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Post by thebluepanther on Aug 24, 2016 19:28:22 GMT
I enjoy Darragh's articles. He doesn't over analyse the games but he tells it as it is. He was at it long enough to know. I suppose if I was from Dublin or somewhere else his stuff wouldn't sit as well with me. He doesn't over analyse games 🤔🤔🤔I don't think the word analyse and Darragh should be in the same sentence. But he gets paid for it, good luck to him.
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Post by thebluepanther on Aug 24, 2016 19:35:01 GMT
Although I'd probably rather go a pint with Darragh than Senan (bobble head).
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keane
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Post by keane on Aug 25, 2016 8:45:53 GMT
I don't think Darragh's articles are supposed to be analysis to be fair. They don't do much for me most of the time because I'm not too interested in guys' gut feelings but I think the idea is just meant to be former blood and guts player talking about how he felt before different types of games.
I think this one is pretty good for what it's worth.
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Post by delorean on Aug 25, 2016 9:43:12 GMT
I'm sure my own objectivity will be questioned here but I genuinely think they're pure tripe for the most part. I fully expect him to present the articles from a Kerry point of view, in fact it would be pointless if he didn't, so objectivity is the least of the problems. They're just so trashy, full of bravado fist pumping and point scoring more than any sort of half intelligent debate. It would really be more fitting of The Sunday World than The Irish Times anyway, although that might be overly harsh on The Sunday World.
I actually think he's quite diplomatic on TV and the radio, maybe because he knows he'll be pulled on his guff in those situations, but his articles are just thrown together and really offer nothing of value in my opinion. Even his little 'anecdotes' leave me shaking my head to be honest, his one about the bartender this week a perfect example. Of course, there are people that would fall off their stools laughing even if he just told a knock-knock joke, "ah Darragh, you aul rogue!", kind of thing.
I enjoy Quirke's articles and he's hardly objective either, but they're well constructed and I get the impression he puts a bit of effort into them, and that's the very least I'd expect from these guys.
Funnily enough, I think the only article I half enjoyed from Darragh was when he tore into Cork after the Tipperary game. He actually seemed passionate about our failings in a genuine sense, and it wasn't just a space filler.
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Post by southward on Aug 25, 2016 18:36:38 GMT
I'm sure my own objectivity will be questioned here but I genuinely think they're pure tripe for the most part. I fully expect him to present the articles from a Kerry point of view, in fact it would be pointless if he didn't, so objectivity is the least of the problems. They're just so trashy, full of bravado fist pumping and point scoring more than any sort of half intelligent debate. It would really be more fitting of The Sunday World than The Irish Times anyway, although that might be overly harsh on The Sunday World.
I actually think he's quite diplomatic on TV and the radio, maybe because he knows he'll be pulled on his guff in those situations, but his articles are just thrown together and really offer nothing of value in my opinion. Even his little 'anecdotes' leave me shaking my head to be honest, his one about the bartender this week a perfect example. Of course, there are people that would fall off their stools laughing even if he just told a knock-knock joke, "ah Darragh, you aul rogue!", kind of thing. I enjoy Quirke's articles and he's hardly objective either, but they're well constructed and I get the impression he puts a bit of effort into them, and that's the very least I'd expect from these guys. Funnily enough, I think the only article I half enjoyed from Darragh was when he tore into Cork after the Tipperary game. He actually seemed passionate about our failings in a genuine sense, and it wasn't just a space filler. The Sunday world ? Ah now..That is harsh.
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Post by glengael on Aug 25, 2016 18:49:27 GMT
Sure we haven't a hope. They do things so much better in the Rebel County so what would us poor Kerry people know about writing to such high standards.
I fondly recall Larry Tompkins' reasoned views, witty asides, valuable insights,and careful analysis from a few years back, was it 1997? Ah yes it consisted of 'Kerry really didn't win the All Ireland because they didn't play Cork this year'. Yes the same Cork team, with Larry on the sideline, that went all Rip Van Winkle in the closing moments of the Munster Semi Final v Clare. You'd miss that level of expert analysis alright.
