Jo90
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Post by Jo90 on Aug 25, 2015 22:40:02 GMT
We'll be seeing a lot of Kerry/All-Ireland final related articles in the next view weeks, it'd be handy to have them all in one place. Not sure if a link or a full copy and paste job should be decorum. I guess for Irish Times articles people would prefer copy and paste. I'll start off with a good interview with Tommy Griffin from last Saturday... www.irishexaminer.com/video/sport/tommy-griffin-out-of-the-west-349663.html |
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keane
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Post by keane on Aug 26, 2015 9:39:11 GMT
Very good idea for a thread. I find personally I seem to miss a ton of articles so would be great if people would think of pasting a link in here when they come across something.
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Jo90
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Post by Jo90 on Aug 28, 2015 11:28:42 GMT
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Post by OnTheForty on Aug 28, 2015 12:35:43 GMT
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Post by kerrygold on Aug 28, 2015 14:30:39 GMT
Dick Clerkin is a brilliant speaker also. The other piece is possibly from Tomas. |
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seamus
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Post by seamus on Sept 10, 2015 7:54:29 GMT
I find it amazing that Paddy Heaney manages to extract money for some of the dribble he writes.
A reasonable standard primary school kid could put together a better thought process for an article than this.
To summarize:
He had coffee with Jim Gavin which made his day
Gavin wanted to win playing with a swagger
Gavin understands NBA and NFL tactics
Gavin now just wants to win
= Dublin are guaranteed to lift Sam
At least it is Tony Leen paying him and not the taxpayer
PADDY HEANEY: Why Jim Gavin’s Dublin are certain to win the All-Ireland
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Thursday, September 10, 2015By Paddy Heaney
Ever since an early morning conversation with Jim Gavin last year, I have been totally and utterly convinced Dublin are going to win this year’s All-Ireland title.
The venue for my chance encounter with the Dublin manager was the Sheraton Hotel in Boston. It was the first morning of the All Stars Tour. Black Friday.
Jetlagged, I was wide awake at 6am. Unable to get back to sleep, I paid a trip to the Starbucks cafe located in the hotel lobby.
When seated with a cup of coffee, I spotted Gavin walking across the foyer. I waved and said ‘hello’.
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As he’s extremely wary of the media, I assumed the former Irish Air Corps officer was going to stroll right past me.
Having written a very critical article about Gavin after a League game in Omagh, I wasn’t even sure if he would acknowledge my greeting. To my surprise, he walked over to my table and started to chat.
I was amazed. This was a rare and welcome opportunity — a one to one conversation with a high profile manager who usually keeps his distance from journalists.
Those who have listened to Gavin on television or read his interviews will appreciate he’s not an overly charismatic individual. He is controlled and undemonstrative.
Still, when confronted with microphones and television cameras, I remain convinced he makes a concerted effort to be as dull as he possibly can be.
There is no way the man who gives those interviews to The Sunday Game is the same person who sends Dublin out to war in Croke Park.
That would be impossible.
If the Dublin players were subjected to the monotone drone which Gavin reserves for press briefings, they would fall asleep in the changing room.
Nowadays, a growing number of footballers and managers only reveal their true personality whenever the tape recorder is switched off. I suspected Jim Gavin fitted into that category.
Removed from a typical interview setting, I was keen to see what he was really like.
Readers who are now expecting me to reveal Jim Gavin is actually a joke-a-minute, yarn-spinning character are going to be disappointed.
In conversation, he is sober, informed and intelligent — all the qualities he exhibits in his media interviews.
However, during my chat with Jim there was one aspect of his personality which was a revelation.
He has an incredible passion for sport. He is absolutely fanatical about the GAA. More specifically, the Round Towers clubman is fanatical about Dublin GAA.
And Gavin’s interests extend far beyond Gaelic Games. He also has a keen interest in basketball and American football. For his trip to the States, he acquired tickets for a Celtics game due to take place the following week. Gavin’s fascination with the NBA and NFL was intriguing. Given the huge emphasis which those sports place on tactics, it was difficult to reconcile how a man of Gavin’s intelligence and military background could have adopted such risky tactics for last year’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Donegal.
Surely anyone with a modicum of knowledge about defending wouldn’t have employed such a reckless strategy against Donegal? Of course, a job in the Irish Air Corps doesn’t necessarily make Jim Gavin an expert in football strategy. The GAA is full of men who, while very successful in various walks of life, are absolute nincompoops when put in charge of a football team.
