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Post by Chinatown on Jul 17, 2022 8:25:48 GMT
Why are the Kerry Ladies wearing 4 year old jerseys? Good question, I assume they have the same cadence of jersey changes as the lads
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diego
Fanatical Member
Posts: 1,130
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Post by diego on Jul 17, 2022 13:02:09 GMT
Very impressed by the Kerry goalkeeper Ciara Butler in the last couples games against Armagh and Mayo. Very good and courageous shot stopper, and good distribution from hand and foot passes. Good decision making as well, not risking the short kick out when it wasn't on. That resulted in 50-50 contests in the middle that we didn't always win but sometimes you have to live with that if the opponent is pressing up well.
Fair play to the small Derrynane club for having 2 of the starting forward line Anna Galvin and Síofra O'Shea. Síofra was ruled out last year with a long term knee injury. She has played international basketball for Ireland at underage level, and you can see the quick hands and vision playing a part in a lot of the good movements that led to key scores especially in the Armagh game.
Meath are tough campaigners and have some serious forwards in Duggan, Wall and Grimes.
It has the makings of a cracking final.
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Jul 18, 2022 21:19:32 GMT
I watched the rest of the Sunday Game I presumed the women would get a mention but no. I assume there is a good reason.
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Post by Attacking Wing Back on Jul 19, 2022 16:13:24 GMT
I watched the rest of the Sunday Game I presumed the women would get a mention but no. I assume there is a good reason. TG4 have the rights to the games. I don't know about highlights etc
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Post by ruralgaa on Jul 21, 2022 10:11:08 GMT
Are Hannah O'Donoghue and Fiadhna Tangney on the panel at all? They played prominent parts in UL winning the O'Connor cup. Are they gone to the states for the summer maybe?
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Post by veteran on Jul 21, 2022 12:31:32 GMT
Are Hannah O'Donoghue and Fiadhna Tangney on the panel at all? They played prominent parts in UL winning the O'Connor cup. Are they gone to the states for the summer maybe? Read someplace they were going to the US for the summer. Hannah is a huge loss. On the other hand , if Kerry win they will be two very disappointed young women languishing on the other side do the Atlantic rather than being in Croke Park on a momentous day. That is the way the dice of life rolls.
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Post by ruralgaa on Jul 21, 2022 13:00:46 GMT
Are Hannah O'Donoghue and Fiadhna Tangney on the panel at all? They played prominent parts in UL winning the O'Connor cup. Are they gone to the states for the summer maybe? Read someplace they were going to the US for the summer. Hannah is a huge loss. On the other hand , if Kerry win they will be two very disappointed young women languishing on the other side do the Atlantic rather than being in Croke Park on a momentous day. That is the way the dice of life rolls. Thanks for that Veteran. Two good players. Would be nice to see a couple of All Ireland medals head to the Black Valley. I doubt that this has happened before in either the ladies or mens game....
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Post by homerj on Jul 27, 2022 12:16:50 GMT
such a shame that this game is so close to the mens final, its just not fair on the girls.
there will be people debating going to dublin for the 5th weekend out of 6 this weekend and that isnt sustainable or correct.
attendance will be way down due to the time of the year and the cost factor on kerry supporters cannot be ignored. add in the bank holiday and its really really not good planning.
id myself pencilled in to go until it came as a surprise to see it on the bank holiday sunday and id already plans made for that weekend, was sure would be the weekend after.
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Post by thepromisedland on Jul 27, 2022 12:42:00 GMT
such a shame that this game is so close to the mens final, its just not fair on the girls. there will be people debating going to dublin for the 5th weekend out of 6 this weekend and that isnt sustainable or correct. attendance will be way down due to the time of the year and the cost factor on kerry supporters cannot be ignored. add in the bank holiday and its really really not good planning. id myself pencilled in to go until it came as a surprise to see it on the bank holiday sunday and id already plans made for that weekend, was sure would be the weekend after. Absolutely 💯 correct 👏 👌. This is only backing up the claim here for the rushed season not working, or at least another part of it, I know of a man from Limerick that had his sixth!! Sunday in a row going up to support us last Sunday, as he's married to a Kerrywoman, between the Limerick hurlers and the Kerry footballers. He's big time out of pocket now, so during this cost of living crisis, GAA HQ simply do not want to know, however they'll collect their twenty pieces of silver from the Gareth Brooks gigs in September though. Rush, rush, rush, get this over and done with, no proper build up to anything. This is unsustainable, if the cost of living crisis remains indefinite. It is very unfair to our Kerry Ladies, they have had a terrific year, I had planned on going myself, but Croke Park again, for the fourth time in six weeks? The Kerry Ladies work as hard as anyone else, as the best sadly we can do, is root for them from home, I feel bad about this. I still think the full participation of Síofra O' Shea in this years championship has made a huge difference, her insightful runs and natural flair can be superb to watch, she rises, the rest of the girls rise, Her club mate Anna and of course, the mercurial and evergreen Louise. Meath will be a hard nut to crack, they have the experience and physicality, but I think, pound for pound, our girls are better footballers. All to see, sadly, I think the Kerry support will be miniscule compared to next door to Dublin Meath, a victim of our own success, so close to the men's final last Sunday. You are spot on!