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Post by jackeensabhog on Aug 25, 2016 19:23:34 GMT
I believe the technical term for some of Darragh's correspondence is 'ráiméis'.
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Post by wayupnorth on Aug 25, 2016 19:59:41 GMT
I believe the technical term for some of Darragh's correspondence is 'ráiméis'. Now that's really raimeis. It's light entertainment most of the time. Shakespeare it ain't. I enjoy it for the yarns (2 good ones this week) and the occasional insight (never guaranteed). His book didn't work for me because he was trying to be nice. He's much better off playing the "scamp".
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Post by delorean on Aug 26, 2016 8:20:28 GMT
Sure we haven't a hope. They do things so much better in the Rebel County so what would us poor Kerry people know about writing to such high standards. I fondly recall Larry Tompkins' reasoned views, witty asides, valuable insights,and careful analysis from a few years back, was it 1997? Ah yes it consisted of 'Kerry really didn't win the All Ireland because they didn't play Cork this year'. Yes the same Cork team, with Larry on the sideline, that went all Rip Van Winkle in the closing moments of the Munster Semi Final v Clare. You'd miss that level of expert analysis alright. Not that any of that is relevant to whether Darragh is any good or not, but Larry's from Kildare.
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Post by glengael on Aug 26, 2016 10:17:18 GMT
Sure we haven't a hope. They do things so much better in the Rebel County so what would us poor Kerry people know about writing to such high standards. I fondly recall Larry Tompkins' reasoned views, witty asides, valuable insights,and careful analysis from a few years back, was it 1997? Ah yes it consisted of 'Kerry really didn't win the All Ireland because they didn't play Cork this year'. Yes the same Cork team, with Larry on the sideline, that went all Rip Van Winkle in the closing moments of the Munster Semi Final v Clare. You'd miss that level of expert analysis alright. Not that any of that is relevant to whether Darragh is any good or not, but Larry's from Kildare. It is relevant as it shows how poor Darragh is really compared to the literary masterpieces which our neighbours can produce. Funny how well ye were able to turn the deaf ear when reminded of Larry (and Mr. Fahy's) native County back in the day and now it's the first thing that's said about him. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
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Post by delorean on Aug 26, 2016 10:42:25 GMT
Well that was the kind of irony I was going for, although I never turned a deaf ear. They're both from Kildare, can't dispute the facts.
I never said we had any literary masterpieces. Your points would be relevant if I had said something along the lines of... "Darragh is rubbish compared to all the Cork lads in the media".
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Post by baurtregaum on Aug 26, 2016 11:43:24 GMT
He has had a few really good ones in fairness. The one on Hennelly's rushed kick out in the semi last year springs to mind. I thought that was a great breakdown of that particular play from Mayo and where it all went wrong.
When he is good he is very good. With a brother on the Kerry panel he won't ever be Mr. Objective anyway.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Aug 26, 2016 15:31:49 GMT
Rameis or not, Darragh sometimes goes technical, then he can take a high level view, I enjoy him and the auld rogue breaking out is good, and he hardly licked that off the road!
The closer it gets the more I think we can take a skelp outs the Dubs, unusual though we are tipping ourselves, so unKerry, what do you think? Teams normally talk themselves down to have an element of surprise and we are the last to rub it in before the event. The Dubs are mystified thinking it is all a coordinated plan so maybe mission accomplished!
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Post by tommynk on Aug 28, 2016 19:27:41 GMT
I'm inclined to side with Delorean on this one.
Larry Tompkins??! That's a poor comeback. Argue his points not if need be but not try and go down that route.
The yearns are too Billy Keane ish for my liking, as is a lot of the style recently . It more about the occasion and mind set than anything else.
I used to buy the Times in spite of their limited sports coverage to read his articles before but now for me they are lacking.
It must be tough though for GAA columnists to keep it fresh with so few big games per year and without the obvious calls and tactics of other codes (eg rugby).
