I was in Croker last Saturday and what a relief it was to see attacking football triumph over the sterile, negative tactics, defensive style which has blighted our game in recent years!!!Mattie Forde and Wexford were a breath of fresh air. Armagh put in their usual quota of heavy and late tackles but in the end it came against them. Bernard Flynn made the point on the Sunday Game that their style of football has passed its sell by date and I hope that this is the case. There are fine footballers in Armagh( Crossmaglen club have them in abundance) and they should try to play the game the way it should be played- aka Wexford, Kerry and indeed our own lads. There is only one side which adopts this anti-football style remaining in this years championship and maybe by next weekend there will be note. Here here to the beautiful game played as it should be!!!

galwaycelt (Galway) - Posts: 307 - 11/08/2008 12:49:02    70784

Have to agree with a Galway man for once. It's been a blight on the game for the last 10 years.

Keano (Mayo) - Posts: 412 - 11/08/2008 13:27:35    70854

The blanket defence worked well for Tyrone and Armagh for a few years and now finally the rest of the country is catching on to it.!!!!!!!

on the fence (Donegal) - Posts: 731 - 11/08/2008 13:27:50    70856

Have to agree GC that the method of football played by ourselves this last few years has been relatively affective,but i agree i reckon everything has it's sell by date. We have some cracker footballers,i just hope we can introduce a new style of play that actually involves 6 forwards.
Well done Wexford by the way,fully deserved!

sean og (Armagh) - Posts: 1072 - 11/08/2008 13:30:38    70860

Hopefully next weekend there will be none. That way we can actually go out and mix and have a bit of craic with opposing down to earth humble supporters.

Stevieh (None) - Posts: 10 - 11/08/2008 13:47:43    70889

I am sick to death of this Southern negativity towards Ulster and especially towards my own county who are being singled out as the only villains left in the championship. You would nearly think it was "Jedi Knights" trying to defeat the "dark-side".

You all profess to playing football the way it should be and all this carry-on but the only two challengers to the kingdom of late have been Armagh and Tyrone. Sorry, the only teams of late that have beaten the Kingdom in a final. You all appear to be happy to stand toe to toe with Kerry and even though they always end up pumping yous. Galway were no different on Saturday, Hard luck Galway, Awhk yis are a great team blah, blah, blah.

Lads, Kerry are all laughing at the rest of the South for you all massaging their ego's and they have effectively turned you all against the like of Tyrone and Armagh for beating them in of all places an All Ireland final. Unless you all wake up and smell the coffee it will be six in a row come 2011. The way we look at it is Kerry need to be knocked off their perch and thankfully one team remaining in the championship from the North might actually try and stop them. The rest of you southerners keep on slapping each other in the back with your hard luck stories as the Kerrymen all laugh at yous all the way to 3+ in a row.

Blanket defence is just a lazy southern word for hard work and endeavour, Look at Kilkenny in the hurling yesterday - Was that blanket defence??? No, but it was pure hard work-rate. If Galway had tackled harder and worked harder on Saturday they might still be in the championship, but not to be, they were happy enough to watch a procession of scores from Kerry. Killian Young ran 50 yards with the ball on Saturday and not one man put a hand on him. I don't think you would get away that handy if Phillip Jordan or Conor Gormley were on the scene.

mugsys_barber (Tyrone) - Posts: 2160 - 11/08/2008 14:03:47    70914

no its not the end.i say this because kildare also employ a similiar style.and its disgusting.and it certainly doesnt win games anymore.wexford were superb.armagh were'nt even that bad.wexford were just that good.that man matty is a modern great.best forward in the country by a mile.

daytona11 (Kildare) - Posts: 4012 - 11/08/2008 14:04:47    70917

Unbelievable cac bó. Blanket defence??? If certain teams played strong attack, would this be taken by some "pudits " as a form of blanket attack. Wise up and realise that defence is every bit as important a factor in the game as attack. Jaysus, ye will be accusing goalies next of being too good. As recent history shows, teams adopt new methods and other teams evolve to counter as was seen by a great Wexford team this weekend. This blanket defence is becoming as much an integral part of the game as , say, long diagonal attacking. Maybe Dublin will beat Tyrone this weekend and if they do, it will prove my point : that teams evolve.