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Jul 27, 2022 12:49:35 GMT
Is there scope for the women's games to grab the August and September light? Or have they followed the GAA in having a split season?
I don't want to get into talking about fixture scheduling in LGFA vs camogie!
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 27, 2022 13:44:50 GMT
such a shame that this game is so close to the mens final, its just not fair on the girls. there will be people debating going to dublin for the 5th weekend out of 6 this weekend and that isnt sustainable or correct. attendance will be way down due to the time of the year and the cost factor on kerry supporters cannot be ignored. add in the bank holiday and its really really not good planning. id myself pencilled in to go until it came as a surprise to see it on the bank holiday sunday and id already plans made for that weekend, was sure would be the weekend after. Absolutely 💯 correct 👏 👌. This is only backing up the claim here for the rushed season not working, or at least another part of it, I know of a man from Limerick that had his sixth!! Sunday in a row going up to support us last Sunday, as he's married to a Kerrywoman, between the Limerick hurlers and the Kerry footballers. He's big time out of pocket now, so during this cost of living crisis, GAA HQ simply do not want to know, however they'll collect their twenty pieces of silver from the Gareth Brooks gigs in September though. Rush, rush, rush, get this over and done with, no proper build up to anything. This is unsustainable, if the cost of living crisis remains indefinite. It is very unfair to our Kerry Ladies, they have had a terrific year, I had planned on going myself, but Croke Park again, for the fourth time in six weeks? The Kerry Ladies work as hard as anyone else, as the best sadly we can do, is root for them from home, I feel bad about this. I still think the full participation of Síofra O' Shea in this years championship has made a huge difference, her insightful runs and natural flair can be superb to watch, she rises, the rest of the girls rise, Her club mate Anna and of course, the mercurial and evergreen Louise. Meath will be a hard nut to crack, they have the experience and physicality, but I think, pound for pound, our girls are better footballers. All to see, sadly, I think the Kerry support will be miniscule compared to next door to Dublin Meath, a victim of our own success, so close to the men's final last Sunday. You are spot on! I hope that Limerickman thats married to the Kerrywoman realises how lucky he is!
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Post by inforthebreaks on Jul 27, 2022 14:41:38 GMT
The womens final has always been on the week after the mens
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Post by homerj on Jul 27, 2022 15:00:09 GMT
The womens final has always been on the week after the mens yes but 5-8 weeks after the 4 mens semi finals, 3 weeks after hurling final etc. even the build up to the football game suffered because the hurling was a few days before its all condensed now into 3 weeks essentially. this time 2 weeks ago, we were still buzzing after the dubs game! and critically, the ladies was late september when not alot else on and schools back, nobody on holidays. the mens final will always sell out, but the ladies is going to suffer, big time. hopefully some of the senior mens team make the effort to go up and support them.
