2015 season

The dressing rooms in St Conleths should be big enough to accommodate the Dublin backroom team – not sure about the actual squad.

Sur they can Tog out in the ditch. Or maybe put half of them under the stand dressing room

HauntedGraffiti wrote:

Have to concede some of the slagging on Reservoir Dubs is very funny. Lads wondering about possible traffic restrictions in Newbridge Sunday night, in case we want to have a homecoming for the O'Byrne Cup three-in-a-row!

Anyway, what I want to see in this game is evidence of a solid defensive plan - stopping Dublin scoring goals is the first step on the path to beating them. Obviously they haven't got a full-strength side but they still have quality forwards available like O'Gara, Costello and Rock so if we can tie them down that's a good sign.

Really? I find most of them obnoxious. The majority of them spend their time moaning about other county's. The genuine Dublin fan is a much higher class than those who frequent that website.

hope the dub fans don't forget to charge up the sat navs on saturday

heard the match isn't on TG4 now.

No their not showing it now.. dont know why.

Team to play them
1 Mark Donnellan Maynooth
2 Ollie Lyons Celbridge
3 Ciaran Fitzpatrick Kilcock
4 Mick O Grady Celbridge
5 Eoin Doyle Naas
6 Daryl O Brien Carbury
7 Peter Kelly Two Mile House
8 Hugh Lynch Confey
9 Padraig O Neill St Laurences
10 Eamon Callaghan Naas
11 Eoghan O Flaherty Carbury
12 Kevin Murnaghan Moorefield
13 Fionn Dowling Suncroft
14 Tomas O Connor Clane
15 Darroch Mulhall Athy

LillieLad wrote:

Team to play them
1 Mark Donnellan Maynooth
2 Ollie Lyons Celbridge
3 Ciaran Fitzpatrick Kilcock
4 Mick O Grady Celbridge
5 Eoin Doyle Naas
6 Daryl O Brien Carbury
7 Peter Kelly Two Mile House
8 Hugh Lynch Confey
9 Padraig O Neill St Laurences
10 Eamon Callaghan Naas
11 Eoghan O Flaherty Carbury
12 Kevin Murnaghan Moorefield
13 Fionn Dowling Suncroft
14 Tomas O Connor Clane
15 Darroch Mulhall Athy

good lot big guns are togging out not many of new players on togging out

It looks like the strongest team available at the moment on form, which is the right approach with 1st round of league the following week, Gavin Farrell, Chalky and Podge Fogarty probably a little unlucky not to make the starting team but I would agree with the selection., It would appear that Emmet Bolton, The Cribbins, Alan Smith, Niall Kelly, Fergal Conway and obviously Tommy Moolick (inj) aren't in the frame just yet, Anyone know the story with these players?

Bolton took an extended break
Paul Cribbin still coming back from injury
Alan Smith coming back from an operation
Niall Kelly not available as he played OBC for UCD
I think F Conway coming back from injury too

Team looks strong - big test for Daryl O'Brien in particular. I'd play Fogarty ahead of O'Connor any day as I think Podhe has so much potential on the big stage in the longer term but hard to argue too much with that line up. I hope they keep P Kelly in the full back line rather than wing back though.

Hopefully Peter Kelly will be in the full-back line instead of O'Grady who I don't think is a tight enough marker. O'Brien has done nothing wrong and deserves his chance but it's hard to see him being in the team in the summer. McManamon, O'Gara, Costello and Rock all played for Dublin last week so our backs are going to get a good test which is exactly what we need.
I think Tomas O'Connor deserves to start instead of Podge at full-forward. Podge has more of a scoring threat but Tomas is better at bringing other forwards into the game. I think Jason Ryan is right to go with his strongest available team with the league starting next week.

keith cribben could some part in game on sunday

thanks for the update Crofter, hopefully those players aren't too long away

I agree on Podges potential and he definitely has more scores in him than O'Connor, O'Connor will stay closer to goal though and Mulhall plays well off him, I'm sure Podge will see plenty of game time, I agree on P Kelly as well, I think Lyons, Fitzpatrick, Kelly is our best full back line.

Haven't seen us in action so far this year admittedly,  but find Murnaghan's selection in the half forwards a bit baffling.  What sort of role has he taken up in previous games ?

He played as a sweeper last time out and looked promising in the role, I would think he will play sweeper on Sunday, or else he will play centre back and release O'Brien to play sweeper

jj wrote:

Haven't seen us in action so far this year admittedly,  but find Murnaghan's selection in the half forwards a bit baffling.  What sort of role has he taken up in previous games ?

