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Post by Annascaultilidie on Apr 2, 2015 22:39:00 GMT
What's the story with Aidan O Mahony? Is he training, or did I miss a retirement?? He did have, was it, a broken bone in his leg?
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fitz
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Post by fitz on Apr 2, 2015 22:49:27 GMT
Was carrying an ankle injury for a long time, it's origin going way back an injury he sustained in winning championship with Rathmore in late 11, and was motm carrying it...I think.
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fitz
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Post by fitz on Apr 2, 2015 23:20:41 GMT
Tyrone had Dublin beaten all ends up till a shot for a point came back of the point at the death and Dublin worked an equalising goal. Tyrone put everyone in a line on their own 45 and Dublin made no headway. This could be something like 8 points to 7. Derry should have beaten Tyrone in Omagh only for losing a man red carded in last 10 mins, and clawed out a draw. They had a big lead on Cork and I think the last 15 mins they conceded 6 or 7 unanswered before their last point. The fact they got two goals is one fact worth looking into in more detail. I'm approaching this game with a very positive outlook because that is how I believe our players and management will be applying themselves. There is nothing to fear in Healy Park in my opinion. Our boys have won the All Ireland but a few months back dealing with a number of flying kitchen sinks. Our main worry is 'ourselves'because the Monaghan performance is unfathomable. Just my view.
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trevor73
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Team Of The Decade
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Post by trevor73 on Apr 3, 2015 4:50:08 GMT
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trevor73
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Team Of The Decade
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Post by trevor73 on Apr 3, 2015 4:59:03 GMT
I hadn't registered for the Independent forum before but I'm sick at the impending bull from the ulster disease
I am sure our Tyrone poster will disagree but the truth hurts - they advanced - deserved to win in 2005 but we threw it away 2008 - still they took their chances And mark my words - Tyrone will raise their game exponentially to try and relegate us. They and their manager and fans may lie but they wanna see us go down in Tyrone and save themselves
Hopefully footfall will win out over the pukes return
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trevor73
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Team Of The Decade
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Post by trevor73 on Apr 3, 2015 5:00:14 GMT
If you didn't bother to read the image - can't paste as it's pending - find me the fatal flaw ?
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Post by southward on Apr 3, 2015 10:02:27 GMT
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Post by glengael on Apr 3, 2015 10:04:40 GMT
First time travelling to Omagh for a match. (The oulde season ticket is putting fierce pressure on me). Any "Trip Advisor" stuff I should know about? You remind me of a Sunday morning in Dublin back about 1985 - not sure of the exact year. A few of us young fellas sitting in a flat in Dublin. I had just got my first car - a Datsun 120Y - Datsun later became Nissan. Nothing to do - we decided to head to Omagh, Kerry were playing Tyrone in the league. The only time I was in in Healy Park. A few things stand out in my mind. The troubles were going on at the time. We arrived at the border - saw a barrier and a hut - a bit like a toll plaza today. There was a red traffic light on at the hut and a 2 foot wide white line across the road about 20 metres back from the hut. No person to be seen. I stopped at the white line. A soldier emerged from the hut with armory I had only seen in old Vietnam movies. He gave an unclear hand signal. I didn't move. He gave an emphatic signal to move forward, I did. He asked me why I didn't move at the first signal. I told him I wasn't sure what the signal was. He asked us the usual where from, where going, and surprisingly seemed to be aware that the game was on and waved us on. We arrived in Omagh. It was like a ghost town. Not a person to be seen on the streets. We were dying for a couple of pints. We eventually saw some solitary soul some where and asked about a bar only to be told that they didn't open on Sundays. We could not comprehend. Met Charlie Nelligan in the park, and just like some people were saying this year that players thanked them for traveling Charlie did the same. The game was even to the middle of the second half, when Jack'O put over a great point foam the right wing about 50 yards out. It was the decisive moment. We won by a few points. Leaving the pitch there were soldiers at each side of the street about 50 yards apart. A hushed silence by the crowd. We got to the car and got out of town. There was one more mission - petrol was much cheaper up north at that time. I stopped somewhere before the border and filled up. Mission accomplished. We phoned home that night from one of those old pay phones that were in the hallway of every flat in Dublin, to casually fill in the details that the ten minutes of highlights didn't cover. They couldn't say anything but we knew that we would have been grounded if we had said anything about travelling before we went. Very evocative piece kerry exile. A different world. We have been inconsistent so far this year so I wouldn't hazard a guess as to what kind of form we'll produce on Sunday. Past performance is no indicator as to future return as those financial people say in their ads. Hopefully we'll secure an injury free win. Aidan O'Mahony had an operation on his leg prior to Christmas and is actively making his way back to fitness. I did not hear that he has ended his county career so I assume he will be back at some stage.
