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Post by Mickmack on Aug 6, 2015 21:09:21 GMT
The referee who will officiate the All Ireland hurling semi-final between Kilkenny and Waterford on Sunday has been hit with a one-month ban.
Brian Gavin was punished for remarks he made to a match official after a club match in Offaly.
He has appealed the decision which means he will be the man in the middle at Croke Park on Sunday, but should the appeal be unsuccessful, he will be ruled out of contention for the the All Ireland final.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Aug 6, 2015 21:17:35 GMT
Ta Exiled2Dublin, I'll put in a good word to have you 'unexiled'. I'd ask you to wait and bring back a wee man in Sept but I believe he booked his own return ticket, oh such cheek!
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Post by sullyschoice on Aug 6, 2015 21:24:50 GMT
Darragh's article is absolutely brilliant, fierce funny. It's so good at taking the p out of Cork that the (cork) Examiner are reproducing parts of it in tomorrow's " paper ". I found it very strange that in today's Examiner there wasn't one mention,not one line , no comment whatsoever on the STATEMENT.Considering the tripe some of the examiners journalists, MR McCarthy et al have dished up about Kerry recently wouldn't you think that at this stage they'd have made some comment. Maybe like a lot of Cork people they are keeping the head down with embarrassment . Have to pull you on this - de paper published this clarification today. What's interesting is that they don't actually name who did write the statement. Overall though it's very much a case of keep digging down - by asking the Examiner to clarify, they have only given the whole thing more impetus. The county board meeting on August 18th might be a bit spicy. There was also a story in the Examiner Saturday about own county board official offering to resign - whatever about on the pitch the Cork County Board are providing plenty of off-the-pitch entertainment. Also Chill Insurance's deal with Cork GAA is up this year - I'd say that might be a fun meeting trying to persuade Chill to stay on board given the senior team didn't even get to Croke Park in either code this year . With the cost of the stadium the last thing Cork GAA want is to have to go looking for a new sponsor. Maybe they should sign all future statements as P O'Neill.
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Hicser
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Post by Hicser on Aug 6, 2015 21:30:04 GMT
Poor Cork, I'm just wondering what else will go wrong for them, it can't get much worse,
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Post by sullyschoice on Aug 6, 2015 21:34:54 GMT
Another strike?
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Post by sullyschoice on Aug 6, 2015 21:35:52 GMT
Maybe they will find Pyrite in the new "Frank Murphy Stadium"
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Post by Ballyfireside on Aug 7, 2015 3:18:18 GMT
The ghost lives on then? Ah maybe he was a god man in his time but Cork deserve better today.
A lot of younger lads connect better with TSG night panel than the auld match day lads in the afternoon as the latter are too long retired. I find the same myself although Michael Lyster is brill, well so too is Des Cahill and maybe one gets better with age in the anchor role. I don't know if it's me but Lyster is special and not alone does he never hesitate but you get the impression that he is automatically programmed to ask the right questions. Of the late and great Bill O'Herlihy they said that he asked the same questions that viewers would have asked. Lyster and Des certainly tick this box although Des has an unfair advantage as he spent his formative years in Kerry and of which he always recalls with a degree of sentiment.
I know I'm going a bit off point here but I wonder if the current match day pundits are still worth their salt? I must say that Dessie Dolan has a bright future in the media and Tómas and Whelan are well on the way. What marks them out is that they are objective and this is why I would always have liked Kevin McStay. Having watched a game earlier on and let it stew, it is refreshing to get a different angle. I'm not so sure the match day fellas deliver on this and maybe they are there to appease the older generation, although I am in my early 50s myself, a cheeky wee nadger I am!
