National Football League 2013

The form is a little concerning and the shipping of goals has worrying undertones of a defence not quite up to speed. I also agree with the idea that we have not been able to pick our strongest players, however the team today was pretty experienced. It should never have conceded 3-12.
The problem I have is we now seem to be hoping our U21's will carry the burden that more senior players should be doing. Listening to McGeeny talk about the U21's you feel if he could he would stick them all in as a lot of senior lads that should be doing a job are just not performing. I can see Conway coming in at no. 6 for a starters, because no one else seems to be able for it.

Once again the half time comes and it seems we need a North Korean missile under our collective arses to get going. We seen it against Dublin and we have seen it again today. I'll forget about the last five minutes of the first half where we went from level to three behind in the space of about three minutes. But the start to the second half cannot be ignored. It was horrific. Down could have scored four goals in ten minutes. They scored 2-2 in about five and the game was done.
How does a team go to sleep like that after just being told what they are supposed to do. Baffling.

The sight of J.D missing a 13m free probably sums the day up. Yes the players are there but they are not really there in full. They know they have nothing to gain and in your mind those 50/50 tackles look a lot less inviting when you know it's for nothing. It's human nature when you nothing to lose or gain.

Next week will give us a lot more answers to questions after today. There will be a final at stake and a Beatable Tyrone team in front of them. If they cannot get themselves going for that we may be in Trouble.

Still having said all that, our season has been pretty good. Next week will be the acid test. Some senior players I would think are in the last chance saloon. Time for them to perform or move out of the way.

A disappointing performance to witness after travelling up but it was a nothing game. Most of the Kildare players did not seem to overly exert themselves which is understandable (but not really acceptable) given that we were going to finish third regardless. There were a few different things tried today that I don't think we will see again and the performances of Cribbin and Hurley when introduced again offer encouragement. TOC caused a bit of havoc and probably could have been brought on earlier.

I think we will see an improved performance next weekend but it is a slight concern that our performances seem to have tapered off towards the end of the league. Any number of factors could explain this - lack of a settled team due to the u21 championship, having secured safety from relegation relatively early in the campaign and a heavy training schedule.

Report on the match for those fortunate enough to have missed it

NFL Division One : Down 3-13 Kildare 1-12

An almost impossible game to rationalise. With Kildare already in the semi-final and Down knowing only a win would give them any hope of survival the logical outcome prevailed. But how good are Down? And are Kildare punching above their weight with their semi final qualification, having lost – and lost badly – in three of their last four outings?

Down certainly did everything asked of them here. Despite defections and injuries they played with spirit and were clearly well drilled. Their blanket defence and counter-attacking style stimied Kildare in the first half and in the second the Mourne Men went to town as they carved gaping wounds into the heart of the Lilywhite defence.

Kildare used the occasion to experiment in a number of areas. Only Paul Cribben started from the successful under-21 set up and the Johnstownbridge man again impressed from wing back scoring two excellent points .

With Daryl Flynn making a first start of the season alongside newcomer Willie Groome in midfield, Paudie O’Neill took up the number 6 berth. Former All Star corner back Peter Kelly took up a wing forward position although in Kildare’s system the wing backs interchange with the wing forwards constantly.

Kildare had the better of the early possession and Eoghan O’Flaherty punctured the Down rearguard to open the scoring with a point from 35 metres on 6 minutes. By the fifteenth minute Kildare were 0-3 to 0-2 ahead with Johnny Doyle having pointed twice from play – the first from an acute angle and the second a trademark shimmy and shot on the run.

Down’s man of the match Kevin McKernan had opened their account from play and when O’Neill gave away a free, Paul Devlin added Down’s second.

Then Down gave a warning of what was to come as they broke from defence and cut through for Benny Coulter to feed Eoin McCartan in front of goal and the full forward finished to the net. There were suspicions of a square ball as an echo of the last time these sides met – the 2010 All Ireland Semi Final.

Kildare continued to huff and puff in attack but managed to square it at 0-6 to 1-3 on 27 minutes thanks to points from Eamon Callaghan, Kelly and a hard-earned point from Alan Smith after he was boxed in on the endline. Donal O’Hare had opened his account from a free.

But Down took control in the last five minutes of the half and two frees from O’Hare were followed by Coulter’s only score of the game to leave the home side ahead by three points.

Half Time : Down 1-6 Kildare 0-6

The first couple of minutes of the second half were to prove critical to the outcome. With echoes of Kildare’s collapse to Dublin, they allowed Down to get a run on them straight from the throw in. Down’s inspirational midfielder McKernan knocked over a point from play. From the next attack keeper Shane Connolly made a fine save but McCartan managed to get a toe to the rebound ahead of Cribben for his second goal.