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Post by thepromisedland on Jul 27, 2022 15:14:01 GMT
Absolutely 💯 correct 👏 👌. This is only backing up the claim here for the rushed season not working, or at least another part of it, I know of a man from Limerick that had his sixth!! Sunday in a row going up to support us last Sunday, as he's married to a Kerrywoman, between the Limerick hurlers and the Kerry footballers. He's big time out of pocket now, so during this cost of living crisis, GAA HQ simply do not want to know, however they'll collect their twenty pieces of silver from the Gareth Brooks gigs in September though. Rush, rush, rush, get this over and done with, no proper build up to anything. This is unsustainable, if the cost of living crisis remains indefinite. It is very unfair to our Kerry Ladies, they have had a terrific year, I had planned on going myself, but Croke Park again, for the fourth time in six weeks? The Kerry Ladies work as hard as anyone else, as the best sadly we can do, is root for them from home, I feel bad about this. I still think the full participation of Síofra O' Shea in this years championship has made a huge difference, her insightful runs and natural flair can be superb to watch, she rises, the rest of the girls rise, Her club mate Anna and of course, the mercurial and evergreen Louise. Meath will be a hard nut to crack, they have the experience and physicality, but I think, pound for pound, our girls are better footballers. All to see, sadly, I think the Kerry support will be miniscule compared to next door to Dublin Meath, a victim of our own success, so close to the men's final last Sunday. You are spot on! I hope that Limerickman thats married to the Kerrywoman realises how lucky he is! Wish I was!!🤣😅
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 29, 2022 20:16:55 GMT
The semi final v mayo
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Post by john4 on Jul 29, 2022 20:22:42 GMT
Best of luck ladies 🤞🤞
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 29, 2022 22:21:12 GMT
Meath v Mayo semi final
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 29, 2022 22:29:26 GMT
If you go to around 34 minutes into that video you will see the look of determination on the face of Vickey wall at the start of the second half. Meath were poor in the opening half but Vickey kicks the opening score with her left foot. She then proceeds to drag her team into the match but she got sent off with 10 minutes to go. Up steps Emma Duggan then to lead Meath to victory. It was quite something to watch these two players in action. The intensity is unreal.
Not sure those two players can be contained on Sunday but if Kerry can limit their influence Kerry have a good chance. It may be a big step up in intensity though.
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 30, 2022 6:58:20 GMT
Meath like to counter attack. Kerry like to create goals by working the ball through. Hopefully Kerry can avoid being stripped of possession often.
Kerry may be the better balanced side. Not as dependent on a small number of players the way Meath are.
I am hopeful that Kerry will do it.
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 30, 2022 9:37:15 GMT
‘I just fed him and then he fell asleep and I handed him to one of the backroom staff while I had a shower’ Louise Galvin returned to the Kerry panel less than three months after giving birth. Kerry play Meath in tomorrow’s All-Ireland final
Sinead Kissane
July 30 2022 02:30 AM
Louise Galvin was trying to cover every possibility on the eve of Kerry’s TG4 All-Ireland football semi-final against Mayo two weeks ago in Croke Park.
The Kerry management had organised a bedroom in the team hotel in Dublin the night before the game especially for her, baby Florian, and her husband, Donnchadh Walsh.
Galvin’s return to the Kerry panel has come with new layers of pre-match prep with her nearly four-month-old baby who she’s breast-feeding. She had new ‘what ifs?’ to consider. What if the semi-final goes to extra-time? What if the baby doesn’t have enough expressed milk to see him through? It’s probably not the typical list of questions an inter-county footballer might have the night before an All-Ireland semi-final.
“Even the last day up in Dublin, you’re staying overnight and your team-mates are talking about prep and match-bags. And then I was handing in expressed milk into the restaurant to put into the fridge to pick up the next morning so Donnchadh would have it during the game. And you want to have enough in case there’s extra-time and all this,” Galvin tells the Irish Independent.
Sport has an incredible power to both normalise and show what’s possible, and that’s what Galvin did when she possibly became the first inter-county footballer to breastfeed her baby in a Croke Park dressing room after an All-Ireland semi-final.
For Galvin, it was just about practicalities. “When it comes to actual gametime, I’ve him handed over (to Donnchadh) and, no offence, but he’s out of my head until the final whistle is blown. And then I’m like, okay I can feel I’m full here, he probably needs to feed and I need to feed him as well. So, where is he and jump on,” Galvin says with a smile.
“No-one really batted an eyelid – the same as I’d done in Tullamore (for the All-Ireland quarter-final against Armagh). I just fed him and then he fell asleep and I handed him to one of the backroom staff while I had a shower. And then I went in for food and straight-away Declan (Quill, joint-manager), who’d finished eating, said, ‘here I’ll take him, you eat’.”
Galvin was surprised by the huge response she got to the video interview she gave to Off the Ball’s Aisling O’Reilly after she came out of the dressing room holding baby Florian. “I like that it’s showing girls in the team you don’t have to stop playing once you have a baby.