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Jigz84
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Post by Jigz84 on Apr 3, 2015 10:10:10 GMT
O'Brien is not suited to the corner and outside of Sheehan's frees it's hard to see where the scores will come from. So keeping Tyrone's scoring minimal will be vital.
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Jigz84
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Post by Jigz84 on Apr 3, 2015 11:06:01 GMT
Sean Cavanagh named at full-forward, will be interesting to see how Griffin handles him if he does play there.
Tyrone (NFL v Kerry): N Morgan; A McCrory, R McNamee, C McCarron; R McNabb, J McMahon, P Harte; C Cavanagh, P McNulty; T McCann, M Donnelly, R McKenna; D McCurry, S Cavanagh, C McAliskey.
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 3, 2015 11:25:44 GMT
Prizefighters still slugging it out to end
Christy O'Connor
03/04/2015 | 02:30 Two years ago, Kerry rolled into Omagh for their final league game. Tyrone had already qualified for the semi-finals. Kerry desperately needed a win to survive in Division 1.
Kerry led by 11 points at half-time but Tyrone couldn't countenance the trauma of a trimming from their old rivals. The Kingdom scraped over the line by one point.
Tyrone also had history to draw from. When the sides met in Omagh in 2009, they were in the same position. Kerry were ahead by 11 at half-time. Tyrone were within a point by the end but the atmosphere was toxic. Ryan McMenamin slapped Marc Ó Sé. Jack O'Connor faced off with Colm McCullagh. McMenamin was suspended for eight weeks for kneeing Paul Galvin in the groin. Both counties were fined €2,000.
Kerry wanted to make a stand, Tyrone refused to yield, which provided the perfect metaphor for the counties' modern rivalry. The relationship has been defined by a tension rooted in their differences, but what had driven them apart also bound them together to make them great.
Testing
Their championship meetings since 2003 have always been the key reference points but their league meetings have invariably been the testing ground. Since 2003, seven of their ten games were either the penultimate or final matches in Division 1. Almost all the games had something riding on them.
On Sunday, the prospect of relegation hangs over both teams.
Some of those previous meetings set the tone for the year: 2003 and '05 in Killarney; '04 and '09 in Omagh. A few of those games were brilliant. Others were wars.
"There has always been an edge to the relationship but I think it's been more in league than championship," says former Tyrone player Philip Jordan. "Maybe players are a little more relaxed in that if they get sent off, it's not as big as in the summer."
Kerry-Tyrone championship matches have invariably been seminal games invested with a monumental significance. Old World versus New Order. Then New World versus New Order. Kerry will always be Gaelic football's supreme power but even they cannot deny the part Tyrone have played in framing their current identity.
"Would Kerry take any extra pleasure in relegating Tyrone now?" asks former Kerry player Dara Ó Cinnéide. "A small bit probably. You'd still hear it from a small element within Kerry supporters accusing Tyrone of starting the current culture of football with their northern-style game. There is no northern-style football. We're all it."