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Post by Mickmack on Aug 7, 2015 7:35:55 GMT
The referee who will officiate the All Ireland hurling semi-final between Kilkenny and Waterford on Sunday has been hit with a one-month ban. Brian Gavin was punished for remarks he made to a match official after a club match in Offaly. He has appealed the decision which means he will be the man in the middle at Croke Park on Sunday, but should the appeal be unsuccessful, he will be ruled out of contention for the the All Ireland final. The GAA has intervened in the disciplinary case involving top hurling referee Brian Gavin, who is facing a four-week ban for alleged comments made to a referee in Offaly. Gavin was reported by referee Pauric Pierce, who is a county board official, for the alleged exchange which took place after Clara, the club which Gavin chairs, lost a junior football quarter-final to Kilconfert. Offaly's Competitions Control Committee proposed the ban on receipt of the referee's report. With Gavin down to referee Sunday's All-Ireland hurling semi-final between Kilkenny and Waterford, Croke Park is understood to have got in touch with Offaly County Board and requested that a hearing sought by the Clara official, which was due to take place next week, be fast tracked to last night. It was felt that the case could serve as a distraction as he took charge of such an important match. Gavin's club is expected to be informed of the decision this morning. If the suspension is upheld, he cannot take charge of Sunday's match.
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Post by glengael on Aug 8, 2015 15:53:07 GMT
Why has nobody yet pasted the article on here, from a past experience I understand the Irish Times encourage sharing stuff like this with the GAA community. I cannot do it as my IT a/c is in limbo at the moment but people are generally entitled to 10 articles pw. Darragh's articles or links to them are usually posted on this thread each week. I keep forgetting the 10 articles thing.
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Post by glengael on Aug 12, 2015 9:34:05 GMT
Darragh Ó Sé: Mayo must make the most of Aidan O’Shea The player’s improvement this year is down to a better attitude and growing confidence
Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 08:30
I was briefly talking to Joe Brolly after the Mayo-Donegal game on Saturday. Now, I have a lot of time for Joe but he talks some rubbish at times. After watching Aidan O’Shea, he said it was the first time anyone had targeted Donegal in the air since Colm O’Neill scored 1-5 in the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final, as though everybody had missed a trick somewhere along the way.
I mean, where do you start with that? Even Joe can’t know whether he’s coming or going sometimes. One minute, the McGees are these magnificent defenders who can’t be beaten; next they’re on the scrapheap after one game.
One minute, the Donegal system is impossible to break down; next it was staring us all in the face the whole time. And as for nobody targeting them? I must have imagined Kerry’s first goal in last year’s All-Ireland final so.
Kerry’s Darran O’Sullivan scores a goal despite the attention of Kildare’s Ciarán Fitzpatrick and Eoin Doyle during last weekend’s one-sided All-Ireland SFC quarter-final clash at Croke Park.Photograph: Morgan Treacy/InphoDarragh Ó Sé: Hard for Kerry people to cute-hoor our way out of this one Dublin captain Stephen Cluxton leads his players in the team parade before the Leinster final against Westmeath. Photograph: Tommy Grealy/InphoDarragh Ó Sé: Fermanagh game not what Dublin needed Could Jim McGuinness, Jim Gavin or Éamonn Fitzmaurice, above, win an All-Ireland if put in charge of Cavan, Sligo, Tipperary or Meath? The answer is, I believe, emphatically no. Photograph: Cathal Noonan/InphoDarragh Ó Sé: Even the best managers need the right players to succeed Darragh Ó Sé shadows Graham Canty in the Munster semi-final replay in 2009. It was a game in which Kerry failed to match Cork’s tempo – but they were to regain their momentum in the qualifiers. Photograph: Lorraine O’SullivanDarragh Ó Sé: Strong mentality always comes to fore in replay
The thing with Joe is that he is addicted to arguing. And when you argue so much with so many people, you can’t be expected to stick to one point of view the whole time. There is no doubt that if you went back over just the last five years of things he has said, you’d find him contradicting himself countless times. The best thing about him is that he doesn’t take it seriously.
He just likes getting a rise out of people. I’d say if he met the Dalai Lama, he’d goad him into an argument. Peace, love and tolerance only goes so far, after all. Half an hour in a room with our Joe and I’d say the bould Dalai would have him in a headlock, lamping away for all he was worth. Joe would come out of it with his nose broken but laughing away to himself.
