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Post by buck02 on Jul 24, 2019 10:25:52 GMT
Could somebody put up Darraghs article from today please
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 24, 2019 10:32:53 GMT
Darragh Ó Sé about 5 hours ago
If you want to know letting bygones be bygones, you only need to hear one story from the weekend.
Mick O’Dwyer was supposed to be going to Croke Park to watch Kerry play Donegal but at the last minute, he decided to stay at home in Waterville. For one reason only – so that he would be able to keep an eye on Shane Lowry in the golf. It’s taken 37 years but it looks like he’s finally thinking about forgiving Offaly for ’82.
The week off now couldn’t have come at a better time for some of the teams left standing in the Super 8s. Mayo look especially ready for a bit of down-time. I watched them in Croke Park on Sunday and some of them looked wrecked tired. You could see the five weeks in a row taking its toll on them.
Tiredness is a virus. It doesn’t kill you right away, it just takes a bit here and a bit there out of you until you’re thrown off your game. It’s nearly worse than an injury because at least if you’re injured, they’ve no choice but to take you off and you are replaced by someone who is fully fit. By the time the sideline works out that tiredness is affecting you, it’s too late.
It’s more than just being out on your feet and not being physically able to get back into position or track your man. The real killer is tiredness in your mind, stopping you thinking clearly and quickly and making the right choices. I was watching Aidan O’Shea and Lee Keegan on Sunday and the mistakes they were making were purely down to mental exhaustion.
Watching tired players is like seeing a fella leave his pint glass on the edge of the bar counter. You’re nervous for them, more nervous than they are for themselves. You know disaster is imminent but that they might get away with it as well. Mayo got out the gap on Sunday and no glass was smashed. But it was obvious that they were just scraping by.
The two-week break will be huge for them. They need an energy refill for mind and body. It’s not a huge amount of time or anything but it’s something at least. They will still have football on the brain every day, they will still know at all times that they’re in a serious situation. But at least they’re not having to go again straight away.
They badly need to get those energy levels up again. I thought they looked punch drunk at times on Sunday. Keegan came into it when the game was there to be won in the second half but for a long time before that he was anonymous. At times I was looking at him and wondering where the player who was footballer of year a few years ago had gone.
Think of Keegan when he was one of the best players anywhere. He was all about physicality and aggression and getting forward for that goal against the Dubs. He was pure attitude, absolute warrior stuff – taking it to the opposition, making them know that he was a problem that they had to go and deal with.
But now he looks like someone who has lost a couple of gears. Or maybe lost a bit of attitude or something. I know he’s been injured this year and I presume that’s part of it too. But Mayo need more from him. When you’re blessed to have a Rolls Royce player like that, he’s no good to you as just one of the gang. You need him to be outstanding – not necessarily in every game but definitely from here on out. He and O’Shea really need to flush the tiredness from their system between now and Saturday week.
Related Darragh Ó Sé: Improving Kerry will need a different game plan for Donegal Darragh Ó Sé: Playing Mayo is like cod liver oil – you don’t enjoy it but you’re better for it Darragh Ó Sé: Donegal suddenly flavour of the month again Complete performance Because look who they’re coming up against? A Donegal team whose main man and superstar doesn’t look in the least bit tired. Michael Murphy gave an exhibition on Sunday, a complete performance. It’s rare you see someone who is so comfortable with orchestrating a game. He was something else.
In the vast majority of cases, the outstanding player on a team stands out because of his individual gifts. He’s the player who isn’t just allowed to be selfish, he’s encouraged to be. You go and do your bit and let us take up the slack for you.
But the thing that really stands out about Michael Murphy is how selfless he is. Watch the timing of his runs or the positioning for certain different match situations or the way he decides for himself where he’s most needed on the pitch. All of it is done to serve the team as a whole, not Murphy himself.
Lee Keegan in action against Meath’s Barry Dardis. Mayo need more from him. When you’re blessed to have a Rolls Royce player like that, he’s no good to you as just one of the gang. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho He constantly wants to bring the other Donegal players into the game. He knows that wherever he goes, he will attract the bulk of the attention so when Patrick McBrearty needs a bit of space to work in, he gets out of the full-forward line and drifts around the middle. He’s always available for kick-outs and brings two opposition players with him when he goes for one. His decision-making in real time is a sight to see.
I thought he was magnificent against Kerry on Sunday. When Donegal got the penalty and it looked for minute that McBrearty was going to take it, I had a brief moment of hope. I don’t mean that I expected McBrearty to miss or anything – it was more a sudden jolt of, ‘Here lads, Murphy isn’t taking it’.
But no such luck. Once he took the ball of McBrearty, that was that. I didn’t even have to look to see what way he hit it – that ball was going nowhere only the back of the net. He is a leader playing at the very height of his powers and he is bringing Donegal with him.
So all of this makes Saturday week a huge battle. Both sides have injuries that they could do with getting cleared up but assuming that the majority of them are good to go, it’s such an even contest.
A lot will be made of Stephen Rochford’s role over the coming week and a half. It’s interesting that most people see it as a big advantage for Donegal to have him as their coach going up against Mayo players who he has intimate knowledge of. And you can see why.
If you were in charge of Donegal and Rochford wasn’t a part of the coaching ticket, wouldn’t he be your first call if you were going about preparing for a game like this? If you could get him in for a night, pick his brain, bombard him with questions, you’d do it in a heartbeat. Except of course, he probably wouldn’t do it because he’s only a year out of the job. So it’s some help to Declan Bonner to have him on hand to go picking holes in Mayo. He can say what they are even before he sits down to watch a minute of video.