In the early days, Kerry felt they had a right to cock their noses at Tyrone. In December 2004, then Kerry chairman Sean Walsh used his annual report to proclaim his delight that "it took a Kerry team to restore pride in Gaelic football, with a return to a free-flowing game as opposed to suffocating, blanket defensive football".
In his book, Jack O'Connor claimed that "losing to Tyrone is worse than losing to almost anybody else". O'Connor added: "there's an arrogance to northern football which rubs Kerry people up the wrong way. They're flash and nouveau riche and full of it."
Initially, that was how Kerry viewed Tyrone. "After they beat us in 2003, I wouldn't have respected them," says Ó Cinnéide. "I just thought, 'This isn't the way we want to play football'. Then Jack O'Connor took over and said, 'This is the way the game is going, we either adapt or die'. We won in 2004 but Tyrone kept evolving. After 2005, I had huge respect for them."
For Tyrone, they felt they had Kerry's number after their breakthrough.
"In 2003, we might have caught them a wee bit by surprise but we were on a different level to them in 2005," says Jordan (pictured).
Tyrone repeatedly out-fought and out-thought Kerry. When Kerry did beat them in a qualifier in 2012, it helped scratch an itch, even if the victory never fully removed the unease.
"It was still a hollow enough victory in 2012," says Ó Cinnéide. "It was never avenging anything really because that ship had sailed. Of course it p***es me off we didn't beat them in those games but what can you do about it? Darragh (Ó Sé) said that he never lost any sleep over it."
The deep respect Tyrone earned from Kerry firmly manifested itself in the manner in which Harte and his players were embraced after that 2012 game. Yet when it appeared any lingering dust had settled, sparks flew again.
In his annual report, Tyrone secretary Dominic McCaughey talked about poor refereeing in Killarney and how Kerry's victory was "greeted, amazingly, with tears of joy by some players and wild scenes of jubilation among highly vociferous supporters". The point was clear. A qualifier victory would never match the monumental games Tyrone had won against Kerry.
When Cookstown and Finuge met in an All-Ireland club Intermediate final two months later, both sides got embroiled in a vortex of retribution and reprisals, involving alleged spitting incidents and sectarian remarks. It was dispiriting, coming just 12 months after another chaotic club game between Derrytresk and Dromid Pearses.
The trouble in those club games reflected the worst of the rivalry but it never fully infected the counties' relationship, especially between the players.
"The reception Mickey got in 2012 stands for way more than a couple of incidents in club games," says Jordan. "Certainly after 2005, we always felt respect from Kerry towards us. We talk about Kerry and their players with huge respect. People on the outside probably get more worked up about Tyrone-Kerry than the players."
It is easy to forget now the epic games they played and the part that had in creating two of football's greatest teams. Tyrone may no longer be the team they were but their players can still always call on their legacy when they play Kerry.
"Even though most of the players are gone now and Tyrone will be going in with the mindset of underdogs, Tyrone have always been fit to lift it against Kerry," says Jordan. "That lack of confidence they've had recently is an issue but that wee bit of confidence Tyrone always have against Kerry might help them get a result on Sunday."
The atmosphere will be charged. The threat of relegation will sharpen the serrated edge of the rivalry but that tension still neatly encapsulates the jagged beauty of a relationship that has done so much to define modern football.
