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Post by kerrygold on May 4, 2012 13:50:17 GMT
Eventually the antics of Sheilds, Cadogan and O'Leary will catch up with them, thats a given. Fair enough, we'll heed the warning from those who know best. Mark my words, Cadogan and O'Leary will push the boat out just a little bit too far sooner rather than later
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Post by delorean on May 4, 2012 13:55:18 GMT
I see Shields is after heeding the warning already It's hardly a prediction of Nostradamus proportions that at some point those three might get into a bit of trouble. Cadogan and Shields have 4 red cards between them over the past two or three seasons and O'Leary, well....
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Post by kerrygold on May 6, 2012 8:06:46 GMT
Kildare are justifying their top-four billing, writes Colm O'Rourke
No sooner had Sunday's games been won than the managers were playing down their significance and the players, almost half apologetically, made their exit.
Strange that the League has come to this. There was a time when winning brought a fair bit of celebration but now that it has become a much better championship indicator the winners look forward immediately. Maybe the closeness to the championship focuses attention but there was no demand for tyres to start a bonfire in Cork, although I am sure there were a few glasses of wine going down the red lane in Kildare, while Wicklow and Longford enjoyed the weekend most. Those denied a sight of the promised land most often have a better appreciation of the view.
There was not much new about either the Division 1 or 2 finals. Cork literally outmuscled Mayo. At times, I felt they were a bit over the top in their approach, and the referee was a bit lenient. But in the second half especially the sheer physical power of Cork was too much for Mayo, who are not nearly big or developed enough to cope with a team of this size. Yet there have been plenty of occasions recently when Noel O'Leary, Michael Shields and Eoin Cadogan have skated on thin ice with some of their challenges. Some day a referee will come down a bit heavier on them and it may be a costly experience.
Many of the Mayo players damaged their cause by continually carrying the ball into contact. That won't work with Cork. Lee Keegan appealing for a free being one example -- he went down far too easily. Cork are so strong now that the ball will be ripped away so any side with ambitions of beating them, and there are very few who have a chance, should concentrate on playing the ball quickly and inviting very few physical confrontations.
Big games are won in the last ten minutes and the best teams will wear the opposition down in the first hour physically and mentally. The last ten minutes are for tidying up.
Kildare also showed this. They have all the bits in place now and are in the top four in the country. Making the jump from there to number one will be hard but is well within the reach of an extremely honest, hard-working and disciplined bunch of players. It seems strange then that the very public courting of Cavan's Seanie Johnston is taking place as this team shuns the individual in favour of the collective and a continuing transfer saga distracting from the championship is not in their best interest.
What will be very interesting over the summer, when the new square ball rule is in force, is how full backs deal with Tomás O'Connor. He looks the ultimate bear in the square and if he runs into a few goalkeepers it will only add to the gaiety of the nation. Goalkeepers may not be too happy about big men prowling their territory but this rule was in for the League last year and there was no murder or mayhem. The goalkeeper has still enough protection and this adjustment, which is long overdue, will test their bravery a bit more.
Kildare, in young Pádraig Fogarty, also have a good prospect even if using him sparingly like last Sunday is probably the best policy at the moment. The Kildare management can take a lot of satisfaction from this win. They learned the lessons of the first match in the League against Tyrone and their players are now tactically aware to carry out the plans while being adaptable enough to make it up when they have to.
They snuffed out Stephen O'Neill and Owen Mulligan and stopped the dangerous runs of Peter Harte. It stifled Tyrone but Mickey Harte won't be too disappointed. They were short a few and what this showed him is that they are short a few more. It is better to find this out now. Tyrone will still take all the beating in Ulster.
The biggest achievement of the weekend was by Longford. Three years ago, they were stuck in the bowels of the bottom division and in two successive campaigns are now in the second, a reward for having patience with manager Glenn Ryan who could easily have been tossed overboard when things were not going well in his first year. Now they have reaped a rich harvest and will be a very difficult opponent for Laois in the championship. Mickey Quinn's return from Australia has been a big help and maybe counties should try to encourage some of their best young players to spend a year or two with a professional outfit and then come home. They are better players for the experience. Seán McCormack was also in devastating form for Longford. Wexford, though, lost little in losing, and I think they are on course for a good championship.
Wicklow moved out of the shadows too with a great win in Croke Park. I could not but think that they have players like James Stafford, Leighton Glynn, Tony Hannon and Sean Furlong who would get on any team. Meath in three weeks will not fill them with fear. The Leinster championship has got a whole lot more interesting. The east is awake.
- Colm O'Rourke
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Post by delorean on May 8, 2012 9:05:31 GMT
Ah well if Colm O'Rourke says it...
As I said, of course they are likely to get into trouble at some point. There aren't too many players that don't, especially backs.
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Post by Mickmack on May 9, 2012 7:22:13 GMT
de lorean....... i have given a rationale for Cantys action....... trying to con the ref into giving a yellow to himself and Vaughan and thereby removing Vaughan from the fray as Vaughan was already on yellow. Can you come up with a more benign rationale. Yes, I think we all understood what your rationale was. You might be right, but then again Vaughan was stuck in most ugly incidents in the match and there's a reasonable chance that it was a continuation of something that went on before. Hardly worth the effort of two ten second videos in any case. Surely the Mayo players attempts, straight from the Aidan O'Mahony school of b!tchery, to get Cork players sent off were far more worthy. And my main point, which you conveniently ignored, was that you could definitely have thrown a similar accusation at Paul Galvin in the PUC match when he kicked Cadogan after he (Cadogan) was booked a few minutes earlier. Obviously you wouldn't be one for drawing attention to this as it would be in major conflict with your little propaganda attempts. A little bit of balance from time to time might just increase your credibility you know. yerrah sure I'm just taking a leaf out of how the CCCC under Cooney carried on......
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