There's been some good analysis of the game from Sunday and it's been enjoyable to read. Brendan Donaghy has come in for some criticism and while some of it is justified, I also feel like his performance wasn't as bad as people make out. For the first goal, he and Hughes were at fault no doubt, but people also seem to miss the fact that Pat Havern has a good couple of inches on both of them and was simply first to the ball over them. There's not a whole lot you can do when someone is bigger than you and a high ball is dropping in. I think Donaghy should have done better with the second goal and there was a rash tackle in the first half that lead to an easy free. Other than that, I didn't feel that he looked off the pace. Blaine Hughes size is an issue and I expect Cavan will be seeing that and dropping some high balls into the square. I think with Hughes, his goal kicks and shot stopping is good and while the management have to recognise that he is small, they are willing to sacrifice size for his ability to pick men out with his kicks (and even this hasn't been consistent lately).
Just picking up on the Jamie Clarke situation, is there any particular reason why he won't play for them? I take there has been some falling out between the two parties? Is it not possible for him to transfer to another club down south where he spends a lot of time? It's far from ideal that arguably our best forward doesn't play club football. I saw someone mention the conundrum that is Clarke, in that Armagh seem to bend the rules and accommodate him in every way, as he is such a good player. If he were anyone else, he'd have been shown the door a long time ago. We as supporters can be fickle, as many of us get annoyed by this, but then swallow our own principles, as we know we are better with him than without him. But to contradict my own point, it's only football and there's more to life than it, so if the management and players are happy for him to play under such circumstances, then we as supporters should accept it.
I also read someone making the comment that a lot of players will not play for Armagh because of McGeeney. I'd be interested to know who (I accept that people may not want to talk out of turn or spread gossip). I've heard gossip, that McGeeney and a particular player whose career took him to Hong Kong (not sure if he's still there), had issues. Which is a shame, as he was someone I always rated him highly and feel that his searing pace is something that we have missed out on as team. He had that 'next level' speed that players like Jack McCaffrey, Caolan Mooney and Karl O'Connell have.
As for the comments regarding the long ball in to the forwards, I couldn't agree more. I think it's something that we should use more. Our first score on Sunday came from a long ball into Rafferty who won it and laid it off to O'Neill who scored. O'Neill then scored a great point from a long diagonal ball where he held the defender off, caught the ball with one hand and scored. Campbell scored a great point from long a ball across, which he won and held off some defenders before scoring. We all saw the damage that Murnin did from some long balls in. Hopefully this is something we can use more often, as we have the players to do it.
