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Post by givehimaball on Jun 27, 2014 9:19:14 GMT
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Post by Ballyfireside on Jun 27, 2014 12:57:27 GMT
Darragh is playing second fiddle to Tomás as a writer. I recommend this article as he gives us the benefit of his insight in understanding what is going on and how to read a game. We have all criticised incorrectly at one time or another and that can be self-harming our team as regards confidence. It is really cause and effect, sometimes the weakness is not obvious.
I know I tried to do this by looking at how inequality in society was severe on the GAA and I was shot down, accused of bringing politics and economics into The GAA. Then we lose all these players because of economic circumstances and we have Dublin with 100 times The Leitrim training budget. Economics is at the heart of amateur sports, pun certainly not intended!
Then again I suppose we are all learning so maybe the moral of the story is if we have to criticise then to do so constructively where our own team are concerned. Players make great sacrifice for our pleasure and we can sit at home watching a game on out big TV screen, not always appreciating what teams go through to serve it up.
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Post by delorean on Jul 4, 2014 10:19:27 GMT
Beating Rebels as good as winning the All IrelandTomas Ó Sé: Beating Rebels feels as good as winning the All-Ireland Playing Cork is like going to war – you are a different person in those derbies Tomas O SePublished 04/07/2014|02:30 It won't be a common Kerry view, but there's a part of me that will curse the wrecking-ball about to cut loose on Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Sure it's turned into a bit of a kip across the years, but you can be fond of a place for more than how it looks. People say it's an awful stadium and, on so many levels, it is. Yet I've probably loved it for the same design flaws that sometimes had you wondering if you were being filmed for ‘You've Been Framed.' The dressing-rooms are so small, you'd barely tog an U-12 team inside. Rumour has it they were designed for soccer and there's always been something wild about the tunnel outside and the challenge of slipping out through a narrow chute of stewards, opposition supporters bawling their worst. But, you know, even thinking about that makes me tingle now. My first experience there as a footballer was playing minor on Munster final day in '96. The rain tipping down and two Kerry wins on one brilliant afternoon in enemy territory. Nowadays the minors tog out in a prefab behind the stand but, back then, both teams were in connecting dressing-rooms. It meant there must have been up to 30 grown men in one tiny room, a massage table in the middle. So just as we were hitting the showers, Páidí was revving up the seniors, his words bouncing off the walls like ricocheting bullets. We stood there listening, the whole thing giving us goosebumps. Declan O'Keeffe's brother, Kenneth, was in goal for us that day and Declan came into the shower to give him a hug. Then Darragh and Páidí arrived for me. I never experienced anything like that again in my career because it felt such a huge day for Kerry football. It was Páidí's first year as manager, and things had been at a bit of a low. It wasn't long after Euro ‘96 and I'll never forget the supporters on the terrace started singing ‘Football's Coming Home’ at the end. You couldn't put a price on that feeling for a Kerryman. I remember reading a line in Teddy McCarthy's book where he said that winning a Munster final against Kerry actually meant more to him than winning an All-Ireland. I could relate to that 100pc, except – of course – in reverse. My first taste of the rivalry was playing for North Kerry U-16s in a tournament when we came up against a Cork selection. Charlie Nelligan was in charge of us that day and, Jesus, the passion that Charlie had for playing Cork just lit up something inside of him. I remember him saying to us: “Lads, when ye win against Cork, ye will experience a feeling that can't be repeated against any other opposition!” So playing Cork has always been different for Kerry. One thing I will forever be proud of is the fact that, in my career, they never beat us in Killarney. You felt you were protecting something that mattered. Still, there would be no rhyme or reason to some of the games we had against them because, no matter how good Kerry might have been at the time, whether or not we were All-Ireland champions, we never came out of Cork with a handy win. They have always been the barometer for Kerry and Sunday will be no different. Both teams will feel something deep inside that has become ingrained by history. It's not hatred. It's more an unbelievable hunger just to deny the other a win. I'm living in Cork and, to my mind, there isn't a better sporting county in the country. I always had the utmost respect for them as footballers but, once we stepped over the white line, it was really a case of going to war. For that hour to hour and a half, your head was in a different place. You were a different person really. The nightmare scenario for a Kerryman in recent years would have been to lose an All-Ireland semi-final or final to them in Croke Park. That would have been