Irish Independent
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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 Apr 3, 2015 11:55:43 GMT
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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 Apr 3, 2015 13:13:30 GMT
Prizefighters still slugging it out to end Christy O'Connor 03/04/2015 | 02:30 Two years ago, Kerry rolled into Omagh for their final league game. Tyrone had already qualified for the semi-finals. Kerry desperately needed a win to survive in Division 1. Kerry led by 11 points at half-time but Tyrone couldn't countenance the trauma of a trimming from their old rivals. The Kingdom scraped over the line by one point. Tyrone also had history to draw from. When the sides met in Omagh in 2009, they were in the same position. Kerry were ahead by 11 at half-time. Tyrone were within a point by the end but the atmosphere was toxic. Ryan McMenamin slapped Marc Ó Sé. Jack O'Connor faced off with Colm McCullagh. McMenamin was suspended for eight weeks for kneeing Paul Galvin in the groin. Both counties were fined €2,000. Kerry wanted to make a stand, Tyrone refused to yield, which provided the perfect metaphor for the counties' modern rivalry. The relationship has been defined by a tension rooted in their differences, but what had driven them apart also bound them together to make them great. Testing Their championship meetings since 2003 have always been the key reference points but their league meetings have invariably been the testing ground. Since 2003, seven of their ten games were either the penultimate or final matches in Division 1. Almost all the games had something riding on them. On Sunday, the prospect of relegation hangs over both teams. Some of those previous meetings set the tone for the year: 2003 and '05 in Killarney; '04 and '09 in Omagh. A few of those games were brilliant. Others were wars. "There has always been an edge to the relationship but I think it's been more in league than championship," says former Tyrone player Philip Jordan. "Maybe players are a little more relaxed in that if they get sent off, it's not as big as in the summer." Kerry-Tyrone championship matches have invariably been seminal games invested with a monumental significance. Old World versus New Order. Then New World versus New Order. Kerry will always be Gaelic football's supreme power but even they cannot deny the part Tyrone have played in framing their current identity. "Would Kerry take any extra pleasure in relegating Tyrone now?" asks former Kerry player Dara Ó Cinnéide. "A small bit probably. You'd still hear it from a small element within Kerry supporters accusing Tyrone of starting the current culture of football with their northern-style game. There is no northern-style football. We're all it." In the early days, Kerry felt they had a right to cock their noses at Tyrone. In December 2004, then Kerry chairman Sean Walsh used his annual report to proclaim his delight that "it took a Kerry team to restore pride in Gaelic football, with a return to a free-flowing game as opposed to suffocating, blanket defensive football". In his book, Jack O'Connor claimed that "losing to Tyrone is worse than losing to almost anybody else". O'Connor added: "there's an arrogance to northern football which rubs Kerry people up the wrong way. They're flash and nouveau riche and full of it." Initially, that was how Kerry viewed Tyrone. "After they beat us in 2003, I wouldn't have respected them," says Ó Cinnéide. "I just thought, 'This isn't the way we want to play football'. Then Jack O'Connor took over and said, 'This is the way the game is going, we either adapt or die'. We won in 2004 but Tyrone kept evolving. After 2005, I had huge respect for them." For Tyrone, they felt they had Kerry's number after their breakthrough. "In 2003, we might have caught them a wee bit by surprise but we were on a different level to them in 2005," says Jordan (pictured). Tyrone repeatedly out-fought and out-thought Kerry. When Kerry did beat them in a qualifier in 2012, it helped scratch an itch, even if the victory never fully removed the unease. "It was still a hollow enough victory in 2012," says Ó Cinnéide. "It was never avenging anything really because that ship had sailed. Of course it p***es me off we didn't beat them in those games but what can you do about it? Darragh (Ó Sé) said that he never lost any sleep over it." The deep respect Tyrone earned from Kerry firmly manifested itself in the manner in which Harte and his players were embraced after that 2012 game. Yet when it appeared any lingering dust had settled, sparks flew again. In his annual report, Tyrone secretary Dominic McCaughey talked about poor refereeing in Killarney and how Kerry's victory was "greeted, amazingly, with tears of joy by some players and wild scenes of jubilation among highly vociferous supporters". The point was clear. A qualifier victory would never match the monumental games Tyrone had won against Kerry. When Cookstown and Finuge met in an All-Ireland club Intermediate final two months later, both sides got embroiled in a vortex of retribution and reprisals, involving