“Now, I wouldn’t recommend coming back as quick as I did, necessarily. If I was to write out the perfect plan, I wouldn’t say that was it. But the nature of the season and how condensed it was meant that it’s now or never. You had to give it a shot. It was a shot to nothing, basically.”
This shot to nothing wasn’t pre-planned. Galvin, who’s on maternity leave from her job as a physio, was in a text conversation last month with joint-manager Darragh Long when she mentioned that she was back club training.
It was nearly two and a half months, at that stage, since she’d given birth to Florian at the end of March and the notion of playing for Kerry this summer just wasn’t a runner.
But then Long texted her: see you at training on Wednesday. Galvin wondered was he serious. She asked him the following morning. No, he wasn’t serious but then it lit the idea for them both and it spiralled from there.
Galvin had been given the all-clear to go back training in her six-week check-up with a women’s health physio in Killarney but she couldn’t believe the general shortage of post-natal information for women who want to return to play sport. She followed the story of Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir – Iceland’s soccer captain, who returned from giving birth to playing at this summer’s Euros.
“The lack of information, the lack of knowledge, the lack of research in that whole area. We know that in all sports research the majority is done on males anyway. So, you can imagine then when you’re talking about post-natal athletes there’s a complete dearth of information.
“I asked my public health nurse when she came to the house, ‘when can I play contact sport?’. She looked at me and said she’d never been asked that by anyone before when she was coming out to a first-time mom.”
Galvin had questions before returning to the Kerry panel. Would the players be okay with her coming back in during the championship? How would she handle training while breast-feeding? And how would her own body respond to training at inter-county standard?
“I was only back club training a few weeks, at that stage, I hadn’t even played a game. Plus, you don’t want to come back in and upset the applecart. (Kerry were) obviously going well. Was it going to be more of a distraction or a negative rather than a potential positive?
“We just laid the cards on the table. There were no promises from my end because I couldn’t promise what my body would be able for.
“I’m feeding (Florian) and we were just starting to express and getting him to take a bottle. But if it wasn’t going to work out with him, then it wasn’t going to work out. He’s obviously the priority.”
With baby on board, Galvin was back in the game. The players wanted her back. And from a family viewpoint, it just fell into place. Donnchadh’s season as a physio with the Kerry hurlers finished on June 11 and days later she was back training with the Kerry panel.
They decided if there was a clash between her playing inter-county and Donnchadh playing club football during this time, then her playing would take precedent.
On June 25, Galvin was Maor Uisce for Kerry’s game against Westmeath in Killarney and then she was named among the subs for the All-Ireland quarter-final against Armagh on July 9 and the semi-final against Mayo a week later. She was an unused sub in those games.
How did she feel after the first few training sessions?
“Oh, absolutely terrible, awful yeah,” Galvin laughs.
“I’d have a lot of muscle memory built up. I’d have an aerobic capacity base built up over the years but it’s that kind of reaction and change of direction – like the ball just taking a hop and then going in another direction, the split-second stuff that only comes from honing your physical and mental reaction for championship pace versus pre-season. I just felt like I was at pre-season pace and trying to catch up with the rest as quickly as possible. And almost, like, survive.”
What has stood out for Galvin is how “inclusive” the environment is for her as a mother. If she wants to travel by car with Donnchadh to games in order to feed Florian on the way, there’s no issue. She was going to offer to pay for her own room the night before the All-Ireland semi-final in Dublin but she said Quill and Long were all over it and had already organised a room specifically for her.
“They were just so accommodating because when you come in so late, you want to come in 100 per cent. And I was, but there was this asterisk and that is: I’ve a small baby who I’m breastfeeding and he’s still technically a new-born at the time, so he’s still my priority.”
It’s apt that others are looking out for Galvin because it was her who was looking out for other women when she – and fellow Kerrywoman Ciara Griffin – became the first female players to be voted onto the executive board of Rugby Players Ireland (RPI).
This was during one of the other iterations of Galvin’s career as one of Ireland’s top multi-talented sportswomen. As well as playing basketball when she was younger, Galvin played rugby sevens with Ireland from 2016 to 2020 and played for Ireland XI, including at the 2017 World Cup. As the Sevens rep, she wanted maternity leave to be part of a player’s contract. It didn’t materialise but she cites examples in other countries.
“The more we see of this, the more likely they (the IRFU) are to retain players rather than it being the death of your career,” Galvin adds.