horrendous. If I was to pick my favourite day as a footballer, it would probably have been the 2005 Munster final. A sweltering day in the Pairc and we beat them with a huge team performance. I got man of the match and I felt as good coming out of there as I felt about winning any All-Ireland. I was wrecked, sunburnt, dehydrated, everything, but didn't give a damn. For the hour or two immediately after that game, I was in pure heaven. It's funny, I've been thinking this week how things change. I'm not sure where the lads will be based before Sunday's game, but you can rest assured, wherever it is, they'll be given world-class care. I remember the morning of one Munster final in Cork a few years back and meeting up in Rochestown Park Hotel. There was no warm-up area available, so we slipped out the back of the hotel and Páidí, em, gently navigated his way through a wire fence to get us into what had been a quiet a housing estate. We started doing our warm-up on this little green in the middle of the estate when, suddenly, this Cork fella arrived out of his house, screaming blue murder. “Who gave ye permission to be here, ye've no right...” We didn't know where to look until, maybe two doors down, another fella emerged, told yer man to get lost, that we were as welcome as the flowers in May. “They can do whatever they like,” he roared. “And, if there's a God in Heaven, they'll wipe the floor with ye today. Up the Kingdom!” I would question if the boys will win on Sunday because I'd be wary of the Cork forwards clicking. The key will be the middle eight. I would include myself in the criticism that, over the last couple of years, that's where Kerry haven't really produced. Maybe we did in Killarney last year, but just not consistently. If people are questioning you – and people are questioning the likes of Anthony Maher, David Moran, our half-back line, our half-forward line – you need to answer those questions. If people doubt you, the only response is to horse that doubt back down on top of them. But, if the middle eight don't perform on Sunday, Kerry won't win. Brian Cuthbert has made Cork far more direct and they have forwards inside, like Brian Hurley, who can really punish you. He was the star of the show when Cork destroyed Kerry in the National League and I know for a fact that defeat hurt deeply. Just the idea of them arriving into Tralee and winning so comprehensively... I'd love to have been a fly on the wall at last night's team meeting because Thursday night is usually when the floor is left open to the players. We had some unbelievable talks like that down the years, talks that would leave the hairs standing on the back of your neck. It's up to Kerry to use any little triggers they can find now. And that's what I used love about playing championship in Cork. The fact they'd put you in this tiny little dressing-room, as if shoving the two fingers up to you. And, whether it was true or not, you'd have this idea in your head that Cork would be up the corridor in the lap of luxury. Anyway, that middle third will be the key, it's where you can boss a game. Bully it. But you need to be almost willing to die to get the breaking ball. That's the challenge for Kerry. When people doubt you, go answer that doubt. And no better place to do it than the Pairc.
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Jul 4, 2014 10:25:37 GMT
What that says to me is that it is unthinkable for a man in a Kerry jersey to accept that losing on Sunday isn't that big a deal.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Jul 4, 2014 14:12:15 GMT
I was suggesting we take the talk a bit easy and now I read this and the head is reeling, this Tomás lad knows how to stir it up alright, you'd wonder where he brought it from! Reminds me of a selector we had once and he telling us to hold the heads, he wasn't 5 steps away from the dressing room (i.e. the bushes) and he was stuck in his own opposite number with a verbal over who'd be the referee. Those were the days my friend!
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peig
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Post by peig on Jul 6, 2014 1:14:08 GMT
What an excellent piece! He's some writer.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2014 6:55:56 GMT
Or his ghost writer is .
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Jul 6, 2014 9:03:28 GMT
Do we know for sure he takes a ghost writer?
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Post by kerrygold on Jul 11, 2014 8:48:24 GMT
Tomás Ó Sé: Eamon Fitzmaurice's show of strength sends out right message Tomás Ó Sé Published 11/07/2014|00:49
Kingdom haven’t gone away and neither have Cork – despite what their ‘fans’ think
The kettle should have told me there'd be no flies on Kerry last Sunday, because the smart boys well and truly nailed me. Got up, half-asleep, went to make a cup of tea and, next thing, my kitchen was a bubble bath.
Still don't know the culprit, but the ‘wanted' poster is small. Marc, Bryan Sheehan and Darran O'Sullivan called in on Saturday night for a cuppa and, before they left, one comedian squirted Fairy Liquid down the spout of the kettle.
Sounds juvenile I know, but this is the kind of thing I've been missing most this summer. The messing. The sense of letting off nervous steam with little schoolboy stunts against one another.
