Dubs boss slams players as new rule scuppers their hopes against Armagh

After last week’s heroics against Galway, Dublin whimpered to a 0-19 to 0-24 loss to Armagh this evening at Croke Park, in their All-Ireland round-robin clash.

They only scored from 37% of their shots, hitting 17 wides, as the Orchard County took full advantage of the game’s new rules, scoring five two pointers.

Dublin, on the other hand, were undone by one of the new rules, handing their rivals three easy points, after being pinged three times for breaking the 4/3 rule.

Armagh have now qualified for the quarter-finals as group winners, with Dublin facing Derry in two weeks in what could be a winner-takes-all clash.

After the game, manager Dessie Farrell voiced his frustrations at his players.

He said: “Look, it just shouldn’t be happening. Whether they’re marginal calls or not, we shouldn’t be putting ourselves in that position. Definitely, it’s a conversation that was being had earlier in the league, for sure, and everyone was learning and trying to adapt at that stage.

“At this point in time, it should be embedded. Whatever about getting caught on one because of the ebb and flow of the game, or a chase back and a player is out of position, there’s an awareness challenge around that at some particular times. But to get it done for three and then we’d have a breach on the fielding and the mark in the first half as well, which costs us another two points.

“So I think at five points in total, that costs us, which is just at this stage of the competition against a position like we’re playing, it’s just not good enough. We’ll be having a serious conversation about that.”