The McGees got a chasing from Aidan O’Shea on Saturday but that doesn’t mean they’re a busted flush. Let’s be honest: not many defences would have handled him. I’ve always admired them because they are pure defenders. I’d have had a soft spot for them anyway because they’re Gaeltacht men but beyond that, they’re honest players who play a brave, manly game and don’t go crying about it when they’re beaten nor gloating about it when they win. Dominance It’s very easy to dismiss players in one fell swoop. Sport can get away from you very quickly. You can land in Croke Park knowing you’re no different to the player you were the previous year but all of a sudden you come up against a Mayo team that is revved up and mad for road and you come up against this bull of a young lad in O’Shea who is on a roll. Your midfield is getting beaten, so the ball coming in is decent and you’re hung out to dry. But you can’t be killing lads for a bad day at the office.
The reality is O’Shea is a beast at the minute and he’s looking to clear everything in his path. With the level of dominance Mayo had around the centre of the pitch, the Donegal defence could have taken a far worse hosing than it did. Neil McGee actually was on top early on and got out to the first couple of balls that came in. But it’s like that old saying: O’Shea only had to be lucky once, Donegal had to be lucky all the time.
A few things impressed me about O’Shea against Donegal. If people are looking at what has changed with him this year, the most obvious thing is his positioning. But I wouldn’t say it is as important as it’s being made out to be. It’s very possible that he could have been played a full forward for each of the last four years in Croke Park and not made the impact he’s making this time around.
To me, his change in attitude has been far more crucial. With a player like him who was physically big from a young age, you would always keep an eye on him to see how he develops.
Those players will stand out among their own age group, so it’s always interesting to see what they’re like when they’re playing against men.
It often struck me that as a player, O’Shea could be a bit too quick to get discouraged. He was a boy with plenty of ability and no end of strength but if you won the first few balls against him, he’d start to get down on himself and lose energy and spark.
That can happen to a young player. I was sometimes a bit like that myself in the early days. A few kick-outs would go against me and I’d lose concentration because I’d be worrying about how all this was looking from the sideline. Or I’d be thinking that maybe I wasn’t cut out for this. One way or the other, my mind would drift from what I was supposed to be doing. Confidence I knew I had got that out of my system during a game against Clare in 2000. I had lost a few kick-outs and given away possession a couple of times and my man was looking good. But whether it was because I’d been on the road a while at that stage or because I had an All-Ireland medal from 1997 or whatever it was, I remember thinking to myself: “It’s okay, don’t panic, you will force yourself into the game. It’s only a matter of time.” That confidence was there and it wasn’t going to be knocked by a few early set-backs.
With O’Shea, I’ve looked at him sometimes and seen that confidence ebb away long before the game has been decided. Even just go back to two years ago in the All-Ireland final against Dublin. He came into that game on the back of a majestic performance against Donegal in the quarter-final. He cleaned them out at midfield and seemed to grow bigger and more dominant with every kick-out that came his way. He was super in the semi-final against Tyrone too. He was seen as Mayo’s key man going into the final.
So what did Dublin do? They kept the ball away from him. They ran him from one sideline to the other while Stephen Cluxton kicked the ball all over Croke Park– just not to the parts where he was. It wasn’t that they targeted him, it was more that they targeted his confidence. It was a masterclass in killing a player’s spark and draining the life out of him.
When Neil McGee won the first couple of balls against him on Saturday, I moved forward in my seat waiting for the next one to come in between them. Right so, Aidan, what have you got here? It’s all very well mowing down some poor unfortunate Sligo full-back but this is big school now. Let’s see you stand up. Right attitude He knew. You could see he has the right attitude now. He got a couple of balls and either drew a free or threw it around to other Mayo players. He got himself into the game and edged Neil McGee out of it. And when the chance came for a goal, he showed that he has developed a brilliant sense of composure in front of goal. He’s a different player to two years ago.
Composure is what separates good players from great players. Any county footballer can solo the ball at full pelt. But can they see everything while they do it? That’s the litmus test. O’Shea got out in front of Neil McGee to catch that ball but he still had to get turned, get past Mark McHugh and pick his spot in the corner of the net past Paul Durcan.
