Paul Grimley’s State of the (Armagh) Nation address and some classic GAA summer gripes

Four days on the aftermath of Armagh’s defeat to Cavan continues and some stories more reliable than the weather make their first summer appearance.

That's a hell of a sentence

Armagh’s defeat to Cavan hurt the Orchard County faithful. They had an issue with the referee, they had an issue with the manager and they weren’t too happy to think they were back near the bottom of the Ulster pile again either.

To address the concerns of the supporters, Paul Grimley should be applauded for coming out and issuing a statement to the fans, a first in the world of GAA as far as we can recall.

In it, Grimley apologises to the fans for the very open tactics employed, saying he was ‘sincerely say sorry for the hurt I have caused’ and telling the fans that the players were acting under his instruction.

Grimley’s statement, posted on the Armagh GAA website today, also contains possibly the most baffling sentence in GAA history, which is a big claim to make but if you can follow this, you are better than us.

"In the form of an explanation as to what went wrong as you may or may not know, we have adopted a very attack-minded approach from the start of the year, a high pressure high risk strategy which was practiced throughout the league with limited success, but we will persist with our plan although we shall address the risk element of our tactic and plan B will arrive when plan A is polished as these need to be worked on over months if not years to get right, finally I hope that our players both young and the more seasoned lads can count on your continued support, as for my long term position no doubt that will be decided by our club delegates at year end."

That’s a 126-word sentence, in case you were wondering…

Here comes the summer

Spanish students on the bus, lads drinking cans by the canal and gripes about the Dubs playing every game in Croke Park; the three signs of summer in Dublin.

And a full week before we see the Dubs run out at HQ, the first dig at the unfair advantage of Dublin has hit the press. Longford’s Sean McCormack, ahead of their game with Wicklow this weekend, tells today’s Irish Daily Star: "It's a big subject for debate. Over the years, if Dublin had to play one or two rounds outside of Croke Park, it could have been a different story and you might have had a variation of provincial winners in Leinster.

"Obviously, they have a lot of experience there, they play most of their league games there and it stands to them come championship.

It didn’t do them much good last year but anyway, on to another annual moan.

This time it is from big cheese Pauric Duffy, who had a pop at managers naming dummy teams today. Everyone gets annoyed at this, from fans to media, but they tried to change it at Congress and it was voted down.

“Even if you had a rule, it would be impossible to enforce it since a manager can always say that he had to make changes between announcing the team and match day due to injuries. Even if that's not the case, how do you prove it?” Duffy told the Indo, while wringing his hands furiously.

Sure we’d miss it if they got rid of it, wouldn’t we?