alleged spitting incidents and sectarian remarks. It was dispiriting, coming just 12 months after another chaotic club game between Derrytresk and Dromid Pearses. The trouble in those club games reflected the worst of the rivalry but it never fully infected the counties' relationship, especially between the players. "The reception Mickey got in 2012 stands for way more than a couple of incidents in club games," says Jordan. "Certainly after 2005, we always felt respect from Kerry towards us. We talk about Kerry and their players with huge respect. People on the outside probably get more worked up about Tyrone-Kerry than the players." It is easy to forget now the epic games they played and the part that had in creating two of football's greatest teams. Tyrone may no longer be the team they were but their players can still always call on their legacy when they play Kerry. "Even though most of the players are gone now and Tyrone will be going in with the mindset of underdogs, Tyrone have always been fit to lift it against Kerry," says Jordan. "That lack of confidence they've had recently is an issue but that wee bit of confidence Tyrone always have against Kerry might help them get a result on Sunday." The atmosphere will be charged. The threat of relegation will sharpen the serrated edge of the rivalry but that tension still neatly encapsulates the jagged beauty of a relationship that has done so much to define modern football. Irish Independent Christ, it's tiresome journalism, and Christy is a journalist I'd have a lot of time for. Trying to evoke the past to stir up another potential possible confrontation. Again, most f these players never met each other in Championship and specifically in those AI finals. I'd expect Kerry not to get lured into trying to make a sequel of past games
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Post by shannonsider on Apr 3, 2015 14:54:55 GMT
It's Martin Carney fitzwop..would you expect any better? The guy must have dirt on someone in RTE. 20 years now they've been using him for "analysis" and the man is clueless beyond belief.
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Post by yellowbelly on Apr 3, 2015 16:12:34 GMT
2009 game in Omagh
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Post by Dermot on Apr 3, 2015 17:18:46 GMT
I hadn't registered for the Independent forum before but I'm sick at the impending bull from the ulster disease I am sure our Tyrone poster will disagree but the truth hurts - they advanced - deserved to win in 2005 but we threw it away 2008 - still they took their chances And mark my words - Tyrone will raise their game exponentially to try and relegate us. They and their manager and fans may lie but they wanna see us go down in Tyrone and save themselves Hopefully footfall will win out over the pukes return Times past, we arent the threat we were but you keep on sucking on them lemons there Trev .. still hurting I see !!
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Post by Ard Mhacha on Apr 3, 2015 18:39:58 GMT
And mark my words - Tyrone will raise their game exponentially to try and relegate us. They and their manager and fans may lie but they wanna see us go down in Tyrone and save themselves That's a ridiculous post... Of course they want you relegated. It's a winner takes all game. It's got nothing to do with Tyrone and Kerry. Just two teams trying to stay up. You're building it up as an anti-Kerry issue.
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Post by wayupnorth on Apr 3, 2015 19:11:14 GMT
And mark my words - Tyrone will raise their game exponentially to try and relegate us. They and their manager and fans may lie but they wanna see us go down in Tyrone and save themselves That's a ridiculous post... Of course they want you relegated. It's a winner takes all game. It's got nothing to do with Tyrone and Kerry. Just two teams trying to stay up. You're building it up as an anti-Kerry issue. And we want Tyrone to be relegated just as much. It's not personal - just a matter of survival which will be assured if we win. And if we don't it's our own fault and nothing to do with "puke football".
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Post by Ballyfireside on Apr 3, 2015 19:17:27 GMT
From all my years and all the counties we have met, Tyrone supporters stand out but maybe that also has to do with meeting them so often socially in Donegal. Players can get a bit worked up but supporters and commentators and in advance of the game, well it's a bit much. It is a sport between two of the greatest sporting counties and it should be celebrated for that. Tyrone have been through rough times in so many respects and did you ever hear 'em complain? They love everything about Kerry, well apart from an hour every so often, best of frenemies we are, friends who are occasionally enemies. How could anyone suggest of anti-Kerry feeling when they still watch videos of our 4 in a row teams. Ah everyone shouts for the underdogs at times because we have won so much. It is not because we are Kerry, it is because we are good and everyone likes to see the Kings dethroned, apart from The Kings that is!