But listening to Gavin talking about the tactics employed in American football, it was obvious he was no greenhorn. As he discussed how ‘drag routes’ are used by wide receivers it was clear he was fascinated by how the movement of players can be used to create and deny space.
Evidently, Gavin understands tactics. But in his steadfast refusal to play a safety first game against Donegal, it can only be assumed the Dublin manager allowed his emotions cloud his judgement.
On taking the reins of his county’s senior football team, Gavin said that he felt an obligation to uphold the traditions of Dublin football.
Not only did he want to win, but he wanted to win by playing a brand of positive, attacking football.
As a sceptical journalist and an even more sceptical northerner, I automatically assumed Gavin was just indulging in ‘paper talk’. I never thought for a moment that he was actually being serious.
But after listening to Gavin talk expansively about other sports, the only conclusion I could draw was he had allowed his romantic principles for attacking football to overrule the pragmatic part of his brain.
Not surprisingly, a six-point defeat in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park has knocked some of the romance out of Jim Gavin.
During the League, it was abundantly obvious he no longer cared how his team won the All-Ireland title — he just wanted to win it. In Clones, the once attack-minded Dubs defended with 13 men. Similar tactics were employed against Tyrone and Derry. Rather comically, some cheerleaders in the media still refused to believe Dublin had joined the Jim McGuinness school of football. To those observers who were capable of watching what was actually happening on the field, it was extremely obvious Dublin had abandoned any pretensions of trying to win beautiful. Winning ugly would do just fine.
Dublin’s two performances against Mayo have further underlined the notion Gavin is no longer preoccupied with how Dublin win the Sam Maguire Cup. While it’s true the Dubs produced some stunning football, they also played with the fervour and mania of a junior club team from the mountains.
When the talent of this Dublin squad is shaped by sound strategy and passionate performances, it’s difficult to see how they can be beaten.
Ever since last year’s defeat to Donegal, there has been a nationwide refusal to acknowledge Dublin’s blatant superiority.
Pundits are terrified of looking stupid again so they have constructed woolly arguments outlining any flaw in Dublin’s play.
Yet, while the Dubs aren’t perfect, they’re still stronger than any of their opponents.
Thus far, the brilliance of Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s management has disguised the limitations of his hand.
Kerry are the opposite of Dublin. Their strengths have been overplayed while their weaknesses have been conveniently ignored. The All-Ireland final will expose the real stock of both teams. Now that Jim Gavin no longer cares about aesthetics, a Dublin win seems guaranteed.
And by adopting such an approach Jim Gavin should take some comfort from the fact he will be upholding one of the longest and most cherished traditions of Dublin football.
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KEYWORDS All-Ireland SFC, Dublin, Kerry, Final, 2015, Jim Gavin
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Post by ardfertnarrie on Sept 10, 2015 10:10:06 GMT
Grist to the mill.
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Jo90
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Post by Jo90 on Sept 16, 2015 10:24:35 GMT
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Post by wayupnorth on Sept 16, 2015 19:12:20 GMT
The same man thought Dublin were being ultra defensive on the basis of one snapshot at the Monaghan NFL match! I wouldn't put much faith in his use of evidence. |
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Post by brucewayne on Sept 16, 2015 22:19:26 GMT
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Post by inforthebreaks on Sept 17, 2015 8:52:39 GMT
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Jo90
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Post by Jo90 on Sept 17, 2015 11:11:18 GMT
I thought that was going to be an article by the other Joe, Joe.bx |
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Post by kerrygold on Sept 17, 2015 16:12:03 GMT
Analysis: Kerry can exploit Dublin insecurities
By Martin Carney | Updated: Thursday, 17 Sep 2015
For the second time this decade Dublin and Kerry are meeting in the September showdown
Nothing surprising here. Dublin v Kerry. Pre-season, scribes and pundits confidently predicted little different.
Of the others, Mayo, most felt, would self-destruct; Donegal’s Ulster campaign would ultimately empty them. Cork and Monaghan were touted as the best of what remained but a final encounter between the League champions and the holders of Sam Maguire always seemed most likely.
Dublin may be marginal favourites with the bookies, but the underdog tag has never sat as comfortably as it does with Kerry at the moment.