It was last year that Galvin returned to play for Kerry for the first time since 2016 after the end of her career as a sevens player. She’s one of a handful of players who played the last time Kerry were in an All-Ireland senior final in 2012 and she views tomorrow’s opponents as a team who show what’s possible for Kerry. Because like Meath in 2021, Kerry won the Division 2 league final this year and are also now in an All-Ireland final.
It’s no longer just about representing Kerry for Galvin but also about what a Kerry win could represent.
“All the girls around the county, and all the boys too, but particularly for girls, that they look at the likes of Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh and Cáit Lynch and Lorraine Scanlon and Emma Costello and these girls and want to emulate them. And realise they can play in Croke Park. They can represent Kerry. They can win All-Ireland finals.
“I think coming to this stage of my career, that would be really special to be part of something like that and obviously just reward the players and the management as well.”
And they can also look at Louise Galvin and see what’s possible amid new beginnings.
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 30, 2022 9:40:30 GMT
Conor McKeon
July 30 2022 02:30 AM
The old adage about offences selling tickets but defences winning championships might as well be emblazoned above Croke Park this week.
Last Sunday, a Kerry team who didn’t allow any Galway player a single look at the whites of Shane Ryan’s eyes won an All-Ireland conceding just one goal through the entire competition.
Tomorrow, Meath ladies bring their own intensely gritty, smartly constructed defence to Croke Park to try and do what only the great teams achieve: go back-to-back.
To distil it simply into a clash of one team’s defence versus the other’s attack would be inaccurate.
But as Eamonn Murray, Meath’s manager, put it this week: “Kerry have scored 13 goals in their last four games. That’s a big thing, if we stop the goals we’ll win the game. It’s that simple.”
It’s not that either the Meath ladies or the Kerry men are particularly defence-orientated. Rather they are set up to frustrate, to absorb and inhale opposition players.
Once they do that, the outcome becomes something of an inevitability.
But the other key comparison between the two currently reigning All-Ireland champions is the extreme quality of what they have up front and their ability to use that extra space they operate in on the counter-attack.
Last year, it was Vikki Wall. This year, predominantly, it has been Emma Duggan, a player Murray is adamant will go down as “one of the all-time greats.”
It has been an incredible year so far for Duggan, who struggled initially but was given some time off by Murray and came back seemingly better than ever.
In the All-Ireland quarter-final in Tullamore, after Meath had been pegged back from a place of almost casual superiority, it was Duggan who emerged to send over a booming point from the right wing, with the game just 15 seconds away from extra-time.
Against Donegal in the semi-final, an extremely attritional game in which Meath trailed by four points at one stage, Duggan popped up with 0-4, a third of her team’s final tally of 0-12.
On both occasions, Meath had been forced to dig deeper into themselves than ever before – they lost Wall and Máire O’Shaughnessy to the sin-bin for periods against Donegal – and, each time, Duggan was their natural hero.
But all through the championship, Meath’s concession figures tell their own story.
Monaghan 0-1; Armagh 0-9; Galway 1-11; Donegal 1-7.
As Shauna Ennis noted, “those turnovers in the backs are nearly bigger than a score at times. I remember the roar of the crowd last year when we’d turn them over at the back would be bigger than the cheer for a score.
“We get so much energy from that. It sucks the energy out of the other team as well.”
Now, consider Kerry’s scoring output: 3-10 v Galway; 2-17 v Westmeath; 4-12 v Armagh; 4-10 v Mayo.
So a defence that has conceded an average of 8.5 points per game meets an attack that has scored an average of 22. Clearly, something’s gotta give.
And whereas Meath were clear breakthrough act of 2021, Kerry fill that space now.
This is their first All-Ireland senior final in 10 years.
They played Division 2 football earlier this spring. They finished bottom of Group 4 last year, losing to both Galway and Donegal and in their last knockout appearance in the championship, went down by 15 points to Dublin in 2020.
“A lot of people looked at us going, ‘These won’t be contenders this year’,” admitted one of Kerry’s joint managers, Declan Quill, this week.
“The nice roll we got on in Division 2, winning the games.
“I know it’s an old saying that winning is a habit and it just seems to be, and seems to have driven this group on that they have a bit of silverware.
“Everyone was telling us after that, ‘Everything else is a bonus’. I had a lot of friends telling me, ‘Ah, sure you’re out of Division 2. That’s the main aim for the year, and everything else is a bonus’. I think the girls had one cup, and were like, ‘We’re not happy with this yet’.
