Francie Bellew appears to have brought his inter-county career with Armagh to a close, writes COLM KEYS.
Bellew is expected to inform Armagh manager Peter McDonnell sometime this week that he feels the time is right to walk away.
McDonnell confirmed yesterday that he would making contact with Bellew and other players this week who have not been part of the squad this winter to see if they are keen to return.
But Bellew is understood to have confided to Crossmaglen colleagues and friends that his days in an orange shirt are over.
“I’ll be talking to him this week as I will be talking to a host of others,” said McDonnell." I haven’t heard anything definite yet. I wanted to give Francie and others two weeks from the club finals to think about things. The only conversation that matters is the one between Francie and myself," he added.
Bellew has been a much-maligned figure at the heart of the Armagh defence throughout the decade, but he has arguably been their most popular player during the county’s glorious period that saw them win an All-Ireland title for the first time and seven of the last 10 Ulster titles.
Bellew was not involved in the first two of those seven Ulster titles and only linked up with Armagh at the invitation of Joe Kernan for the 2002 season.
He is expected to remain on as a Crossmaglen player as they seek a record-breaking 14th consecutive Armagh title.
Ya but I think Francie would just generally be far more liked than McMenamin. McMenamin is a nasty piece of work whereas Bellew would be seen more as a tough but fair type player.
Don’t know about that
Think Ricie is supposed to be a gent off the field and he’s never completely fucked anybody up a la Francie and Mickey Linden
fair my hole, an absolute thug on the pitch. The game is better without him. Remember his clothes line tackle on a Wexican one year?, think it was a Div 1 final, must seem like a lifetime ago to some of the boys on here. The tackle was an absolute disgrace. People go on about Paul Galvin etc as a disgrace to the game, Galvin has a long way to go to catch up on thugs like Bellew. He was up to his old tricks in the club final and the shameful silence in the aftermath of his assault on Mickey Linden is a horrible stain on the GAA. He should have gone to jail for that incident.
I don’t know what ye are whining about in that thing with Mickey Linden! Yes, it was a foul, yes, he was doing what any dacent full back would be looking out to do, but…he only collided with him, he had not his arms raised and it was as near shoulder to shoulder as you’d get. As all good co-commentators/analysts now say, you can tell by the reaction of the players around Linden that it wasn’t as bad as it looked.
He completely intended to injure Linden, his shoulder taking aim at Linden’s face with both of Bellew’s feet off the ground. Bellew had no intention of playing the ball, he wasnt even looking at it. Pretty sickening. If that wasnt premeditated assault…
How could he aim for Linden’s face when a) Linden was watching the ball 2) Linden’s feet were off the ground, therefore higher than Bellews shoulder and iii) Bellew did not rise to meet him? See 6:30 of that clip. A shoulder to shoulder charge or even an attempt to shoulder is allowed by the player not in pocession of the ball. Bellew failed in executing the proper shoulder charge and thus was penalised.
The ball was coming over Linden’s head so by the time he caught it he was almost directly facing Bellew… Linden feet were back on the ground by the time he was hit… Bellew did not have both feet on the ground when going to shoulder him, also he leant upwards with his left shoulder to make sure he hit him full force into the face. His elbow was also ridiculously high in case the shoulder didnt connect. The assault was made worse as after catching a high ball Linden was completely unprotected and didnt see Bellew until his front teeth were being dislodged from his mouth.
Francie Bellew will always be a thug in my eyes. Some inbred GAA hicks think that maiming someone is fair game, I dont.
[quote=“KIB man”]The ball was coming over Linden’s head so by the time he caught it he was almost directly facing Bellew… Linden feet were back on the ground by the time he was hit… Bellew did not have both feet on the ground when going to shoulder him, also he leant upwards with his left shoulder to make sure he hit him full force into the face. His elbow was also ridiculously high in case the shoulder didnt connect. The assault was made worse as after catching a high ball Linden was completely unprotected and didnt see Bellew until his front teeth were being dislodged from his mouth.
Francie Bellew will always be a thug in my eyes. Some inbred GAA hicks think that maiming someone is fair game, I dont.[/quote]
KIB, are you sure you are watching the same video I am? Did you look at 6:30 of that clip at the point of contact? Bellews feet on the ground, his arms are not raised. There is absolutley no daylight between his feet and the ground. Again, I point to the fact that Linden’s colleagues did not react in hysterics at the challenge at all. No handbags after the free was given.
Don’t get me wrong here, I’m all for fair play and I am not defending dirt but from what I see on that clip you’re claims are inaccurate and I am only commenting on what I see, what the ref saw AND what Linden’s fellow players saw. You seem pretty bias towards M. Linden and if you are well there’s no debating with you and, if you want to label people with a different opinion to yours and stoop to name calling, I’ll call my son out of play school, he’s much better at that game.
I’ll be honest in my bias though, I’m kinda sick of the way gaelic games are going now with this nancy boy ahh ref shite and ref’s flashing black cards and yellow cards like a new parish priest laying down the law in his patch. Bring back the days when men were men and the nancy boys stayed home with their prayer books.