Lessons learned by both from their games with Donegal last year about the importance of highly organised defending can inform us what to expect.
Publicly both camps will proclaim confidence with their respective defences but how deep does this really run? Can Éamon Fitzmaurice have absolute belief in a rearguard that conceded five goals in its opening two games in Munster and rode their luck on more than one occasion against Tyrone?
The late distractions with Fermanagh disturbed slightly a Dublin team who had sleepwalked through Leinster. When Mayo cast off the shackles in their drawn semi-final, a sector that hitherto appeared systemically sound betrayed serious shortcomings.
Defenders became panic stricken; restart strategies imploded, yet Dublin somehow survived.
Tricky assignments face both sets of defenders.If they set up conventionally I am not convinced in either side's ability to win their individual battles. The Kerry full-back line will struggle with an in-form Paddy Andrews and Bernard Brogan unless they deploy extra cover.
"I’d anticipate Dublin attempting to crowd the area in front of their D"
I’d guess that Shane Enright will man-mark Andrews but whether or not Mark Ó Sé’s superb football intelligence compensates for his loss of pace remains to be seen.With little other than Aidan O’Mahony and Fionn Fitzgerald on the bench, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Kerry are stretched defensively.
On the other hand, is Jim Gavin confident that Philly McMahon and Johnny Cooper possess the required composure to deal with the threat of James O’Donoghue, Paul Geaney and/or Kieran Donaghy?
If exposed in one-v-one contests I would have my doubts.To deny the Kerry inside line space, I’d anticipate Dublin attempting to crowd the area in front of their ‘D’. Here Cian O’Sullivan’s role is vital. He is an excellent sweeper and leader.
While Dublin will try to maximise the attacking instincts of Jack McCaffrey and James McCarthy, overall I believe both teams will exercise caution and determine to frustrate the supply of ball to their opponents forward lines.
The high-fetching partnership of Anthony Maher and David Moran has excelled for Kerry. Equally Brian Fenton has given Dublin an excellent ball-winning presence in the middle.
His unfussy style suits Dublin’s needs, but choosing his partner presents Jim Gavin with a selection headache. Denis Bastic is broadly similar in style so there may be a temptation to introduce Michael Darragh Macauley from the start.
Dropped for the replay with Mayo, his all-action contribution when introduced from the bench was inspirational.Though it won't sit easy,it’s likely he’ll be held in reserve.
Kerry will work at forcing Stephen Cluxton kick long with his restarts.To achieve this, a well defined strategy must be implemented by the Kerry forwards to close down his short-ranged options.Energy sapping it may well be, but in Johnny Buckley and Donnacha Walsh Kerry have a duo who will provide the lead in this phase of play.
Whereas Ciarán Kilkenny has excelled all season, bigger contributions are needed from his half forward colleagues Paul Flynn and Diarmuid Connolly. This line, replete with talent, has recently operated short of full capacity. Given his current form, Kevin McManamon may start at the expense of Dean Rock up front.
Dredging big performances from their front six is vital for Dublin as, quite simply, their attack is the unit that generates their match-winning tempo.
The conundrum facing Éamonn Fitzmaurice is how he'll use both Kieran Donaghy and Paul Geaney.
Calm, collected and Codyesque, he will choose the combination that best suits the needs of the occasion.
The target man option that Donaghy brings has had limited success while Geaney’s presence provides greater movement and invention.When combined with the magic and instinctive brilliance of Colm Cooper and James O’Donoghue this second option looks more promising.
The Verdict:
The levels of improvement evident in the replayed match with Cork allied to the composure shown in scoring four late winning points against Tyrone in the semi-final restored any wavering faith in the Kingdom.
No one is as adept as Kerry at recognising trouble and adapting to whatever the circumstances demand. The need to avenge defeats at the hands of Dublin in their last two championship meetings, courtesy of late scores, will provide primal motivation.
Though they were my choice at the outset, the insecurities evident at times in recent games has hardened my opinion against Dublin. Provided their half-forward line and midfield can screen a suspect defence and adequately supply their strike force, I expect a narrow Kerry win.