My place in Fota Island backs onto the training pitch where, later on Saturday, the team was having a loosener. I was looking in over the fence when Fitz (Eamonn Fitzmaurice) came across for a quick chat. Small talk just, but immediately I got a good vibe. He sounded ready without being cocky.
“Tomás, I'd be confident we'll get a performance!”
I met Billy Morgan coming out of the game afterwards. Billy would have been hurting over Cork taking that kind of hiding from Kerry in their own backyard, but a tiny part of him would have been pleased too for someone like Paul Geaney. He coached seven or eight of the Kerry squad with UCC and, I know, always had big time for Geaney especially.
But even Billy was taken aback by the amount that Kerry got out of everyone in Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
So it was a huge win for Fitz. It strikes me that he has made some hard calls as Kerry manager, one of which is making the team a little more defensive. You know, Donegal won an All-Ireland with two hugely dangerous forwards inside and Kerry
might be in a position to try something similar now that Geaney and James O'Donoghue look to be on fire.
For me, O'Donoghue is as good as anyone in the country. Off the field, he's so relaxed, you'd nearly be looking at him thinking, ‘Jesus, is he wired in at all?'
I remember being on a training trip a few years ago and he missed a team meeting because he was fast asleep above in bed. He's a very witty lad, with a lovely way about him. In Kerry, I suppose we'd call him a complete ‘townie'. Do you remember him walking up for his All Star last year and that wink he threw to the TV camera? That's James all over, a typically ‘townie' forward.
Some great manager of the past had a saying that the ideal Kerry team would be one with West Kerry backs and ‘townie' forwards. The ‘townie' forwards always had that cuteness and quickness, while the West Kerry backs, like the Paddy Bawns, were tough men.
Destroyed
I don't know if James is intentionally stepping up to the plate this year in Gooch's absence, but he looks like he's playing with no fear and that's what you want. Himself and Geaney absolutely destroyed (Eoin) Cadogan and (Michael) Shields on Sunday, kicking 0-3 each from play before Cork really knew what hit them. Cadogan and Shields tried to bully them, but the best way to answer that stuff is knock the ball over the bar. And they kept doing that.
Last year, we relied too heavily on the Gooch, but now we have two real scoring threats inside.
One thing that struck me after Sunday is that we can disregard anything we saw in the League. You look at Derry making the Division 1 final – where are they now? You think of how poor Kerry were against Cork in Tralee? League form is out the win
dow. And, you know, Kerry going that bit more defensive actually suits them. People might say it's not the Kerry way, but who has been winning All-Irelands the Kerry way lately?
On Sunday, Fitz won the tactical battle hands down, but he'll know that Cork were desperately poor too. When you give a team a good dosing, the smart manager will ground you straight away. I'd say he'll have been doing that from Tuesday night,
because you need to be selfish about what you're listening to.
Bottom line, if Kerry don't back this performance up with something similar in Croke Park, it'll go down as a waste.
Funny, you think about the “animals” Páidí spoke about in Kerry, but the abuse the Cork team took from their people on Sunday shocked me. I was trying to argue with a few of them. I mean I know Cork didn't per
form, I know they lacked leadership.
But sometimes it gets overlooked how a tiny, tiny spark can change everything for a team.
By that I mean you can go in one week from not playing well to producing what we produced against Dublin in '09. That's something the normal fan can never seem to see. So I couldn't believe what I was hearing on Sunday.
‘No balls...’
‘No heart, no leaders...’
‘'Tis backwards that they're going...'
The same old talk, even though we know Cork are nowhere near as bad as they looked. True, they have serious questions to answer in terms of leadership. They are at a crossroads now and they can go one of two ways.
But it's now your real leaders have to stand up. I think they'll be hurting badly and could still have a say in this Championship. Have they the stuff to win it? I doubt that. But they could take out a big team yet.
I said last week that it was in the middle eight Kerry could win the game and that's pretty much how it panned out. I've never seen a Kerry midfield dominate another team so totally.
For me, it's the Sheehans, the Johnny Buckleys, the Killian Youngs that will drive this Kerry team. Sheehan is much maligned, but he gave it one serious hour on Sunday. People don't realise how much more there is to him than just free-taking. In my mind, he's good enough to be dominating games.
Mileage
Donnchadh Walsh gave a huge performance and you had Declan (O'Sullivan) back to his best again, playing the exact same link-man role that Paul (Galvin) had been playing in recent years. The mileage that man has put up for Kerry.