If you panic doing that, you’ll miss. If you’re not confident, you won’t catch the ball properly. If you’re not thinking clearly, you’ll hit it at the first thing you see, which will be the goalkeeper. To get set, take aim and find the corner of the net takes real composure. With that in his game, O’Shea is a massive weapon for Mayo.
But they need to help him. The ball in needs to improve. People are wondering how Jim Gavin is going to prepare for him but I think it’s pretty straightforward what Dublin will do. It would be a big change of direction for them to play a sweeper, so I expect them to go man to man with Rory O’Carroll given the job. But their big emphasis will be on pressuring the ball out of the field and making sure Mayo don’t have time to put it on a plate for O’Shea.
What people don’t get sometimes is that catching the ball as a midfielder and catching it as a full forward are two completely different skills. Think about the catching O’Shea had to do around midfield for the past few years. The trajectory of the ball from the kick-out is nothing like it is in on the edge of the square. Under pressure In training and in games, O’Shea would have gone up for hundreds of balls kicked out by his own goalkeeper over the course of a season. They were aimed at him from a stationary position, meaning there was very little variation in the quality of the strike. They were kicked for distance, high in a loop, dropping down nearly vertically from the sky. If nobody had touched them, most of them would have stopped rolling after a few yards.
Whereas the ball kicked in from the wings or midfield to a full forward comes in all shapes and sizes. Even a perfect ball comes in at a different velocity and trajectory. It comes in flat and driven, the sort of ball that if nobody touches it will keep running on for another 30 yards. But how often will he get that? Once a game? Twice?
It’s far more likely that the ball coming in will be kicked under pressure. It won’t always be kicked off the laces so it will be spinning and swerving. There will be no consistency and the full forward will have to adapt and make the best of each one. And he’ll be up against a full back that doesn’t give a damn where the ball goes, only that it goes away from his patch. Mayo’s job between now and the semi-final will be coming up with scenarios to buy time to play better ball into him.
For O’Shea to be thriving under patchy quality of ball says an awful lot for the way he has developed. He didn’t have the patience or confidence to do that as a younger player. But he passed a big test in Croke Park last weekend and left the McGees trailing in his wake. When a guy is in this sort of form, the Donegal lads are entitled to feel no disgrace in that.
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fitz
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Post by fitz on Aug 12, 2015 11:03:55 GMT
This is the type of article I like - once the Dalai Lama exited - great analysis
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Post by Mickmack on Aug 12, 2015 12:01:05 GMT
I really enjoyed that one by Darragh. I would say that Donaghy will read it and nod sagely too.
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G_S_J
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With greatness already assured, history now awaits.
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Post by G_S_J on Aug 12, 2015 13:45:11 GMT
This is the type of article I like - once the Dalai Lama exited - great analysis It got a burst of laughter from me anyway, a bit of craic, definitely the funniest pundit out there and I think that's worth a lot actually with a game so manically depressed about itself half the time.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Aug 12, 2015 15:52:45 GMT
Brolly is addicted to arguing because he makes a fortune from doing it as a barrister, an occupational hazard which inflicts wee lads most, like terriers intimidated at the sight the big dog. As for getting a rise out of people, lawyers don't get rises, they take them, give us our daily bread while you live off the crumbs on the floor. Ah he wouldn't be the worst of 'em but it comes with the territory.
If winning midfield to supply AO'Shea/AO'6 is a key plank of Mayo's success then our midfield as the best in the country will cut that off so we have that covered. Darragh's analysis of AO'6's career progression is brilliant and of course he'd be qualified. This article reminds me a bit of the start of Galvin's book in that you can see the author without him imposing. Galvin's account of his partner in crime having his ear to the ground to know when a car was coming around a bend is hilarious. This is one of the rare occasions that the author being visible has a positive influence on the subject, it generally ruins the article but I suppose this is the Kerry difference, The K Factor, it takes the exception to prove the rule, par excellence!
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Post by misteallaigh abú on Aug 12, 2015 16:52:51 GMT
He's spot on about our Joe.