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Post by kerrygold on Sept 19, 2015 10:43:50 GMT
Maurice Fitzgerald: Easy-going, languid, ferocious – the perfect Fitz
Maurice Fitzgerald is a reluctant interviewee, but Darragh Ó Sé draws foul and fair from him
Malachy Clerkin
Sat, Sep 19, 2015
“All it is is that we love the game and we were lucky to play it,” says Maurice Fitzgerald. “There isn’t any bit of a story beyond that much really.”
So that’s that, then. Call the picture desk and order up a huge photo. Crank the headline up to the font size they used for the moon landings. See if the well-dressed lads on the selling floor can hustle an ad out of somewhere. Anything to fill the page where the big Maurice Fitz All-Ireland final interview was supposed to go.
Thing is, we came to Waterville and it’s a long way home. So we may as well fulfil the fixture anyway. And we brought company too, in the shape of Darragh Ó Sé. For a couple of years now, Darragh has been in our ear on and off saying that the whole world has been missing a trick when it comes to the great man. “You should interview Fitzy, he’ll surprise you.”
“The thing you must know is that he had his own routine when it came to big games,” says Darragh, taking plenty of delight in the discomfort he’s about to rain down. “Sure he wouldn’t come up at all to us on the Tuesday night before a semi-final or a final. He needed a bit of Maurice time.”
“Ah look,” says Maurice Fitz, taking the bait. “I don’t know if it was that. These lads would be getting very excited above in Killarney and if I went up I’d be listening to this kip o’ the reel from all of them and it would tire me out. I couldn’t be listening to all this joking around. I needed a bit of time out. So I used to go for a few cones with Kieran [McCarthy, friend and training partner] down in Cahirsiveen.”
“Páidí would be tearing his hair out, wondering would he turn up for the game at all,” stirs Ó Sé.
“Maybe I did do it a few times but I would probably have been practising a few frees down below. The idea of going up and down for two hours didn’t really appeal to me and in fairness, a lot of it would have been chit-chat and talking and I felt I wanted to hone down on getting my kicking right and things like that. I was probably doing a bit of fine-tuning. Or else I was gone for a 99 . . .”
So this is Maurice Fitz. In Kerry, they talk about their heroes in a spectrum of flavours. The Golden Years team don’t need anyone’s earnest praise, they just hang in the background like a Caravaggio. Colm Cooper is spoken about with pure love, the Ó Sés with you-couldn’t-be-up-to-them affection. But for Fitzgerald, there is real reverence.
Some of it is down to him never having gone looking for it. He is almost aggressively modest. Despite the evidence of our eyes, he won’t concede that his talent was exceptional. “I was only a drop of water in the shower,” he says at one point.
“I couldn’t honestly say that I felt any more pressure than the rest of the panel. I don’t know that I had much additional public attention really. The beauty of the game is that even if somebody tries to single you out and say you’re something different, you know that it’s a team game and always will be.”
But mostly it’s down him having been that flare in the darkness when Kerry needed saving. The bare numbers of his career give you sense of it. His 12-205 make him Kerry’s third highest championship scorer behind Colm Cooper and Mikey Sheehy, with the second highest average points per game (5.4) behind Sheehy (a ridiculous 6).
He won’t be caught anytime soon, either – of currently active players, clubmate Bryan Sheehan is 68 points back the road, James O’Donoghue 169. This, remember, is despite not playing in an All-Ireland final until his 10th season. For all the slagging O’Donoghue took last year about being an All Star winner with no All-Ireland medal, Fitzgerald is the only Kerryman in history to win two All Stars before his first All-Ireland.
Paid dues
Nobody paid more dues than Maurice Fitz. An All Star as a teenager before he’d even played in Croke Park, he was the one splash of relevance in a decade when Kerry drifted from the picture. By the time Páidí Ó Sé came along with a band of under-21 champions in the mid-90s, there was no guarantee it would ever change. That tore at him.
“There were periods of my life where I was completely obsessed with it, there’s no point saying otherwise. You strive for excellence. You want to be the best and to be the best, you have to work harder than everybody else.
“You go into a Kerry jersey at a young age and you think it’s going to be All-Ireland finals every year. We lost an All-Ireland semi-final to Down in 1991 and I had this feeling that we’d be back the next year. But a few years flew by and we hadn’t done anything. It was only when Darragh and co came into it that I became completely obsessed with.
“I felt that that the time was running out. I was going into my 10th year playing with Kerry and if you’re not going to be obsessed at that stage, it’s soon going to be time to vacate the premises. The pressure was on and we needed to deliver. We needed to get there.
