we don't Bow to any team we go hard to beat every team we play, but we haven't and others haven't beat them. but fair play to all that take a big interest in the Armagh Championship.

easier said than done to beat them in the Qter, semi or final.....

youngfella27 (Armagh) - Posts: 110 - 25/03/2016 15:59:12    1837636

Thomas Clarke is 100% right - Tyrone club teams lacked the ambition to compete outside the county, and to an extent they still do. They may not have been good enough anyway, fair enough - but that doesn't take away from the fact that they're not ambitious enough, not even today. Of course, any Tyrone team that does compete in Ulster will obviously compete normally in the game and celebrate if they win, same as anybody else.

But you'd be fooling yourself if you imagine for one second that the depths of motivation that Tyrone clubs can draw on when playing each other is in any matched by their motivation when playing someone from 'outside'. They're not. Admittedly, it's perhaps nowhere near as bad in that respect as it was in the 70s and 80s (Tyrone club teams that would go off the drink to man during the county c'ship campaign would happily go back on the beer as soon as the Cup was filled after the final; and a game or two in Ulster against teams you knew nothing about and had no rivalry with was not taken nearly as seriously). That attitude btw is not anything to be proud of. It may be driven by wider attitudes in the county, among fans. During the co c'ship, a Tyrone club's fans will generally be very involved (some might say obsessed) - flags out, talking about nothing else. But once the co final is over, the fuss dies down, few speak about football anymore; nobody really cares, certainly not as much. The feeling is that the main thing - the O'Neill Cup - has now been achieved. It certainly doesn't seem to be that way in all other counties.

Let's not forget that divisions and rivalries in Tyrone were so bad that we used to have two county boards, one of the East of the Co, and one for the West of the county. It's more for the crack these days http://www.hoganstand.com/Tyrone/MessagePage.aspx?PageNumber=0&TopicID=23072, but the rivalries are still there. And of course, if you play a fellow East / West team, the rivalries are even worse. My Uncle recalled playing a team from the next village and their winning team having to jump a river to get away after the game as the losing local fans were waiting outside the ground with broken paling posts to 'even the score'.

Trillick, one of those '2 bad teams' (!) (Trillick, so bad they've got 4 county men (on a better county team than the current Armagh one) and Dungannon, so bad they've got 2) referred to, even played in Fermanagh for a while, so fed up were they with the co board politics of a bygone era. The fact that Trillick, the 2015 champions, had been in Div II the previous year proves little. Trillick were hardly a natural Div II team, having only dropped down the previous year after some slack performances in games they should have won - before winning pretty much every game in Div II at a canter and being promoted back up the very next year. Neither does the margin of Trillick's loss in the previous year's Div II final means much - it was a bit of a freak result - Dungannon were by far the better team on the day (big McNulty was sensational) - but even Dungannon would admit that Trillick were hardly quite as bad as that once-off result. For instance, Trillick and Dungannon played a good close game subsequently; and Trillick could and should have beaten Scotstown in the semi-final - missing several easy chances (admittedly in lousy conditions) in the last 10 minutes http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/gaa/scotstown-see-off-spirited-trillick-in-a-tight-semifinal-34203047.html.

For the record, I'm a big fan of Armagh (the 05 Armagh team was better than Kerry 05 by some margin and Tyrone only got past them by the skin of their teeth after an epic battle) and especially of Cross - CR were done out of an AI final spot by some shameful decisions by Kinsella - Castlebar should never have been in that final and we saw how limited they were when they didn't have the ref on their side.

essmac (Tyrone) - Posts: 1141 - 25/03/2016 21:14:16    1837687

And of course, if you play a fellow East / West team, the rivalries are even worse. My Uncle recalled playing a team from the next village and their winning team having to jump a river to get away after the game as the losing local fans were waiting outside the ground with broken paling posts to 'even the score'.

essmac (Tyrone) - Posts:152 - 25/03/2016 21:14:16

Was your Uncle playing against the revered Windmill club by any chance? Even us Donegal men have heard wild stories about going to play up there!!

HandballRef (Donegal) - Posts: 520 - 25/03/2016 21:34:28    1837690

Jesus lads I'm sure they've had some tight games over the years but it still makes A mockery of the Armagh championship. 19 out of 20 is an embarrassment to Armagh football.

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts:7208 - 24/03/2016 10:31:58 1



I will only speak for Cavan here (and out club standard is well below average nationally) but Cross would have done the same in Cavan over the past 20 years. If people are honest enough about it, I'd say they would look at their own county and admit the same in 15-20 of the 32. Cross are the pride of Armagh football, have dominated when Armagh were at the top of the intercounty table and still do when Armagh have slipped back, and are far from an embarrassment to the other clubs in the county.

cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts: 5021 - 25/03/2016 21:46:51    1837692

I saw the documentary and I was left with mixed thoughts! Crossmagken are one of the best clubs ever and their hunger for success is phenomenal. That is what came across for me. It was interesting to see Jamie Clarke and his battle with the 'win at all costs' mentality. That was a key feature of the documentary I thought and another point was how big the club is in the local community and the effect it has on its club members. There were fantastic screen shots of spectators in the crowd at games and these alone showed the importance of sport to the people of Cross.
Oisin was also good and their team talks before and after gave a terrific insight into the mentality of what it takes to be winners in the GAA at club level.
The troubles and their effects were dealt with fairly. Very little was shown about past victories which was interesting. To me it was an honest and fairly in depth analysis of what Cross are about, what the GAA club means to people and what it takes to win. Overall, an enjoyable documentary and well done to the producers.

carlowman (Carlow) - Posts: 1821 - 26/03/2016 11:59:53    1837734

Sorry cavanman, but I disagree.
Cross are a great club but, like Kilkenny in the hurling, after a certain length of time I think we have start looking at the others and ask ourselves what theyre at.
19 out of 20 is a bit much in fairness.

joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 26/03/2016 18:57:09    1837883

Jon Carter if that was your club or county winning 19 out 20 titles you would not want see things changing. Fair play to Cross. A great club indeed.

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 26/03/2016 21:59:02    1837928

Finally got watching this. Very interesting & enjoyable.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 29/03/2016 18:30:49    1839005

Castlebar should never have been in that final and we saw how limited they were when they didn't have the ref on their side.

essmac (Tyrone) - Posts:152 - 25/03/2016 21:14:16 1

This is the same Castlebar side who have knocked out recent All-Ireland champions on four occasions in the past three years (Crossmaglen, Corofin twice, St. Brigid's). Look, they were extremely disappointing in the final (didn't turn up, truthfully) but to suggest that they got to the final based on favourable reffing decisions alone is frankly balderdash.

Cross are an amazing club who would win multiple championships in any county in Ireland.

Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 01/04/2016 16:11:45    1840236