The Jack O Connor Article.

[kerrygold]

Could someone post up jacks article from wednesdays times or could admin or one of the control heads carry over the existing thread from the other forum of legends now on sabatical.

jacks addresses dublin now frequent fade out in big games in this weeks article.

Thanks.

[Owenabue]

Irish Times 30th May 2007

Wait until the last 10 minutes to see what Dublin are really made of

Jack O'Connor feels that the Dubs should concentrate on adding a bit more pattern and method to their game
This weekend brings the Dubs back to championship action for the first time since their big blow-up against Mayo last year. They've had nine months to think about a slip-up of Devon Loch proportions. It will be interesting to see what they have learned.
Their pattern of fade outs is too steady to be pure coincidence. Back in February 2004 in my third league match with Kerry we played the Dubs in Parnell Park. They blew us away in the first 20 minutes. Things looked so bad for us that on the one occasion I ventured up the sideline from the dugout some Dub roared behind me, Bring Back Paw-dee.
We reeled them in the second half though. I noticed that Dublin players who had been flying early on just vanished before the end. Later in the year in the All-Ireland quarter-final they threw in the towel after a Dara Cinnéide goal.
They lost big leads in the league this year to Tyrone and Mayo. And in the 2005 quarter-final they lost a five-point lead to Tyrone, they lost leads to Armagh and Westmeath back in '04, Armagh again in '02.
There is a pattern, but is there an explanation? I think there are a couple of fundamental problems. Dublin's policy is to try to steamroll teams from the start attacking from every sector, backs, midfielders, etc. Their forwards run like lunatics all over the pitch. They constantly rotate as in volleyball so that fellas who are fleadhed from running out the field get a breather inside.
An example of this rotation gone mad came last year in the semi-final when Ray Cosgrove went from wing forward to corner forward and carried Peadar Gardiner with him. Gardiner didn't like being in alien territory. Cosgrove kicked two points from the corner. Five minutes later Cosgrove was landed out at wing forward again. That sort of stuff. Rotating for the sake of it.
At the end of the day they have no discernible pattern or shape. Can anybody reel off the Dublin forward line or the positions they play in? Alan Brogan and Conal Keaney are as good as you'll find but can you name the positions they play in?
The teams who win All-Irelands down the years always have a settled look about their forward line especially the inside line. Doyle-Keaveney-McCarthy. That hardly ever changed. Sheehy-Bomber-Egan was set in stone. Dubs will remember O'Rourke-Stafford-Flynn.
You can move backs to do marking jobs, but forwards thrive on familiarity with a position and with each other. Look at the other partnerships of recent years. They were telepathic. Clarke and McDonnell. Mulligan and Canavan. Even Gooch and Donaghy. I don't want to labour this, but the importance of settled forwards cannot be overstated.
There is only so long too you can keep up the frenetic pace. It upsets the opposition for a while, but pattern and method are more important. It's Foreman versus Ali, the Rumble in the Jungle. Look at Armagh. They don't go at one hundred miles per hour. They play to a discernible pattern all through. They control the tempo. Therefore they always have a chance.
And for the Dubs the Blue Army is a double-edged sword. They have chosen to feed off it by marching to the Hill before games. Almost officially they are saying, we are empowered by the Hill! It is as if the atmosphere drives the Dubs to such a frenzy that they start games like the horse bolting from the stall, running as hard as he can for as long as he can. The horse has nothing left in the final furlong where races are won and lost.
The crowd are fine when the team is fine. They feed off each other. When the team go into a lull the crowd go quiet. The Dubs appear to get disheartened. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. For the last 10 minutes against Mayo last year you could hear a pin drop on the Hill.