“So while there would have been a tendency to consider that you were a very laid-back, easy-going type of a fella with a languid style and all that, I’d have to say that the polar opposite was maybe true. I just didn’t necessarily show it. I would have been a ferocious competitor, without necessarily showing it.”
“You showed it plenty!” pipes up Ó Sé. “I played against you in a county semi-final and I ended up with four stitches in the back of my head.”
“Yeah,” smiles Fitzgerald. “Well, that was an accident. There were a lot of accidents. I’ll put it to you this way – I was never caught.”
“Sure it wouldn’t have mattered,” hoots Ó Sé. “Who was going to give Maurice Fitz a red card?”
“I played it out the way it needed to be played out,” he says, in all seriousness. “I had a preference for doing things and doing them right. But you do take an awful lot of stick as the years go by. I went out to play the game and play the ball and I always wanted to maximise what I could do on the ball. That to me was the most important aspect of the game. But I would never be found wanting in any other aspect of the game. I did not like to lose.”
By 1997, he’d lost his fill. Munster finals, mostly to Cork but also, embarrassingly, to Clare. All-Ireland semi-finals to Down and Mayo. Finally making it to the big show that year made him giddy almost. Steeled and coiled and ready for action obviously but mostly – and you don’t often hear champions say this – mostly happy to be there.
“Why do we play the game? What do we grow up dreaming of? We do it for this day and here all of a sudden it was coming down the tracks towards me. The moment was arriving and I think it was just that knowledge that your moment was arriving, that you hadn’t missed the boat once again.
“I was so happy. It wasn’t a matter of pressure, it was a matter of being very, very happy and privileged to get an opportunity to play in a final. I remember that was my overall sense. I knew I had a lot of work done, I knew I had a good game within me.
“This is not saying that you’d be arrogant or cocky, none of those kind of feelings. It was just a great sense of joy and relief and excitement at the possibilities. Why would you feel anything else? You’re an athlete and you’ve worked so hard for this thing. There’s no point going in there with any other sort of emotion or feeling.”
Illuminating
He had a day from the gods, putting up nine of Kerry’s 13 points and illuminating an otherwise grim final. That he shone while everyone else ran in treacle surprised nobody, least of all his team-mates. As Ó Sé explains, they spent most of their time trying to live up to him.
“We did a drill one night in training where Eamonn Fitzmaurice was marking him. The idea was that you’d draw the defender and lay off the pass. Maurice had drawn wide and I was running through but I got it into my head that I was as good a man to kick a point as any so I went to go around Fitzmaurice. Sure he emptied me altogether. The only thing harder than him hitting me was me hitting the ground, which was rock hard in the middle of the summer.”
“You were hurting, I remember it,” grins Fitzgerald. “You let a big groan out of you.”
“Next thing,” continues Darragh, “your man here comes strolling out past me and me lying crippled on the ground. He takes one look at me and he just shrugs. ‘Should’ve passed it,’ he said, and walked off. No sympathy whatsoever.”
“No sympathy, no. You passed it the next time though.”
In time, he moved on. His end was messy but mention of it brings the shutters down. He kept playing for St Marys (still does, turning out for the Bs at the age of 45 when he’s not training the seniors) and dug out a glorious coda to his intercounty career by winning three county championships with South Kerry, the first of them a full 18 years after he’d made his debut. Some way to top it all off, you suggest.
“Well, there was no topping off,” he replies. “If you asked me tomorrow to go out there and play for South Kerry, I’d be out in a half-second. The bug is there, it didn’t go away. I haven’t been cured of the disease. I still love to be out with the lads, kicking around at training. That helps.”
Do they still go over the black spot?
“Ehhh . . . Of course. There you go - that’s the only cocky word you’ll get off me.”
Pause. Smile. Beat.
“The only thing, you didn’t ask me how far out I’m kicking from.”
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Clogher
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Post by Clogher on Sept 20, 2015 10:15:47 GMT
Brolly well and truly drops his mask in the bitter diatribe in the indo today -no surprise
If Joe wants to stop talking about Kerry, no one will miss him
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maryo
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Post by maryo on Sept 29, 2015 12:10:17 GMT
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2015 12:38:12 GMT
This article was coming all week. Surprised it took so long. The working class hero narrative was well trialled before the game.
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