National Football League 2013

Just to say as well Cian Reynolds should never have been allowed go to Leitrim - I rate him up there with Niall Kelly. Hopefully we will see him in a Kildare jersey again.

murof wrote:

Flanagan always does well early in the year when the ground is soft. In the last few years he has been found out when the drier pitches and fitter opponents come in to play. Dont doubt his honesty or bravery but his skill level and distribution are not good enough against the top teams imo.

That's what I've always thought, but I'm starting to doubt it. if you look back, when we've been close to the best teams, he has always started (2009, 2010 v Down and Meath, 2011 v Donegal). He didn't play v Cork last year. Is it possible that that was one of the factors in them running through us like we weren't there, and dominating the breaks?

HauntedGraffiti wrote:

Not exactly sure what the situation is with injuries. Going to assume Morgan O'Flaherty is out although I hope he isn't. I'd go for something like...

Connolly
Kelly
Foley
McGrillen
Lyons
Flanagan
Bolton
White
O'Neill
E O'Flaherty
McNally
Flynn
Johnson
Doyle
Kelly

Johnny is old enough to be Kelly's father

Not far off. I'd just get Flynn in the middle again. Although it's not what I'd like to see but i do reckon it'll be Flanno in the half forwards and E Flats at the back.

Also fair play to Reynolds. Like he is doing the right thing and getting blooded with Leitrim. Was talking to a relative of his who said he was getting lots of 'welcome to the county' post match. Good move for him but he'll be back.

Looking forward to Saturday now. Then the fact that we can have the likes of Smith and leper coming back is great.

I would definitely have been playing Reynolds in the O'Byrne Cup alongside Kelly and Eaton. I just hope people in Kildare realise what a talent he is, and that he is exactly the kind of player we need. But as long as he returns, all's well that ends well.

tactic are everything when playing donegal the best way to play against them is long range efforts outside kevin mcstays "hot-zone" just kill the ball every time and i believe they wont score near as much as they do from counter attacking from this "hot-zone". hugh lynch sitting in a quarter back style roll just outside the 45 try work the ball inside the 45 and draw all of donegals attention(tomas o`connor being a decoy in the square will draw attention too) leaving lynch with a bit of space pop the ball back to him and fire that huge boot of his at it.
if lacey plays special attention needed to stop his runs forward hes so fast over that 100m he does serious damage on the counter

Lacey is gone for most if not all the league, McHugh I thought I read somewhere was out as well.
We are missing our own so that's evened up.
Getting a lead on Donegal is important, harder to play counter attacking football if you are chasing the game instead of drawing the other team in. You can reverse the roles a bit.

Flanagan was always as brave as they came but he lost a bit of pace over the last two years compared to 2009 and 2010. His distribution let him down a lot but he seems to have realised he is there to win the ball and give it simply to the play makers. It is one of the reasons I think Conway and EoF gave been tried in the half backs. Basically our passing from there was poor and often aim less. Get a good passer closer to where the ball is won so the chances of giving it away with a poor pass by a defender is reduced.
Flanagan will win more than his fair share of ball because he has a knack of being in the right place at the right time and as I have said is willing to put his body on the line in tight situations.
Maybe the new win it and give it Flanno will have a big say in the coming months.

centreback wrote:

tactic are everything when playing donegal the best way to play against them is long range efforts outside kevin mcstays "hot-zone" just kill the ball every time and i believe they wont score near as much as they do from counter attacking from this "hot-zone". hugh lynch sitting in a quarter back style roll just outside the 45 try work the ball inside the 45 and draw all of donegals attention(tomas o`connor being a decoy in the square will draw attention too) leaving lynch with a bit of space pop the ball back to him and fire that huge boot of his at it.
if lacey plays special attention needed to stop his runs forward hes so fast over that 100m he does serious damage on the counter

Lacey is injured, So is McHugh. But I agree completely on how to beat Donegal.

They rely heavily on turn over the ball to get scores. They will rarely get a score direct from a kickout as in they don't often win the kickout or a breaking ball and manufacture a score, 9 times out of 10 they will turn you over in possession somewhere inside their half and will hit you on the counter with runners coming from all angles. Such is their fitness and athleticism that when they come in droves they are extremely hard to stop.

I don't believe this is a game for Tom O'Connor, not in the early stages anyway. If he is in there, our lads will pump in ball regardless. Donegal will absolutely love that. Every ball that crosses their 21 must go dead or be kept in possession and recycled. 50/50 balls inside their 21 will be cleaned up by their defence in numbers.