For one thing, Mayo’s killer weakness is their kick-out and nobody knows that better than Rochford. He was the man who dropped David Clarke for the All-Ireland final replay, purely on the basis of his kick-outs. It backfired on him then but when you look at how Kerry blitzed Clarke in that first half in Killarney, you can see what Rochford was so afraid of.
Now that the boot is on the other foot, you can be very sure Donegal will go to Castlebar with a game plan designed to target that weakness.
Serious motivation But to be honest, I look at the Rochford factor from the other side of the fence. If you’re a Mayo player over the coming 10 days and Rochford’s name comes up, you’re not going to be sitting there in fear of what he has in store for you. Not a hope. If you have any gumption about you at all – and we know these Mayo players have nothing to prove on that score – you’re saying, “Bring it on, Rochy. We know as much about you as you do about us”.
If I was a Mayo player in the run up to this game, it would piss me off to high heaven that people are talking about Rochford as having the key to beating me. Great coach, great fella, can’t wait to shake his hand and give him a hug after the game. So what if he knows how to plan for us? Why is nobody pointing out that the same goes the other way around?
I was watching Aidan O’Shea (above) and Lee Keegan on Sunday and the mistakes they were making were purely down to mental exhaustion. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho Stuff like that gives you serious motivation. It’s not really a comparable situation in terms of what’s a stake but I remember playing a league game in Tralee one year against Westmeath when Páidí was over them. When you’re going playing a game against someone who you have that sort of connection with, people are always going to make assumptions. Whether they do or they don’t, you will always convince yourself of it anyway.
I wasn’t playing particularly well at the time and I went into the game full sure that people thought I would probably take it handy because Páidí was in the other dugout. But I tore into it and had one of my better games, purely to make it clear that there could be no chance that I’d be found wanting, regardless of the opposition.
Tomás scored a goal in the same game and without even asking him, I could tell that he had the same attitude as me to that game – ye lads can look at this one way, I’m looking at it the other. And if I was David Clarke or Aidan O’Shea or Lee Keegan ahead of this one, that’s how I’d be looking at it too. Ye think Rochford is Donegal’s trump card over us? Right, let’s see about that.
Either way, it’s building up to be some battle.
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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 Jul 24, 2019 15:37:21 GMT
Might I say, not one of his best issues. Was looking forward to his take on the Kerry v Donegal epic
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tpo
Senior Member
Posts: 504
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Post by tpo on Jul 31, 2019 15:50:47 GMT
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 31, 2019 16:18:57 GMT
Darragh Ó Sé about 10 hours ago When you’re around long enough, you get to hear everything eventually. I thought I was long past being surprised by anything in football. But then I heard Peter Canavan saying he reckoned Tyrone should be trying to keep a bit up their sleeve when they play Dublin on Sunday. And do you know what’s worse? I think he might even believe it!
I had to laugh for a second when I heard it. Can you imagine the reaction if I said that about Kerry if they were in Tyrone’s position? It would be all ‘cute-hoor’ this and ‘yerra’ that. Would anybody take it seriously? Not for a second.
And rightly so. Because it doesn’t make any sense. Now, Canavan is a smart operator and he’s very close to Mickey Harte. He knows the scene above in Tyrone better than anyone and he knows what they have and what they’re capable of. Ordinarily, I would never disagree with him when it comes to Tyrone because he obviously knows more about them than I ever will. I don’t actually doubt that he’s sincere, either.
The idea is basic enough – Tyrone might meet Dublin in an All-Ireland final, all going well, so you want to keep your best stuff for the biggest day. Partly as well, it would be driven by the feeling that while you might catch the Dubs once, you’ll hardly do it twice. And when it comes to deciding who you get in a semi-final, there’s not much between the teams coming from the other group so it doesn’t really make any odds whether you finish top or second.
But I just think there’s a basic flaw in the thinking here. All that stuff would be fine and you’d nearly see the sense in it if you were talking about a game between equals. If it was a pair of teams that regularly beat each other or there was only a kick of a ball between them, then you’d be right to keep a bit up your sleeve for later on down the line.
That’s not the case here though. Thinking like that seriously overestimates where Tyrone stand in regards to the Dubs. They’ve been able to compete with them in the league over the past few years but their championship record against them has been bad for a long time.
Mickey Harte hasn’t beaten Dublin in the championship since 2008. They have a string of defeats against them going back five games in eight years. There isn’t a player in the Tyrone panel who has been on a winning team against the Dubs when it mattered. If they’re ever going to turn it around, they have to first win a game. Any game.
Tyrone have been reminded again and again and again where they stand. They have a distance to make up on a Dublin team that looks to be getting stronger and younger and better every year. Holding something back against them is a luxury Tyrone can’t afford.
Right now, the problem most teams have playing Dublin is first and foremost about belief. Who really believes they can beat them? There are four teams left who can win the All-Ireland apart from Dublin and none of them have beaten Dublin in the championship in five years. Mayo are the only ones who have come close – and I’d guess that as a result, they have the most belief of anyone.
Tyrone don’t have that belief. You only have to go back to last year’s All-Ireland final to see it, clear as day. Tyrone made the most perfect start you could imagine to that game. They went 0-5 to 0-1 ahead after 17 minutes and they had Dublin where they wanted them. But all it took was one bad kick-out from Niall Morgan and everything fell to pieces.
Dublin outscored them 2-6 to 0-1 between then and half-time. Any belief Tyrone had in the idea that they might beat the Dubs just popped like a bubble. That’s not me making a judgment – Colm Cavanagh was their best player and he said it himself after the game.