The need to please the crowd is dangerous. Top teams are made up of a fair proportion of lads who do unheralded donkey work. Unseen stuff. How many of these do Dublin have? A Brian Dooher? A Paul Galvin? A Martin O'Rourke? Scavengers around the middle third? Dublin have too many players trying to please the Blue Army. It is amazing what you can achieve if nobody cares who gets the credit.
The Dubs need to steady up and play a more measured and methodical game. Psychologically the Dubs are vulnerable this week and nobody are better than Meath to exploit that. Colm Coyle will be telling his men to hang on to Dublin's coat tails till the last 10 minutes. Then we'll see what they are made of.
If Dublin can win a tight game on Sunday they might be a serious proposition. To win a game coming from behind in the last 10 minutes would do more good than all the shrinks in the country. This is a great test as Meath have patented the come-from-behind win down through the years. I was in Croke Park in 1996 when Coyle himself kicked a holy mary from his own half-back line that hopped over the bar to give Meath a second chance against Mayo in the All-Ireland final.
Pillar will be asking his men this week, have you got the carraigs to battle to the wire when it is going against you. Where are the leaders. Look to Fermanagh and Tyrone two weeks ago. Who wins the break when the game is on the line. Seán Cavanagh caught the final kick-out. Tyrone manufactured a score. Can Dublin do that?
The GAA needs the Dubs. They play exciting, attacking football. They are the only side who come near to filling Croke Park. Winning Sam would capture the hearts and minds of the myriad of young Dubs who could be lost to soccer and other less stressful past-times.
The key is to get the balance right on the field.
Agus Rud Eile . . .
In a strange way the result from Ballybofey on Sunday could be a positive for both teams.
Armagh don't need another Ulster championship. In fact, Stephen McDonnell has admitted he knows well where his Celtic Cross is, but he isn't too sure about the Ulster medals. They can take a lot of heart from Sunday.
By any objective analysis they were the better team. They have a system which means they will be hard to beat. When Ronan Clarke and Brian Mallon come back they will be a handful for anyone.
For Donegal the result was everything. They were fortuitous, but they stuck with it in the face of Armagh's relentless tackling. They need to settle their forward line, though, and getting Brendan Devenney back is crucial to them.
They tried to run the ball through Armagh on Sunday and that was playing into their hands or in most cases their bodies. Armagh have so much gym work done they are going around looking for fellas to bounce off. Why give them the opportunity? To beat Armagh you have to kick the ball.
And when you do you have to have fellas inside who show over and back relentlessly for that ball. That's the key. The irony is that on one of the few times they kicked the ball in Donegal got the vital goal.
When Armagh sit down to think of it this week they will wonder what was the big deal about coming through the battlefield of Ulster anyway. They have a few injuries. They've six weeks to the qualifiers.
They can work under the radar. Get men back. It will work well. The nearest they came to getting their second All-Ireland was being beaten in Ulster by Monaghan in 2003.
Winning an All-Ireland is about coming good at the right time. It's a long year. You want to time your form for quarter-final time onwards. A nice draw in the first round of the qualifiers and Armagh will be serious.
People forget that last year against Kerry they played great football and we only put them away for good when we got a breakaway goal from Darren O'Sullivan. Anyone who thinks that Armagh are gone away are mistaken. The question that Armagh's situation creates is with a championship only starting at the quarter-final stage is it worth winning a provincial championship anymore?
I would guess within five years we will have a different championship format, something along Champions League lines. I know the GAA hate copying other codes, but if it makes the product more attractive and exciting to hell with the begrudgers.
© 2007 The Irish Times