I think Dara Ó Cinnéide put it best, 'there will be a championship edge to this game' because it is a relegation decider and yes, Tyrone did see beating Kerry as the definitive mark of their arrival, and that is as big a compliment as you could get, they saw us as a benchmark. Dara is universally popular in Tyrone, even Ulster, and I think his tone is part of this and his Gaeilge heritage also helps. Spillane would be much admired for his achievements on the pitch and less for his 'metaphors' and it is just one of those things, they don't like too much vocal stuff and that is just their culture, just as we all have our likes and dislikes.
What I find most exciting is the increasingly unpredictable nature of the clash; I'd challenge anyone to make any prediction about the game with any degree of probability, well apart from the fact that both teams will giving it their all to win, so expect intensity from pillar to post. Spring is late but the first day of Summer Football is 6 weeks early on Easter Sunday at Healy Park in Omagh. The country might be broke but no amount of money couldn't buy this. This is the third time I have lived through such exciting times as regards Kerry GAA and better it gets. It just goes to show what we have and very few countries in the world have anything like it. Long live amateur GAA sports and anything that threatens it should be eliminated.
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Post by Sons of Pitches on Apr 3, 2015 19:29:32 GMT
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Post by wayupnorth on Apr 3, 2015 19:41:33 GMT
Hopefully nothing serious as he's recovering at home. Wishing him a speedy recovery and return to duties.
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Post by misteallaigh abú on Apr 3, 2015 20:36:18 GMT
Best wishes to Mickey Harte, hopefully he will make a speedy recovery. I can't honestly see where, on either team,the heavy scoring forwards are. Certainly, from our own starting 6, only Bryan Sheehan may rack up a decent score,given his deadly accuracy from frees. Other than that, Barry John, while energetic and busy, misses a lot more than he should. Stephen O Brien hasn't shown the same scoring form as last year, I could go on but maybe I'm just being too pessimistic? This game certainly won't be for the faint hearted. Tyrone will be revved up for this one. They have performed respectably in the league, Donegal excepted. We really shouldn't have put ourselves in this position, Omagh is no easy place to go looking for league points. I assume Gooch and Galvin aren't just going for the weekend sightseeing. This is certainly a game that I dread and savour in equal measure. I might end up watching the last few minutes from behind the couch! A win,however it comes,is a must. Here's hoping...
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Post by greengold35 on Apr 4, 2015 6:31:25 GMT
Joe McQuillan has replaced the injured Eddie Kinsella as ref!
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 4, 2015 7:29:26 GMT
Any last little vestiges of complacency have just be washed away!
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fivenarow
Senior Member
If it aint broken, then dont fix it!
Posts: 924
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Post by fivenarow on Apr 4, 2015 9:16:55 GMT
Joe McQuillan has replaced the injured Eddie Kinsella as ref! I thought we'd win by 3 pts but a draw looks a good bet now!
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Post by kerrygold on Apr 4, 2015 9:52:01 GMT
That's a very distasteful selection from Croke Park, Isn't Sean Walsh the new referees man to replace McEnaney? I don't want to see McQuillan near any Kerry team, not least a relegation play off against an Ulster team at an Ulster venue. A piss poor call..............
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Post by kerrygold on Apr 4, 2015 9:56:33 GMT
Could Bryan Sheehan’s return save Kerry from the GAA Division 1 drop? 1 Saturday, April 04, 2015Dara Ó Cinnéide Art is born of humiliation. [W.H. Auden]
If what W.H. Auden once said to a young Stephen Spender is true then we could be in for a classic in Healy Park, Omagh tomorrow. Sadly we suspect Tyrone’s humiliation at the hands of Donegal last weekend and Kerry’s poor showing against Monaghan will merely give rise to a less than uplifting exercise in the art of survival.