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Post by wayupnorth on Aug 12, 2015 19:47:09 GMT
Just can't get that image of Brolly and the Dali Lama out of my head. Hilarious!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2015 21:13:01 GMT
Why is Darragh so good on paper but so poor on tv and radio? He must have a very good ghostwriter.
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Aug 12, 2015 21:29:50 GMT
Yerra he's alright on paper I much prefer Quirke and Tomás.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2015 21:31:57 GMT
So would I. It is more that he is so poor on tv/ radio and offers little analysis. At least in print, there is some substance there.
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Post by glengael on Aug 19, 2015 9:06:28 GMT
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G_S_J
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With greatness already assured, history now awaits.
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Post by G_S_J on Aug 19, 2015 15:44:48 GMT
Darragh, putting his neck on the line with the five/six point win, I'd go along with that, but then again no one's going to care what I think!
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fitz
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Post by fitz on Aug 19, 2015 18:08:57 GMT
Think it was a very fair article, and on evidence it stands up as a prediction. If you think something genuinely and evidence supports it, saying so won't make it happen/not happen, but there's no point in being afraid to express the view. I believe we'll win Sunday, not cos of anything said or in the past, but becauses of the comparable player capabilities, managerial capabilities and form.
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fitz
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Red sky at night get off my land
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Post by fitz on Aug 19, 2015 20:03:26 GMT
Good crack on Off the Ball tonight with Darragh and Brian McGuigsy. Darragh took some pi$$ out of Woolly's minor AI medal. Ger and Joe in ribbons. Lot of respect between two boys. Darragh does tie himself up making some points though.
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Post by Deise Exile on Aug 19, 2015 20:53:03 GMT
I think Daragh does a good job in the media. People love to knock him but sure the oses are used to getting stick all their lives. Like it or not people like to hear legends opinions. I always like to hear what Eugene McGee , Colin orourke peter Canavsn have to write. I mightn't always agree but these guys have been there and seen it all and are winners. This is probably the reason I don't like mc stays bladder as he doesn't have the same pedigree
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G_S_J
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Post by G_S_J on Aug 19, 2015 22:59:03 GMT
Good crack on Off the Ball tonight with Darragh and Brian McGuigsy. Darragh took some pi$$ out of Woolly's minor AI medal. Ger and Joe in ribbons. Lot of respect between two boys. Darragh does tie himself up making some points though. One thing that bugged me was that question about would Darragh trade one of his five medals for one win over Tyrone? What a load of rubbish, they must think they're easily won or something, small time stuff to take an All-Ireland medal so lightly.
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Post by kerrygold on Aug 19, 2015 23:07:59 GMT
Great story about Paidi, Micko, Jacko and Vincent O'Connor. Vincent had serious footballing ability. Was very natural at both midfield and fullback.
There was a Sayers playing fullforward on those West Kerry teams who was exceptional.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Aug 19, 2015 23:57:01 GMT
Ghost writers aren't always divulged but this works better for books that weekly journalistic stuff. Few of the GAA books use any level of craft, selling on novelty which we all go for. I must say the start of Galvin's book is worth the money alone, and yes, the rest is then good banter and he takes you on the journey with him. He didn't explain his darkish side though, well not as I'd have expected. Darragh's articles are novel and a bit of West Kerry crack and no pinches of salt required, pre salted it is, pre Ventry Harboured!
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Post by Ballyfireside on Aug 20, 2015 0:14:25 GMT
Darragh Ó Sé: Criticising Tyrone makes them more dangerous
As a Kerryman, last thing I want is team coming up to Croke Park with siege mentality
All week in Kerry, the conversations have started in the same way. I was at two funerals and the chat was the same at them both. Not just that, the tone was the same. I wouldn’t say it’s confident, more that people are looking for comfort. “We’ll beat them, Darragh, won’t we?”
Now, if you’re looking to me for comfort, you’re in a bad way. I played Tyrone three times in Croke Park and lost every one of them. And before every one of them, I ran into fellas going, “We’ll beat them, Darragh, won’t we?” But sure what can you do only tell them we will? No point depressing lads in the middle of the first decent bit of summer we’ve had all year.
