Under discussion: The weekend’s football and hurling championship action.
Chatting are: Trevor Giles, Ray Silke, Fintan O’Toole, John Fogarty, Brendan O’Brien and Terry Reilly.
TERRY REILLY (Irish Examiner assistant sports editor): Yesterday was the busiest weekend of the GAA calendar and it may have established football's top four — Kerry, Dublin, Kildare and Cork?
JOHN FOGARTY (Irish Examiner GAA correspondent): There’s a top three, in my opinion. The likes of Kildare, Donegal and Tyrone are on a plateau below Cork, Kerry and Dublin. Very disappointed with Tyrone’s performance yesterday. Kildare should make the last eight but they have to ask themselves why they were four points behind with just over a minute to go yesterday. If they seem themselves as peers of Dublin they need to improve through the backdoor.
FINTAN O’TOOLE (Irish Examiner sports writer): In that sense Donegal are the big winners of the weekend that they’ve now moved up to a level just behind the big three. Question marks remain over Kildare or Tyrone’s ability to break into the elite this season.
BRENDAN O’BRIEN (Irish Examiner sports writer): I don’t know about Kildare. I’m beginning to think the mystique surrounding McGeeney is disguising the fact that they may have reached a plateau and that Geezer has already got the best out of a good but far from great bunch of players. They can still do damage this year but they’re no Dublin and certainly not a Kerry or Cork.
TREVOR GILES (Irish Examiner columnist): Tyrone have slipped out of the top three, with their age profile they are vulnerable in the last quarter and things wont improve if they get to Croke Park.
RAY SILKE (Irish Examiner columnist): Many of those Tyrone players — their best ones have been on the go since 2001/2002 and time catches up with every team. Cavanagh, Ricey, Stephen O’ Neill & Dooher are not the men they were. 2008 is a while back now.
JOHN FOGARTY: Well it’s a fourth season with nothing to show for Kildare unless they make a most remarkable recovery. Can’t see that. Donegal are rising, Mayo are a bit further behind but they’ve done away with the romance and replaced with practicality. Hard-nosed practicality but it’s working for both of them.
TERRY REILLY: On McGeeney’s hype, has Kildare’s failure masked how good Dublin have become at chisselling out results?
FINTAN O’TOOLE: Dublin impressed me with how they coped with adversity. They were resilient after O’Gara was sent off and the big difference since the league final was how much better the defence looked with Rory O’Carroll there. Paul Conlon did a good job as well.
JOHN FOGARTY: Dublin’s full-back line, which has come in for its fair share of criticism over the last while, was impressive. Rory O’Carroll was just behind Alan Brogan and Paul Flynn for me as man of the match. Paul Conlon was targeted by Kildare but performed admirably. It’s a line that needed attention. I’m not saying it’s a problem fixed but there are signs for encouragement.
TREVOR GILES: Dublin were much better than Kildare, they kicked their 45s which Kildare couldn't, they created four clear goal chances to Kildare’s one and were more economical-missing nine chances to Kildare’s 17.
JOHN FOGARTY: Gilroy was a little short-sighted in starting Eoghan O’Gara, though. He’s just too unpredictable. For a guy like Kevin McManamon, who works his behind off and has been known to take the scoring burden off the Brogans, to be dropped for O’Gara was a mistake.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: Surely McManamon will be back in for O’Gara now?
TREVOR GILES: Dublin need to play McManamon at 11 and Connolly at 14 and not take them off, by all means take off the two wing forwards and two midfielders when they have their shift done.
TERRY REILLY: With that in mind it looks like Wexford are cannon fodder in the waiting?
JOHN FOGARTY: Not cannon fodder with the attack they have. But Carlow showed in the first-half what a disciplined defence can do to them even if they couldn’t sustain it. Others will.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: I don’t think this is going to be the massacre that the 2008 final was. For starters Wexford are far better now than they were then, particularly in the breadth of attacking options available to them. Encouraging yesterday that Barry and Lyng only scored a 0-1 between them, yet the team still scored 4-12. It’ll suit Jason Ryan that Wexford’s first-half performance was poor yesterday. He’ll bring his team firmly back to earth over next two weeks and they’ll revert to the role of underdogs that they’re happier with.
JOHN FOGARTY: Shane Roche stood out for them yesterday. Took the game to Carlow in the first-half when Wexford looked to be running out of ideas on a good few occasions.
BRENDAN O’BRIEN: Dublin beat Wexford by 23 points in the final three years ago but Wexford aren’t the same babes in the woods now. The thing is though, it’s hard to tell how good or otherwise they are after three cakewalks on what was a simple side of the draw.
JOHN FOGARTY: But isn’t a worry just how much attrition there is for Dublin around the centre, Trevor? It’s like Bryan Cullen and Paul Flynn expect to be taken off now.
TREVOR GILES: Yeah but Cullen and Flynn are around long enough to handle being replaced when their shift is done, I just feel Pat Gilroy needs to give Connolly and McManamon a bit of love and they will blossom.
JOHN FOGARTY: But is it an advantage for another team to know the wing-forwards will always be replaced?