For the second time in three seasons, Kerry head to Healy Park trying to ensure their survival in Division 1. Two seasons ago their early enthusiasm nearly got bogged down in the heavily sanded pitch. The fact that the same pitch was bordering on waterlogged for the under -21 match in midweek adds to the feeling that this one could be a proper dogfight.
The challenge is even greater for Tyrone. The only game they have won thus far, away to Mayo in Castlebar, earned them few admirers. A draw in claustrophobic conditions three weeks ago in Croke Park added to their reputation as a team in damage limitation mode, and their other draw, with Derry, is a poor indicator of where they’re at given the atrocious conditions on the night and Derry’s subsequent form.
It might be stating the obvious to say Tyrone are nowhere near as good as the team of ten years ago but where exactly do they stand six weeks out from their championship game against Donegal? Only Seán Cavanagh remains of the gilded generation but those 25 or 30 minutes stretches without getting a score from play suggests his ability to control the tempo of a game are waning. Cavanagh’s decline as a general has also shown up a distinct lack of leadership qualities among some emerging players. Cathal McCarron, Peter Harte and Mattie Donnelly are all serious footballers but it’s been a while since we’ve seen any of them take the game by the scruff of the neck as we suspect they can.
The absence of Conor Gormley, Joe McMahon, Martin Penrose and Mark Donnelly has robbed Tyrone of much of their game-winning nous. The departure of Mickey Harte’s assistant Tony Donnelly and team trainer Fergal McCann last autumn was a further blow and while they are always capable of playing with energy and passion - and neither commodity will be lacking given the venue and opposition tomorrow - they can no longer be relied upon to produce the bewilderingly smart football that did for Kerry so often in the past. Based on their collapse against Donegal last weekend, the steel and the bite associated with players such as Ryan McMenamin and Philip Jordan is being sorely missed too, and it is hard to imagine Tyrone players of the recent past would stand on ceremony while they got bullied by Michael Murphy, as happened six days ago. Expect a reaction tomorrow as Tyrone are thrown an unexpected lifeline by Kerry’s ineptitude in Austin Stack Park last Sunday.
If you stood behind the scoreboard goals, as I did in Tralee, the first thing you would have noticed is the narrowness of the lines of Kerry’s attack all day. I don’t think a single Kerry forward made a selfless run or a run where he sacrificed himself to create space for a team-mate. These decoy runs often appear like meaningless darts to the sidelines and to corners, but they can expose hidden dimensions and pockets of space from which others can score. This lack of width can occur during the league when players aren’t playing much football together during the week and when the narrow focus on merely getting on the end of moves for scores is mirrored by a lack of imagination all over the field.
Kieran Donaghy, normally the most selfless of players himself, became the first casualty of this trend against Monaghan. While Vinny Corey deserves some kudos for his attentive shackling of the Kerry captain, the fact that Corey still had enough energy in the final ten minutes to make a few telling bursts upfield is a sure sign that he wasn’t worked enough by the Kerry forwards.
Contrast that with the amount of energy Kerry’s midfield of David Moran and Anthony Maher had to expend trying to counteract the width in Monaghan’s transitions from defence to attack. With nominal forwards, Dermot Malone and Dessie Mone, playing between their own half-back and full-back lines and counter attacking at pace, Moran and Maher got stretched just as they did against Cork and there was general uncertainty regarding who exactly should pick up the runners from deep.
With so many teams playing a zonal defence nowadays, individual players can feel removed from their traditional responsibilities to themselves and to teammates.
In this set-up, the defensive system maintains itself at least partly through players self-policing, but it is too easy to opt out. Last Sunday was a typical league match in Tralee and with a strong wind blowing straight down the field, it was probably a day for the traditional values of individual graft and taking responsibility at both ends of the field. The goal that Kerry conceded was a good example of this as Peter Crowley got caught in the buffer zone between defence and attack, and ended up neither defending or attacking. Mattie Donnelly will pose as great a challenge to Crowley tomorrow as Darren Hughes did last Sunday and I for one would like to see Crowley, or a colleague, take up the challenge in the same way he did when faced with Paul Flynn in the championship two seasons ago - in a traditional man marking role.