[Mickmack]

another seminal piece by Jack.

[countaeciarrai]

excellent article

[kerry07]

Jack is spoy on in his analysis of the Armagh Donegal game. Armagh are still in the championship with a good shout in my opinion. In relation to the Dubs the rotating forward set up is not helpfull as Jack says but I think that defensively the are fragile too and this has a large part to play in their recent down falls. When Whelan Mc Gee or Ryan have a bad patch they are opened up with relative ease.

[homerj]

that article from last year is top top class, anybody like to dig it out and put it back into this thread. that was a quality read, esp the bit about tom sullivan and the text message on the day after the final. top top stuff!

[kerrydoc]

Here you are homerj -


Jack of all trades, master of one

With the burden that comes with being Kerry manager now lifted from his shoulders, a relaxed Jack O'Connor tells Tom Humphries about life in the hot seat.

Noli Sinere Bastardis Carborundum Est!
Jack O'Connor lives in a landscape stolen from a painter's imagination. From the crook of Finian's Bay, the world is majestic and ever changing. When he looks out his window there's a tidy apron of hardy grass separating him from a smooth beach and the corrugated ocean. There is Skelligs Rock and Puffin Island. And, two or three times a year when he looks out, there's the blue-grey bottle snouts of playful dolphins in the water. They usually bring the bad weather with them.You could live here and obsess about football. You could live here too and never think of it. For three years he has obsessed. More than that really. For 15 years with county teams and being absorbed by them. Any Given Sunday, Al Pacino said. Every waking hour, Kerry asked. This week the weight is gone, the burden of obsession lifted. He used to point out to sea occasionally and joke to friends that if he lost on Sunday he'd be taking up tenancy in one of the perfect beehive huts that the monks built out on Skellig Michael 14 centuries ago. Yup. He'd be getting dropped off in a boat and left behind there for six months of penance, solitude and contemplation. Joking? Half joking really.He became senior manger exactly three years ago, breaking a mould which was three decades old. Mick O'Dwyer. Mickey Ned. Ogie Moran. Páidi Ó Sé. The warriors of the golden era were always entrusted with keeping the Holy Grail at hand.Then the Kerry county board came looking for a guy from St Finian's Bay.An outsider? Perhaps. Hard sometimes to feel otherwise.Last January he went to the Gleneagle Hotel for the Kerry Sports Star awards. Big night, big crowd. Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh was master of ceremonies and when the time came Micheál moved through the tables squeezing comments from those who should have something to say.Jack, when his turn came, supplied the usual hopeful raméis that managers offer up at the beginning of the year. The spotlight moved on and a few minutes later lit upon a table of golden agers. Micko, Deenihan, Bomber and the boys.At the time, it was being touted about the place that Jimmy Deenihan and Eoin Liston would be commuting to Laois as specialist coaches helping Micko. There was some excitement in Kerry about this. Micko was asked who would win the 2006 All Ireland."Tyrone," he said quickly.The microphone moved on around the table. Jimmy Deenihan said some nice words about his old manager and concluded rousingly, "We all hope that Micko will be brought back to finish out his great coaching career as manager of the Kerry team. We'd love him to finish up training Kerry."Applause. A few whoops.Jack O'Connor looked at his plate and wondered to himself."Jesus Christ. Am I only imagining it? Do I have this job at all?"The golden boys were never that comfortable with Jack O'Connor. He wasn't too at ease with them. Back in January, he was no fan of Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh's either. "Micheál would make a play of coming into our dressingroom before matches. Next time he came he got the cold shoulder. He stopped coming in! You have to stand up for yourself."There were days this summer when the isolation was keener and more purely felt, when every day for the manager, selectors and team was an exercise in just standing up. Days when Skellig Michael beckoned. He'd think of an old headmaster, Con Dineen and the dog latin phrase he'd use in relation to troublesome pupils. Noli Sinere Bastardis Carborundum Est! And he'd grin. Fair enough. He wouldn't let the bastards grind him down. He'd dance.He read a book this year, see. End The Struggle and Dance With Life. In three years he learned to dance like Astaire.From the time back when he was learning the steps he tells the Gooch story. It's set in a swish hotel in Dublin, a hotel that will remain nameless. The time is the weekend of the 2004 All-Ireland semi-final. Jack O'Connor arrives down to dinner the night before the game in the company of Colm Cooper and John Crowley. They are about 15 minutes late. The food is gone.There's a little scrap of chicken nestling beside some soggy veg. No carbohydrates. No food of champions. They