“You aim to start every game fast,” Cavanagh said. “So yeah, that was what we aimed for in the first 20 minutes. But I think we actually were in a wee bit of shock that it had gone that well. The scores were going over, we were kicking the ball in and winning the play. Everything that you dream of starting an All-Ireland final was happening. But maybe that came with a little bit of a shock. It’s hard to put your finger on it.
“Probably the hardest thing to take is that we were taking shots on from angles we shouldn’t have been doing, we were taking the wrong choices. If we had kept playing Dublin at their own game, keeping the ball properly and making them come out at us, we could have been in such a better position. But it’s hard to get that message about when the place is rocking and things are going against you. It’s very hard to get the message around to be smart.”
I agree with Cavanagh, 100 per cent. It’s very hard to be smart – but that’s where experience comes in. Everybody who ever played football has been on the pitch while the opposition is getting a run on you. We’ve all had to endure it, some of us have had to endure it in Croke Park with the whole country watching. And the one thing I can say for certain is that unless you have belief, you have no chance of turning it around.
Now, belief is a hard thing to define and a harder thing to get. There’s no foolproof way to develop it. It’s a gradual thing that builds over time. But if you’re after spending your whole intercounty career losing to a certain team, belief is unlikely to suddenly wash over you in Croke Park on All-Ireland final day while they are outscoring you by 2-6 to 0-1 in the space of 20 minutes.
The only place to start is with brass tacks. Tyrone don’t necessarily need to beat Dublin on Sunday but they need to get into a game with them. They need to be there fighting out a finish with them in the last five minutes. Not one of those games where they tack on late points to make the scoreline look like it had been a contest. An honest-to-God battle, whatever the result ends up being.
Most of all, they need to get that feeling in the dressingroom afterwards where everyone knows it without having to say it. No forced speeches. No bull*. No sob stories. Just that growing belief. We had them. We were able to live with them. Now, we build on it.
In a way, Tyrone are blessed to have Dublin in a game like this. Don’t mind what anyone says about it being a dead rubber. The Dubs don’t do dead rubbers. That’s not how they go about things. It won’t be a case of sitting down afterwards and going, ‘Ah sure Dublin didn’t try a leg.’ Whatever Tyrone get out of this game, they will know they earned it.
That’s why I can’t see them doing anything other than pulling out all the stops. If you’re very lucky, you get two chances like this in a year to test yourself against the best in the land and find out where you are. Most years, you won’t even get one. It would be silly to waste it by shadow boxing.
Even if it wasn’t Dublin, Tyrone should be going all-in on Sunday. There’s three games left to win an All-Ireland. This whole thing is over for the year in four and a half weeks. You’re either in or you’re out at this stage. If you risk going half-hearted at it this Sunday, you have only a week to ramp it back up again for the semi-final. It might be possible but it’s hardly ideal.
Galway weren’t able to manage it last year. They got it into their heads that they didn’t have to go full-bore against Monaghan in the last Super-8s game because they had already beaten Kerry and Kildare. You could see it that night in Salthill – they were so static and so passive that they got over-run. In the back of their heads, they had a safety net and it showed.
But sure what good was it to them? A week later they went up against the Dubs in Croke Park and could hardly get out of the blocks. They never landed a glove and Dublin beat them in third gear. They looked nothing like the Galway team that had pushed Dublin all the way in the league final earlier in the year – or even the one that won those Super-8s games. When it came right down to it, they weren’t able to flick a switch and get back up to speed.
I don’t see any reason for Tyrone to risk the same thing happening to them. Let’s say they hold something back, what then? Dublin come to Omagh and beat them by 10 or 12 points and they go away telling themselves that’s not a true reflection of where they stand. I don’t see what use that is to them. I just see it as a waste of a game.
To my mind, Tyrone need to go out with the intention of taking an almighty cut off Dublin on Sunday and forget about trying to be too cute about it. It probably won’t be enough – I see them as being a fair bit off them even at their best – but that’s not the point. You have to walk before you can run.
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Post by ballhopper34 on Jul 31, 2019 18:16:06 GMT
What happens to Mickey Harte if he picks his strongest side and Peter Harte picks up a black card and will miss the semi-final? I imagine the cries for Mickey's head will be heard in Valentia.
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Post by augustafield on Jul 31, 2019 19:00:13 GMT
Obviously Tyrone don’t rate whoever they’ll be meeting in the semi-final ( most likely Kerry ) and feel that another game with the Dubs in the final is inevitable . They should be careful what they wish for - surely they have not forgotten already the way the Dubs put manners on them last year ?
I wonder is Darragh , with tongue in cheek , suggesting that Tyrone should tear into the Dubs and leave them both frazzled with tough semi finals to face a week later ? Nah - he is hardly not that much of a Rogue ........ ?
