It was Enda McNulty who made the mistake, not Mallon. If Kev was at that match and thinks Armagh were never in the running I can only assume he was in the bar for most of it, although I don’t think the vast majority of ticket holders had access to a bar at that time. Maybe he had a premium level ticket?
[QUOTE=“Manuel Zelaya, post: 1027637, member: 377”]You should heed the old adage - ‘if you’re explaining you’re losing’ there’s a hell of a lot of explaining away of an 8 point defeat there.
I was at that game as well in 2006 and Kerry completely overran Armagh in the second half from start to finish, scoring something like 2-9 or 2-10 in just 35 minutes football. Paul Galvin was sent off as well so Kerry had to make do with a numerical disadvantage for a chunk of the game as well.[/QUOTE]
You must have been at the bar as well. Analysing how a match plays out involves a few more nuances than just looking at a scoreline. I was also at that match and Armagh were coming hard at Kerry with seven or eight minutes left at two points down. McNulty’s mistake decided the result. It would be like me saying Dublin beat Kerry by seven points last year, therefore the result was never in doubt. Was it fuck.
Dublin were around since '92 trying to win that all Ireland in fairness…they had been beaten in 2 of the last 3 finals previous to that …there was an awful desperation to them beating tyrone in '95…when you look at the hammering they gave Meath in leinster that year to the putrid display they put on against tyrone it was pure desperation to get over the finish line…Once they won it they never were going to do anything for years…Pat O neill knew as much and left…poor Mickey Whelan took over a team on the way down and lacking hunger…Armagh were in a much better position to go forward when they won theirs…
mcnulty had a hand pas intercepted I think? …didn’t they also get a goal from that tactic apparently Eamon Fitzmaurice invented this year, where Sean Sullivan launched a high ball into donaghy and he buried it and made faces at armagh keeper after…
McDonnell also missed 3 or 4 frees that day that I would have put the house on McConville getting. Kerry’s second half performance against Armagh was the pinnacle for them in that decade.
Arguable, but up to the Fermanagh game Armagh for me were playing even better football in 2004 than they were in 2002. They got lucky against Sligo at the same stage in 2002 after a poor performance, didn’t get lucky against Fermanagh in 2004. They were better again in 2005 but Tyrone edged them in a match that proved to be the real All-Ireland final that year.
In Kerry pinnacles are measured by what they do on All Ireland Final day. In a decade that yielded 5 All Ireland wins from 8 final appearances, dishing out a second half hiding to an average Armagh side in a quarter final was just routine business which merited a shrug of the shoulders and a few yerrahs at most.
Oh really, then why were the likes of Paul Galvin nearly reduced to tears when they beat Tyrone in a 3rd round qualifier in 2012, Tomas O’Se still speaks about how not being able to beat Tyrone in a big match damages their legacy, the second half performance they produced against Armagh in 2006 was the best 35 minutes of football they played in that decade.
Think I may actually be confusing this game with another one as McConville played against Kerry, arguably the 2008 qf with Wexford?
How can you measure it being better than any other era. Based on that assumption you could say that all of pat spillanes all Ireland’s were won in a poor era for football given how much better than everyone Kerry.
That 2011 Dublin team was near enough the same team that won in 2013 and they will probably win another few. By your reckoning the only era in which football is strong is when Ulster have teams competing for the all ireland. Therefore one could say that approx 90 years of the football championship have been bad eras for football.
So Paul Galvin wasn’t crying when Kerry hammered Tyrone in 2012. Your line of argument is getting more and more bizarre.
Tomas has 5 All Ireland medals in his arse pocket and was an extended member of the Kerry panel in 1997 as a 19 year old but didn’t get a medal. The legacy Tomas is looking at is Uncle Paidi and his team-mates with 7 and 8 medals. If Kerry had beaten Tyrone in one or two of those finals in 2005 or 2008, they’d be up there on the pantheon with the team of 1975-86. That’s the standard of excellence you’re dealing with in Kerry, fellows with 5 and 6 All Ireland medals with an inferiority complex in front of fellow county men who have 7 and 8 medals.
[QUOTE=“Manuel Zelaya, post: 1027605, member: 377”]All had a 4-5 year spell when they were contenders. Dublin lost their two finals in 92 & 94, lost to eventual All Ireland champions Derry in semi final of 1993 before they won in 95. Offaly lost a Leinster Final to a last minute goal in 79, a high quality semi final to Kerry in 1980 and a final to Kerry in 1981 before winning in 1982 and Cork lost finals in 2007 & 09 and a semi final in a replay in 2008 before winning in 2010.