Drops back to sweep in front of full back line.

From what I've seen of O'Brien he can only play as a sweeper - don't think he has the mobility or physique to mark a man. So if Murnaghan drops back also that's two sweepers. All of which suggests a "Donegal" type defensive tactic which is ok with me. If we did nothing else on Sunday I'd be happy for us to focus on containing a good attacking side like Dublin. We need to practice such a tactic for the summer. We've all seen what going one on one with Dublin has "achieved".

I'd love a win on something like a 1-7 to 0-6 score line :-)

Here's the Dublin team for tomorrow. Our full-back line are going to get a good test. Kelly on O'Gara, Lyons on Costello and Fitzy on McManamon? Hopefully playing the spare man at the back will make sure there's cover if one of the backs loses his man.

Dublin (O'Byrne Cup v Kildare) - Sean Currie; Eoin Culligan, Rory O'Carroll, Michael Fitzsimons; Nicky Devereux, John Small, Jack McCaffrey; Paddy O'Higgins, Emmett O Conghaile; Tomas Brady, Dean Rock, Niall Scully; Kevin McManamon, Eoghan O'Gara, Cormac Costello.

I'm glad Murnaghan is selected at half-forward - Jim McGuinness always used half-forwards as sweepers, not half-backs. It makes much more sense as the space is left in the opposition half of the field, not your own.

Good team but I totally agree with Crofter - I was not a fan of Tomas O'Connor at FF four years ago and I'm not now. Podge is a much better all round player and playing on a top full back like Rory O'Carroll would be a good test for him.

Anyway, I think tomorrow will give us a decent indicator as to where we stand ahead of the league commencing next week. As I said earlier, what I'm most looking for is a strong defensive display. It will be a serious test for our backs, with Dublin having McManamon, Rock, Costello and O'Gara upfront, as well as McCaffrey attacking from deep.

Again, Crofter is spot on - if Kildare are to compete with Dublin this year, it's going to be through the McGuinness/Mourinho method. We are not Kerry and thinking we can toe to toe in a shoot-out... Well, I think I'll let the combined 40-point defeat from the last three encounters speak for itself.

Anyway, hope our lads are well-drilled and get the win. Will be in attendance, looking forward to it.

Sounded like a great game on KFM (despite the numerous clangers dropped, not least calling Dublin the winners after normal time), just ran out of puff in the end by the sounds of it.
Hope Kelly and Doyle are both OK : sounds like they were both missed in extra time.
Dubs were missing some serious fire power in Brogans(*2), Flynn and Connolly. But Kildare were missing a few too : with Conway, Bolton, Kelly all hopefully to come back.
Be interested in the views of those lucky enough to be in Newbridge today.

A lot of positives - defensively we looked far better than previous outings against Dublin (conceded no goals in 90 minutes!) with Kelly and Doyle being a huge factor. O'Grady played well but Ollie was guilty of losing possession too often in trying to make passes that weren't on (as was Cribben when he came on). Up front Mulhall was excellent but we need someone to be able to take frees from the left side (was Flats injured today?). Then you come to the enigma that is TOC - hard to see what positives he can take from the game - his mobility is limited and we keep lumping balls into him and even if he wins them the support isn't there. I don't see him as a starter on the team - he has always been better as an option from the bench.

Now we have to hope we haven't lost too many to injury ahead of the Down game next week - Kelly, Doyle and Lynch all shipped knocks but the game was perfect preparation for that game.

Very encouraged by this performance. For the first time in too long we had a solid defensive plan and seriously limited Dublin's goal chances - which traditionally has always been key to competing with Dublin teams.

When Dublin come up against a good defensive system they can look very ordinary at times. They really are built around power and athleticism and they lack Kerry's guile and natural flair. If we can improve our forward play we'll be well able to compete with them this year.

Don't really give a toss who they have to come back into the team - Donegal showed last year that if you throw up a roadblock and get in their faces they are very vulnerable.

Re individual performances - Peter Kelly was like a man possessed, Mulhall's finishing was excellent, and Podge kicked some mighty points. Seriously, is him versus Tomas even a debate at this stage? As I predicted beforehand, Rory O'Carroll had him in his pocket again. He just does not have the all-round ability forwards require at this level. I'd actually use him in midfield - god knows we need some options there at present.