A minute later Connolly was making another point blank save and Kildare were gasping for oxygen. A Cribben wide didn’t help but he made up for it with a fine point to bring the gap back to six. Shortly afterwards his under-21 teammate Sean Hurley was called for as Flynn exited exhausted. Young guns Fionn Dowling and Niall Kelly were to follow into action.

Kildare, though, continued to squander attacks while Down couldn’t miss. Ryan Boyle broke through the middle and another goal might have been on but he fired over instead. Johnny Doyle was keeping things ticking over with a couple of frees for Kildare and O’Flaherty scored another beauty with his left boot although a run through on goal was another option.

Down were carving Kildare open though and with the score at 2-9 to 0-10 Ryan Mallon could have grabbed another goal. Again a point was taken. A minute later though, it was game over as the magnificent McKernan blazed through for the Mourne men’s third goal – nine points now the gap with sixteen minutes to play.

Kildare roused themselves – driven on primarily by the young substitutes – and after Cribben had found the range with a fine point off the outside of his boot, they managed to find a rare fault line in the Down defence. Doyle and substitute Tomas O’Connor were involved and O’Neill popped up to drive home the Lilies only goal of the game.

When Doyle pointed a free on 65 minutes the gap was suddenly down to only four points and a grandstand finish looked likely. But Down steadied themselves and rattled off the final three points, two from substitute Niall Madine and another from McKernan.

A strange game. Down are relegated but will take solace from a good, balanced display. Their efficiency in front of goal will particularly please James McCartan : 3-13 is a good score in itself but particularly when you consider they shot only two wides, one in each half.

Kildare on the other hand – despite it being a generally satisfactory Division One campaign – seem to have finished it with almost as many questions as answers. They shot 10 wides and generally played with little fluency.

The way an experienced defence was carved open on so many occasions will also concern the management brains trust this week. Certainly, semi final opponents Tyrone aren’t quaking in their boots tonight and will be firm favourites next Sunday.

Down: Brendan McVeigh; Dan McCartan, Brendan McArdle, Owen Costello; Declan Rooney, Peter Turley, Ryan Boyle (0-1); Kalum King, Kevin McKiernan (1-3); Mark Poland, Paul Devlin (0-1, f), Keith Quinn; Donal O’Hare (0-4, 4 f), Eoin McCartan (2-0), Benny Coulter (0-1).
Subs: Anton McArdle (for Quinn 29), Ryan Mallon (0-1 for Coulter H/T), Niall Madine (0-2 for E.McCarton 58), Damien Turley (for P.Turley 63), Ryan Kelly (for O’Hare 67).

Kildare: Shane Connolly; Ollie Lyons, Mick Foley, Hugh McGrillen; Paul Cribben(0-2), Paudie O’Neill (1-0), Eoin Doyle; Daryl Flynn, Willie Groome; Peter Kelly (0-1), Eamon Callaghan (0-1), Eoghan O’Flaherty (0-2); Johnny Doyle (0-5, 3 f), Alan Smith (0-1), Seanie Johnston.
Subs: Sean Hurley (for Flynn 41), Fionn Dowling (for Johnston 46), Niall Kelly (for Callaghan 52), Cathal McNally (for Groome 58), Tomas O’Connor (for Smith 63)

Ref : David Gough (Meath)

To beat Tyrone - and I've seen a fair bit of them - the gameplan is obvious and Kerry albeit with a gale of a wind in the first half demonstrated their issues as others have before. They are really, really slow in defence. If you move the ball fast with the foot, using both flanks, or bring runners from deep at pace, they can be opened up. That leaves them two options, a) hope you waste your chances or b) drop their midfield of the two Cavanaghs and Conor Clarke (should be at three but hasn't been played there all year) deeper, bring Peter Harte deeper too and that isolates Stephen O'Neill and takes away from their attacking threat. We can't go toe to toe and man to man as we won't win enough ball in centrefield.

As a aside I'd like to mention RTE's lack of coverage of Kildares games over the last three games. They are the only team in Div 1 that they haven't shown over those three games

There can be no excuse for this.

Have to agree there hawker, I didn't expect them to have cameras at Newry today as it was a pretty meaningless game but to show nothing of the Tyrone game and Mayo away was nothing short of a disgrace by RTÉ. If Dublin were in Division 4 playing London they'd probably show that too. There was 16 games today and they only showed 3 of them. We'd be fucked altogether without TG4 and Setanta.

Can't find any footage of the U21 final anywhere either.