Cinneide is an analyst. If we want to rate someone we can set the bar there
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Post by Deise Exile on Sept 28, 2016 21:47:42 GMT
Can Anyone post 28sept article?
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Post by delorean on Sept 29, 2016 11:06:38 GMT
Can Anyone post 28sept article? Darragh Ó Sé: Weather key in determining All-Ireland winnersDublin’s greater scoring power could tell in better conditions but wet would suit MayoHere we go again. The one thing that can’t be said about Dublin and Mayo is that they throw up dull matches. We’ve got more than our pound of flesh out of these two teams over the past few years and now on Saturday night, they’ll go again under lights. It might not feel like it at the minute – it never does with replays – but it is going to be some occasion. As a player, you go into these games fixating on what happened in the drawn game. Managers will try second guess each other until the cows come home but you nearly always find the same guys matching up again. They either broke even in the first match so they’re left on each other or one guy got the better of the other, in which case the guy who played well won’t be moved and the guy who played badly probably has enough credit in the bank to be given another chance. So although people have been talking all this week and last week about what’s going to change for the replay, I can’t see either manager shaking it up too much. Okay, the Dublin forwards didn’t play well but I think guys like Paul Flynn and Bernard Brogan are the sort of players Jim Gavin feels he doesn’t need to worry about. They’ve done it before and in the biggest game of the year, you’ll often find managers deciding to trust that they’ll do it again. And anyway, the main reason they didn’t play well is that the Mayo defence were excellent. There’s a decent chance that Gavin could throw in Paul Mannion and Paddy Andrews, say, and still get the same result. Andrews scored two quick points in the drawn game soon after he came on but he was helped by the Mayo defence not being sure straight away whether to pick him up or let him roam around as Ciarán Kilkenny had been doing. Once they got their match-ups organised at half-time, Andrews didn’t have as big an impact. The long and the short of it is that 90 per cent of the match-ups will be the same. So the main thing in the minds of those player this week is how they’re going to improve on what they did the last day. What went right? What went wrong? What did he do that surprised me? What did I let him away with? What am I going to do that he won’t expect on Saturday? Between the drawn game and the replay in 2000, my big focus was to have a plan for Kevin Walsh. We got off to a decent start in the drawn game around midfield but it turned Galway’s way when he came in off the bench about 10 minutes before half-time. He started winning ball and hopping off fellas and taking a bit of control back from us. By the end of the game, it was obvious that he was a key factor in Galway getting back into the game. For the replay, he was my responsibility. We didn’t know whether he would start or if he would come on but whatever happened, I was going to manage the situation. How can I change my game to change his game? I told myself that I was going to be more aggressive with him. I was going to run him and make him follow me. I didn’t adapt quickly enough in the first game when he came on so I swore that wasn’t going to happen again. ChecklistThat’s what players are thinking about this week. How much did you learn off your immediate marker? What can you take out of it? What can he take out of it? If you were in his position, how would you change it up? They won’t spend every waking minute thinking about it but they will work through a checklist between now and the game to make sure they’re going out onto the pitch in the right frame of mind. This is what separates teams on the biggest days. It’s a numbers game. How many of your guys are tuned in compared with how many of theirs. If you have five or six and they have 11 or 12 – sorry lads, it’s a long winter ahead. Other way around – party time. So your job going into a replay like this is to be totally engaged from the first minute. Because every good thing you do, every small battle you win, it’s a mark against the guy you’re up against. And if it happens twice, three times, four times, doubt can start creeping into his mind. What the hell is going on here? Am I not tuned in? Am I not as prepared as I thought I was? You have to play with no doubt in your mind. Once you start doubting yourself, you get distracted. I played a Munster final one year against Clare where I missed the first three balls that came down between me and my man. John O’Keeffe was one of the selectors and he came running up the line to light a fire under me and he told me to get my head into the game. I waved him away and said I was fine. And I was. I knew I was. Even though it probably looked from the outside that I was slow out of the gate, I could feel that I was tuned in. I only missed the first ball by