My insight into the Kildare set up

I like to think I see things as they are.
I dont have a biased view.

Here are my views into some of the ongoings in this Kildare set up under Geezer from observing him and the players over the last five years.

I believe Geezers ego and stubborness are stopping him making the right calls in team selections and during matches. He refuses to make the obvious calls during games, rather tries to make the less obvious call. Trying too hard to think outside the box.

Examples;
1.The refusal to substitute JD against Limerick. He was simply having a massive off day. Ok 90% of Kildare fans think JD cant be critised because of his massive hunger, drive and workrate but he continued to take on a terrible shot selection and his passing was so so sloppy. Thus wasting alot of possesion and playing into the hands of Limericks negative style. Simple decision- bring on PO'N. Instead he switched Kavanagh to the deepest line of 2 for a while, then Smithy.
2. Mick Foley establishes himself as the no.1 full back in the country. Taking many full forwards to the cleaners in the process. From the start of the league Geezer moves him about from centre back to midfield. Ok he had a stormer yesterday against a weak midfield however it was Limerick's Ian Ryan who kept Limericks attack ticking over throughout the 70 minutes. Simple solution keep Foley full back build your defence around him.
3. A refusal to accept that during tight games when we get ahead sometimes you just have to concentrate on hanging on rather than building on your lead. Against Donegal we managed to amass a 2+ point advantage three times in the game. No mean feat against a well drilled super negavite team. Instead of being patient and forcing Donegal out of their shell we had to keep playing at this high tempo pass move system which lead to us coughing up our lead and eventually losing. Geezers instructions were to keep trying to work scores. He believes his way is correct and refuses to be flexible to the different situations that arrise during championship campaigns.

This Kildare team have progressed immensely in the last five years thanks to Geezer. I do not think he has progressed with the team during the last five years. He has instilled a workrate and set of skills that I believe make us man for man the best team in the country. I fail to see how some of the Kerry side such as Enright, O'Donoghue and Walsh would make our starting 15. And I couldnt see O'Mahoney being a central figure in our defence. However I could not see us beating Tyrone by 10 points like the Kerry team containing these players did yesterday.

I would love to see Keiran Mcgeeney simplify things. We need to get the most out of this bunch of extremley talented and top physically conditioned players. We dont need to hide our team selections and have behind door trainings etc, play simple direct football, have patience and belief and we can win All-Irelands. Everyone knows how Kerry will line out maybe they make small changes now and then like Declan O'Sullivan might start in full forward but they have a belief in themselves. They let the other team worry about stopping them and they get on with their own game. Something we could definately learn from.

Players; The feeling i'm getting from a few players is that they are more concerned with winning an All-Star than an All-Ireland. With Kildare gettin so much attention over the years certain players are playing with and ego attained from constant media attention.

Something the lads need to realise is playing with an ego stops you making the right decisions.
Teams with guys constantly making the right decisions wins games. Winning games means wining All-Irelands. All-Ireland winning teams means lots of All-Stars!

Alan Smith is our most dangerous and natural forward. A guy that will score. A guy who relies on team mates bringing him into the game however. How many time shave you seen Donaghy or Galvin for Kerry in positions they will score 9/10 shots turn around and hand the ball to Cooper in a position he will score 10/10 shots. Decisions. No egos. I believe we need to do this with Smithy. His natural instinct for scoring and winning frees is top notch. I know he has had so many of days in a Kildare jersey but he relies on guys bringing him into games.

Tom O'Connor would happily win ball after ball, take hit after hit and lay it off to guys to score.
James Kavanagh would happily run hard yard after hard to get on the ball to supply guys with decent passes.

Others need to show more selflessness. Not try to grab the limelight. We seen yesterday after Kavanaghs point to leave 1 in it, Conway taking a massive attempt from his bad side over the shoulder. Crazy decision making. Then after Boltons equaliser we seen Leper take on a crazy shot when Fogarty & Johnson was outside better positioned.