I mean I'm listening to fellas writing off the likes of Declan and Marc and all I can think is, ‘Jesus, do you have any understanding of the pride in these lads?'
Then to see the likes of Darran, Peter Crowley and ‘Star' (Kieran Donaghy) coming off the bench, it just felt like a perfect day.
Because Sunday's minor victory was a big thing for Kerry too. I saw a clip of Jack O'Connor talking last week and, for me, he hit the nail on the head. There have always been footballers in Kerry, but the thing that changed was the attitude to winning.
Jack said he wanted to reinforce with the minors how there was an onus on them to carry the tradition properly. You're talking not just about winning, but about winning and losing with dignity and respect.
Now Jack and I have crossed swords in the past, but I know he's the right man to have in charge when I hear that.
I mean there's some great young Kerry players that have gone to America this summer, young fellas ear-marked as the next great white hopes in the county. I just can't get my head around that. For us growing up, Kerry football was number one. That's got to come back again.
So Sunday felt a huge step in the right direction. It was as if we were sending out a simple message. One saying, ‘We haven't gone away!’
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Post by kerrygold on Jul 11, 2014 9:02:43 GMT
I think the penny is beginning to drop as to how irrelevant the NFL is becoming, especially for established players playing in Munster and Connaught. Declan has played two intercouty games since the 1st of September last year. The championships start in August for the main contenders and in late June for the other counties in the qualifiers. The provincial championships and NFL are staring to feel like emotional and sentimental relics holding onto the past. January - June takes up a large chunk of the GAA calendar at a time when the clubs, colleges and U21s could be in full flow, then parked up a while while the students head away for the summer and reignited post intercounty season and the commencement of the college year. In the continued absence of four regional provinces of eight teams the usage of time and financial resources remain flawed.
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Post by lár na páirce on Jul 11, 2014 9:44:44 GMT
I think the penny is beginning to drop as to how irrelevant the NFL is becoming, especially for established players playing in Munster and Connaught. Declan has played two intercouty games since the 1st of September last year. The championships start in August for the main contenders and in late June for the other counties in the qualifiers. The provincial championships and NFL are staring to feel like emotional and sentimental relics holding onto the past. January - June takes up a large chunk of the GAA calendar at a time when the clubs, colleges and U21s could be in full flow, then parked up a while while the students head away for the summer and reignited post intercounty season and the commencement of the college year. In the continued absence of four regional provinces of eight teams the usage of time and financial resources remain flawed. Have to disagree here,The provencial's are fine as is and when Dublin's star begins to wane Leinster will be blown wide open,Connaught has the most different winners of all the competetions over the past 10 years and Munster is on a big upward curve. I would much rather the league be reduced to 6 teams for Div 1,2,3 and 7 for Div4,5. The club scene needs more dates with county players
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Jul 11, 2014 10:20:23 GMT
Regarding the attitude of the Cork 'fans'... or rather the Cork sporting public. I know this one Corkman and I despise the fact he has so little respect for his county footballers. Oh plenty of respect for the hurlers --- even though the footballers have been more successful in the last decade.
This is the series of emails I got from him last Sunday and I just don't get it:
"I know that you thought it was Counihan and there is only 20 mins gone but these Cork lads are and always have been a bunch of losers."
"Why, these are the nancy boys who used be able to beat ye in munster and then go on to lose to ye in croke park by embarrassing scorelines cause they are a bunch of losers.
The are letting ye get on top all over the field.
They have gone back to the go nowhere sideways handpassing crap we had for years.
I was hoping I was wrong but I remember saying to you before that these lads are a bunch of losers. If Kerry had the ability in terms of football that cork had for the last ten years ye would have returned a lot more than one all ireland.
Thank God it is only football as if this happened in hurling Cork would be a depressing place."
"2004 and 2005 but in between we played like men for example last year we played as well as we could in an all ireland final twice. We werent good enough to win but that is grand. Fair play to Clare they were better.
These lads have no bottle and are missing the winners mentality."
"Seriously - a bunch of losers.
You cant really argue with that."