Not saying it is right but there is a good reason - budget. Setanta have covered most of Dublin's games because, as a private channel, that's how they have found they make money via viewership and by extension advertising. They also show a second game on Setanta 1. Those two games plus whatever the TG4 game on a Sunday is tend to make up that League Sunday show and on recent weeks when Kildare were not shown, there's been hurling thrown into the mix. To add a game to that costs €50,000 a pop I'm told so economically it has to be worthwhile. If they don't show a game, GAA fans go mad, but if they spend six figures to show a couple of extra league games for 5 minutes each, they'd get hammered by those who pay licence fees and don't like GAA and who might rightfully argue it's a waste of money on a competition that most don't care about.

How did I know you'd be the man to jump to RTÉ's defence Tommy?

Not wanting to get into a RTÉ slagging match but when you see the absurd salaries of Tubridy, Plank Kenny, etc and they can't even manage a few games of the most popular sport in Ireland is pretty sickening to be honest.

hawker wrote:

As a aside I'd like to mention RTE's lack of coverage of Kildares games over the last three games. They are the only team in Div 1 that they haven't shown over those three games

There can be no excuse for this.

tg4 and setnata have the rights to show national leagues games

Not leaping to their defence, just explaining what they are dealing with. And not saying it's right or wrong, but there is a key here when you bring in others salaries from different areas(and I'm not defending them). Tubridy might be awful and on way too much but the Late Late advertising income is huge. Look at the viewership figures there versus league games, economically wouldn't make sense to spend 100,000 for 10 minutes of two extra games to keep a handful happy. And sadly it is a handful.

TommyKeegan wrote:

Not saying it is right but there is a good reason - budget. Setanta have covered most of Dublin's games because, as a private channel, that's how they have found they make money via viewership and by extension advertising. They also show a second game on Setanta 1. Those two games plus whatever the TG4 game on a Sunday is tend to make up that League Sunday show and on recent weeks when Kildare were not shown, there's been hurling thrown into the mix. To add a game to that costs €50,000 a pop I'm told so economically it has to be worthwhile. If they don't show a game, GAA fans go mad, but if they spend six figures to show a couple of extra league games for 5 minutes each, they'd get hammered by those who pay licence fees and don't like GAA and who might rightfully argue it's a waste of money on a competition that most don't care about.

I'm not buying that. Kildare were the ONLY team from Div. 1 not shown for the last three rounds of the league. I'm asking why Kildare? Why not Kildare one week and someone else the next week?

I think Kildare are the third most populated county in Div. 1 so surely viewership can't be the issue here. We were sitting in the top half of the league all year so its not as if we were playing nothing games (bar the Down one).

fone wrote:

hawker wrote:

As a aside I'd like to mention RTE's lack of coverage of Kildares games over the last three games. They are the only team in Div 1 that they haven't shown over those three games

There can be no excuse for this.

tg4 and setnata have the rights to show national leagues games

I'm specifically on about league Sunday. I'm aware that Setanta and TG4 have the rights.

hawker wrote:

fone wrote:

hawker wrote:

As a aside I'd like to mention RTE's lack of coverage of Kildares games over the last three games. They are the only team in Div 1 that they haven't shown over those three games

There can be no excuse for this.

tg4 and setnata have the rights to show national leagues games

I'm specifically on about league Sunday. I'm aware that Setanta and TG 4 have the rights.

u should e mail rte ask why they not show kildare matches and see what ansawer u get, tg4 also do a show coverage of league on monday nighs called gaa 2013@8.30pm for hour

even on the radio on the way home on rte 1tommy carr was on talking and i think darren frehill not a mention of kildare every other division 1 semi finalist was mentioned except kildare how do you explain that?

fone wrote:

hawker wrote:

fone wrote:

hawker wrote:

As a aside I'd like to mention RTE's lack of coverage of Kildares games over the last three games. They are the only team in Div 1 that they haven't shown over those three games

There can be no excuse for this.

tg4 and setnata have the rights to show national leagues games

I'm specifically on about league Sunday. I'm aware that Setanta and TG 4 have the rights.

u should e mail rte ask why they not show kildare matches and see what ansawer u get, tg4 also do a show coverage of league on monday nighs called gaa 2013@8.30pm for hour

No I'll not be emailing RTE anything. Yes I'm also aware of TG4 on a Monday night. Incidentally I think the u21s are on tomorrow evening.

Looking at the league tables we actually scored more goals than any other team in the division but our tally conceded 8-93 was by far the highest of all teams. It's a pity that as soon as we develop a goal scoring threat we start leaking scores. My overall impression of our league campaign is that without the young players we are a very ordinary team and certainly no better than the team that lost to Cork last year. Our priority should be to win the U21 and then incorporate as many of them as possible into our team. I had no expectations of winning anything this year and feel we could give Leinster a real go next year. Not impossible to be competitive in the province this year but the dublin clash still looks formidable.

whiteknight wrote:

even on the radio on the way home on rte 1tommy carr was on talking and i think darren frehill not a mention of kildare every other division 1 semi finalist was mentioned except kildare how do you explain that?