E.B has forgotten what has made him into an intercounty player. His tacking, anticipation and breaking up attacks. Strength and passing. Instead he is soley focused on getting ahead of the ball and onto the end of moves. Obsessed with scoring. Its great having a wing back that can choose his opportunities to break forward and score. He got the equaliser yesterday fair play to him when we needed it but during matches we need him helping out more defensively and letting lads like the 3rd line of our 2-2-2 attack from deep.
Alot of people just see the scores and are oblivious to the other side of his games. Stephen Kelly caused us alot of damage yesterday. E.B's tackling was lazy in a sense that he was lunging in. Graham Reilly done alot of damage against us in the Semi's. We were lucky he kicked two bad wides as well. Kenny for Meath last year in Navan was causing havoc on him untill he got injured. E.B ended up with 1.1 and man of the match. But just to the eye of the guys looking on but not observing. He is a top quality wing back but needs to sacrifice his own ambitions and urge to get forward everytime for the good of the team. If he is picking two opportunities a half and getting a score here and there, dominating his man and helping work the ball out of defence then I believe he is doing a whole lot more good.

Dissapointed to see JD kick so many wides. Taking on shots when they just werent on. Trying to get himself into the game rather than sacrificing himself. JD is not the player he used to be. Not any less valuable but not the player he was in terms of getting alot of scores. His work rate, hunger, determination and bravery are unbelievable. If he simplified his game we would see him turning over and winning back a mountain of ball. Supporting players in possesion. He has the attributes to excel at the Brian Dooher role. I would love to see him move the ball on quick and easy and no doubt he would pop up with his score or two as well.

Well thats my view on certain aspects of Kildare. Hopefully we can win an All-Ireland but unfortunately I dont hold out too much hope as of now... but I think we can learn alot from coming so close to being out of the running. Sligo have a similar style to Limerick but are no where near as physical. And I believe when we play teams like Cork and Kerry, the less tactical and more man from man teams, it will suit us more than playing against teams that focus more on preventing us from playing.

Holy God above.

1. With doubt leaving JD on against Limerick was the correct decision. He didnt bring his shooting boots but his work rate and the number of crucial interceptions were invaluable to the team. His shooting boots will come. Class is permanent.

2. Mick Foley Put in an immense display at midfield, one of the best midfield displays I've seen from Kildare player in quite some time. Ian Ryan indeed had a big influence on the game, but at the end of the day he only scored 3 points from play. We only conceded 11 points in 70 minutes and 12 points in 90 minutes.
If we can do that to most teams games we'll not lose too many games. That is a fact.
Is Foley best position at no.3? After that performance that is open for debate. At the moment with injuries we need him at 8/9.
3. This comes with experience of being in tight games. I believe if we were in the same position against Donegal this year as we were last year we'd close out the game. But we should never have been in that position. We had a perfectly legit goal ruled out. We were in extra time of our 3/4 game on the trot.
As it turned out Donegal are not a bad team.

You describe this current Kildare panel extremely talented top physically conditioned players. Why are they like this? Well it because of Kieran McGeeney. Do I need to remind you of our record in the qualifiers before he arrived? Because McGeeney's record is very impressive.

You talk about egos of players, and that they are only concerned with All Stars. Well I'm not going to even dignify that with a response to be honest, nor am I going to respond to your criticism of Emmet Bolton. Both completely off the wall.

FionnMcCool you obviously didnt read all my post maybe just scanned over it!

"JD is not the player he used to be. Not any less valuable but not the player he was in terms of getting alot of scores. His work rate, hunger, determination and bravery are unbelievable. If he simplified his game we would see him turning over and winning back a mountain of ball. Supporting players in possesion. He has the attributes to excel at the Brian Dooher role. I would love to see him move the ball on quick and easy and no doubt he would pop up with his score or two as well."


"This Kildare team have progressed immensely in the last five years thanks to Geezer."


"Ok he had a stormer yesterday against a weak midfield"- in relation to Foley

Egocentric

are you some disgruntled ex player who cant get a game. I watch JD and Bolton yesterday at close quarters. Yes JD was below par in the 1st half but 3 times in the second half won ball and created the attack for our 3 last scores . JD was defensive yesterday and in midfield doing the job that Leper usually does so you are never going t get credit for that working off scraps .
Bolton had a good game last night tough job on Kelly and if you were there Kelly was taking off due t Boltons sheer physical presence and tacking in the Middle.