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seamo
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Post by seamo on Jul 11, 2014 10:42:51 GMT
I think the penny is beginning to drop as to how irrelevant the NFL is becoming, especially for established players playing in Munster and Connaught. Declan has played two intercouty games since the 1st of September last year. The championships start in August for the main contenders and in late June for the other counties in the qualifiers. The provincial championships and NFL are staring to feel like emotional and sentimental relics holding onto the past. January - June takes up a large chunk of the GAA calendar at a time when the clubs, colleges and U21s could be in full flow, then parked up a while while the students head away for the summer and reignited post intercounty season and the commencement of the college year. In the continued absence of four regional provinces of eight teams the usage of time and financial resources remain flawed. I agree with your feelings on the GAA calendar, too much of it is taken up by intercounty football and could be streamlined much better. But we're jumping the gun on a number of issues since Sunday. The national league is irrelevant to a seasoned player like Declan, I said all through league that he needed rest more than he needed games. But the league is far from irrelevant to a player like Paul Murphy!!! Or Paul Geaney, Steven O Brien etc. Nothing has changed is respect of the league, all that's probably changed is that these seasoned players need the rest more now than in the past due to increased toll of intercounty training.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Jul 11, 2014 11:57:55 GMT
Another great article: Jack O'Connor emphasising the difference between knowing how to play and how to win. JO'D's high cruising speed on low revs says it all. Farmers and fishermen with experience of dealing with the elements make better defenders while streetwise townies better at negotiating crowds and so make good forwards.
Also Tomás' compassion and which I share: Cork are Cork but there are negative people everywhere, the most insulting are your own and that is a sad reality of mankind and if it is in the GAA then it is probably everywhere. Munster GAA is safe with the likes of JBM and Tomás to the fore and long may that be the case.
Tomás' reading of game, Declan as link man, etc is also noteworthy and he also nails a lot of things us lesser folk might have in our heads but just don't quiet nail for ourselves. That's the type of pundit we need, someone to make that vital expert connection between the complexity of the game and observers and that will also work wonders for the popularity of the sport, we are a bit tired of fellas arguing over the time of the day.
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Post by kerryeye on Jul 11, 2014 13:17:33 GMT
"I mean there's some great young Kerry players that have gone to America this summer, young fellas ear-marked as the next great white hopes in the county. I just can't get my head around that. For us growing up, Kerry football was number one. That's got to come back again."
This is the part of the article that interests me the most. Ive said this also when I heard they were going. We have 3 or 4 fellas here who are have been part of the Kerry panel and have decided to head to America for the summer. It doesnt bode well for their future in a green and gold jersey in my opinion. As Tomás said ''For us growing up, Kerry football was number one'' and its obviously not that case for many of these lads today.To even have a small chance of being part of it should have been enough to keep them around and you can be sure the likes of the O Sé's , Moynihan Gooch etc wouldnt have let that oppurtunity pass.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Jul 11, 2014 13:47:36 GMT
Emigration is the knock on effect of inequality in society and the worst offenders are solicitors and who never have to emigrate. Sure South Kerry clubs have been decimated right from the onset of the recession and it is the same everywhere. When I first raised it here I was told economics had nothing to do with the GAA. Seeing is believing and it is a conversation that affects the GAA as the most prominent amateur sports in the world. Our solicitors are the dearest in the world so there is a start! And by the way by 'equality' I don't mean everyone earning the same, I mean equality of opportunity and let it up to people themselves thereafter.
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seamo
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Post by seamo on Jul 11, 2014 15:31:35 GMT
Emigration is the knock on effect of inequality in society and the worst offenders are solicitors and who never have to emigrate. Sure South Kerry clubs have been decimated right from the onset of the recession and it is the same everywhere. When I first raised it here I was told economics had nothing to do with the GAA. Seeing is believing and it is a conversation that affects the GAA as the most prominent amateur sports in the world. Our solicitors are the dearest in the world so there is a start! And by the way by 'equality' I don't mean everyone earning the same, I mean equality of opportunity and let it up to people themselves thereafter. Not too sure you were told economics had nothing to do with the GAA; many people here including myself have raised this issue and highlighted the plight of the rural club. What you did though was bring politics into the conversation, and that was what people (including myself ) took issue with. I reckon those guys are regretting that decision now! I'm not going to condemn their decision, this is an amateur sport and we all have to live our lifes; but in terms of Kerry panel for next year I think these guys should be back to square one. Prove yourselves with yer clubs, do the hard training throughout the winter, McGrath cup show up and impress and likewise the league if they want to see championship action in 2015. It is incidents like this and what Tomas says that kinda get me thinking fair play to a guy like Kieran O Leary, been on the panel for ~8 years now, he's put the same amount of work in during that period as any of the starting 15 and yet he keeps coming back year after year to do the same training as Gooch/Declan etc without the same recoognition.
