fit and nearly done but he was too much for us to contend with.

Any management should be judged on whether they are getting the best from what they have to work with. It pains me to say this, but this management are not getting the best of the players available to them. Fair play to Rian O'Neill and clarke for committing this year but they must be wondering why they've bothered. I know geezer has asked various people to assist him over the years and they have declined but people such as Hollywood and McKeever are holding us back and are not what we need right now. I would have thought mccorry would have helped when he came on board.

Our lack of leadership can be best summed up by our captain, Rory grugan. I thought some of his antics were disgraceful tonight. Timid, cheating, going out of his way to get involved in things he can't handle or sort out. Embarrassing.

I find it hard to be positive at the moment. We are missing lads who should be starting - burns, oisin O'Neill, donaghy, murnin, forker, McQuillan.

Here here

 

[ShiftYa]

No ‘may’ about it, Stephen Sheridan’s stamp was an absolute disgrace and he’ll be banned and rightly so. If he avoids a ban somehow Armagh should set an example and internally discipline him.

I know he’s one of our own but I can’t remember when any Armagh player committed a worse act in the county jersey. Very disappointing.

You must never of seen any of Ciaran Mckeever games.

 

[PatMustard]

You must never of seen any of Ciaran Mckeever games.

McKeever did do some silly things, but I can’t recall a really dirty act of his.

 

[Kem]

Someone initially said square ball & then I heard that the referee had already blown for a free out, so in reality who knows.

Back in 2007 at the Championship game in Ballybofey we were subjected to Donegal supporters calling Stevie McD a "gypsy bastard", some of them did little to improve my opinion of them tonight.

Also to whomever invented the bagpipes

The definition of a gentleman is someone who can play the bagpipes but doesn't

 

[ragingbull]

Tyrone hurlers 3-16 Armagh hurlers 1-16 result it seems the Armagh hurling team is getting worse

 

[JoeH]

What's most frustrating is that we should be on 10pts at present.
We are the best equipped team in the division but inconsistencies, poor match official decisions, cute hoorism from other teams e.g. Donegals play acting last night are stopping us.
I'd like to see Ethan Rafferty played as a third midfielder, Rian ONeill played at CHF place two in the full forward line and three on the half forward line who will pounce on balls played to the full forward line

In defence Brendan Donaghy at CHB with Greg and Aidan Forker on either side

Looks like Charlie and Niall Grimley in midfield the next day