I know whats going to happen now. People are going to come on here mentioning the paranoia thing in Kildare.

Its not about that. I think we are asking why Kildare are the ONLY county in Div 1 not to get any air time on League Sunday over the past three rounds?

The list of games screened for the last three rounds is right at the bottom. RTE only sent cameras to one game in that time which was today and as said above, little wonder ours was the game left off the list as it was the only really meaningless game. The rest of the games they showed on their League Sunday package were taken from matches TG4 and Setanta showed live and deferred and we can't claim discrimination because here is the amount each team was shown by TG4 and Setanta across this league.
Dublin 6
Mayo 6
Donegal 5
Tyrone 5
Kildare 4
Down 4
Cork 4
Kerry 4


As for Rounds Five and Six which are being complained about, on the 16th when there were all four games on the Saturday, Setanta chose the two games, going to Croke Park as they showed Limerick-Dublin in hurling first and got more bang for their buck and as for choice of the second football game that night, you could make a case for Kildare-Mayo over Cork-Donegal but you could make a case for the decision they made too. As for round six, we can't really complain either when you look at the list of games that was on, and I think neutrals would agree, in fact I'd say ours was the least attractive game that day too. So RTE's League Sunday just picked up the feeds of what the others covered each weekend and didn't spend €50,000 minimum to show two minutes of Kildare-Tyrone in Newbride. As for people saying barely mentioned on the radio, well Martin McHugh was rambling on about Kildare tonight so that balanced out too.


ROUND FIVE
16th Cork-Donegal (Setanta)
Dublin-Tyrone (Setanta)
Kildare-Mayo
Kerry-Down
ROUND SIX
23rd Dublin-Down (Setanta)
24th Mayo-Donegal (TG4)
Kerry-Cork
Kildare-Tyrone
ROUND SEVEN
7th - Tyrone-Kerry (TG4)
Cork-Mayo (TG4)
Donegal-Dublin (RTE)
Kildare and Down

I can understand why there wasn't highlights of the Mayo match as the club finals were on that weekend so they featured heavily in the highlight package which is only right.

RTE normally just take the coverage from TG4 and Setanta and rarely bother to send their own cameras to matches so that might explain why the Tyrone match was not shown. Also there is no permanent camera gantry in Newbridge unlike a lot of other grounds.

I hear what your saying murof but the last time kildare and dublin met in the championship there was only a ref's decision in it. Now i know dubln have changed a lot since as ourselves have but i dont think in the summer it is as formidable as some think in fact i think we are a more scoring threat now but we need to tighten up the defence and kildare will give any team a run for their money.

martin mc hugh have all good things to say ??

McHugh was wittering on about our U21s, he said we have the best group of young players in the country and we'll be there or thereabouts. Nothing too insightful.

RTE showing us getting bummed twice in three games is the least of our worries. Although it's nice to see us on the tv, the last few games are probably better off a long way from the national airways.

On the game I'm still find it hard to figure out how that team conceded 3-12 today to Down. Lads need to have a look at themselves as I don't think it's being harsh to say that is unacceptable no matter the context of the game. A few years ago Kildare would have hung in there and battled away to the end, now it seems if we go five or six points down it turns into ten or twelve. Doing that consistently has a big effect on younger players.
I know we keep being told it's only the league but I hate to see teams throwing in the towel early. I thought as a County we had gone beyond that.

It will be interesting to see who starts next week, as I have a feeling the management may be getting short on patience with some lads.

You can guarantee McHugh like 95% of the country's journalists have not seen the Kildare U21's in the flesh. How he can say that is beyond me. Just putting more pressure on the lads.

Thats what i like to hear Taibi thats what i like to hear
What do we think of the tyrone challenge next weekend? I dont know who is going to play at no.6 but the likes of callaghan,Daryl flynn should be given the game time again any word on Bolton no matter what the odd one or two were saying here last week i think we missed his presence.
Just a mention for cribbin i thought he played really well today.Bolton running up one wing cribbin on the other

3-13 Rex I'm afraid - and it could have been worse - Connolly made a few good saves and Down took points a couple of times when goals were on. We, meanwhile were pretty clueless in attack and only the arrival of the kids and TOC did any damage to the Down defence.

Anyone know what's the story with Mikey Conway ? Didn't seem to be togged today and not listed on the bench. Same with Morgan. Injuries ?