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peig
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Post by peig on Jul 14, 2014 20:24:17 GMT
Whatever about Darragh, I doubt it very much that Tomas has a ghost writer. All you need to do is listen to his analysis on TSG - he writes as he calls it in my opinion.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Jul 14, 2014 20:49:00 GMT
Emigration is the knock on effect of inequality in society and the worst offenders are solicitors and who never have to emigrate. Sure South Kerry clubs have been decimated right from the onset of the recession and it is the same everywhere. When I first raised it here I was told economics had nothing to do with the GAA. Seeing is believing and it is a conversation that affects the GAA as the most prominent amateur sports in the world. Our solicitors are the dearest in the world so there is a start! And by the way by 'equality' I don't mean everyone earning the same, I mean equality of opportunity and let it up to people themselves thereafter. Not too sure you were told economics had nothing to do with the GAA; many people here including myself have raised this issue and highlighted the plight of the rural club. What you did though was bring politics into the conversation, and that was what people (including myself ) took issue with. I reckon those guys are regretting that decision now! I'm not going to condemn their decision, this is an amateur sport and we all have to live our lifes; but in terms of Kerry panel for next year I think these guys should be back to square one. Prove yourselves with yer clubs, do the hard training throughout the winter, McGrath cup show up and impress and likewise the league if they want to see championship action in 2015. It is incidents like this and what Tomas says that kinda get me thinking fair play to a guy like Kieran O Leary, been on the panel for ~8 years now, he's put the same amount of work in during that period as any of the starting 15 and yet he keeps coming back year after year to do the same training as Gooch/Declan etc without the same recoognition. Well seamo politics determines economic policy and I could never accuse any individual party of wrong doing as none of them have so far addressed the issue. I may have mentioned that I emailed Sean Kelly and I am now reliably informed that his party are now doing something. That I pointed out that the issue could be a five point handicap on rural counties, maybe Enda Kenny and his cousin Kelly realised that Mayo and Kerry would have beaten the Dubs if the imbalance had been corrected. Although the argument goes further, maybe that is as far as I should go on in a GAA forum and as you may have suggested.
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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 Jul 14, 2014 21:48:21 GMT
Whatever about Darragh, I doubt it very much that Tomas has a ghost writer. All you need to do is listen to his analysis on TSG - he writes as he calls it in my opinion. Without doubt, the phraseology, you can hear him speaking it
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Post by givehimaball on Jul 14, 2014 22:11:50 GMT
Whatever about Darragh, I doubt it very much that Tomas has a ghost writer. All you need to do is listen to his analysis on TSG - he writes as he calls it in my opinion. Without doubt, the phraseology, you can hear him speaking it Totally agree on the phraseology Also I doubt that either the Irish Times or Examiner could afford a ghost writer the way the newspaper business is with both papers hemorrhaging circulation numbers.
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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 Jul 14, 2014 22:20:30 GMT
Regarding the attitude of the Cork 'fans'... or rather the Cork sporting public. I know this one Corkman and I despise the fact he has so little respect for his county footballers. Oh plenty of respect for the hurlers --- even though the footballers have been more successful in the last decade. This is the series of emails I got from him last Sunday and I just don't get it: "I know that you thought it was Counihan and there is only 20 mins gone but these Cork lads are and always have been a bunch of losers." "Why, these are the nancy boys who used be able to beat ye in munster and then go on to lose to ye in croke park by embarrassing scorelines cause they are a bunch of losers. The are letting ye get on top all over the field. They have gone back to the go nowhere sideways handpassing crap we had for years. I was hoping I was wrong but I remember saying to you before that these lads are a bunch of losers. If Kerry had the ability in terms of football that cork had for the last ten years ye would have returned a lot more than one all ireland. Thank God it is only football as if this happened in hurling Cork would be a depressing place." "2004 and 2005 but in between we played like men for example last year we played as well as we could in an all ireland final twice. We werent good enough to win but that is grand. Fair play to Clare they were better. These lads have no bottle and are missing the winners mentality." "Seriously - a bunch of losers. You cant really argue with that." I can but assume this creature has some redeeming qualities that persuade you to continue discourse with him. :-) The condescension with the 'if Kerry had the footballers Cork had...' baked in with the abuse of the footballers and flagrant bias towards the hurlers grates. Be interesting to know his opinion on Aidan,Eoin and Damien? To be honest 'scaul I picture this man carrying timber, a paunch only a seasoned bullshi*ter could harbour, someone who will never utter words, ' I didn't know that...' and possibly has multiple nasal polyps thus preventing him from smelling the same bullls*it he's been continuously shovelling,forever. Maybe a smoker too, would help with with pub bulls*it training. Am i way off the mark? Needs a lower shinbone to the spuds for such treason.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2014 22:29:56 GMT
A good ghost writer will always ensure that the article reads like it was written by the pundit. Tom humphries for example did a great job for Jack o Connor a few years back.