inches. There was no doubt in my mind that I was on solid ground here. I was able to wave Johnno away and not be half-bluffing. I had done all the preparation and I was confident. That’s the frame of mind you want to be in as a player this Saturday. As for game plans on either side, I don’t think you will see a huge amount of change. Both of them were a kick of a ball away from winning an All-Ireland the last day so there’s no big need for a radical overhaul. And anyway, that was an All-Ireland final they were playing in – it’s not like either side was holding anything back. I don’t think they’ll do a whole pile of work on the pitch. You can walk guys through various scenarios but time is tight and the nights are drawing in. I don’t think they would have played a big A v B game last weekend. They might have started one but I wouldn’t be surprised if Stephen Rochford or Gavin blew the whistle after 20 minutes. You only need to get people handling the ball and kicking a few scores. More work will be done on minds than on bodies. Basically, you want to improve on the good things and cut out the bad things. Mayo always have room to improve in attack. Nobody can question their bottle but they still don’t have enough guys who are reliable scorers. They got 15 points the last day. Will that be enough? If it’s a dry day, I wouldn’t say so. So they need more. The great thing about a drawn game is that now Rochford has video footage to show his players. Here’s what was happening when we were making hay. Here’s some of the mistakes the Dubs were making. Here’s how we were able pull so-and-so out of position to make room for a score. After that, it’s a matter of the players improving. Andy Moran had a decent game – he won good ball out in front and made use of it. But when the moment came, when the goal chance was there, he fluffed it. He snatched at the shot. He tried to burst the net when a cool, low finish was the way to go. He’s been around long enough now not to make that mistake twice. And of course, the same applies for Dublin. Some guys had an off-day shooting but that can happen. All any of them want is one ball the next day to put it right. Positional changesI’d imagine that if they change much, it will be positional. Diarmuid Connolly could go in at full-forward so that he is more dangerous when he gets on the ball and he isn’t having to track Lee Keegan all the way back up the pitch. Keegan has had the better of him in the last few games so this week Connolly has to be making himself a checklist of the things he is going to do to change that. One thing he has in his favour is the fact that the referee will be keeping a close eye on them because it’s the clash everyone is talking about. To my mind, Keegan did a brilliant, clean job on him within the rules the last day but there’s enough Dubs propaganda in the papers this week trying to get into the ref’s head. And why not? That’s all part of it. Maurice Deegan might decide early on to lay down a marker as a result and a yellow card is always harder for a defender to carry than for a forward. In the end, I’m going to sit on the fence a small bit. If it’s a dry day, Dublin should come through by four or five points purely because their scoring power exceeds Mayo’s. But if it’s wet underfoot and if the ball is slippy, scores will be hard to come by. In that scenario, I’d go with Mayo. www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/darragh-%C3%B3-s%C3%A9-weather-key-in-determining-all-ireland-winners-1.2807782
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Post by thechosenone on May 17, 2017 11:16:11 GMT
Darragh Ó Sé: This is the worst time of year to be an intercounty player Footballers cannot wait for championship to start and club headache to end How great a club man are you? Would you go to any lengths for the glory of the club? Well, I’m here to tell you that you’re nothing compared to an intercounty referee I was talking to a couple of years ago. I won’t name him, for reasons that will become clear. But this man is a hero for his club. I fell in with him one time talking away about everything and nothing and I asked him what his club was. And he told me with a sort of a haunted look about him. “Ah Christ Darragh, the thing has my heart broken. We’re only a small club so everything is a struggle. It’s gone that bad that I’m stealing footballs for them.” What do you mean, stealing footballs? Who are you stealing them from? “The counties. Kerry, Dublin, whoever I’m reffing.” And he went on to fill me in on how easy it was to get away with. Apparently, the trick is to do it at half-time. At full-time, the teams have kitmen who come looking for the match ball but at half-time, the ref takes the ball away with him down the tunnel. So as you’re about to blow the whistle, you go over to whoever has the ball and take it from them. Then you head down into the referee’s dressing room and stick it in your bag. You come back out then for the second half and stand out in midfield waiting for the teams and when it comes to the time, you look around and go, “Christ lads, has nobody a ball? Are we going to