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Post by augustafield on Jul 31, 2019 19:02:13 GMT
* Rogue
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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 Jul 31, 2019 20:22:01 GMT
Obviously Tyrone don’t rate whoever they’ll be meeting in the semi-final ( most likely Kerry ) and feel that another game with the Dubs in the final is inevitable . They should be careful what they wish for - surely they have not forgotten already the way the Dubs put manners on them last year ? I wonder is Darragh , with tongue in cheek , suggesting that Tyrone should tear into the Dubs and leave them both frazzled with tough semi finals to face a week later ? Nah - he is hardly not that much of a Rogue ........ ? I’m not sure Tyrone think like that, Aug, they’ve beaten nobody since Donegal won Ulster. They’re a good team, haven’t seen anything from them to suggest more
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Post by kerrygold on Jul 31, 2019 22:03:20 GMT
Obviously Tyrone don’t rate whoever they’ll be meeting in the semi-final ( most likely Kerry ) and feel that another game with the Dubs in the final is inevitable . They should be careful what they wish for - surely they have not forgotten already the way the Dubs put manners on them last year ? I wonder is Darragh , with tongue in cheek , suggesting that Tyrone should tear into the Dubs and leave them both frazzled with tough semi finals to face a week later ? Nah - he is hardly not that much of a Rogue ........ ? I’m not sure Tyrone think like that, Aug, they’ve beaten nobody since Donegal won Ulster. They’re a good team, haven’t seen anything from them to suggest more Tyrone won't beat Dublin or Kerry from the semi final stage onward.
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 31, 2019 22:15:29 GMT
I was going to say that since the game is in Omagh, I expect it to be a close run affair but then i discovered that Dublin Joe is the ref.
They brought Coldrick for it last year....nice to get out of the capital now and then i spose.
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Post by kerrygold on Jul 31, 2019 22:20:11 GMT
I was going to say that since the game is in Omagh, I expect it to be a close run affair but then i discovered that Dublin Joe is the ref. They brought Coldrick for it last year....nice to get out of the capital now and then i spose. FFS, disgusting at this stage.
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Post by Mickmack on Aug 7, 2019 6:09:32 GMT
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Darragh Ó Sé
What a waste of time Sunday’s game in Omagh was. If you were left it in a will, you’d contest it. All-expenses paid, nice hotel, good feeding, all the rest of it – you’d still go back and ask if there was maybe something else there for you. At least an old clock might do you some use somewhere down the line.
Everybody has their own ideas about the Super 8s but to me there’s a couple of things that stare you right in the face. The first is the timing. It’s seriously wrong to give players only six or seven days to prepare for an All-Ireland semi-final. I don’t know who is responsible for that but I can tell you for damn sure they never played in one.
It shows no understanding of what goes into playing these games. It basically tells these guys that the GAA does not care in the slightest about the demands the sport puts on its players. It tells them that it doesn’t value them or their time or their work/life balance or any of that stuff.
We’re told all the time that being amateur is the most fundamental thing about the GAA and then the fixture-makers force lads who have to go to work every day to play an All-Ireland semi-final with six days notice. How could that be seen as anything other than the GAA telling players that they’re way, way down the food chain?
No wonder Tyrone and Dublin played B teams on Sunday. In hindsight, I’m nearly surprised they didn’t just throw 15 jerseys apiece into the crowd.
I don’t know how anyone can take the Super 8s as a guide to anything that’s going to happen this weekend The other thing about the Super 8s – and this is less important, obviously, but it’s true all the same – is that it means we’re all guessing to a certain extent going into this weekend. How is anyone supposed to draw a coherent formline from the games that have taken place over the past month?
Kerry hammered Mayo and then Donegal drew with Kerry and then Mayo walked all over Donegal. The Dubs looked a bit shaky at times against Cork but were given no game whatsoever by Roscommon and then Roscommon went to Cork and beat them on their home patch. I don’t know how anyone can take the Super 8s as a guide to anything that’s going to happen this weekend.
What do we know for sure? We know that Dublin will bring a performance that won’t dip below a certain level. Any team that can afford to leave Stephen Cluxton, Brian Fenton, Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion and the rest of them at home with their feet up and a cup of tea beside them and still be easy winners on the road, we don’t need to fret for.
The Dubs will be the Dubs. The question is what will Mayo bring with them. We can make a decent guess at Mayo’s formline because of the four teams left, they’re the only ones who had a game last weekend where everything was on the line and nothing existed beyond the final whistle.
Mayo don’t have to go searching for form and they won’t need the first 15 minutes to get to the pitch of things. They know what it is to be at full pelt, they’ll go from the first whistle as if their backs are to the wall. In that respect, it will be up to the Dubs to match them in the early exchanges.
Real physicality You only had to watch that Donegal game to see what real physicality is in a football match. This was big boy stuff and it made most of the Donegal players wilt in the face of it. Only Michael Murphy was able to live with it and he damn near dragged Donegal through it on his own. I was nearly more taken with Murphy in defeat the other night than in some of the games Donegal have won this year. He was heroic but Mayo made sure he didn’t get enough help from elsewhere in the team.
People talk about physicality a lot without ever really defining what it means. To me, it’s nothing too much more complicated than being able to hold your ground and not get knocked off what you want to do.
Like most people, I thought Murphy was pretty fortunate to get the penalty on Saturday night. But he got it because he had the physicality to be able to position himself in front of Lee Keegan and force Keegan to have to grab a hold of his shirt to get at the ball. The penalty call went his way because he had put himself in that position and didn’t get knocked off it.
It was about the only physical exchange Mayo lost all night. Otherwise, those physical exchanges are where Mayo flourish. It’s Colm Boyle throwing himself into a tackle with abandon. It’s Aidan O’Shea standing up a man with a tackle and knocking the ball loose. It’s Keegan, Chris Barrett, Paddy Durcan, even up as far as Cillian O’Connor, all being able to go into a tackle and know they’ve got the conditioning to go again if they have to.
I always think of physicality like the tyres on a racing car. If the tyres are a bit worn down, you have to take a bit more care going around a corner because the important thing is that you at least stay upright. But if the tyres are good, you can let loose and go full throttle, happy in the knowledge that you’re not going to flip over.