stand and look around at the room of sated Kerry players scraping their plates. The county chairman has gone to an awards ceremony in Croke Park. Something has to be done.Jack O'Connor summons a waiter."Where are the potatoes? Have ye any potatoes?""They're all gone."Word of famine is met by incredulity."They can't be all gone!" says Jack playing his trump card "Because we have to feed the Gooch here."He nods towards the Gooch, who looks like the proverbial empty sack that won't stand.The waiter, a gentleman of Talinn or Warsaw or Vilnius, furrows his brow. "Sorry? What is a Gooch?"After explanations, bread rolls are offered. Jack O'Connor's feels his blood pressure rising. "Listen the Gooch can't play a match on bread rolls and chicken."The waiter disappears again. Re-emerges triumphantly a few minutes later. Hey presto! Potato wedges!"You're joking.""Is no joke."So the Gooch hunches over his plate and eats the wedges.Meanwhile, in Croke Park, Seán Walsh has checked his messages. He calls his manager."Jack, what is it?""What is it Seán? The best footballer in Ireland is having to eat potato wedges!"The Gooch plays a blinder the next day as it turns out. Don't fight, just dance. Order the wedges.COGADH NA MBÓ MAOL. He's always looking for nuggets. From books. From television. From the mouths of others. He spoke to Brian Cody at the 2004 All Stars about keeping a team fresh. This year, Kerry took off when Kieran Donaghy was rethreaded and Seán O'Sullivan, Tommy Griffin and Mike Frank Russell came in. A Cody-style injection of hunger.And Ger Loughnane, whom he befriended at a coaching seminar in Tullamore, spoke to him about the notion of playing with "controlled fury".Jack liked the idea and understood.For training games they picked the match-ups carefully. A week before the All-Ireland final for instance, Kerry went to Cork for the weekend and staged a final trial game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Five days before that trial game, Jack O'Connor's phone rang. Brendan Guiney on the line, a fine footballer who had broken his wristbone in a college game and hadn't played a minute with Kerry in the league or championship. Fine footballer and a desperate one."Who am I marking?" said Guiney."Paul Galvin.""Sound."After 10 minutes in Páirc Uí Chaoimh Galvin and Guiney are rolling around on the ground. Brian White, who had been invited all the way from Wexford just to referee the game, was standing over the two brawling Kerrymen screaming at them."Stop that! Stop that lads! Ye'll be sent off for that in an All-Ireland final."Jack O'Connor on the sideline catches Darragh Ó Sé's mischievous eye. The two turn away from each other with heads down and shoulders shaking with laughter. This is perfect. Controlled fury.It seems funny that for final preparations Kerry went back to Cork and back to Páirc Uí Chaoimh, but it was fitting they did. Their summer was as much about Cork as it was about anything else."There's a serious case," says Jack O'Connor, "for calling Cork the second best team in Ireland this year". He pauses. "And I know Billy Morgan loves to hear a Kerryman say that to him."They played Cork three times and it made them. Billy Morgan's moaning about Kerry's "cynicism" seemed to Jack O'Connor to be the soundtrack to the summer. It didn't quite fit the mood, but it was there on the airwaves everytime he turned the dial, Cork helped them find the controlled fury.Cork came to Killarney the first day and they were all business. They burst out from the corner of the field and immediately claimed Kerry's traditional dug out. Told Kerry in certain terms to shag away off up to the other dug out. One up to Cork.The game is a bit of a blur. He recalls Cork tearing into Kerry. More aggressive, more hungry. Stronger. Billy Morgan up and down the sideline disputing every decision. At one stage there was an incident on the sideline. Jack sauntered up to see what was going on. A Cork selector threatened to beat him up to the stand if he didn't go away."I'm wondering, 'Jesus why are we not at this level of intensity today - are we not right'?"The game unfolds some more. Anthony Lynch throws a poke at Kieran Donaghy and gets sent off. At half-time, they are in trouble. Once in 2004 against Limerick they had the backs to the wall as well. Then he laid it on the line. Told them they were playing for their futures in the Kerry jersey. He had three years. They had 35 minutes. The sort of card a manager only plays once. This time, though, they are all together. He warns them the referee will try to even things up. Watch for it. Bingo! Towards the end of the game he sees Kieran Donaghy walking out towards him on the sideline."Hey Donaghy!" he roars "Where you going?""I got sent off.""What did you do?""Nothing.""Nothing?""I swear to you. Nothing."The replay is set for a week later. On the Friday of that weekend Kerry selector Ger O'Keeffe is in Dublin Airport. He spots an entourage of besuited Corkmen with familiar faces striding purposefully through the airport towards the exit signs. Ger knows that they know something. They haven't gone up for a Friday night out in