Maybe that’s the sort of attitude that got us in trouble in the past. There’s no doubt that the first time we played Tyrone back in 2003, we definitely underestimated what was going to happen. We had no bone to pick with Tyrone. We had played them in league games and we always seemed to come out the right side of the result.
Often, it was a case of bottling up Peter Canavan and you’d be happy enough that you could deal with the rest of them. They were a good league side that never really kicked on in the championship. We took for granted that there’d be a fair amount of intensity but we figured we’d get on top in the end.
Never happened. Tyrone gave us a lesson that day. They brought a ferocity that we hadn’t seen before. Meath were physical but they weren’t ferocious. Armagh were eventually but even when they beat us in 2002, they didn’t have that all-out fury that we met against Tyrone the following year. What they hit us with was unprecedented.
Few more beatings
And it changed Kerry football. It took us a few years and a few more beatings to accept that we had to change but we did because we had to. Don’t let anyone in Kerry tell you otherwise. We had to learn to play more tactically, to prepare better for that ferocity, to never take things for granted. And even then, Tyrone still had the better of us in my time playing.
It wasn’t just that ferocity, of course. That works the first time but there’s a limited lifespan in it if that’s all you have. Tyrone won those All-Irelands because they had ball players all over the pitch.
Mickey Harte has always favoured players who are instinctively going to do the right thing in tight spots. He needs them to move into loads of different areas of the pitch as the game goes on and to be able to do the job required of them when they get there.
Players have come and gone over his time in charge but any time he has had a team involved in Croke Park in August, that basic requirement has never changed. Look at some of the scores his defenders took against Monaghan the last day. Ronan McNabb and Ronan McNamee came up to kick mighty points. Peter Harte and Mattie Donnelly can play anywhere on the pitch and be the best players on the pitch.
Depth of quality
There’s a bit of the Dutch Total Football about them in that respect. I wouldn’t say there is just the depth of quality in this side as there was in the great All-Ireland-winning sides but the basics of what Mickey Harte’s teams are built on haven’t changed.
Ball players is a vague enough term so here’s what I mean by it. Time is not your friend in Croke Park and it is definitely not the friend of the player you are giving the ball to. It’s not enough to give a pass – you have to be able to help him cheat time in whatever he’s going to do with it. To do that, you need to be a ball-player.
To survive in Croke Park, you need those ball players. Tyrone brought on a sub against Monaghan, Conall McCann, who was eventually taken off himself before the end. That’s a tough day for anybody but when you look closer, his ball-playing just wasn’t of a high enough standard to survive on the day. Colm Cavanagh gave him a lovely pass under the Cusack Stand at one point and he left it behind him because he took his eye off it.
Harte whipped him off soon after because the requirements to play for him don’t change. You have to be relentless, you have to be ferocious and you have to be able to play ball at close quarters at a high tempo. That’s what makes a Croke Park team. If you’re going to be out there making handling errors, Harte is going to find somebody who won’t. Simple as that.
Admired
I always admired that about him. He was ruthless and so his teams were ruthless. And I came to find over the years that the football people in the county all aspired to that kind of ruthlessness. They wanted success and they took whatever steps they needed to get it.
And boy, do they take it seriously. I can talk football as well as the next man, I can talk it till the cows come home. In Kerry, it’s part of the deal. Go to the shop, go to Mass, go wherever and you’ll be sure to get stopped and delayed for a chat about football. It’s part of the whole ding-dong of everyday life down here.
But in Tyrone, you don’t get away with a chat. Or at least, I never have when I’ve been up there. I was at the Ulster All Stars last year and got talking to a few Tyrone fellas. My way of going about these sort of situations is to chat away but keep it light. It’s a night out, let’s not forget.
Somebody was talking about training loads and drinking bans or something like that at one stage and they asked me what we did in Kerry. And I made some joke about it, something along the lines of how in the aftermath of a bad loss I always thought it was best to get away somewhere quiet and how there were more quiet pubs in Kerry than quiet gyms.
And that was fine and they laughed away but when they were finished, they were still sitting there waiting. It was like, “Yeah, yeah, funny guy. You’re a great comedian altogether. Now, are you going to answer the question or what?”