Now into a 15th year as a Kerry senior, Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh is their standout forward, the player Meath will be most vigilant of.
But against Mayo, she was just one of eight starters to score from play.
Against Armagh in the quarter-final, when Ní Mhuircheartaigh (2-6, 1-0 pen, 4f) in a shoot-out for the ages with Aimee Mackin (0-11, 5f), seven of Kerry’s starting 15 registered and another from the bench.
It was the second time Kerry had beaten Mackin and Armagh this year after their Division 2 final success back in April.
In fact, the only game Kerry have lost this year was the Munster final to Cork.
They were five from five in Division 2 and since going down by five to Cork in Killarney in May, have won their five All-Ireland SFC matches by an average of seven points per game.
It helps Kerry’s cause that Ní Mhuircheartaigh has back-up in the likely absence of space in Croke Park tomorrow.
Síofra O’Shea (3-2), Niamh Carmody (2-4), Erica McGlynn (2-3) have all contributed heavily this year but there lingers a sense that as a team for winning tight, pressurised games, Meath possess the better balance.
As Murray also noted: “It’s going to be a very interesting game. It could be a strange game. It could be a class game. I don’t know what the weather will be like. It could be a very strange, good game. I’d hope it’s just not a shoot-out.”
If, as they almost always do, Meath can set the terms of engagement, they’ll come through by a similarly narrow margin to their last two games.
Verdict: Meath
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 30, 2022 9:43:26 GMT
Robust Royals tough to crack but Kerry have plenty of reasons for hope Cora Staunton
July 29 2022 09:09 PM
Styles make fights, as they say in the boxing world. And with that in mind, tomorrow’s All-Ireland final is shaping up as a worthy main event for a summer of football that has already delivered more than its fair share of knockout entertainment.
A free-flowing Kerry attack that has amassed 13-49 in four games in the All-Ireland series will try to pry open the best defence in the country, a Meath rearguard that has shipped just 2-28 in the same number of outings. Something has to give.
This All-Ireland final will have a lot more complexity than a game of ‘backs and forwards’, but there is a fascinating contrast in how both teams operate that makes it difficult to predict what way it will go.
Sure, Meath – as reigning All-Ireland champions and Division 1 winners in the league – are deserving favourites.
Eamonn Murray can call on some of the best talent in the country, they are well drilled and notoriously difficult to break down – Galway’s 1-11 is the greatest tally they have conceded across 12 games in league and championship – but they aren’t without their weaknesses.
They have been winning games – a Leinster final reverse to Dublin was the only outlier – but some of their big names haven’t been motoring as well as they were last year.
Emma Duggan has been their saviour this year, bailing them out when they were under the pump against Galway in the last eight and Donegal the last day. Without the 20-year-old, their All-Ireland defence wouldn’t have made it to the final hurdle.
But, heading into tomorrow, Meath have the know-how. And their real quality endures. The likes of Vikki Wall, Aoibhín Cleary and Máire O’Shaughnessy could easily find their groove around the middle again; Niamh O’Sullivan, Kelsey Nesbitt and Stacey Grimes might ease the burden on Duggan with the kind of scores from play they were picking off last year. Then Kerry would be in real trouble.
But at the moment, even as the untried underdogs, the Kingdom have reasons for hope. And that’s not just because Wall and Co haven’t been having the same kind of impact in 2022; Kerry have been building nicely and have a menacing attack that can hurt you from all angles.
Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh is their scorer-in-chief but the likes of Paris McCarthy, Síofra O’Shea, Aisling O’Connell and Danielle O’Leary regularly rack up decent scores and cause defences plenty of problems.
My big fear for Kerry, however, is that they will freeze on the big day. They need to be patient against such a smart, organised defence that has averaged less than nine points conceded per game across league and championship. And when they turn you over, Meath hit you hard on the break. Kerry won’t get anything easy tomorrow.
The Kingdom have already won twice at Croke Park this year – the Division 2 final defeat of Armagh and their semi-final success against Mayo – but GAA HQ is a different beast on All-Ireland final day. Last year, at least Meath could call on the experience of their intermediate decider 12 months previously for some kind of stability. Kerry’s callow legs could wobble.
I was fortunate to play on the biggest day of the ladies football calendar seven times and while it never got easy, there was comfort in knowing what to expect.
The protracted build-up can drain you before the big day even arrives. And when you finally get to Jones’s Road you notice straight away that the energy is different, the frequency of the noise goes up a few hertz.