Mayo are at their best when they’re going full throttle – they know they have the tyres for it.
Now, Dublin know that too, obviously. That’s why we’ve seen so many epic encounters between the two teams. Can we get it again on Saturday? I’m not so sure. I think now, more than ever, Dublin have the edge in most areas.
Brian Fenton: his midfield partnership with Michael Darragh Macauley ensures a perfect combination of fielding, power, energy and scoring ability. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho Brian Fenton: his midfield partnership with Michael Darragh Macauley ensures a perfect combination of fielding, power, energy and scoring ability. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho You’d back most of their forwards to score more than their equivalent Mayo attacker. Fenton and Michael Darragh Macauley are near enough the perfect midfield in terms of a combination of fielding, power, energy, scoring power. The O’Shea brothers are the match of them (at least) in a lot of departments but they’ll hardly outscore them. The Mayo defence is a serious unit but the Dubs haven’t conceded a goal from play all summer.
Huge loss Jason Doherty is a huge loss for Mayo. When Mayo are at their best, when they are constantly turning over ball in their own defence and breaking out in packs, the element that keeps the whole thing moving is a dependable ball-winner in the half-forward line.
The fact that they play at such a helter-skelter pace means it’s vital that out ball sticks. Doherty is as good as Andy Moran in winning his own ball and laying it off and he’s usually fairly good when shooting as well. James Horan has a big call to make there when it comes to replacing him.
Even if Doherty was available, I’d have to side with Dublin. Jim Gavin has played everything perfectly so far and he’s going into the semi-final with no worries. Mayo have a kick in them but I don’t see it being enough to outlast the Dubs in the end.
In the other semi-final, you’re looking at two teams who have improved this year and wondering who has improved the most. Tyrone are coming from being in an All-Ireland final, whereas Kerry didn’t make it through the Super 8s last year. So the question is whether Kerry have gone past Tyrone in the space of 12 months.
Tyrone haven’t really changed the way they play. Cathal McShane has been the major difference, in that he is a constant danger on the edge of the square. He gives them a target man and allows them keep their shape better. In other years, the player they had in that spot was a Connor McAliskey or a Darren McCurry. McShane is a different beast and definitely an upgrade.
But I still think that the sheer amount of bodies they play behind the ball counts against them in Croke Park. It was only when Mattie Donnelly doubled up inside with McShane against Cork that they kicked into gear. I presume they will do that at some stage against Kerry but I don’t know if they have enough faith in it.
In times of stress, it’s human nature to go back to what you know best. Tyrone’s fallback is a containing game based on a packed defence that converts into a running game when they force a turnover. It works against Ulster teams and it works against the teams that are a tier or two below the contenders. It hasn’t worked against any of the really top-level teams in a long time.
The question is, are Kerry a really top-level team?
The win over Mayo in Killarney suggests that they’re getting there anyway. That was a day when they came in unproven, with a score to settle against a team that had bullied them in the league final and with plenty of questions about their readiness for the battle. And they answered them all.
Best game Kerry forced their game on Mayo that day and took them to town. They had a test to pass and they came through with flying colours. They weren’t exactly found wanting against Donegal either in the best game of the summer so far.
I have plenty of worries about the Kerry defence but, in an odd sort of a way, I think this kind of test suits them. Some of the Kerry lads aren’t the best one-on-one markers around the place but outside of a few key players such as Peter Harte, Donnelly and McShane, Tyrone don’t really make that an issue. Instead, they put an onus on athleticism and covering every blade of grass. Kerry won’t mind that too much.
David Clifford: his accuracy, along with the likes of Seán O’Shea, Paul Geaney and Stephen O’Brien, can help Kerry prevail against Tyrone on Sunday. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho David Clifford: his accuracy, along with the likes of Seán O’Shea, Paul Geaney and Stephen O’Brien, can help Kerry prevail against Tyrone on Sunday. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho At the other end of the pitch, I would expect Kerry to do well. Dublin have shown the way to play against Tyrone – be patient, don’t take the ball into contact, find the right shooters in the right positions, take your scores. David Clifford, Seán O’Shea, Paul Geaney, Stephen O’Brien – between them, I’d expect them to take their scores and put up a good enough total to win.
A big weekend with a lot of X-factors but at the end of it, I think we’ll have a Dublin v Kerry final.
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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 Aug 7, 2019 15:31:50 GMT
One of his better issues
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Post by Tadhgeen on Aug 7, 2019 19:07:08 GMT
Everyone one of Darragh’s articles are judged on here like no other sports contributor ....just saying....
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Post by wayupnorth on Aug 8, 2019 5:49:45 GMT
Everyone one of Darragh’s articles are judged on here like no other sports contributor ....just saying.... No other sports contributor has his own thread stretching back years. I’m sure if he even thinks about it he is very happy.
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Post by glengael on Aug 8, 2019 9:25:28 GMT
'If you were left it in a will, you’d contest it'.
Lovely turn of phrase to describe that match and many other things besides.
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Post by kerrygold on Aug 8, 2019 17:35:53 GMT
Is Darragh setting Dublin up for a fall on Saturday?
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Post by ballhopper34 on Aug 8, 2019 18:17:38 GMT
Is Darragh setting Dublin up for a fall on Saturday? Kinda saying Dublin by 10...or Mayo by 1. Pick one.