Gortnagarn (UK) - Posts: 112 - 11/08/2008 14:35:09    70967

so true, agree with every word, the blight of this ulster rubbish is nearly over,i really hope the dubs beat the scorge that is tyrone. that will make it 3 years in a row with no ulster team in semi, and to think some ppl on this site go on about the strengt of ulster football !! great credit to kerry, galway and wexford on sat, armagh were a disgrace, totally obsessed with defence, it was painfull to watch them pack there own half with bodybuilders. football when played proper is a joy to watch lets hope that the succes of real football countys can sway our friends from ulster to ditch there horrible "style" and play the game the right way. also i would give galway special praise , they always play football v kerry, this has cost them in terms of results, however they refused to bow to the easier and less brave option of negative tactics, for this stance i hope they day will come, fair play to galway.

broken arrow (Limerick) - Posts: 104 - 11/08/2008 14:35:38    70968

Please do explain stevieh,i look forward to your reply.

sean og (Armagh) - Posts: 1072 - 11/08/2008 14:41:48    70976

Howya Mugsy! Don't be getting the blood pressure up so early in the week!

JayoCluxton (Dublin) - Posts: 2688 - 11/08/2008 14:56:12    71006

I have to agree with the Barber about the negativity towards Ulster on this board. There was a real sense of pride for Ulster people when our teams started to do well and to compete at the business end of the championship on a regular basis. This was pride in the great achievements of several counties. It was a pro-Ulster thing if you like.
Since the Ulster teams have started to wane (and there can be no doubt that this is the case), there has been a bucket-load of comments glorifying in the fact that Ulster is not as strong any more. What I find disappointing is that most of these comments come from an anti-Ulster perspective rather than a pro-Munster, pro-Connaught or pro-Leinster. People are not rejoicing in the fact that their province is doing well, instead they are delighted that another is not doing well. There is a significant begrudgery against successful Ulster teams. Sure, it was a bit of craic when they came down now and again and won a game or two, but when it started to happen on a regular basis, there was a concerted effort to belittle what was achieved. The gleeful adoption of the term "puke football" and the self-righteous accusations of having created the "sweeper" system. Rather than talking about the fantastic, flowing football and the brilliant skilful players, a lot of people were glad to harp on about late tackles and physical play. Lazy criticism without knowledge. Anything to belittle the achievements of Ulster.
And now that Ulster teams are failing to reach the semi's with such regularity and in such numbers as before, we are inundated with the snide comments, glorying in this fact, and happy to rub our noses in it.

I hasten to add that I'm not directing this at the HS population en masse. The anti-Ulster brigade know who they are and I just wish that they would focus more on the achievements of their own county and province and less so on trying to put down Ulster.

RMDrive (Donegal) - Posts: 2202 - 11/08/2008 15:04:28    71033

The stench of anti-ulster bias down here is unbearable!! Its not enough to attack the way we play the game in the north, you have to attack our personalities as well. What ever happened to being one nation under the GAA?? I notice that there are not too many Kerry supporters on here critiscising the Northern teams because in a way they have adapted our template. Now i'm not for one second saying that Kerry are copying the Ulster teams. What people have to realise is this. Whenever a successful formula is created in any sport, one which brings with it titles and the strappings of success it is envitable this system will be copied. Notice how practically every team this year has tried to unearth a Kieran Donnaghey with verying degrees of success. Winners learn from their mistakes and dont make them again, losers yap and moan and point fault with other people. Ironic that most of the posts on this website are from Mayo, Donegal etc. The great perennial chokers of the Gaelic Football.

Rio Bingo (Tyrone) - Posts: 788 - 11/08/2008 15:07:19    71043

Alright there Jayo, All set for the weekend i hope!!

To be honest lad I am a bit sick of guys coming on to these boards having gotten beaten or hammered themselves and hoping that the like of Tyrone get beat so the world will be a better place - You would think we had a disease or something and everyone appears to be happy enough with Kerry winning the damn thing every year.

If we are beat this Saturday, I hope Dublin do give it a proper lash and not capitulate like a very high percentage of other southern teams against Kerry. I am definitely not anti-Kerry either, but cannot hack it when other teams who have failed to challenge them and then knock us/criticise us and Armagh for actually giving them a bloody nose. At the end of the day when ever we did beat Kerry we always scored more than them.