There is no cost with having a ghost writer. They just use one of the gaa journalists already on staff.
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 14, 2014 22:42:38 GMT
I remember, way back in the mists of time my English teacher saying that there is no big secret with the English language. All you need is to "have something interesting to say and to say it as simply as you can".
I believe that both Darragh and Tomas would manage on their own. Given the facility of Kerry people to write its a bit of an insult to suggest that either Darragh and Tomas would need a ghost writer.
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Jo90
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Post by Jo90 on Jul 15, 2014 0:04:35 GMT
I was listening to an interview with a sports journalists last week and he said virtually all sports stars' columns are done the same way. The journalist and the sports star chat on the phone. The journalist writes up the column and emails the sports star for him to OK it and then it gets published. There are very few exceptions, one of whom is Neil Francis.
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peig
Senior Member
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Post by peig on Jul 15, 2014 0:28:48 GMT
I was listening to an interview with a sports journalists last week and he said virtually all sports stars' columns are done the same way. The journalist and the sports star chat on the phone. The journalist writes up the column and emails the sports star for him to OK it and then it gets published. There are very few exceptions, one of whom is Neil Francis. Tomas is another exception.
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Jul 18, 2014 9:16:35 GMT
---Dublin may be favourites, but you sense they are due for an almighty rattle--- I'd be curious to know what's going on in the Dubs' heads this week. No one seems to be even considering the possibility of them losing Sunday's Leinster final and that can set all kinds of psychological traps in the mind. I mean, Meath have great tradition and if they get a sniff of unease in Dublin, I don't doubt they'll go for the jugular. I've big respect for Mick O'Dowd and Trevor Giles. They strike me as men who do their homework and seem to be getting the most out of the Meath players right now. Can you really say that about Dublin? Don't get me wrong. I think the Dubs will win, but so far this year, nobody has managed to lay a glove on them. For Jim Gavin, that makes things tricky. He's still waiting for certain answers because the relevant questions just haven't yet been asked. They say it's through mistakes that you learn, so the Dubs can't really say they're learning too much, can they? They're just purring along. So, how do you keep a 1/8 shot humble? I suppose Gavin is well stocked in the psychology department, or with "head guys" as I call them. They seem everywhere these days. In my latter years with Kerry, I would basically tune out when a sports psychologist started talking. Just a personal thing, because, in my eyes, we had enough learnt from growing up in Ard an Bhothair not to really need that stuff. And one thing that bugs me about these sports psychologists is that most of them aren't even GAA people, so how can they understand what it's like to be right in the frying pan with 10 minutes to go of an All-Ireland final? Show me a fella who's been through that, someone I suppose like Enda McNulty and, maybe, I might listen. It can be a long, winding road to win an All-Ireland, but in Kerry, there was never ever a sense of panic. I read once that Jacko used get all the Sunday papers on a Saturday night in the hope of reading something negative about himself that might just get him riled. Seems to me, it isn't complicated. Just use anything bad that's said about you as fuel. Embrace it, don't cower away from it. God, I was anything but bomb-proof psychologically now, but I just never warmed to the idea that some third party might solve the puzzle. If my game was going poorly, Jack O'Connor would sometimes ring me for a talk and, deep down, I just knew Jack wasn't the guy to talk me out of it. So, I'd bat him away as politely as I could. "Right Jack, I'm under a bit of pressure here, buzz you back in an hour." And that would be the end of it. No call. The best people I found to talk to were always the brothers. At least Marc and Darragh would know exactly where I was on about and, by and large, be coming at things from the same angle. SOUND I remember before one All-Ireland final, Jack brought in this fella to work with us. No problems there, he was a sound enough chap and some of the lads liked listening to him. Anyway, the ritual on the Saturday night was always a little walk after dinner, just a little loosener for the legs. We'd break into small groups and maybe head down to the nearest shop, buy a