What does your county need to do for 2010?

Its a matter of rebuilding for Armagh now but before next season starts, we need to get Paul Grimley in so that he can get the new players down the gym training and build them up physically. What is also needed in more pace in the squad. Grimley unlike McDonnell will focus on the strengths of the squad and will bring in some underage players to get them the experience.

GAA-Fan wrote:Its a matter of rebuilding for Armagh now but before next season starts, we need to get Paul Grimley in so that he can get the new players down the gym training and build them up physically. What is also needed in more pace in the squad. Grimley unlike McDonnell will focus on the strengths of the squad and will bring in some underage players to get them the experience.

We need to plan for a season without scandal or fallout. We need a midfield. We need Toye back fit and well. We need to give extended playing time to our younger players with a view to challenging for Ulster in 2-3 years time. We need to stop giving Ciaran Bonner chances - he does't want to play. We need our club champions (hopefully Eunans) to have a bit of a run in Ulster.

Hmmm. Where to start with Longford.
Give Stephen Watters a try in goal - he's a good shot-stopper with a decent kick out! Sheridan cost us too many points at crucial times in matches over the last few years.
Instil discipline into the players particularly the backs. Over the last couple of league campaigns, we have had to play with 14 men for parts of matches because lads were put off for various indiscretions.
The midfield pairing from last year were only new so I would give them another chance but I'd get another two as back up and see how they fare out.
We need at least 2 new forwards. I would keep the 2 Bardens, Berry and Kavanagh and try and unearth a few more. I would also try and get Kavanaghs feet back on the ground.
A bit of a tall order but if you dont ask you dont receive!

We need to accept that we will not win anything, we need to accept the fact that 2010 will be a re-building year and nothing else.
We need to keep hold of Cluxton, Henry, Cahill, Whelan (yes Whelan) Ryan, The Brogans and Mark Davoren. And we need to give Vaughan a fair crack.
We need to get rid of the majority of those not named above. Let Keaney go back hurling. We need to get Fennell back and pray to God that Paul Brogan stays injury free. We need to pick a team based on O'Byrne cup and Challenge games and stick with that team thru the league and into the summer changing only where situations demand it.
And somehow we need to dissuade all the clingers on from making Dublin Football into the monster it has become. Back when i was a teenager being a Dubs fan meant you were in the minority in your class...you support GAA....ya bogger ya....! We often were in the minority in Croker but we owned the Hill and that was our base. Teams came to croker playing in front of 50,000 and often if we played say Meath/Kildare/Donegal, they would bring more fans. And we often beat these teams as it wasnt the carnival it is now, to play the Dubs. These days teams play Dublin in Croker in front of 80,000 people, an atmosphere they have never experienced before. Its even louder than an All Ireland Final...when its close anyways!
But most teams build on that. Thats why we see teams put in perfomances against Dublin that no body saw coming....Tyrone last year, Kerry this year.....this is going on for the last 7 or 8 years. Teams who on another day would struggle to beat Dublin in a neutral venue, are coming to the Croker Carnival and putting 20 points on us. I firmly believe had we played Kerry in Thurles this year we would have beaten them.

What does any of this have to do with the original point.....?? Nothing!! I just went on a rant!

Ha good stuff Liam - I know where you're coming from!

At football Antrim need the players to retain an interest and hopefully get ALL of the players back in the panel. St Gall's had six starting for the county last year and their three best players were not in the panel.

Hurling? Going to be difficult after the bollox Sambo and Woody made of it. Get 10 Belfast men on the team and a Belfast manager?

Pat I dont normally agree with you but in this case i sorta do, the explanation on the hurling front im refering to.

I still think the Jingo (belfast) Humpy (ballycastle) team worked well and should be given another chance, this represents both ends of the county. Did you read the tripe out of woody in the irish daily star today? Antrim need a reality check, i think he actually needs one himself, antrim people just want to see their players play with saffron fire and passion not the recent crap.

As for the footballers i wouldnt change to much, keep working hard hold a couple of more trials to see if we can find a decent scorer from play and another player to replace mc keever.

Obviously the 10 Belfast men was a wind up, but the Jingo bit was not.

As you know am a realist about our hurlers, we will never be up there unless we are in Leinster from a young age, at schools level as well.

However as you say, I do expect a bit of pride and passion, and I do not expect the players to be on holiday during the championship. One of the footballers had a holiday booked for late July so was asked to leave the panel.

That's what it takes.

As for another scoring forward at football, well we can all name at least one.

yeah paddy we all know that one your on about but antrims problem is any player who is handy at both codes can play one off against the other . he knew once bradley chased him the hurlers would welcome him with open arms.

I know who your on about paddy but people who believed they where bigger than the squad was the problem in the past when we eliminated this problem look at where we got??

I know the fellas are great players, I know Kevin pretty well, but unless they lose the attitude i dont see a place in the panel for them.

As for the hurlers opening arms, i dont think that would have happened under better hurling managment.

Woody " we had to steamroll in the minors because we lacked top quality players at senior level " now woody would you be refering to Jingos team? the team who beat Galway, Dublin and had close encouters with KK and Tipp? Is this the same team im pretty sure you never even got close to this did you? As for sambo he ranted in the papers for years we need div1 hurling Dinny Cahill doesnt know what hes doing, you where relegated TWICE only for the system to save you first time round, then you couldnt manage wins over Westmeath or Carlow leading us to staying in div2.

Thanks Sambo n Woody but i think youve done enough damage, please stay out of the papers and dont cause any more damage than youve already caused.

As for the players who back stabbed Jingo and Humpy maybe it is time for you to go to, your last season wasnt exactly top quality.

I dont know that Tyrone need anything to be honest, i think the squad we have in place is more than capable of winning more All Irelands in the next few years - lets face it realistically only Kerry and possibly Cork stand in the way of Tyrone winning SAM again next year. Though if Cork win it this year i dont think even they will feature next year as they will probably still be partying next September

We may lose one or two men to retirement, Collie Holmes may go and Dooher may go as well though something tells me he may hang about for another year to be used more as an impact man, i think even he would agree he hasnt 70 minutes of championship football left in anymore.

I tihnk the Cork game has been a bit of a learning curve for Mickey and the boys more in terms of their own preparation than anything else, it would appear that the training leading up to the Cork game was perhaps too intense. If we did play Cork next year I'd fancy our chances of taking them.

boc i as usual tend to agree with your assessment - i had a inklin that dooher will hang about for one more year with the provsio that he is strictly the last 20 minutes man. collie holmes may quit as for a fella in his early thirites he doesnt get much game time and may decided to throw his lot in with the club.

mickey may bring a few of the younger talent into the extended squad just to see how the thing works without actually looking to play them next year .

a few wee bits of tinkering here and there and we wont be that far off the mark.