Geezer made the decision on about 55 mins to stop with route 1 and go with a running game that eventually got us a draw a point by the aforementioned EB AND IN XTRA TIME KICKED ON

2 years ago Cork - the best team in the last 3 years went to xtra time against Limerick got out of jail and kicked ontp an AI so lets stop panicing here , were still in the competition and probably one of the fittest teams left

That's a hell of a lot to say in a first post, Mick Foley is in Midfield because we have not got one fit first line midfielder fit, Bolton had a fine match, never gave an inch hit and was hit as hard as you can get and still in the second minute of injury time managed to run the length of the field compose himself under extreme pressure and kicked a season saving point.

As for the egos part you must be mad. The one thing this Kildare team has is a group work ethic where they all play for each other. You can't deny that on the evidence of the last five years.

J.D didn't have the best game but he is a leader and you need them when the match is in the fire. He never stops for the team and plugs gaps all over the place.

bob12 i'm far from disgruntled i'm just saying things how I see them.

Can you tell me JD's stats for the first half? His wides, misplaced hand passes and fumble..

Why are you and Fionn mccool gone straight into defensive mode. I dont think i have been critical of anyone without pointing out all the positive attributes they bring to the counter. I realise the huge effort everyone puts in and great respect for all the players.

Kelly was injured. Top player looked dangerous when he ran direct. Cant believe he didnt get a red when he came back on.

I dont know if you fully read my post either I already praised Bolton for getting the equalisiser.

Who is panicking? I see the same patterns every year.

This is the main point i'm tryin to get acroos in my post

"I believe Geezers ego and stubborness are stopping him making the right calls in team selections and during matches. He refuses to make the obvious calls during games, rather tries to make the less obvious call. Trying too hard to think outside the box"

I will post more later. But just a few things.

JD was atrocious in the first half, and most have been close to the curly finger. Thank God it didn't come. He was pivotal in the turnaround. Even in that first half, he won a ball that absolutely buckled Riordan - Maurice Horan afterwards referred to Riordan never laying down hurt. He won another 40-60 in the second half. He got on oceans of ball. He nailed that critial free to make it 11-9.

Mick Foley was immense and he's there because Kildare have a massive problem at midfield. Again, thank God he was there.

Emmet Bolton's last act before going off having taken a heavy knock was to win a breaking ball and win a free.

There are worse things than loyalty.

And yet, if he was over-loyal, or stubborn or had a huge ego, how would Eoin Doyle come in from nowhere to now be a cemented member of the back six/middle third?

Did players make a lot of bad decisions out on the pitch. Yeah. But if they were egotists, they wouldn't have survived that game.

It's easy to come to conclusions like this in the middle of the summer but it's only when the season is over that a true assessment can be given. I bet all those people that wrote off Kerry after last weekend are feeling a bit foolish after their display on Saturday. I think we're all too quick to give premature verdicts on how things are going and I have done it myself too in the past. There'll be plenty of twists and turns yet before the summer is out, there always is.

I think the management have made mistakes for sure. In fairness to them though they have learned from past mistakes and hopefully some of the lessons from Saturday night will be taken on board. Johnny was poor for long spells on Saturday but the management had learned from their mistake in taking him off against Meath. He is a leader and when people are panicking all around you a cool head like Johnny is exactly what the team needs. He was one of the key men driving Kildare on in the final quarter. Had he not been on the field maybe we'd be having a very different conversation this morning.

It's a pity we don't have two Mick Foley's because it appears he's needed both at midfield and at full back. One of the criticisms I'd have of McGeeney is that he hasn't settled on a midfield pairing for Kildare but he hasn't been helped by injuries and lads not being able to commit.

Finding the balance in the forward line is tricky because we have so many players that are all at a similar level. They are all really good players, but we don't have any truly outstanding forwards. Smithy was quiet on Saturday but he was being marked by one of the best man markers in the country in Johnny McCarthy whereas Jimmers had one of his best games for a long time. The thing is the next day it could be Smithy who is on fire and Jimmers who is quiet. Similarly Robbie Kelly wasn't at his best on Saturday and Paudie came on and played very well. Maybe the next day it could be Rob coming on for Paudie. From midfield up I think we could all come up with many different combinations of eight players and they'd all produce similar results.