Temple Bar. Ger calls Jack O'Connor, who calls Seán Walsh."Seán, they're going to get Anthony Lynch off.""Sure they can't do that.""They will.""Is there anything we can do for Donaghy? This will look bad.""It would have to be very last minute."Jack calls Donaghy, offers him just a figment of hope. Next morning there's a text on Jack O'Connor's phone." Jack, can't really sleep. Make sure you try with that appeal again in the morning. Please. I won't let you down if I get on that pitch. Thanks again. Talk tomorrow. Kieran."It has been sent at 12.58am.Nothing works out appeals wise. Cork get Anthony Lynch free, but Kieran Donaghy takes his punishment. Jack O'Connor has seen a side of the kid that he likes though. A short while after the replayed Munster final, just on a whim after training, Jack asks Donaghy to go and stand beside Marc Ó Sé on the edge of the square while he lands a few balls in on top of them.He's impressed. Walking to the dressingroom, he asks Ó Sé if he is impressed too."He's deceptively fast." says Marc who is exceptionally fast himself."Hmmm," thinks Jack O'Connor.A night or two later he asks Kieran Donaghy what sort of ball he thinks he'd like if he was, say, a full forward. "Just float in high, diagonal ball that I can attack," says Donaghy. Jack O'Connor walks away with a grin that runs from ear to ear. You hear a big, tall full forward with character talk seriously about "attacking" the ball and you know that you're in business. Height, pace, strength, agility, football ability. Hallelujah. The kid is an iceberg, he thinks. The football world will get to the see the tip of it for the next few weeks.The team is working as one metabolism after the Cork defeat. Jack O'Connor and his selectors are happy. The players are happy. They have a decent game with Longford to come. They have a new full forward. The world has a different version of things.Consider: After the game, the three Ó Sé's are first out of the dressingroom and on to the bus. When the team get back to the Hayfield Manor Hotel they have a hugely constructive and very frank meeting. It goes well, banishing the lethargy that has hung over the summer so far. They decide to stick together for the evening, rediscovering their own company.After a few pints, Jack O'Connor takes Declan O'Sullivan - who famously has been booed off the field by Kerry fans - out into the gardens for a quiet drink and a chat. When they come back the team has moved merrily on without them. Bemused, Jack calls Ger O'Keeffe. The two Dromid men catch up with the party in Killarney - €100 worth of a taxi drive later! On the night stretches, on and on, finishing there in Killarney, in Tatlers. Fragments of the evening float back. Darragh Ó Sé in fine form grabbing Jack's shoulder and leaning in to make a point to him over the din, Séamus Moynihan jocularly tugging Jack by the wrist to get him away to make a more private, more earnest point in some corner. The usual visual theatre of a team out drinking together.BY THE NEXT WEEK, the aftermath of the Cork defeat would have unfolded via Chinese whispers. The Ó Sé's had stormed off. The manager and captain had refused to travel home with the team. Later, Darragh Ó Sé had attempted to draw a swipe on Jack O'Connor. Thankfully, Séamus Moynihan had intervened.Cogadh na mbó maol! A war between hornless cows. Lost in translation somehow.Is maith é an bád a dhéanann amach an caladh a d'fhág sé Three years with the boys. Sharing the obsession. The 50-mile spin from St Finian's Bay to Killarney. Fifty miles back. Head wiped of anything but football. Towards the end he felt himself getting closer and closer to the players."I'd be awful slow taking Darragh Ó Sé off in a game. Or Séamus or the Gooch or Mike Mac. Even if one of them was going through a rough time I'd say this man will come good. That's what happens if you stay too long perhaps, you get too close to players."He'll miss them. His comrades on the selection committee. The constant plotting and planning and wondering. And the players and their ways. Darragh Ó Sé had a piseog that he won't carry a ball out on to the field. Mike Mac always had to be last into the warm-up room and so on.Tom O'Sullivan he loved. The greatest character of them all and the most trying. There was a bit of bother with Tom every year. A seasonal rite. "Tom would push to the limit every summer. I think Tom would say to himself, 'how far can I go this time before Jack cracks'? Every year there would be a shoot-out."This year the shoot-out comes two weeks before the first Cork game. Kerry have a full scale 15-a-side practice match scheduled for the stadium in Killarney. Five minutes before training, Jack O'Connor hears the familiar chirp chirp of his mobile phone. Text from Tom O'Sullivan. Can't make it. Working.Instantly Jack's fingers are busy with a furious reply. Tap. Tap. Tap. What do you suggest Tom? That I go in corner back myself is it? We had 30 players picked for tonight. You could have told me yesterday when I could get a replacement. What do you think Tom? No reply comes. The next day Jack tries to call Tom O'Sullivan. No answer. No return call."It's