play this game or not?” So one of the teams kicks you out a new ball and you’re away in a hack. I thought I’d heard every stroke going in the GAA but this was a new one. You have to love it. I have visions of going down there for training and seeing a dozen different balls with Kerry and Cork and Tyrone and all the rest of them written across them. And kitmen across the county getting it in the ear from their county boards over missing footballs. And nobody suspecting the fine, upstanding referee of being the culprit. What a man. What a club man. Willing to commit pure, unapologetic robbery for the cause of the lads back home. Don’t talk to me about selling lottery tickets or putting up nets or any of that carry-on. This man is thieving gear in full view of tens of thousands of witnesses. Now that’s commitment. Disaster There’s a lot of talk these days about what makes a good clubman and where the line is between club and county. I always think this time of the year is the absolute worst for county players. These six or seven weeks between the end of the league and the start of the championship are a disaster. For the rest of the year, you are either one thing or the other. This is the one spell in the year where you have a foot in both camps. And it’s a killer. People haven’t a clue about the level of stress that involves. All I ever hear when people are talking about this is the poor unfortunate club player. But who stands up for the county player? Who defends him? Nobody, that’s who. Instead, he gets it from all angles. I was at championship games in Kerry over the weekend and all the talk I heard was how eight of the Kerry panel missed matches with one injury or another. To listen to people talk, you’d swear these fellas were faking the whole thing. And the lads that did play got no sympathy. They were expected to win matches on their own, most of them. A couple of different people said to me that David Moran was going badly. This man was the best player in the national league, man of the match in the league final. That’s five weeks ago. And apparently now he’s going badly. All that tells you is that there is no patience for any county player at this time of year. The clubs have been waiting on them since January and they want the version they saw in the league to turn up ready for work. It doesn’t matter to them that Moran has been working on kick-outs with a different goalkeeper for four months. It doesn’t matter that he’s been going bald-headed for everything and could do with a bit of a lighter load ahead of the championship. They want their man to be their man. Theirs, not the county’s. But for the player, it’s a nightmare. You know you owe a debt of loyalty to the club, just like you know you owe a debt of loyalty to the county. You know that if there’s any small bit of a niggle you’re carrying, now is the time to let it heal. You know as well that that sort of talk won’t wash with the club. You know all about the need for rest. And you know there’s really no chance of that at this time of year. You end up fighting with yourself. As a county player, you have a certain amount of pride and ego when it comes to going back to the club. You want to show the best of yourself. You can’t have fellas saying you didn’t put in for the club. But at the same time, you can’t be going back to the county set-up and spending the first few weeks of the summer getting physio. Ultimately, your loyalty is to yourself. It takes you a few years to come to terms with this but the older you get, the more you realise that it’s crucial you do what’s right for you. Sometimes that is going to mean being strong enough to say: “Sorry lads, I’m sitting this one out. Ye can * at me all ye like but I know my body and I know what I should be doing here.” In the end, you have to follow your own road. I’m not saying play half-hearted. Not at all. The vast majority of the time, following your own road means pulling on that club jersey and playing like the county man you are. There’s still plenty to be said for picking up the local paper and seeing the phrase “inspired by county man Joe Soap” in the report. Anthony Maher had a great game last weekend, a real shoulder-to-the-wheel job. That’s what most county players will do. That’s what makes them county men in the first place. Attitude and application This is the great unspoken aspect to the whole club vs county debate. What is it that really separates club players from county players? Obviously, in some cases it is pure ability. But there are 30 players in a county panel – absolutely nobody believes they are the 30 most talented footballers in the county. The reason they are where they are is that their attitude and application is better than the players who have more ability than them. There’s plenty of lads who are happy to be handy club players, who haven’t it in them to give their lives to being on a county panel. And fair play to them, I wouldn’t criticise them for it. But I wouldn’t be crying rivers of tears either for the poor, downtrodden club man and holding him up as being somehow more pure than a county player. Don’t be telling