As regards Armagh been contenders for years afterwards, you’re indulging in a bit of poetic licence there, they lost to Tyrone the eventual winners in 2003 and 2005, in 2004 there was that bad defeat to Fermanagh. By 2006, there were all but gone, hammered by Kerry by 8 points in that year’s quarter final, winless in 2007 (knocked out in the first round of qualifiers by Derry after losing to Donegal in the first round of the Ulster championship), knocked out by Wexford in 2008 and winless again in 2009 (knocked out by Monaghan in the first round of the qualifiers).[/QUOTE]
Armagh were there before building to their All a ireland, but unlike the others they were also there afterwards. 3 Ulsters in a row after proves that, no poetic license involved.
[QUOTE=“Il Bomber Destro, post: 1027632, member: 2533”]Stop talking horseshit, the consenus around the ground at half time was that this was Armagh’s to lose, they dominated the first half. Kerry got a well improvised goal completely against the run of play and Armagh should have been a lot more ahead than they were at half time. Kerry got on top in the second half, Donaghy caused mayhem in the full forward line, Kernan did nothing to counter it but it was still a close game right until the end when Mallon made a stupid mistake that finished the game with 5 minutes remaining. Before that it was nip and tuck and Armagh there or thereabouts. McDonnell had a really poor day on frees as well and Armagh badly missed McConville who struggled with a back injury that year.
It’s quite obvious you weren’t at that game and it’s even more obvious you know nothing about it.[/QUOTE]
This is correct
[QUOTE=“Manuel Zelaya, post: 1027662, member: 377”]So Paul Galvin wasn’t crying when Kerry hammered Tyrone in 2012. Your line of argument is getting more and more bizarre.
[/QUOTE]
Ah, in fairness his face did go all red and his voice broke, now.
[QUOTE=“giloppy, post: 1027661, member: 2390”]How can you measure it being better than any other era. Based on that assumption you could say that all of pat spillanes all Ireland’s were won in a poor era for football given how much better than everyone Kerry.
That 2011 Dublin team was near enough the same team that won in 2013 and they will probably win another few. By your reckoning the only era in which football is strong is when Ulster have teams competing for the all ireland. Therefore one could say that approx 90 years of the football championship have been bad eras for football.[/QUOTE]
It’s an opinion based on my appraisals of the team, you can put it down to bias if you want but I can’t think of a time when we had teams as talented as Tyrone, Kerry and Armagh vying for All Irelands at the same time. I feel the Armagh team of 00-06 would have won at least two titles very in the 09-11 period as would the Tyrone and Kerry in that time as well. Armagh under Kernan were probably at their best between 04-06 but they didn’t even make a final in that time period - mainly because the quality in that time period was of a much higher standard and Kerry and Tyrone were probably just that slight bit better then as well as Armagh being a little unlucky or wasteful.
It’s a bit like comparing it to tennis, we’re in a golden era (or coming out of one) with Djokovic, Federer and Nadal? Would Federer have won the same amounts of grand slams had he only arrived on the scene with Nadal and Djokovic? Would Sampras had won the same amount of grand slams as he did if he and Federer arrived on the scene at the same time? Most likely not and that’s my point.
[QUOTE=“Manuel Zelaya, post: 1027662, member: 377”]So Paul Galvin wasn’t crying when Kerry hammered Tyrone in 2012. Your line of argument is getting more and more bizarre.
Tomas has 5 All Ireland medals in his arse pocket and was an extended member of the Kerry panel in 1997 as a 19 year old but didn’t get a medal. The legacy Tomas is looking at is Uncle Paidi and his team-mates with 7 and 8 medals. If Kerry had beaten Tyrone in one or two of those finals in 2005 or 2008, they’d be up there on the pantheon with the team of 1975-86. That’s the standard of excellence you’re dealing with in Kerry, fellows with 5 and 6 All Ireland medals with an inferiority complex in front of fellow county men who have 7 and 8 medals.[/QUOTE]
I remember a time when Kerry folk used to give out stink about tomas and said he was only on the team because his uncle was manager !..amazing to think now…
Guys can we keep this on topic please.
you’re miles off here pal…I was in croker thta day…Kerry celebrated that victory as one of their sweetest…Darragh O Se had a massive second half…afterwards was like they had won all Ireland…
they couldn’t all win two titles over three years 
comparing between eras is pointless but if you go down that road then if a team cannot win a few during it’s own peak then it doesn’t merit a place in any debate about teams across the eras and entry into a debate about the best team of all time
[QUOTE=“giloppy, post: 1027661, member: 2390”]How can you measure it being better than any other era. Based on that assumption you could say that all of pat spillanes all Ireland’s were won in a poor era for football given how much better than everyone Kerry.
That 2011 Dublin team was near enough the same team that won in 2013 and they will probably win another few. By your reckoning the only era in which football is strong is when Ulster have teams competing for the all ireland. Therefore one could say that approx 90 years of the football championship have been bad eras for football.[/QUOTE]
Its a very specific era he’s talking about 2002-08. Football was in crisis again in 2009 by the time Cork easily beat Tyrone in the 2009 semi final.