hurting me now. This is a man who can come out of a defence head up and put it about like Beckenbauer or Bobby Moore. But he's not going to kill himself for me. Tom's the sort of a fella who, if he needed 200 points in the Leaving, might get 201. He wouldn't get 250. And I hate people not returning calls."So once again. Tap, tap, tap. New text. Tom, You will regret not returning my call. I want no casual footballers in my squad. If you don't think it worth your while to return my call you can f**k off. J.No reply. No word of Tom O'Sullivan till next training session. Nothing said now either. So the Cork game looms. Mike McCarthy is coming back into the team. Jack O'Connor realises that management have a chance to go for the jugular, a rare opportunity to shake up the star defender. They drop him. The newsflash lights the player up like a Catherine wheel."You're dropping me? Against Cork? Cork?" Bonus! Tom O'Sullivan is a Rathmore man. Hard on the border with Cork. This is like being excluded from a family wedding. "Cork?" he says again. "You're dropping me against Cork. Cork? You could drop me against anyone, but not Cork. C'mon.!"Jack knows he has hit a nerve. It's the first time in three years that Tom O'Sullivan has shown sign of a temper. The manager knows he has won the battle. On the day, Tom O'Sullivan gets back into the side after 20 minutes or so when Kerry feel the need to move Aidan O'Mahony to wing back where he can do more damage.A SEASON, an All-Ireland is never the product of just one big idea. It's a thousand small adjustments. It's bad days and learning from them more than it's good days and drifting on. It's text wars and rumours and guys just plain surprising you.Kerry stumbled on. Jack O'Connor chuckles at the thought that he and his selection team brought anything other than a capacity for graft and organisation. There's very little inspiration. Lots of perspiration. It's not what you say at half-time. It's the work you've done for the previous month that wins games. Small stuff. Not grand gestures.The All-Ireland final was one of those days when almost everything Kerry had planned for themselves happened. The memories of the barricades in the summer, the sounds of Declan O'Sullivan being booed lingered though. In a game of passion and obsession there's a lot of negative interference. Because he knows the man and because he knows the place he's in, it hurts him to see what happened to Mickey Moran, this week. Worries him too."Mickey has been left out to dry in Mayo. I texted him and he rang me. It's not for me to be telling Mayo how to run their affairs, but whether they found Mickey good, bad or indifferent, he should never have been hung out to dry in front of delegates. That's not how you do it. His season was the reverse to ours. He was a king after the Dublin match. We were nearly run out of town after the Munster final."This is a gentleman. Same with John Morrison. He's a character. He's great for the game. Go and check out the amount of stuff John Morrison has written on the game. Men like that shouldn't be hung out to dry. Not in our game. A few weeks ago they led Mayo out in the greatest game ever played. Now this? There's no balance."Ah, that Mayo game with Dublin. He watched it in the stand and came away with a notebook full of scribbles about Dublin who he was convinced would win on the basis of the trouble Darren Magee and Shane Ryan had given the Kerry midfield in Killarney in the league. "Shows what I know," he says with a laugh.The instant chatter about the greatest game ever played bemused him. The greatest game ever played seemed to him to have been free-flowing in parts, but average in many other parts too. Exciting and dramatic, but with lots of mistakes too."Myself and the selectors were saying to ourselves, 'was it that good'? There were periods that were quite ordinary."Still if they wanted to declare the game a classic what of it? The stakes for Mayo would just get a little higher. "It upped the heat on Mayo. Helped us going into the final. Often a old dour battle is much better for you in a semi-final than a great, high-intensity triumph."When it was all over he knew in his gut he was done. The thought of Tyrone next summer gave him pause at the door, but sometimes when you have a wife and sons waiting in St Finian's Bay you just hear the call of home and you know it's over.Home. On the day after the All-Ireland they travelled south on the train with the cup in the vanguard. Jack's conversation was interrupted by the familiar bleep of the mobile; Text from a certain player somewhere down the carriage."Remember this text Jack? Tom, You will regret not returning my call. I want no casual footballers in my squad. If you don't think it worth my while to return my call you can f**k off. J. And appended one line. From the man who held Conor Mortimer scoreless and saved your job!Last laugh to Tom O'Sullivan.Evenings are drawing in, but during the walks on his old trail around the bay he thinks of the text and grins. Three years, for better or worse, but something that will last forever. His own Skellig Michael.© The Irish Times