In '96 when Meath tramped us into the ground, the country laughed at us. Now We have finally stood up for ourselves and we're still getting slated. Thankfully we're made of stern stuff up here. We didn't budge much for the foreign invader and we'll hardly loss much sleep over what some folk think of us in footballing terms either.

mugsys_barber (Tyrone) - Posts: 2160 - 11/08/2008 15:21:33    71092

** Westmeath and Kerry to name but two of the southern teams play with the blanket defence. Why o why then are Ulster being labelled with the being the only ones who do it?

Niamh (Derry) - Posts: 2397 - 11/08/2008 15:30:08    71117

I dont think I am being anti- Ulster or biased against northern teams in any way. One of the ugliest teams to watch is Westmeath and they arent from Ulster. I have great regard forTyrone football and saw their u21 teams of the early part of this decade witn a few All Irelands with some breathtaking football and it certainly wasnt defensive in style. Likewise Armagh would be much better off playing "proper" football as Clarke and McDonnell would thrive if they got proper ball every time. I just like to see the game played in a proper fashion with skill and endeavour coming out on top.

When Killian Young soloed up the field last Saturday against Galway, you could bet your bottom dollar he would have been wrestled and mauled illegally by players from other counties. It was open, flamboyant football and awesome to watch- it wasnt the dragfest and cynical stuff we have become accustomed to in recent times. We lost- we will learn from it and improve and not go crying into our beer unlike other counties.

Other people on this site are saying Monaghan or Armagh would have beate Galway- where is their evidence of this? Its hypothetical of course and we wont know- next year might answer a few of your questions.

I just hope the rest of the championship takes off and brightens up what has been a pretty poor championship to date.Best of luck to all remaining counties and may the best side prevail.

galwaycelt (Galway) - Posts: 307 - 11/08/2008 15:35:48    71134

Mugsy I feel your pain and posted something along the lines that Tomas Tralee did last week. The 'lovely' footballing counties in our fair land are also well able for the blanket tactics and cynical football when required!

JayoCluxton (Dublin) - Posts: 2688 - 11/08/2008 15:43:55    71155

Most of the anti-Ulster bile on here has nothing to do with Gaelic football. It's just bitter small minded partitionists who don't like anything about Ulster or the North FULL STOP. You can really feel this raw hatred jump out at you sometimes from many posters. It's the same in Germany where those from the West despise those from the East and look down on them. This mindset has been encouraged by the cheerleaders in the Southern media which detests the Northern Nationalist community. Larry Tompkins wrote an excellent article a few years ago when the 'puke football' nonsense was doing the rounds. He stated that it was just sour grapes from certain elements in the South who couldn't bear the thought of SAM going over the border and that Gaelic football always had always had it's fair share of physical players. Tyrone & Armagh have been involved in some of best most exciting matches in the last 15 years. Peter Canavan, Stephen O'Neill, Stevie McDonnell, Oisin McConville have been a joy to watch. If the last 2 dreadful All Irelands are a benchmark then heaven help the GAA. They were boredom personified. Many posters should take that anti-Ulster chip off their shoulders as it is weighing them down heavily and affecting their judgement.

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9818 - 11/08/2008 16:06:48    71214

The simple facts are because Kerry have so many skilfully players any team that goes toe to toe in a shoot out with them will lose out as Galway did on Saturday ok it was a beautiful game but it was naive of Liam Salmon to play Kerry in this manner.The week before Monaghan played a much more defensive game and came very close to pulling it off.Westmeath played a similar type game against the Dubs and got very close also. Wexford played old style against the Dubs and look what happened......I think their next game will be much closer ( they have started using a sweeper already if anyone noticed) that's if the Dubs get through.
Its grand for neutrals to talk of real football and my own county has being involved in some great football games over the last few years ( and lost most of them ) so give me a win playing puke football any day.

chainsaw (Laois) - Posts: 712 - 11/08/2008 16:16:44    71230

blanket defence cop on! Its called hard work and tactical nous!

Whats next? Basketball teams complaining that the other teams are crowding the scoring area and they have no space to shoot?! Hmm pretty similar isnt it!

benjyyy (Donegal) - Posts: 1428 - 11/08/2008 16:29:03    71252