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Post by Kingdomson on Aug 14, 2019 6:53:46 GMT
Darragh Ó Sé: If Tyrone put as much into football as the dark arts, they'd be some teamSeán Moran There used to be a fella locally who was known around the place as the laziest man alive. The lengths this lad would go to in order to avoid work were actually admirable after a while. We were talking about him one day coming home in the car when somebody made the very valid point that the effort our man put into not doing work was actually greater than the amount of effort the work itself would take. You’d nearly applaud the ingenuity. I thought of him a bit on Sunday watching Tyrone. There was one stage where a substitution was being made and one of their players came over to the sideline pretending to be the one coming off the pitch before doubling back on himself in the confusion to show for a free. I was watching this thinking, ‘Christ, if they put as much thought and brain-power into the actual football as they do into all the other stuff, they’d be some team.’ Tyrone had Kerry where they wanted them on Sunday but weren’t able to see it out. A big part of it from Kerry’s point of view was the contribution of Tommy Walsh off the bench which, from a Kerry point of view, was the kind of thing that would warm your heart. Now, Tommy had his own bit of dark arts himself, when he took a drive at Niall Morgan as the Tyrone goalkeeper came up to take a 45. But I’d be fairly sure that was nothing more than a rush of blood, a need to be doing something to cause a bit of wreck. There was nothing pre-ordained or orchestrated about it. I’d have done that kind of thing myself just to be industrious. For Tommy to be back in an All-Ireland final now 11 years after his first one is some going. We used call him Dolph Lundgren, after your man in Rocky IV. We all had our Tommy impression ready for him any time he walked past. “If he dies . . . he dies . . .” Tommy was probably the strongest man I ever played with or against. He just has this natural strength, bull strong. And a really classy footballer on top of it. I laugh when I hear people talk about him as if he has just come out of nowhere - Tommy kicked four points from play in an All-Ireland final, two from the left and two from the right. He had his time away in Australia and he got the same hamstring injury as Paul O’Connell at one stage. It’s been some road back to last Sunday for him. Think about how the game has changed in the decade since his last All-Ireland final. Back then, a blanket defence was 11 men behind the ball. Now it’s 15 at times. Back then, Kerry’s kick-out strategy was get it out as far as possible away from the goals. On Sunday, Tommy’s two most important moments were coming back to his own half-back line to give Shane Ryan another option late in the game. All the buzzwords have changed, all the lingo, all that stuff. And still he was able to come on and be of use. Fair play to Morgan, he kicked his 45 after all the pushing and shoving and messing that Tommy was doing to him on his way up. I found it funny though that on his way back into goal, he jogged past Tommy and didn’t even give him a sideways glance. Usually any Tyrone man worth his salt would have a word or two to give back to someone who had been roughing him up before his shot. Morgan obviously decided that it was late in the game and he’d leave that one go. Saturday night was awesome from the Dubs. I was watching them after the parade had ended and I saw Brian Howard and Con O’Callaghan laughing about something or other together. It made me think, ‘Jesus, these lads aren’t tuned in here.’ If I had seen any of my teammates laughing like that so close to a game, I’d have taken the head off them. But it just goes to show what a strong mentality these lads have. It’s like the story Kieran McGeeney told me one time about going over to watch Celtic in Neil Lennon’s first spell as manager. McGeeney knows Lennon from years back and he was chatting to him before the game at Parkhead. At some point, McGeeney noticed the time and saw that kick-off was only half an hour away. “Jesus, I’ve kept you way too long, haven’t you to be down in the dressing room?” he said. Lennon just waved him away and said, “Nah, all the work has been done during the week. I only have to go down to open the door.” The longer that game went on on Saturday night, the more you could see it in the likes of O’Callaghan and Howard and Paul Mannion and Brian Fenton. These lads have the work done, not just during the week but going back weeks and months and years at this stage. They’re so professional in the way they go about things and they will keep pushing and pushing until the dam bursts. That’s what happened to Mayo on Saturday night. They thought they had Dublin in a game and then the dam burst. For O’Callaghan’s second goal, Lee Keegan got turned so badly, it was if he wasn’t Lee Keegan. It was like taking off the Spiderman mask and finding nothing underneath. O’Callaghan was too nimble for him and since he knew Keegan was on a yellow card, he just went for the jugular. It’s a sad way for the decade to end for Mayo, after they gave so much to it. You don’t get any more out of sport than you earn so I don’t ever give a lot of time to anyone saying they deserve to have won an All-Ireland. My way of looking at it is that the scoreboard has all these little numbers at the end and they tell you who deserves an All-Ireland and much as I’ve admired Mayo over the years and wished that they could get over the line, they didn’t and that’s all there is about it. Deserve’s got nothing to do with it, as Clint Eastwood said. They’re great people, all the same. I was watching Saturday night’s game in a bar and before it a lad came up to me in a Mayo jersey. “Watch now,” he said. “We’ll beat the Dubs for ye and do ye a favour. Sure we can’t do any more for ye than that.” The unspoken verdict on how he thought a Kerry-Mayo final would work out in that scenario was half the joke. But sadly for a few of their players, you’d have to imagine time is up. I can’t ever remember Andy Moran playing in a game where he couldn’t make the ball stick in the forward line. I actually thought James Horan should have put him on 10 minutes before half-time, when Mayo were doing well but they weren’t trying to stretch the field and get the ball into the full-forward line. By the time Mayo brought him on, it was game over, ball burst. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about the final over the coming weeks. Even though it’s a huge tack for Kerry to stop the five-in-a-row, there’ll still be huge expectation on them down here to go and do it. What would be seen as losing the run of yourself anywhere else is seen as normal behaviour among Kerry people. I remember coming out of the 2014 All-Ireland final on a complete high because that was an All-Ireland title that Kerry won against the head. Nobody went into 2014 thinking there was an All-Ireland in that team and for Eamonn Fitzmaurice to get one like that was a massive thing. I floated out of Croke Park that day, delighted for him and them. That was until I got talking to a Kerryman on my way out of the stadium. “God, it was awful football, wasn’t it?” he said. Imagine that! We’re after stealing an All-Ireland like a child in an orchard and my man is going about awful football. So that’s what the young Kerry team will have to deal with in the next few weeks. The fact that the Dubs are looking so incredible and have hit such a high level will only buy the Kerry players so much leeway. They’re in the final, now they have to show what they’re made of. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Aug 14, 2019 7:30:05 GMT
Love that title.