_____________________________________
Not sure how to post a link (am semi-illiterate when it comes to computers) so ive copied and pasted this article instead.

[MrRasherstoyou]

If Jack said it, it must be Gospel

[Owenabue]

Just cos Jack dares to be different and not tip ye for the all Ireland, doesn't mean he's actually taking sh^te.

[seamus]

Jacks articles are superbly formulated and i think he is fast becoming the outstanding football writer. Very clever and well thought out analysis of the dubs.

[buck02]

seamus said:

Jacks articles are superbly formulated and i think he is fast becoming the outstanding football writer. Very clever and well thought out analysis of the dubs.

He doesnt have much competition there seamus. The standard of GAA journalism is pathetic.
I'd have thought that Jack will want another crack at the whip in the future so perhaps he'd have been better off staying away from the football writing.

[kerrygold]

buck02 said:

seamus said:

Jacks articles are superbly formulated and i think he is fast becoming the outstanding football writer. Very clever and well thought out analysis of the dubs.

He doesnt have much competition there seamus. The standard of GAA journalism is pathetic.
I'd have thought that Jack will want another crack at the whip in the future so perhaps he'd have been better off staying away from the football writing.

i'd fully agree there with you buck02,the contents of the book might decide that issue.

In a media driven world writing is proberly quiet lucrative though.

[Piggy]

the dubs have been playing the same style of football for the last 4 or 5 years,there's no way they can win Sam because all the top teams know how to counteract this style!even Tyrones blanket defence is in danger of being outdated by having a big full forward in your team.
to win an all ireland you have to bring something new to your style of play!

[MrRasherstoyou]

owenabue said:

Just cos Jack dares to be different and not tip ye for the all Ireland, doesn't mean he's actually taking sh^te.

Dares to be different? Oh please, dont make me choke! Abue, you cannot understand how delighted I am he doesnt tip us for anything. He must be the only media wannabe who doesnt trot out the usual lazy crubeens.
JAck's articles are a great read, but he is being simplistic, and still labouring points that we all know, like they are pearls of wisdom.
He's right about 2004, no argument there. But in 2005 that was improved on alot, and last year, events conspired to mean we were in the Semi with no challenge (except Longford catching us cold in the first round of Leinster), then came up against a Mayo team who were inspired like never before on the day, and we unluckily lost by a point - what does that prove? not alot.
As for the stuff about the supporters, that's the usual wind-up, we are used to it. Let me know Abue, since when did Cork, or any county's fans, all start singing & making a racket when their team is doing badly? Be honest now. His point just emphasises the high standards set by the Dubs fans, who make more effort to get behind their team than any other counties' fans

[Piggy]

in fairness the dubs do get behind their team more than any other county with the Armagh supporters a close second.at the same time i remember Tommy Lyons saying how some of there so called 'supporters' spat at him after loosind a lienster championship game.i could never imagine that happening in any other county.then again they were obviously a minority of 'supporters'!

[scoobydo]

any sign of Todays article? Thanks

[Owenabue]

www.ireland.com/newspaper/sport/2007/0606/1180721127340.html

6th June 2007

Replay just what Dublin need
Jack O'Connor suggests if Meath win the amount of flak will undermine everything Dublin have done but if Dublin win they can regroup
Deja vu in Croke Park on Sunday. Dublin pushing off from the dock at top speed and looking full value for their lead. They were reeled in fairly quickly by Meath though. That's what will worry Pillar Caffrey most. Dublin are irresistible when they are going well. When they start taking water they sink very quickly.
They don't seem able to get the mix right between attacking and defensive football. Good defensive teams shut up the shop when they get ahead and hit teams on the break. Dublin have to get the balance right if they are to progress in the replay and beyond.
Somebody once said about Meath that they play without looking at the scoreboard or the clock. Only a county with great self belief (or arrogance even) can do that or can produce a young player like Cian Ward who came on and kicked points as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
The body language of the free-takers summed up the belief the teams felt. When push came to shove Mossy Quinn missed two or three important frees.
I didn't like his body language when he was standing over them. Mossy didn't appear convincing or convinced. In rugby they call it a pure strike when a kicker is going well. At times Mossy looked like a man having a bad day on the golf course, not knowing whether he was going to hit a hook or a slice off the tee.
By contrast Meath are very certain. The big thing they have going for them is that, like Armagh, they play the same way all the time. Route One is the preferred option so opposition backs often find themselves isolated in one-on-one situations with no help at hand. In that kind of scenario Croke Park is a big lonely place for a back. He knows that whatever ball the forward wins is in the scoring zone. Graham Geraghty could and should have got two goals from that kind of situation.
Meath's philosophy is that the inside line fights for every ball. Some teams lose heart if the long ball doesn't work early on. Not Meath. Back in the famous semi-final of 2001 Seamus Moynihan and Mike McCarthy came out with the first six balls that Meath kicked in towards Graham Geraghty and Ollie Murphy. Meath are Meath though. They kept at it. Eventually the floodgates opened.
Dublin play a game that is a lot more pleasing to the eye but without the same end product. They are a bit like Arsenal. Lots of movement and exciting to watch. Meath are more in the Chelsea mode, functional and not too aesthetically pleasing.
Between them, they are compulsive viewing though. Dublin will be disappointed but there is another way to look at it. This is what they need. I remember a joust we had with Limerick in the 2004 Munster final that finished in a draw.
The referee, Gerry Kinneavy, played eight minutes injury time and made a few very harsh decisions against us on the day. There was steam coming out my ears as I made my way towards him at the final whistle. An old buddy of mine, Jerry Mahony, said to me that night that I should have been rushing to give him a kiss instead of a piece of my mind.
Jerry reckoned the replay would make us. He was proved right. It could prove that way for Dublin too.
The key is how Dublin approach the replay psychologically. Until Sunday Dublin only saw beating Meath as a means to an end. Meath saw the game as an end in itself. They are an emerging team. Beating Dublin would make their season.
There is a huge pitfall there for Dublin. They have to treat this game now as if it stands by itself. If Meath win the amount of flak that will fly will undermine everything Dublin have done. If Dublin win they can regroup and look at what they have taken from the games.
The easy passage to the semi-final last year did Dublin no favours. If they get that far this time at least they will be battle-hardened. They will have had a tough passage through Leinster with Laois having improved also.
Dublin should relish the challenge. It struck me watching Waterford and Kerry that a team's fate can often be decided by things outside their control.
A meaningless stroll in Fraher Field did Kerry no favours. Waterford put up a big fight last year in Killarney. This time, with expectations raised, the cameras rolling and their first championship win in 19 years under their belt, they never raised a gallop.
Kerry looked good, fresh and eager but deep down they will know that it was no preparation for the fire and brimstone that Cork are going to bring to Killarney.
Last year it was our two battles with Cork that made us. Dublin need to look on this Meath series in that sort of light.
© 2007 The Irish Times