We will need to be extremely patient at the weekend and not force the game.

The bookies have us favourites, why I cannot fathom. Maybe they feel Donegal will not take this seriously.

Kildare 4/6 Donegal 6/4 Draw 15/2

I genuinely could not hazard a guess as to what Donegal team will line out on Saturday.

Do we have to applaude them onto the pitch, given that they are All Ireland Champions?

Fermanagh did it in Donegal's first match in The McKenna Cup so I think that's it. It's up to the each team whether or not they want to do it, it's not mandatory. If my memory serves me Kerry didn't applaud Dublin onto the pitch in last years league opener.

I'd agree bb Donegal are set up perfectly to nullify O'Connor. He is the perfect man to come in for the last twenty when there will be more space and titled defences.

My full forward line would be Doyle, Brophy, Johnston. With O' Connor to come in.

Lacey is a huge loss for them more than any player bar J.D for us. No matter who you are surely not playing a competitive game in months is detrimental to your chances. Kildare have already played five so we should make a quicker start.

As you say though hard to know how they will line up or how seriously they will take it.
A win would be very nice though.

No applause needed, they have had that accolade already.

I would have us as slight favourites given that Donegal's preparation won't have been as intense as ours. However we will really need to be tuned in for this.

I would disagree somewhat with the earlier tactical analysis. The key to beating Donegal is through quick and intelligent use of the ball - cork actually did this in the first half of the all Ireland semi final but panicked in the second half. Kerry also opened them up towards the end of the quarter final with some good forward play. As Dublin showed in 2011, patience is paramount.

Having said that, a few long range points will certainly help the cause. I also believe the midfielders and half forwards have to work very hard to get back when we don't have possession. Donegal counter attack in droves and if you are too exposed they will overwhelm you.

Re clapping them onto the field, wouldn't be too fussed either way. As Gerry McEntee of Meath said before playing Dublin in 1983, "Let's clap them onto the field, then kick the shite out of them."

Looking forward to Sat. evening.... We had a nice win and prep for this week during the O'Byrne Cup. Nice to see some fresh blood making waves..... still some work to be done but at least people are getting new faces into the squad.... role on Sat. Evening....

Looking forward to the start of the league hopefully we will get a good start. I think we are getting Donegal at the right time its going to be a tough match but hopefully we will get a win. Its nice to see young blood getting there chance which will add more competition for places which i think is needed.
What do people think about playing Daniel Flynn at center back he is strong with a lot of pace I know he plays fullback with JTB & prefers to play midfield he might be an option?

Best of Luck to the lads for the year.

Think the team for saturday should read like this.
1.Connolly
2.Hank
3.Foley.
4.Ollie
5.Kelly
6.Conway
7.Bolton.
8.Chalky
9.Flynn.
10.Flats
11.Mc nally
12.Flanno.
13.Doyle.
14.Brophy.
15.Saeanie

Is that Daniel or Daryl at 9 Carburyman?

Daniel, flynn wont be back till end march or so

Taibi wrote:

Fermanagh did it in Donegal's first match in The McKenna Cup so I think that's it. It's up to the each team whether or not they want to do it, it's not mandatory. If my memory serves me Kerry didn't applaud Dublin onto the pitch in last years league opener.

WRONG

It was Mayo

If your going to Talk botox get it right

Thought it was a double header last year first game of the League was Tyrone v Kildare / Kerry v Dublin.

So I would retract that statement if I were you - it was Kerry on the 4th of Feb.

Seems only one person is talking botox here (as per usual)

sniper wrote:

Taibi wrote:

Fermanagh did it in Donegal's first match in The McKenna Cup so I think that's it. It's up to the each team whether or not they want to do it, it's not mandatory. If my memory serves me Kerry didn't applaud Dublin onto the pitch in last years league opener.

WRONG

It was Mayo

If your going to Talk botox get it right

Kerry were Dublin's opening league fixture last year though right?

On after we played Tyrone. The league match against Mayo was the one that was abandoned down in Castlebar due to the fog and replayed a few weeks later was it not?

Anyways as far as Kildare go getting results against Tyrone and Down will be vital as more than likely they'll be the two teams we'll be battling against to avoid relegation, and both are our last two games, so ideally we'd have some points on the board by then.

