Replying To shaggykev: "Yes looking forward to tomorrow's draw. Some savage teams in our side of the draw and I commend the GAA for making draw tomorrow before provincial finals. It makes more sense, means teams know their path and wouldn't cause a bizarre scenario like a few years ago when winning a final put you into harder path.
Finals are now just about winning your title after tomorrow.
However with path decided, can't help but think it gives non finalists a big advantage. You get to come scout your opponent and watch them go hell for leather whereas you can time your team.
With Donegal, Mayo, Derry, Meath, Tyrone, Louth on one side, I can see the our side winning at least four if not more of the first round matches.
Preference would be
1. Kildare or Westmeath 2. Monaghan 3. Galway 4. Cork 5. Kerry 6. Dublin 7. Armagh/ Down 8. Roscommon"
Pretty much agree with that but I'd swap Kerry with Roscommon. They are a good team but I'm not afraid of them, providing we stop leaking goals..
Replying To Commodore: "I think we were caught cold last week, Down came in with fresh kickout strategy and us pulling big Caolan McGonigle from Center Half back to midfield to mark Murdock, left the center of our defence very vulnerable to a strong direct running game.
Armagh clogged up that middle area, hit Down players hard if they wandered in there and Down had no attacking plan B, they just struggled. Armagh also did some analysis on the Down kickouts last week, and were able to impact those as well. Basically stopped Down at source today.
Not sure why we couldn't adapt last week and react to these tactics, as it wasn't rocket science and I think we could have recalibated during that game."
Spot on analysis however in hindsight I'm glad we weren't in Clones today. I think we'd have really struggled today as I'm led to believe Langan's injury wasn't the only significant one in the squad with one player in particular who shouldn't have played (hand forced because of the Langan situation). The few weeks will hopefully allow us to heal up and really go again.
On a side note congrats to Mark McHugh on guiding Westmeath to a Leinster final and achieving the right to play for Sam. This without two of their best players.