Maybe Saturday night was a sign of things to come for Kildare. Maybe we have big problems and Sligo will exploit them. Conversely it could be the making of them. Cork too needed extra time to get over that Limerick team in 2010 and they went on to win the All-Ireland. I wouldn't like to make any predictions either way just yet.

Rob Kelly gets a fair bit of stick for his midfield role.

Its not that far back that he gave an exhibition at FF v Meath in a NL game in Newbridge.

Is he worth a shot there? Could win a fair amount and unlike Tomas he is capable of scoring ??

My big gripe is the lack of movement of players positionally during a game. We seem far to rigid positionally and we don't seem to be proactive during a game.
I would like to see O'Connor moved out to Midfield for a few minutes at a time during the game / make the other team's management think about what we do - and make them react during a game to what we do instead of the other way around.
If O'Connor (and not just O'Connor / just using him as an example) is moved between lines - it forces the opposition into decisions / does the full back follow him / or stay inside? O'Connor is played at full forward and hasn't moved past the 21 yard line in the last 3 games (well he has - only when he is taken off) / its too predictable and too easy to defend.

I have a feeling that, right or wrong, Kildare are keeping a few things up their sleves for when they meet a big team. The likes of Johnstone on from the start and O'connor maybe moving out the field.

All these behind door sessions and the work they did in Portugal was not with the intent of beating Cavan, Limerick, Sligo or even Meath, I have a feeling they have plans to put into place if they come up against the Dubs, Donegal, or the old firm.

II would have to agree taht the geezer is a very stubborn manager and always seems to want to make complicated game plans to win games. Some of his moves baffle me but I really hope we beat Sligo

Brian Cody, Micko Dwyer, Mickey Harte, Pat Gilroy, Jimmy McGuinness, Alex Ferguson, Brian Clough etc etc are all politically correct all embracing open minded managers who value outsiders input on how things should be run, ha! are they hell!

Egocentric I agree with hardly any of your post but the funniest thing I've read in a while is that we are man for man better than Kerry. It makes me think you either know absolutely zero about football, or are simply on a wind-up. Probably a wind-up, at least I hope it is.

umpireonditch wrote:

I have a feeling that, right or wrong, Kildare are keeping a few things up their sleves for when they meet a big team. The likes of Johnstone on from the start and O'connor maybe moving out the field.

All these behind door sessions and the work they did in Portugal was not with the intent of beating Cavan, Limerick, Sligo or even Meath, I have a feeling they have plans to put into place if they come up against the Dubs, Donegal, or the old firm.

JUST AS WELL

I stopped reading the first post when he said "The feeling I get is some players want to win an All-Star more than an All-Ireland"

well said Sam

If its not a wind up then there must be a headshop still open somewhere.................

KILL BILL wrote:

If its not a wind up then there must be a headshop still open somewhere.................

And an Internet cafe next door to it!!! Bloody MoonMan

Keeping something up their sleeve for later.

What utter baloney....nearly went out last Saturday to limerick, minding this secret up their sleeve. Must be the third secret of Fatima

Some people know nothing about these lads,and to have a go at Emmett,just not right,these same people were giving abuse to our players last sat

Unfortunately Carburyman our county is no different than most, we have our quota of fools. Most of those throwing the abuse had no talent or else wasted it. the players are making the most of what God gave them and if that proves not good enough then so be it. people with any grasp of whats going on surely can't question their commitment and to boot they seem a very well grounded bunch of lads, something that couldn't always be said about our teams.

There's a very short distance between a slap on the back and a kick in the arse and its usually the same people delivering them

I happened to be in the company of a few people at Hawkfield, watching Kildare training after the Meath game. One man there was getting all the attention with his comments about the footballers not being good enough to play for Kildare, not knowing where the goalposts were, how Meath were brilliant...

When I suggested to him that take the goal out of it (after what should have been a Kildare free) & the late scores (when the game was over) he turned to look at the training game, to which he asked who is that, Dermot Earley someone said. And where has he been for the last few years he asked?

Why does he bother "supporting" Kildare????