Hard to know how Donegal will line out on Saturday, if the more senior players are still in the middle of hard training then there's a chance they might not all be played this early in the league and some of the under 21's will continue to start. Regardless though it'll still be the same system and style of play from them, accuracy from long range will be important and we'll need to keep our heads and remain patient with the ball around our half back line and in midfield and avoid playing in long balls inside the 21 yard line.

For some reason I've a feeling Paddy's weekend in Mayo will be a great few days. That's probably more to do with it being the chance to have a piss up and make a weekend of it than it is the chances of us picking up a win though...

At the start of the year I would have seen staying in Division One as more important than trying out new lads and tactics, after the O'Byrne Cup though I think the best thing to do would be to keep giving the likes of Niall Kelly, Paddy Brophy, Cathal McNally and the few others more game time, as well as trying to ease the likes of Lynch back into the team.

If we can come away in mid April after getting lads back to full fitness, have options in midfield and find some sort of solution at half back, and have competition for places in the forwards along with a game-plan to suit O'Connor (à la coming out to the half forward line against Offaly, or else isolate him on a weak defender like on Saturday night), then I'll be happy enough even if it does result in relegation.

Not too much to ask for really...

Think 4/6 on us is a cracking bet. Interesting talk on Donegal and tactics to beat them but this is a Kildare team that have been fielding strong teams for five consecutive games and have just played at an extremely high intensity against Dublin. As for the opposition, they played essentially an under-21 team in the McKenna Cup while the senior squad was in Dubai living it up briefly. Don't get me wrong, Donegal will get back to their best, but right now don't think they've the fitness or game-time to play anywhere near the tactical game they'll use come summer.

if_in_doubt wrote:

At the start of the year I would have seen staying in Division One as more important than trying out new lads and tactics, after the O'Byrne Cup though I think the best thing to do would be to keep giving the likes of Niall Kelly, Paddy Brophy, Cathal McNally and the few others more game time, as well as trying to ease the likes of Lynch back into the team

Think we need to balance both objectives. I'm all for giving young lads game time (particularly Niall Kelly, he's class) but we need to make sure we can give other lads coming through in the next few years game time at the highest level. Also, going into the championship after six or seven defeats wouldn't be great: the stats are there to show teams that have good league tend to have good championships.

A campaign where we got seven close games, got six points, stayed up, and had fully blooded three or four lads to the level where you'd be comfortable starting them in championship would be just the job.

Ohtoohtobe wrote:

Think we need to balance both objectives. I'm all for giving young lads game time (particularly Niall Kelly, he's class) but we need to make sure we can give other lads coming through in the next few years game time at the highest level. Also, going into the championship after six or seven defeats wouldn't be great: the stats are there to show teams that have good league tend to have good championships.

A campaign where we got seven close games, got six points, stayed up, and had fully blooded three or four lads to the level where you'd be comfortable starting them in championship would be just the job.

True enough. A lot of people seem to be giving us a good chance against Donegal, and all the bookies have us in as favourites. Would be great to start of the league with a win and two points.

Six points was enough to keep Dublin and Donegal up last and in the two years before that teams managed to stay up on four points. If we get of to a good start then I'd start to fancy our chances of picking up wins at home to Tyrone and Kerry a good bit more, and it'd certainly go a long to taking a bit of pressure off us heading into a final round match up in Newry.

Don't think there'll be a lot between the teams finishing in the semi final spots, a bit like in 2011 when we finished in fifth despite only being a point behind top placed Donegal. It'll be tough but there's no reason why we can't give a decent account of ourselves and bring on some of the young lads in doing so.

sniper wrote:

Taibi wrote:

Fermanagh did it in Donegal's first match in The McKenna Cup so I think that's it. It's up to the each team whether or not they want to do it, it's not mandatory. If my memory serves me Kerry didn't applaud Dublin onto the pitch in last years league opener.

WRONG

It was Mayo

If your going to Talk botox get it right

How am I wrong?

What was Mayo?

How does one talk botox?

Very good interview with Andriú MacLochlainn.

http://www.kildare-nationalist.ie/2013/01/29/mac-still-dreaming/

For the record, Kerry did applaud Dublin onto the pitch in first league game.

TommyKeegan wrote:

For the record, Kerry did applaud Dublin onto the pitch in first league game.

Correct TC. And it was Mayo who didn't applaude the AI champions 2011 in castlebar on both occasions in 2012

Somebody with fact as opposed to idol speculation

Taibi

Referance bol. lix or botox not to be rude ca - pish!!