Was it Brolly who said of Seanie Johnson that “he’s a great man to score 3-6 in a challenge” or something like that a few years ago?
Armagh XV not available.
- Geoghegan
- Hughes
- Toner
- Rushe
- Kernan
- McKenna
- Murray
- P Carragher
- Harold
- Rafferty
- O’Neill
- Dyas
- K Carragher
- Murnin
- Clarke
Murnin, Dyas and Murray are still on the panel but long term injured.
That’s a more talented side than played today, IMO.
Brolly loves touching O’Rourke
Lyster is such a classic rte presenter. The minute things start to hear up or get interesting he changes the subject.
Wasn’t fit enough to catch up to lads to clatter them.
Should have tried it in the parade again
This thing is a fucking joke. Teams barely turning up. Hammering left right and centre. Derry, Armagh and Down not fit for purpose. This thing should be scrapped.
What I can’t understand is how shite Down are now given the population they have…more people there then Cork for example and majority Catholic.
Tyrone will walk this
Down is not majority Catholic. It’s about 70/30 in favour of the prods I would say.You look at the big towns in Down 10k population +.
They are majority protestant cities with the exception of Newry which also crosses over into Armagh.
Lisburn has a population of 120k and to my knowledge has just one GAA club.
As far as I’m aware there is no GAA club in Bangor, a town of 60k.
There is no GAA club in Newtownards, a town of 30k.
As far as GAA goes, the county Down team has always been made up of a South Down base. If you went to a map and pin pointed all the GAA clubs in Down that backbone the senior teams you would see they are all pretty much based in the southern half of the county, which is far more rural and less populated.
In saying that I would not consider that an excuse for Down, they’ve always had great tradition and still have a decent playing pick - I would say it only really lags behind Donegal and Tyrone in Ulster and would be on a par with Armagh. Their problem stems from the complete unravelling of them at underage, they haven’t done a thing at underage level in about 10 years now. There is complete apathy in the setup and they’re stuck in the doldrums for years.
While Derry and Armagh are at a low level now, their problems are less do with the players at their disposal but more to do with the environment that exists there, players just aren’t buying into it and aren’t committing to their counties in the correct mindset or at all.
Down are just fucked for the next 5/6 years at least. They simply don’t have the players, the best players in the county are all on the wrong side of 30 now and they were a golden generation who haven’t been replaced. You have guys like Coulter, Clarke, Laverty, Gordon, McComiskey, King, Mooney and possibly a few more today who would be certain starters who just won’t waste any more time with a side which is going nowhere. I really feel sorry for McKernan, think he’s the only player left from 2010 now and the rabble he’s left with, he’s a brilliant player but he’s as well pack it in now as well.
In terms of nationalist population in Ulster I would rank the counties as follows. Tyrone and Fermanagh would be the only counties in the O6 that draw from pretty much all their nationalist population. The nationalist minorities in unionist areas of Down really take part in GAA. Armagh struggle to draw from the nationalist communities in Lurgan/Craigavon/Portadown - soccer is a big factor here. Derry don’t draw from Derry City. Antrim rely heavily on the Belfast clubs where GAA still probably lags behind soccer in the nationalist communities.
- Donegal (160k)
- Tyrone (100k)
- Armagh/Down (80-90k)
- Monaghan/Cavan/Derry (60-70k)
- Antrim (50k)
- Fermanagh (30k)
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What is the breakdown for Catholics/prods in Tyrone? And what percentage of prods make up Tyrone squad?
We don’t want or need the prods.
Tyrone is about 60% nationalist I would suspect.
So there’s no prods at all in the Tyrone set up?
None.
The only prods I’m aware of playing for any Ulster county right now are the Wylies with Monaghan.
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Informative.
Down need Pete McGrath back next year.
They don’t deserve him.
Great post mate.
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Down won their first Ulster title in 1959, the GAA’s 75th anniversary year. Down had little or no tradition for the first 75 years of the GAA’s existence.
What age are you Geoff?