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Post by tyroneperson on Aug 14, 2019 8:27:39 GMT
The Tyrone lad was confused because he thought he was coming off but it was his Kerry counterpart instead. Was very near the end of the game.
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Aug 14, 2019 8:29:38 GMT
The Tyrone lad was confused because he thought he was coming off but it was his Kerry counterpart instead. Was very near the end of the game. The Ó Sés are not ones to let the truth get in the way of a yarn.
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Post by tyroneperson on Aug 14, 2019 8:38:24 GMT
The Tyrone lad was confused because he thought he was coming off but it was his Kerry counterpart instead. Was very near the end of the game. The Ó Sés are not ones to let the truth get in the way of a yarn. Ah well. Well done on the win lads anyway, haven't posted here in two years. Was very much deserved.
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Post by delorean on Aug 14, 2019 8:49:02 GMT
So, basically, he gives one example of Tyrone engaging in the dark arts and it turns out to be inaccurate. He also gave one example of Kerry engaging in same but justifies it because it wasn't premeditated. That's okay then. Two weeks ago he dedicated an article to lambasting the notion that Tyrone might not show their full hand against Dublin. Then last week he said 'in hindsight' they were right not to, when he eventually figured out the short turnaround between the Super 8's and semi final. Hard to fathom how he still gets paid by a proper newspaper for this tripe, probably because people like me continue to see what rubbish he'll come out with next. At least by reading it on here, I'm not giving him the clicks though.
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kot
Fanatical Member
Posts: 1,126
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Post by kot on Aug 14, 2019 9:59:25 GMT
So, basically, he gives one example of Tyrone engaging in the dark arts and it turns out to be inaccurate. He also gave one example of Kerry engaging in same but justifies it because it wasn't premeditated. That's okay then. Two weeks ago he dedicated an article to lambasting the notion that Tyrone might not show their full hand against Dublin. Then last week he said 'in hindsight' they were right not to, when he eventually figured out the short turnaround between the Super 8's and semi final. Hard to fathom how he still gets paid by a proper newspaper for this tripe, probably because people like me continue to see what rubbish he'll come out with next. At least by reading it on here, I'm not giving him the clicks though. Not a Darragh fan then?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2019 10:16:22 GMT
If it wasn’t for Malachy Clerkin being such a good writer, I would not waste my team reading these articles
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Post by delorean on Aug 14, 2019 10:52:21 GMT
Not a Darragh fan then? It's nothing personal and my own stupidity for reading them, expecting something different.
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Post by homerj on Aug 14, 2019 12:52:07 GMT
id be more worried about the 3 assults on clifford, ryan and crowley than anything else - 3 red card tackles, 2 of which didnt even get a yellow.
and the water contamination stories still have not gone away.
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Post by Mickmack on Aug 21, 2019 8:19:47 GMT
Irish Times Logo
Peter Keane has a young team but that doesn’t mean they get a pass for losing the final
Darragh Ó Sé about 3 hours ago Over the next 10 days, everyone will have their say about the football final.
The only thing more talked about than an All-Ireland final is a Dublin-Kerry All-Ireland final and, since this one comes with the possibility of a five-in-a-row attached, it’s going to be the biggest thing in the country next week. When there’s that much noise, it can be all blend into one after a while.
The one thing that doesn’t ring true so far is this idea that because Kerry have a young team and because it’s Peter Keane’s first year, they nearly have a free swing at it on Sunday week. I even heard someone say the other day that Kerry are in bonus territory. I half expected a bolt of lightning to come down and take care of the poor lad who said it.
Bonus territory is the All Stars after you win the All-Ireland. It’s the team holiday later in the winter. It’s the barman waiting till the gardaí have done their rounds and driven away before he calls you out of the cellar for a last few before home time. Playing in an All-Ireland final isn’t bonus territory. That isn’t how it works.
Losing is never okay down here, not in an ordinary game and definitely not in an All-Ireland final An All-Ireland final is a day to be attacked. That has to be the attitude. I remember Diarmuid Connolly saying in an interview on the pitch after one of the Dublin final wins that they hadn’t set out to defend the All-Ireland, they had set out to attack it.
That’s exactly the way you have to be. You can’t be drinking in talk about bonus territory or it being a good year whatever happens. That kind of stuff is poison in the water in the run up to a final.
Everybody knows what they know about the Dubs. They’re the best Dublin team ever, the best team from any county in the past 30 years, they’re an awesome outfit to be planning for a final against. But if anyone thinks Kerry people will just shrug and tell the lads to go on away up to the city there and see what happens, they haven’t really been around Kerry football very much.
The last thing Kerry people will give the team over the next 10 days is an excuse to lose. Losing is never okay down here, not in an ordinary game and definitely not in an All-Ireland final.
I saw Jim Gavin saying during the Dublin press day something along the lines of Kerry’s time being now, not in a couple of years. And yes, of course he has to say that. No more than Peter Keane, everything he says in the build-up to the final is just window dressing. But that doesn’t make it untrue.
