Armagh v Dublin

[BigBellew]

Good points.

For me every match this year I have been at A.Kernan has not made it at CHF.
Usually a fantastic player this year has been one to forget imo.
Not his fault but we need to either play him in the half back line or not at all imo.

I can only assume O'Rourke's reasoning is that he has noticed with A.Kernan out of the half back line it is a better line (defensively).
If he does not play him in the Half forward line where does he play him?

A.Kernan needs to be let stick to getting forward from HB
McKeever needs to be let stick to distributing ball and picking up oppositions playmaker

[Begbie]

poor logic here

if every man kept their man down to the odd point we'd win most games

and why dont we point the finger at the men who should be marking the men who are scoring?

so because bernard brogan scored nine points, thats vincie martins fault?

poor logic.

That's very poor logic. You've missed the point chap.

[rattle-the-net]

You know what, I reckon he was judged before he went out on to the pitch!

By all means have the last word on this.

I judged him by his performance on the day, as i said i thought he had a brutal game! thats why i said IMO i didnt think he was county standard!

And i understand what begbie means by forwards keeping themselves scoreless ie taking the wrong option, shooting the ball wide countless time, making the wrong run etc... could this have been the basis for why Corkery was taken off?? not the fact VM "kept" him scoreless.

And im sorry easy tiger but to try and keep every player to one or two points you'll win the game... if you have top class forwards like Brogan or Donaghy etc its very hard to keep them to one or two points and when your playing the top teams who have countless options up front if the main player isnt performing they have someone else there to take over.

And no-one is blaming VM for B.Brogan scoring 9 points!?...

[Patrick-Armagh]

I missed the game because I was away, so this is the first chance I've had to air my views. I was very disappointed that we lost to Dublin. Despite being a team in transition, I felt like this was a game that we could have won and would have really helped in the development of this young team. Dublin were there for the taking and we couldn't do it. We were never going to win the All Ireland, but I think that if we could have made it to the 1/4 finals we would have had a very good year to go with the National League win and promotion.

However, I'm trying not to be too down about the whole thing, because we have progressed this year and this season should really help us develop. We have seen the likes of Jamie Clarke and Gareth Swift emerge as two very good players for the future. We can also look forward to return of Ronan Clarke next year. Having him fully fit and playing alongside McDonnell and Jamie Clarke would be a formidable forward line. Again we saw the over reliance on Stevie for scores this year. Despite young Clarke emerging, we couldn't expect him to be a regular scoring threat.

Having more scoring forwards should be the priority of the management team. When you look at the other teams around, the scoring is spread across a number of players - Kerry have Cooper, Donaghy, Declan O'Sullivan and Bryan Sheehan contributing regularly to the scoreboard. Tyrone have Mulligan, O'Neill, Cavanagh and Dooher doing the same. Cork have O'Connor, Goulding, Sheehan and Kerrigan sharing the majority of the scores. Monaghan have the likes of Freeman, Finlay, McManus to get the scores. Wexford get their scores from Forde, Lyng, Banville and Barry. And that's just the forwards, never mind the other players on the team who contribute. If we are to win, Steven McDonnell has to be getting seven or eight points a game, to go with the frees that Aaron Kernan puts over, or the odd point that Mallon, Vernon or Swift puts over. We would be greatly helped by the return of Ronan Clarke to the team, but even then we have seen how being over reliant on two players still doesn't work. Scoring forwards don't grow on trees, but I would like to see some of the talented young players who've emerged from the minors and under 21's to be given a chance, whether it's the McKenna Cup or National League.

Progress is being made and any success we have is dependent on the next wave of talent in the youth ranks. There is the basis of a very good team there and if we could find a real centre half forward, get Ronan Clarke fit and get other players, especially from the half forward line to be scoring regularly we would be far better.

[glory days]

The problem as I see it is that most of the people on this forum think the Armagh team should be as good as the 2002-2007 team. Please remember all, that the 2002 team had got to 2 All-Ireland semi-finals in 1999 and 2000 and were turned over by the eventual winners in each case by Meath and Kerry. We were written off by all the pundits in 2002 as an old team with too many miles on the clock. So, that old team went on to win 7 Ulster’s in 10 years, got to 2 All Ireland Finals and made the last 16 every year from 2002 to 2006 (think I’m right on that – someone correct me – Rufus!!!!) and made the semi’s 5 times in those years.

This team is very young – only Stevie survived from the 2002 team – think about that!!

I remember as a young fella heading off with me Da expecting to get a hammering every single match. This team is young and has potential. Like it or not, we have made some improvement and next year we will get better. We need to find a few players in certain positions and we need to find a good No. 11 who will play at No. 11. Aaron needs to go back into the half back line where he belongs and plays his best football.

Let’s not give this team a hard time – OK they weren’t at their best, they lost so much ball in the tackle (that was hard to watch, time and time again running into the defender and losing the ball), we looked pedestrian going forward – but, this team will improve. I have every confidence that POR took this team over a 2 to 3 year term. The fruits of McGurn cannot seen in just 7 months. Next year will tell the tale – so, go away, lick the wounds and come back supporting the Orchard in 2011!!

well put def need few new players