RAY SILKE: Cormac Reilly could have shown a wee bit of love to Andriú Mac Lochlainn.
JOHN FOGARTY: The country and his mother are judging the Mac Lochlainn/Brogan exchange on the basis of video footage which is inconclusive. Watching it from the Hogan Stand, Mac Lochlainn did commit a foul. You wouldn’t usually see it given but it doesn’t detract from the fact Brogan was fouled.
RAY SILKE: Don’t like Reilly’s style of referring. Foul or not he is not my cuppa tae.
TREVOR GILES: Cormac looked to get that one wrong unless he saw an early jersey tug that the camera didn’t, but when you lose there is always a load of reasons for it before you get down the list to the ref being the reason.
JOHN FOGARTY: Mac Lochlainn had checked Brogan’s run. Reilly, technically, was correct. But there’s the common sense argument etc.
TREVOR GILES: Crazy stuff from Kildare playing John Doyle as spare man in half-back line, surely some one else could have done that and put Johnny up front.
TERRY REILLY: It made some contrast to the game in Castlebar, what’s happening with Galway?
RAY SILKE: Unfortunately — and this is not a state secret — Galway are very, very poor at the moment. We were cleaned out in the middle. Young Hehir taken off, Hanley at midfield will not work. How Ó Flatharta left Higgins to be cleaned out on the breaks by Dillon for the full game was mystifying. And confidence is down in their socks.
TREVOR GILES: Have Galway much pace? Because that will trouble Meath if they have. And how did Jason Doherty play? He made quite a name for himself in the league.
RAY SILKE: Feck all pace in Galway attack. PJ was never a speedster, Bane is a good shooter but no speedster and Conroy is a midfielder at 14. Bradshaw is a wing back at wing forward. Square pegs — round holes. Doherty was ok but was Dillon, Moran and Freeman did the damage.
TERRY REILLY: So Ray, Trevor if ye were still playing with the county team who’d be happier with the draw this morning?
TREVOR GILES: I'd fancy myself to get two points off Ray!
RAY SILKE: From frees only!
TERRY REILLY: What about Mayo, can they play that defensive game or is it another accident waiting to happen, probably in Croke Park?
JOHN FOGARTY: It’s a defensive style in infancy so there’s the worry there for Mayo. Aside from that, they’re moving in the right direction. Factor in those nine or so wides in the first-half and you wonder just how more comprehensive their win could have been.
RAY SILKE: Mayo are a limited outfit too. They have major free taking problems — Trevor could give them a few evenings — don’t see them getting too far. But they are improving, a little. Only for Galway keeper and they would have two more goals.
BRENDAN O’BRIEN: Enough about Galway-Mayo already. Bad game. Full stop. What I want to know is how will the Connacht final play out?
JOHN FOGARTY: Interesting game in store in the Hyde. Rossies are a big side and Cathal Cregg’s work-rate really provides the foil to Kilbride and Shine. But this is so unusual for Mayo, going into a game against the Rossies as likely underdogs. They’ll thrive on that.
TREVOR GILES: You are right about Cregg, he is the main leader on that team and Mayo need to curb him big time.
RAY SILKE: McGarrity can be a big player in that game. He would be well able for Michael Finneran and the two O’ Sheas did well at midfield too. Would not rule Mayo out at all. They will come on a lot from yesterday and set up for them in many ways for Connacht final.
JOHN FOGARTY: Cregg’s more dynamic than Alan Dillon but Dillon has so much going for him. He’s a match-winner, he knows the big games. The frees didn’t go right yesterday but he’ll make amends. O’Shea brothers certainly put paid to David Brady’s remark about them last week. The pair of them can play football, that’s obvious.
RAY SILKE: Seamus O’ Shea is a super young fellow. Taught him in Castlebar and he has a super attitude and engine. Injuries have held him back over the past few years.
TERRY REILLY: Up north it looks like Tyrone are on the way out, do you think Mickey Harte can turn them around a la Brian Cody and inject some of that youth into the squad?
FINTAN O’TOOLE: Too much reliance on that old guard by Harte and if they all go together, that will leave a huge void for the likes of Harte, McKenna and Coney to fill.
BRENDAN O’BRIEN: I think Harte has left it too late. Introducing young players should be a drip-drip thing but he has stuck with the older players who served him so well for so long now that major changes are going to have to be made in one fell swoop sooner or later. Interesting that O’Neill, Dooher and Brian McGuigan were all called ashore yesterday.
TREVOR GILES: He can of course turn them around but not this year, hasn’t blooded enough of them during the league but no better man than Harte.
JOHN FOGARTY: I tipped Tyrone for Ulster thinking there’d be a major kick in them. Like Kerry, a few boys are putting off retirement for one more crack at it. Fair enough, an Ulster isn’t their main objective but they’ve made their job so much more difficult now.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: Very poor scoring return by them yesterday it seemed, not even reaching double figures.
BRENDAN O’BRIEN: Very poor return by both teams Fintan! I went to Clones with a bout of food poisoning yesterday and I didn’t feel much better after watching that!
TREVOR GILES: Croke Park, if they get there, isn’t the place for an ageing team to find their form.