There are a few more factors worth considering ahead of tomorrow. Rory Beggan’s performance in goals for Monaghan the last day was stunning.
Apart from the magnificent free kick he nailed in the first half, he was also brilliant in the bread and butter business of maintaining a consistent and controlled kick-out into the breeze. The legitimate nailing of debutant Thomas Hickey when clearing his lines before the end was a mere bonus for Beggan.
Niall Morgan, a ball playing goalkeeper, who isn’t afraid to attack the high ball and whose default kickout is long and accurate, is cut from the same cloth as Beggan.
Monaghan bargained on having a greater appetite for the breaking ball than Kerry and on flooding the area where the kick-out was landing.
Aiming to win the battle for scraps by dent of sheer weight of numbers is a calculated risk that Tyrone often take.
Statistics will show that Kerry won more than 50% (12 out of 23) of the breaking ball last Sunday, but it somehow didn’t feel like that as Monaghan won 10 of their own sixteen kick-outs into the breeze.
Finally, Dublin’s Dean Rock showed the importance a few weeks back of having a good free-taker against Tyrone when they set up defensively. The four free kicks he hit in the first half in Croke Park proved invaluable as the game opened up later on.
When Kerry are without Bryan Sheehan, the opposition is emboldened by his absence because they know that any mildly difficult free is unlikely to be scored.
Sheehan’s return and good health tomorrow may prove to be the differencefor Kerry between Division 1 and Division 2 football in 2016.
© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved
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Post by playitfair on Apr 4, 2015 10:33:13 GMT
That's a very distasteful selection from Croke Park, Isn't Sean Walsh the new referees man to replace McEnaney? I don't want to see McQuillan near any Kerry team, not least a relegation play off against an Ulster team at an Ulster venue. A piss poor call.............. If Kerry don't measure up, it will not be as a result of the referee. I don't know who appoints referees, I would doubt if Sean Walsh is appointing them directly as Chairman. Even if he was, he must demonstrate NO Kerry bias in any way. Its now 4 years since the 2011 AI-final, lets get over it.
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Apr 4, 2015 11:10:55 GMT
That's a very distasteful selection from Croke Park, Isn't Sean Walsh the new referees man to replace McEnaney? I don't want to see McQuillan near any Kerry team, not least a relegation play off against an Ulster team at an Ulster venue. A piss poor call.............. If Kerry don't measure up, it will not be as a result of the referee. I don't know who appoints referees, I would doubt if Sean Walsh is appointing them directly as Chairman. Even if he was, he must demonstrate NO Kerry bias in any way. Its now 4 years since the 2011 AI-final, lets get over it. Here, here. Leave that class of moaning to Mayo.
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inchperfect
Senior Member
No longer active member.
Posts: 272
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Post by inchperfect on Apr 4, 2015 14:28:47 GMT
That's a very distasteful selection from Croke Park, Isn't Sean Walsh the new referees man to replace McEnaney? I don't want to see McQuillan near any Kerry team, not least a relegation play off against an Ulster team at an Ulster venue. A piss poor call.............. If Kerry don't measure up, it will not be as a result of the referee. I don't know who appoints referees, I would doubt if Sean Walsh is appointing them directly as Chairman. Even if he was, he must demonstrate NO Kerry bias in any way. Its now 4 years since the 2011 AI-final, lets get over it. Not forgetting the time he ruled out a perfect Killian Young goal in an important part of the match in a quarter-final we lost to Down for an incorrect Donnchadh Walsh handpass when there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. As for the 2011 final... that refereeing performance was just... deplorable. He screws us over every time he refs our games. It's not conjecture, it's fact. Of course we'll have to be the better team anyway if we want to win but it will feel like playing with a man less.
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