It doesn’t matter a damn that the Kerry team is young and full of potential. They’re not being picked because of what they might do in the future. They’re being picked for what they can offer now. Their potential is all fine and dandy but it doesn’t exist past Sunday week.
Kerry aren’t going with youth out of necessity or because they have no choice in the matter. Keane has plenty of options. There is no shortage of footballers in the county. Somebody sent me a clip the other day of Barry John Keane scoring the winning goal in the Boston championship last Sunday. If there was a sniff of a call for a final, someone like Barry John would swim home to get in on it.
Huge opportunity But he’s playing in Boston because Kerry have David Clifford and Seán O’Shea and Killian Spillane and a few others who Keane thinks are better than him. Not younger than him – that’s irrelevant. It’s a bit of a bonus alright, in that they have time to improve over the coming years. But it means nothing in relation to the final.
This is a huge opportunity for Kerry. The vast majority of footballers never get to play in an All-Ireland final. You never know when you’re going to be back. We don’t know what the starting team will be for Kerry against the Dubs yet but you’d imagine either nine or 10 of them will be playing in their first final. You can be fairly sure that not all of them will get back to play in a second one.
Some lads will get injured, some will lose form, some will get bypassed by someone else on the panel. Kerry won’t always win their semi-final or, like last year, they won’t always get out of their Super 8s group. It’s all very well saying Kerry have these great underage teams feeding into the senior set-up and that they’re bound to be sorted for the next decade. But getting to a final isn’t a given in any year.
And even for those who do get back, who’s to say they’ll have a better chance to win one than this? Andy Moran played in his first All-Ireland final in 2004, Keith Higgins played in his first one in 2006. Here we are, a decade and a half later, and both of them have played in half a dozen without getting one over the line.
The big difference between the Mayo teams of this decade as opposed to the ones they started out playing in is that it’s a long time since anyone talked about Mayo having a great year because they got to a final. There’s no such thing as bonus territory for them in finals. You either win it out or the whole thing is another scar to carry around with you.
I don’t buy this idea that Kerry have nothing to lose. They have an All-Ireland final to lose. Trust me, that’s plenty The same will go for Kerry if they are beaten on Sunday week. Losing an All-Ireland final stays with you forever. I don’t care if you’re 20 or 35, the world is a colder place for you in the days and weeks and months after you’ve been beaten in one. There is no sense of, ‘Ah sure look, we’ve plenty more chances’. All you get is a winter of people either not talking to you about it or, worse, earnestly telling you their theory on how it all went wrong.
Go to any GAA pub or clubhouse in the country and there’ll be pictures of famous county teams from the past up on the walls. In some counties, those pictures might be from winning league titles or provincial titles or maybe even getting to All-Ireland finals. Not in Kerry. When the season is over, nobody in Kerry will be getting the screwdrivers out to hang a photo of the 2019 Munster champions. Or the All-Ireland runners-up.
When I started playing senior intercounty away back in medieval times, I came through with a heap of other young players from teams that won back-to-back All-Ireland under-21 titles. We all broke onto the scene at more or less the same time and big things were expected. Nobody was going, ‘Ah look, they’re only young.’ It was more, ‘They could be good, let’s see them go and do it’.
Only thing You don’t get leeway for being young. It took me three years of championship football before I was on a winning team against Cork – and I heard all about it. Nobody in Kerry was interested in our age. They were only interested in the fact that we didn’t seem to be any great shakes.
We made it to our first All-Ireland final in 1997 and it was against Mayo, who had beaten us well the previous year in the semi-final. Everyone thought they were subsequently robbed out of the All-Ireland with the drawn final against Meath and the big row in the replay. They were back again the following year and everyone had them down as favourites. We were only young lads and we were coming up against giants such as Liam McHale, James Nallen, Pat Holmes and the boys.
The likes of Dublin’s Jack McCaffrey and and Paul Mannion (above celebrating last year’s final win) weren’t treating 2013 like it was a free swing. And they were younger then than Clifford and O’Shea and the Spillanes are now. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho P Sé was our manager and I remember him having this thing all through the year, breaking it down in terms of time. After we beat Clare in the Munster final he said, “Lads, we’re an hour and 10 minutes of good football away from an All-Ireland final. And we’re quarehawks in finals”.
And so we were.
Now, you can roll your eyes at that kind of stuff if you want. But Kerry football has been built on generations of teams finding a way to win All-Irelands. Some of them as favourites, some of them not. It’s the only thing that counts.
A few years ago, after he won Footballer of the Year in 2014, James O’Donoghue said something about nearly being embarrassed before the final because he already had an All Star but he had no All-Ireland. Because he’d been in such good form through the summer, he was nearly guaranteed another All Star no matter what happened in the final and the thought of having two of them but no All-Ireland medal to go along with them was picking at him. As if he’d nearly feel wrong about walking around Killarney like that.
An All-Ireland final is never a stepping stone or a building block. Maybe when you’re years down the line you can look back on it like that but the Kerry camp has to be ruthless in clearing out any whisper of that between now and the final.
Yes, the Dubs are great now but go back to Gavin’s first year and they had a lot of young players back then too. The likes of Jack McCaffrey and Ciarán Kilkenny and Paul Mannion weren’t treating 2013 like it was a free swing. And they were younger then than Clifford and O’Shea and the Spillanes are now.
That’s why I don’t buy this idea that Kerry have nothing to lose. They have an All-Ireland final to lose. Trust me, that’s plenty.
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