JOHN FOGARTY: Ulster final’s like the poorer half of the Leinster SFC now. Everyone thinks they can win.
TREVOR GILES: Have to say the pitch in Croker was very good seeing as it was just laid down during the week.
RAY SILKE: Trevor is 100% right. McMenamin, Gormley, Jordan, Hughes, S Cavanagh, Dooher, Mulligan, O’Neill, McGuigan, Hughes all played in 2003 final. Don’t think they have the legs or drive to win big games in Croker Park anymore. Time to bring on some new blood and hard for Mickey to turn it around. Same voice syndrome has to be a factor at some stage.
TERRY REILLY: Donegal are impressive under the Jim McGuinness revolution, Paddy Bradley won’t get much space in that game. Is an Ulster title enough for this year or should they realistically target Sam?
FINTAN O’TOOLE: In his first year, an Ulster title would be good progress by Donegal as stringing together a consistent run of victories has been beyond them in recent years.
BRENDAN O’BRIEN: Donegal have already come a long way under McGuinness in his first year and an All-Ireland is probably a step too far. I hate to say it but I think they’re flatpack defensive plan will prove too much for Derry in the Ulster decider.
JOHN FOGARTY: Karl Lacey has been talking about McGuinness having big plans for Donegal. They have the surprise element going for them but winning Ulster would be such a relief. Qualifiers is not the time to be trying out new blood, though. Longford won’t shy away from them in Pearse Park. The old dog needed for the old road there.
RAY SILKE: What happens if the old dogs have lost their teeth?
JOHN FOGARTY: They’ve paws!
BRENDAN O’BRIEN: Longford in Pearse Park was probably the worst draw they could have got. I’ve seen Longford beat Derry, Kerry and Mayo there and give Dublin an awful time of it too. That’s the pick of the qualifiers without a doubt.
JOHN FOGARTY: Ah, Brendan, you’re dismissing your own Laois again. Kildare v Laois — unquestionably the tie of the second round.
TERRY REILLY: Surely Kildare v Laois and Galway v Meath are the standout games in the qualifiers, London have a realistic chance of beating Waterford too. They’re surely the darlings of this year’s championship?
RAY SILKE: At 2/1 to win last Saturday they were the Darlings for many, many punters.
BRENDAN O’BRIEN: The beauty of the qualifiers is the sniff of an upset and Longford could well pull it off on their home turf. Kildare-Laois and Galway-Meath are undoubtedly juicy ties too but if I was the TV boys I’d have the cameras in Pearse Park.
JOHN FOGARTY: Galway and Meath is only a standout because of the counties’ rich traditions. Laois and Kildare brings the Armagh boys together and two managers who’d sing off the same hymn sheet in charge of teams who don’t particularly like one another. Game on.
RAY SILKE: Ye two boys could do some WWF at half-time. My money is on the bigger man (physically)!
BRENDAN O’BRIEN: It’s called WWE now, old man!
JOHN FOGARTY: If Wicklow had got Armagh in Aughrim, Micko could possibly have another northern scalp. London have a great chance again. They won’t be 2/1 next time, rest assured. Down have got another decent draw but didn’t came away from Clare unscathed. Much room for improvement there.
TREVOR GILES: We can’t forget about Down, should beat Leitrim and would have a touch of momentum just like last year, they only lost All-Ireland by one point.
RAY SILKE: Will Saturday’s defeat see Kevin Walsh still with Sligo in 2012?
JOHN FOGARTY: Surely Kevin Walsh doesn’t want to finish like that. David Kelly was missed bad. Surely, Eamon O’Hara will hang up the boots now?
TERRY REILLY: Sligo were poor. Kelly came on but wasn’t well and O’Hara’s legs weren’t up for it against James Stafford. Wicklow would have loved a home draw but can’t see them going far now.
BRENDAN O’BRIEN: Am I right in saying that we’re at the end of June now and no manager has yet stepped down? Isn’t that unusual?
JOHN FOGARTY: No manager and not a replay in sight. We’re in an equinox or something.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: Twelve months ago Sligo were the favourites for the Connacht final. Since then they’ve lost four championship games on the trot and suffered relegation to Division 3. Remarkable swing in fortunes.
TERRY REILLY: One game won, one drawn this year. Shocking stuff. What about Cork and Offaly, anyone see that coming?
BRENDAN O’BRIEN: John Gardiner did, if his comments last week were anything to go by, but I don’t think they really thought that Offaly would put it up to them like they did. Never thought I’d say this as Laoisman but I was delighted to see Offaly perform after a week when Laois were pummelled and the two counties’ U21s were savaged as well. Hurling in the midlands needed a lift.
TERRY REILLY: It seems unfair that Cork and Antrim lose in the first round and go to the third round of qualifiers after beating an easier team while Galway and Clare, Limerick and Wexford face a knockout game?
JOHN FOGARTY: Said that when the hurling structure was redesigned a couple of years back. Best to lose in the first round of Munster than in the semi-finals.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: Phase 3 is where Cork will be judged, always were going to win the games the last two weekends.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/K4WkpsGoc58/post.aspx
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