me they’re more dedicated. It’s just not true. I remember plenty of times landing back down to club training and finding only 10 there. Maybe the system is stacked against them and maybe they get a raw deal and that makes them throw their hat at it a bit. But everyone knows people in every club in the country and their commitment would be watery enough when it comes down to it. That doesn’t stop them telling you what’s what, all the same. A year or two after I retired from playing with Kerry, I had to go up to Newry on business before a league game in Ardfert. I had missed a training session during the week because I was up the walls busy but I had committed to making it down to the game and I was not going to miss it. So there I was, driving down the road from Newry telling myself I was a great club man altogether. I was nearly getting a bit emotional about it. Isn’t this the glory of the GAA? Driving 300 miles at the age of 35 to keep togging out for the club. Am I mad? No, I’m just a great club man. A hero to rival my man the ball-robbing referee. We got annihilated. One of those games where we went behind early and that was enough for half the team to down tools. Nobody making runs, nobody working back. Beaten out the gate. The sort of game that left us all walking off the pitch knowing there was going to be a few home truths delivered in the dressingroom afterwards. I was looking around from player to player thinking: “He’s in trouble. He’s in trouble. He’s definitely in trouble.” And so it started. This is wrong, that is wrong, the other is totally wrong. And by the way Darragh, we’re going to need more commitment out of you. That didn’t end well for them. I reared up and I decorated every last one of them. Managers, players, bagmen, the lot. I let them have it, a sub-machine gun spraying bullets everywhere. I’m after driving 300 miles for a county league game and you’re going to tell me I’m not putting it in? You’re blaming me, a washed-up old intercounty player, for not carrying ye? Good luck with that, lads. That tension will always be there. And it will only get worse. County players have never been under so much pressure. I’m retired since 2009 and it’s even gone through the roof since I finished up. The recession killed off the old carry-on of sorting out a handy job for a county player so now every man has to apply himself to that side of his life more than ever. The game is faster than ever, the hits are bigger than ever, the season is longer than ever so you have to take greater care of your body than ever before. Social media has added to the mental strain far beyond anything anyone could have imagined when I was playing. And for these few weeks, the pressure from your club is another ball you have to keep in the air. I guarantee you they can’t wait to get the summer started so they can get back to serving just one master again. Life is so much simpler once the championship begins. www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/darragh-%C3%B3-s%C3%A9-this-is-the-worst-time-of-year-to-be-an-intercounty-player-1.3085443
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2017 19:41:48 GMT
Interesting to read rather than the usual guff about how the club is the most important thing at the end of the day.
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Post by kerrygold on May 17, 2017 21:49:29 GMT
Grassroots find it hard to accept that a county players club is the county.
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Post by thebluepanther on May 17, 2017 23:45:58 GMT
The divide between club and county player is getting greater. The conundrum is that if a club produces a top player, they are the ones who will suffer going forward . County players for the top counties are training in a different environment away from their clubmates for large parts of the year. What was once a reward for club to have 2 or 3 intercounty players is now a hindrance.
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Post by kerrygold on May 18, 2017 11:25:32 GMT
The divide will only grow as the demands continue to increase on county players.
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Post by kerryforliam on May 18, 2017 15:38:10 GMT
Great article by Darragh as usual
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Post by glengael on May 18, 2017 15:40:33 GMT
The divide will only grow as the demands continue to increase on county players. Not to mention the revised championship schedule in 2018.
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Post by inforthebreaks on Jun 8, 2017 8:46:10 GMT
Darragh O'Se's take on the Cork - TIpperary game..
Years ago, there used to be a fisherman who was well known around our way in west Kerry. His routine would always be to come in and drink his fill of porter before heading off out to sea nicely. He went away off this one time and one of the fellas was shaking his head at the sight of it.
“Féach siar ó fionn trá is é ar a mhíle a ndicheall é fheinig a bhá.”
Roughly translated, he was saying, “Would you look at your man heading out from Ventry and him flat out trying to drown himself.”