[scoobydo]

thanks

[Mickmack]

Hard to disagree with any of that........

[kerrygold]

martin breheny has devoted a full article in the indo today about how handy kerrys run to the last 12 is, in the interest of fairness to other players from other counties,why doent martin point out also that cork,mayo and galway have the same percieved easy run to autumn time croker in the interest of fairness.We have seen enough in the last three seasons to know that you need hard games in munster to be hardened for croker,we arrived soft in '05 but hardened in '04 and '06.Jack has said as much in the above article.

I'd favour a champions league type format because good kerrys would still be hitting the quaters finals hardened in august,we might actually even win more all-irelands that way martin!

[Kingdomson]

Excellent article by Jack, and thanks for posting it owenabue


Strange how Martain Breheny in the Irish Indo went on about Kerry again this week for the second week in row, in a very unbalanced report. Has someone in Kerry upset this man? Yes, his right when he mentions the system is unfair in Munster, to all counties concerned. Yet, Martain argues it like it is only a benefit to kerry (never once mentions Cork, mind) nor does Martain point out the disadvantages it hold for the strong counties, Kerry and Cork either. I would have left it as a one off but in light of last week’s Martain Breheny article in last week’s Indo, it is pretty obvious Martain has his own agenda with Kerry this year….whatever it is, he is a bitter man.

Last week he gave a very unbalanced report bout the treatment Armagh players come in for in games because of their reputation for physicality and mentioned how certain Armagh players had come in for rough treatment by Kerry players, he never mentioned how this behaviour was reciprocated by Armagh players and in my view in many cases instigated. Overall, very unbalanced and biased reporting by Martain Breheny. Maybe our own Co. Board PRO should drop him a line and ask what his beef with kerry is?

[Owenabue]

Bigbrother, is it cos most journalists don't rate Cork at all, besides Jack.

[kerrygold]

galway dont have much to do to get to the same stage as kerry either,its leitrim next for them i think followed by rosscommon wow,tuff one there martin being from galway and all that.

[Piggy]

exactly their only 'tough' game was Mayo and judging on how we hammered them the last few years they would be deemed a weak team if they were in munster.that Breheny is an awful fool anyway,no time for him!

[MrRasherstoyou]

Spot on this by Jack, my sentiments exactly. Dublin must see this game now like a final, that they MUST win.
Meath will have gained alot of experience & confidence - they never looked like they believed they were going to win the last day
Dublin will have gained alot of sharpness, match toughness & a resolve that this is a do-or-die situation, where they must overcome their frailties on the field - by going through the fire

[Owenabue]

Are you well rashers? Or has all the work outside got to you?!

[MrRasherstoyou]

owenabue said:

Are you well rashers? Or has all the work outside got to you?!

Abue, all is well, and yerself? I'm just on my way out to Dollymount strand, for a walk, and to contemplate the trials ahead. How's things in the yellow valley?

[Owenabue]

Things are well. Busy weekend ahead with with football so I hope our county players come through unharmed!

[MrRasherstoyou]

owenabue said:

Things are well. Busy weekend ahead with with football so I hope our county players come through unharmed!

Please god. Is Cork club football very dangerous?

[champer]

not since niall cahalane retired