bag of jellies or whatever. Anyway, this night the rain was coming down and we spotted the psychologist driving out of the hotel car park. So the hands shot up like gardai at a checkpoint. Any chance you'll throw us down to the shop? In we got, Darragh in the front seat. And your man has the misfortune to go, "Darragh, how are you?" Now this was a deeper question than the normal, "How's it goin?" And Darragh looks at him. "Ah Jesus Christ," he says, "will you just drive down to the effing shop, I've enough in my head without you cracking on about it!" Now I'm not knocking the idea entirely. I mean, I had a couple of chats with McNulty late on in my career, nothing major. And I noticed that Brian O'Driscoll, one of my all-time heroes, mentioned how much talking to McNulty had helped him late in his career. Now, if maybe the greatest sportsman Ireland's ever produced sees something in it, who am I to knock it? It's every dog to his own, I suppose. I mean, I read Roy Keane's book and the stuff about the changes in his lifestyle were fascinating. When he was a younger pro, his lifestyle wasn't hectic, but he got a lot more disciplined, maybe even fanatical, towards the end. He did yoga and got big into sports science, food science, the lot. Eventually, the doctors at United had to warn him that his body fat level was dangerously low. Everyone's just looking for that thing that will give them the edge, I suppose, and I don't doubt Gavin and Dublin are any different now. It's been a long time since there were such strong, outright favourites for the All-Ireland, but the deeper we go into the season, the more you suspect that someone is going to give the Dubs an almighty rattle. It's in the third quarter of games that they're tending to go for the kill, that Aussie Rules thing, and I'm sure they'll be hoping to be out of reach on the hour mark on Sunday. But what if they're not? What if Meath manage to put a squeeze on Stephen Cluxton or if other key Dublin players, like Michael Darragh Macauley or Paul Flynn, are off the boil? One thing that's really struck me about Dublin this year is they're not driving forward at teams as much from half-back. Maybe they're being told to sit back, I don't know. But when we played them last year, our two wing-forwards – Paul (Galvin) and Donnchadh (Walsh) – were warned that they were going to be facing, basically, two forwards. I was trying to pick Ciaran Whelan's brain on this because, in my eyes, Jack McCaffrey had a great year last year. Maybe he didn't have a great final, but all the younger lads were very good at the start of the championship, playing with real freedom. When it got to the business end, I suppose it was the Bernard Brogans and Flynns who really upped it. Experience came into it, where the younger lads went into their shells a little. I just thought the same young lads would have come on and be even more confident since, but McCaffrey seems confined to the role of impact sub now. Anyway, I just have a feeling that Meath will have a cut off them on Sunday and if they get through it (which I think they will), Gavin will be glad of the experience. As for the Ulster final, I have a good friend in Donegal – a man who really knows his football – who expects them to win by five or six points. Can't see them winning that easily myself, but this boy's cute enough. By the way, I was in Marbella last week, pitching up in Gordon Loughnane's 'The Irishman' bar on Sunday to watch Mayo-Galway and the hurling between Cork and Limerick. Maybe 60 people piled in, every one of them screaming at the TV as if about to give birth. And it just brought home to me how unique the GAA is and how much less our lives would amount to without it. We're blessed you know. Irish Independent - See more at: www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/toms-s-dublin-may-be-favourites-but-you-sense-they-are-due-for-an-almighty-rattle-30441017.html#sthash.dPybN7mn.dpuf
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seamo
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Post by seamo on Jul 18, 2014 11:00:27 GMT
"Can't see them winning that easily myself, but this boy's cute enough."
haha great line.
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Post by Die Hard Kerry Fan on Jul 18, 2014 12:41:31 GMT
Love Tomás' column. Great player and great analyst.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Jul 18, 2014 14:24:55 GMT
Brilliant, just compare this to the Tommy Carrs of the world. Out with the old, we need lads fresh from the game and where the insight is brill. When the cute hoor that is Tomás says the Donegal lad is cute you'd have to be worried for what's around the corner!
The world has yet to come up with a solution to out do the Cute Kerry hoor and they make 'em even cuter back west, don't they just.
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