When I heard the scores coming through from Cork’s game against Waterford a couple of weeks ago, my man came to mind. Would you look at them now, flat out trying to drown themselves. They don’t need any help from Kerry to bring them down these days – they’ve got it covered all on their own.
That’s why I think this Munster semi-final against Tipperary on Saturday night is the biggest game they’ve had in years. Some games are pivotal to a county – they have a wider meaning beyond the result on the night. If Cork lose to Tipperary for the second year in a row, I honestly think the consequences for Cork football are massive.
Culture means a lot in the GAA. The games are always important for what they are but they’re also crucial because of how they feed the public imagination. I’ve often thought that the most important people in the crowd at a match are 10-year-old boys. That’s the age when it really goes in. You know enough by then to know what you want and it’s up to the fellas out on the pitch to make that 10-year-old boy want this for himself. Inevitable
I was 10 in 1985, when Kerry were winning All-Irelands. They soon stopped winning them and if anyone thinks it was inevitable that they would start again, they weren’t in Kerry in the early to mid-‘90s. There was a lot of talk of what had been lost and how it might never be found again.
Kerry football became a laughing stock. When I started playing senior, you’d have fellas saying things to you like, “Yeah, you’re Kerry but you’re not the real Kerry – you haven’t won anything.” That attitude was there and it took a lot of work to change it.
But the one thing we had going for us was that the culture lived on. There was a heap of us coming through at underage level and we had all been 10 in the mid-‘80s. And though we got a couple of good beatings from Cork at minor level, that only spurred us on to sort it out when we got to under-21. Out of that under-21 team, the basis for a senior team took shape and Kerry got back to winning All-Irelands.
I’m not saying it was all as simple or straightforward as that. But the point I’m making is that the culture is the building block. If you give the 10-year-old boy a reason to give up on you, you lose someone who could be the future.
So who is the 10-year-old boy in Cork obsessed with these days? Whose jersey is he after? Is it Paul Kerrigan? Aidan Walsh? Eoin Cadogan? Not a hope. That 10-year-old is mad about Conor Lehane and Patrick Horgan and Luke Meade and all these young hurlers who killed Tipp in Thurles a couple of weeks ago. And rightly so.
That’s why I think this game is so huge. Tipperary are a serious team. They’ve been coming up the ranks, they’ve done all the hard yards at underage, they’ve got a couple of excellent inside forwards. But none of that cuts any ice with a 10-year-old Cork football supporter. They just see their team being beaten by Tipperary for the second year in a row. So where do they go from there? Self-interest rules
This can go one way or it can go the other. Beat Tipperary on Saturday and they’ll have a Munster final in the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh. If nothing else, pure curiosity will bring a crowd to the first game in the new stadium and they will have a chance to win back their people again. But lose to Tipperary and they’ll be in the qualifiers for the second year in a row. How many will come to see them then? Would they get 4,000?
Naturally enough, Cork people would be wary of any Kerryman worrying about Cork football. And they’re right to be. Self-interest rules. I saw it plenty of times in years gone by where you’d meet someone in the street in Tralee or Killarney and they’d be saying isn’t it great to see the Cork hurlers going so well.
The idea was always that you wanted the culture of Cork GAA to be weighted towards the hurlers so you’d keep a lid on the footballers. As long as the hurlers picked off a couple of their good under-21s every year, that suited Kerry just fine.
But you don’t want it to go too far the other way either. If Cork are no good at all, it’s bad news for Kerry. That’s the honest truth of it. Kerry need them to be good without being great. They need a serious test in Munster before heading to Croke Park.
Just at the minute, Cork don’t look like a serious test. If they did, Waterford wouldn’t have been allowed to entertain notions of even keeping that game close. The rule against weaker teams has always, always been to knock any dangerous thoughts out of their heads quickly. Don’t be giving them bad habits such as thinking anything’s possible. Bang in a couple of early goals and make them reconsider their life choices.