Anyway, excellent preparation for next week. We're well capable of promotion - let's do it!

A decent enough outing. We played very well in the second half before tiring in extra time although there was a period in the first half when we were very poor all over the field. It took us a while to get a score from play and we let Dublin kick some very soft scores. They got a few during that period before they went 9-3 up where we didn't lay a glove on them all the way up the field. The backs needed the forwards to work harder in that period to ease some of the pressure. When we did push up on their kickout in the second half we had a lot more success. It's a pity our two goal chances fell to lads who wouldn't be natural finishers.

Peter Kelly really led from the front. Mick O'Grady was also quite impressive in the backs.

Donnellan produced one great save and also stopped the penalty. He seems to have made the no1 jersey his own.

Fogarty was very good when he came on. He kicked two great points off his left foot into the town end. He should be starting in the league.

We did miss Eoghan O'Flaherty today. Is he likely to be back for next Sunday?

I wouldn't be too disappointed with that display. We were the better team in the 2nd half of normal time and Darroch had a free to win it but Dublin had a stronger bench and deserved to win in extra time. Once Peter Kelly, Eoin Doyle and Fitzy went off, our defence in extra time was Lyons, Farrell, McNally, Keith Cribbin, O'Brien and O'Grady with Chalky and David Whyte in midfield so it was probably no surprise that the Dubs pulled away.
In the first half we didn't contest Dublin's kick-outs and it looked as if we were going to get hammered at one stage. We did the same against Monaghan last year and it cost us. Once we pushed up on their kick-outs we won a few of them and got back into the game.
I thought the defence did fairly well considering the pressure they were under. Dublin didn't really look like getting a goal until extra time when we had to make all the changes. Sometimes we made trouble for ourselves by getting caught bringing the ball out of defence but Dublin's tackling was excellent.
We struggled to create chances up front. I don't think any of our full-forward line scored from play. Leper got 3 good points but gave the ball away a few times as well. Podge did well getting 3 points from play when we came on. I agree we probably need to have a re-think about the full-forward position. Tomas struggled to win much ball against O'Carroll and their sweeper and the odd time he did, he had nobody to pass to. I couldn't help thinking as well that a more natural forward would have scored that chance he got in the first half. Our free-taking generally was good (Eamon Murphy got a couple of nice long range ones as well) but we did miss a couple that could have made the difference.
Hopefully the knocks we got weren't too serious. It was a good workout playing a team of Dublin's intensity. Jason Ryan said afterwards that Flats will be back next week and Niall Kelly and David Hyland will be available.

Not quite as pleased as Haunted Graffiti about the performance but can see some positives. There's no doubt we're trying to find a tighter defensive set-up and in some ways it's working. The impact of Kelly and Doyle's return is plain to see - their pace an tenacity adds a completely different dimension to our defending.

We at least had more bodies back and were trying to stop Dublin getting beyond our half back line and at times that worked. But I still thought they were getting through a bit too easily in the first half.

Our attacking play was atrocious for large parts of the game, particularly in the first half when it took us  what 30 minutes to score from play? But I was the one who only wanted a defensive performance so I can't say too much. We really needed our many defensive players to make a few breaks forward between the 10th and 30th minutes but instead we insisted on lumping long balls into two forwards surrounded by 6 backs. I can't understand why Mulhall is instructed/allowed to play around the 50 when he invariably loses possession through over playing the ball.

On a positive note I thought management reacted well when they saw our defensive set up was causing problems to us on their kick outs. Mick O'Grady was pushed up to midfield to boost our numbers in that area and we just resorted to the sweeper approach for general play.

I thought Podge Fogarty perfectly illustrated (as did Tomas) the diference in quality between the two players. Podge kicked two excellent scores while Tomas ran into blind alleys as he always does I'm afraid against the top teams. Podge should start next week.

Thought Mulhall was patchy - he seems to struggle when the pressure is on. He missed a couple of frees in the first half when the Dubs were turning the screw and we needed scores. And of course e had the hange to win the game with that last minute free. This and the balls given away by Lyons, O'Brien and Donnellan when the game was in the melting pot show that we don't have the killer instinct with these players. Hopefully it will develop.

Finally I thought O'Brien of the newer players had a decent game and got around the pitch better than I imagined he could. Still don't see him as a summer player though - a bit like Brian Flanagan in the past. Hope to see Conway back soon.

Top performers for me were P Kelly E Doyle H Lynch E Callaghan and PO'Neill