They have that intensity about them that comes from craving success. You can slag them off all you like. You can say you don’t like the football they play. You can call them cynical. But you need to remember two things above all else.
Football’s good name
Firstly, they do not give a whistling dixie what you think. If you think you are going to shame them, you’re wrong. If you think you’re protecting football’s good name by giving out about them, you’re at nothing. They won their All-Irelands and they couldn’t care less about your delicate sensibilities.
A big regret of my career is a foul I didn’t commit. It was against Armagh in the 2002 All-Ireland final. Oisin McConville came running, flicked a ball up in the air for Paul McGrane and ran on past me for the return. McGrane was my man but I left him to close Oisin down, opening up the space in behind me for the quick one-two.
Oisin should never have got past me to collect the return ball. I could have checked him, maybe given away a foul and it probably wouldn’t even have been a yellow card in those days. One way or the other, Oisin wouldn’t have got his goal.
We’d have won the All-Ireland and I would have been standing on the Hogan Stand lifting the cup as captain. If I had my time again, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Did I learn from it? Damn right I learned from it. I heard enough about it!
That’s why I’ve watched all the people slagging off Tyrone over the past fortnight and found it all very hypocritical. Given the size of the prize, can any county truly say they wouldn’t do what it took if they had the opportunity? Of course you would. Maybe you think they go too far but where’s the line? Who decides that a bodycheck is part of the game but a dive isn’t?
Selfish reasons
Anyway, all this criticism of Tyrone makes me feel uncomfortable for far more selfish reasons. As a Kerryman, the last thing I want is a team coming up to Croke Park with a siege mentality. The more people have been hanging Tyrone from the rafters, the more I’ve been thinking about a story about a former Kerry footballer called Vincent O’Connor.
Vincent was a squad player on the great Kerry teams of the ’80s. At a team meeting before the 1984 All-Ireland, Mick O’Dwyer mentioned that some of the senior players weren’t overly happy with the effort being put in by some of the fringe members. He didn’t name any names but it obviously festered with Vincent.
After the meeting, he brought it up with Páidí. They had played together for years with West Kerry and driven to Kerry training together so they were fairly close. Vincent pushed Páidí to tell him who Dwyer was talking about and after a while, Páidí cracked and gave up a name. He said it was Jacko and yeah, one of the players he was talking about was you, Vincent.
Now, Jacko was a completely innocent bystander in all of this. He hadn’t said a word high up or low down to Micko. But West Kerry just happened to be playing South Kerry in the county final a fortnight later. And Vincent O’Connor just happened to be playing on Jacko. He went out and played out of his skin, gave Jacko the runaround, West Kerry won and Páidí became Kerry captain in 1985. And, of course, he got to lift Sam.
All this criticism coming down on Tyrone gives them one target to aim at and that’s an All-Ireland semi-final with Kerry in their sights. Kerry could be the Jack O’Shea of this scenario, about to feel the heat of a situation that they had nothing to do with. Kerry are the real victims!
In all seriousness, I think Kerry are in a better place, they have the better players and they will match whatever Tyrone throw at them. Kerry by five.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Aug 20, 2015 0:18:49 GMT
I pasted the article as the IT said this was ok.
Ah, Paidi set up Vincent and Jacko nicely, cute hoorism that won him a Sam and with it probably his proudest moment!
You can hear him say, "will ye let me rest in peace" but he doesn't mean a word of it, still in the middle of it!
It is set up for Tyrone but you'd be hoping Éamonn has our boys wiser now. I have long maintained that we must get our under age teams system wise, no good thinking about it when it is too late. Kerrymen are as tough as anyone but we need to use it. I recall a day after they beat us and a Tyrone man saying to me that 'Kerry's problem was that we had too much class' and of course class is redundant of the hungry fella has the ball. Darragh appears to say that Tyrone now have a lot of class too, but tough as ever they are. Five points would be a roasting for them.
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Post by MrRasherstoyou on Aug 20, 2015 22:41:42 GMT
Really excellent piece by DOSé
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