It’s only human to get nervous, but sometimes that anxiety can weigh you down.
While Kerry are predominantly a young side they should have enough experience, working under excellent joint-managers in Declan Quill and Darragh Long, to steady the ship if they stumble into an early Meath onslaught.
I played against the likes of Ní Mhuircheartaigh, Lorraine Scanlon (inset), Cáit Lynch, Anna Galvin, Emma Costello and Aishling O’Connell – and a few of them have at least been there and done that, having featured in the 2012 All-Ireland final defeat to Cork.
There is a peculiar symmetry to these teams, for all of their differences in football style, too.
Meath shocked everyone last year in winning the All-Ireland after being crowned Division 2 champions. Their only blip along the way to the Brendan Martin Cup was a group-stage defeat to Cork.
Kerry have already pocketed the same league medals and recovered from a Munster final defeat to their old rivals – beating the odds – to reach an All-Ireland final.
Win tomorrow and the Kingdom could complete the Royal path to greatness – wouldn’t that be quite an ascension to the throne?
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Post by kerryexile5 on Jul 31, 2022 15:35:31 GMT
Meath getting the frees a lot easier than Kerry are from this ref.
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 31, 2022 15:43:34 GMT
After going 1.02 ahead Kerry conceded 1.06 in a row and in that period lost possession from nearly every restart.
In that half Meath won 6 out of their own 8 kickouts.
Kerry only won 5 out of their 11 kickouts
Siofra oShea kicked a massive point to bring Kerry into it towards the end of the half.
Meath are turning Kerry over around their own D and hitting on the break.
Still on 3 points in it at half time and Kerry havent had a period of dominance yet.... apart from the first 7 minutes .... so we are still in this game
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Post by southward on Jul 31, 2022 15:53:26 GMT
Referee's a total joker. Phantom frees all over the place.
Kickouts killing Kerry.
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Post by Mickmack on Jul 31, 2022 16:47:05 GMT
Kerry didnt deserve to lose by 9 points but Meath were deserving winners.
With 15 mins left Mesth were only 2 points ahead and had kicked a few wides and were looking rattled but another poor kickout led to the second goal for Meath and the game went away then from Kerry.
Kerry need a kickout strategy to retain possession...Meaths was far better.
They also need to work attacks better than just running straight at the opposing D and being turned over. And their tackling needs work too.
All can be fixed and no reason why they cant come back and win it.
Great effort by all the girls. They can be proud.
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Jul 31, 2022 16:52:12 GMT
Hard luck to the women after a great year by them.
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Post by taggert on Jul 31, 2022 17:05:41 GMT
After going 1.02 ahead Kerry conceded 1.06 in a row and in that period lost possession from nearly every restart. In that half Meath won 6 out of their own 8 kickouts. Kerry only won 5 out of their 11 kickouts Siofra oShea kicked a massive point to bring Kerry into it towards the end of the half. Meath are turning Kerry over around their own D and hitting on the break. Still on 3 points in it at half time and Kerry havent had a period of dominance yet.... apart from the first 7 minutes .... so we are still in this game Hard luck to Kerry. Meath were better by some distance retaining possession from kickouts, turning over ball and working higher percentage scoring chances. Nail on the head above Mick re kickouts where we were obliterated in the first half and in attacking where we were turned over at will in the 2nd half. Far too much was expected of our # 15 and it was too easy for Meath to snuff out. All areas where the Kerry mens team have had to tweak over the last few years. I noticed from the match programme we have a number of 18, 19 and 20 year olds in the team so time very much on their side to regroup, refine and return for another shot at the title.
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Post by royalkerryfan on Jul 31, 2022 19:20:29 GMT
Hard luck to the Kerry ladies,
Unfortunately we just met a very good Meath team.
I will say its great seeing passion back in Meath here and they really love this team.
Great to see female sports get this exposure and hopefully it encourages more participation form girls all over the country.
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Jul 31, 2022 19:24:17 GMT
Hard luck to the Kerry ladies, Unfortunately we just met a very good Meath team. I will say its great seeing passion back in Meath here and they really love this team. Great to see female sports get this exposure and hopefully it encourages more participation form girls all over the country. The standard of women's sport is much higher than ten years ago in my opinion. I am sure coverage is important but when I sit down and watch women's games I find them very enjoyable with good scores etc.
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