Cork didn’t do that. They were careless and sloppy and low on confidence. Not only did they give Waterford a sniff, they did nothing to scare Tipperary. Liam Kearns is bringing his team down to Cork on Saturday night and you can be guaranteed that they all believe they’re going down there as equals. When has that ever been part of people’s thinking – in either county?
It just goes to show how quickly and easily the culture can slip away from you. Cork need to be really careful here. I saw an interview Cadogan did with the papers a week or two ago where he was saying that there was never any love for the Cork footballers. I was reading it thinking, “Who let this fella go out and tell the truth?”
That sort of thing has to be out of bounds. The line has to be, “The Cork public are great supporters, they’re 100 per cent behind us and we’re doing everything in our power to give them lots to shout about.” Now, there will be Cork people reading it going, “Yeah right, Eoin.” But so what? Supporters need to be led
If you spend your time saying that nobody loves you, all that does is give people a way out. Supporters need to be led. They need to be given something to believe in. They need big players and big personalities showing them the way. Not giving them a reason to shrug their shoulders and decide that this is just how things are.
Not all games are equal. When we played Cork in the 2007 All-Ireland final, we felt more pressure than in all the other finals. This was a game we could not lose. It was non-negotiable. You can lose to Cork in a Munster final but you cannot under any circumstances do it in an All-Ireland.
Imagine we had lost that day. Where can you go after that? I remember playing Sligo in 2009 and watching as David Kelly lined up a late penalty. If he hit the net, we were beaten and the year was over. I was fairly resigned to the fact that he would score, so much so that the thought flashed through my head that I might head up to Sligo for the week and at least knock a bit of sport out of being knocked out in the middle of July. Defeat would have hurt but we’d have got over it.
That final against Cork in ‘07 was a different animal. Losing that final would have wiped out anything we had achieved up to then. We genuinely believed that. You can’t lose to Cork in an All-Ireland final and just brush it off. There’s too much cultural baggage there to allow you get away with that. We never had as much desperation to win an All-Ireland final as we did that year.
Cork need that kind of desperation this Saturday. They have to bring order to things. Their motivation has to be to remind Tipperary of where they see them standing in the world. Kill off the hope that the Tipperary players and supporters will be bringing to Páirc Uí Rinn with them. Pour water on the fire before it spreads any further.
They’ve put themselves in the position now where they have to win. This is an old-style championship game because the back-door will be such a let-down to whoever finds themselves in it.
Cork have to see this game as an opportunity. They’re at a crossroads but it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. This is their chance to start winning people back. It’s not often you get the opportunity to do that in one go. They have to take it when it’s there – or it might not come again for a while.
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Post by wayupnorth on Jun 8, 2017 9:44:17 GMT
"Second year in a row in the qualifiers"?
It would actually be their fifth bearing in mind that the losing finalist has to play and win a qualifying match to get to the quarters.
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Post by glengael on Jun 8, 2017 11:23:42 GMT
"Second year in a row in the qualifiers"? It would actually be their fifth bearing in mind that the losing finalist has to play and win a qualifying match to get to the quarters. I think what he meant was them failing to even reach the provincial final for the 2nd year in a row. That means your qualifier route is more circuitous & uncertain. Lose a provincial final, yes it's qualifier but at least it's one game and more direct.
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Jo90
Fanatical Member
Posts: 2,695
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Post by Jo90 on Jun 8, 2017 16:19:27 GMT
Very enjoyable article.
If Cork lose, on top of having 2 extra qualifiers, Cork would have a 50:50 chance of meeting Kerry in next year's Munster semi-final, (if they get over Clare, Limerick or Waterford in the 1/4s) and thus prolong the cycle.
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fitz
Fanatical Member
Red sky at night get off my land
Posts: 1,719
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Post by fitz on Jun 8, 2017 16:57:18 GMT
Some man for the yarns - enjoyable if self-fulfilling reading
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Post by southward on Jun 21, 2017 8:28:42 GMT
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Post by buck02 on Jun 21, 2017 8:50:04 GMT
I wonder which U21 player he was talking about, the 2013 game springs to mind.....
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