2015 season

First off I'll admit to being a sunshine supporter/ bandwagon man as it was the fitrst game I could make so far this year but just a few things.
First up as many are pointing out here the defence looked a lot sharper and definitely they are taking responsibility for their own men and standing toe to toe effectively. P Kelly, Fizt and Doyle look well up for it as did O'Grady.
However, as always seems to be the case it's further up the field that we fall short. People are saying the backs didn't counter attack enough but there were so many times when they looked up with no-one really making the run to give them an option.
I really don't see the point of ending with Podge, O'Connor and Dowling on the sam field. Granted Dowling was pushed out but he isn't exactly suer mobile.
O'Connor juts can't win as he is obviously told to stay in there, but gets no support and then is double-teamed as every team in the country knows exactly how we are going to play when they see him lining out.
Surely ta feck we could use our brains and have him as a decoy at least and allow other lads move into the space vacated by him, his marker and the sweeper out of the way...
I'm not dogging O'Connor but I think at this stage either use him as a creator of space or a man to cause some havoc towards the end of a game.

As fo midfield and talk of P Cribbin...I think it's the older brother who would be a better option. Look at Cian Sullivan with the Dubs, he is not exactly a tank. Keith has speed, work rate and can score if his confidence is up. Just a thought...

lilly-exile wrote:

What did people think of daryel obrien? Thought the speed of dublin might have shown him up but I thought he did very well. Seems to read the game very well which makes up for lack of speed. good user of the ball too. Still think fergal Conway is ahead of him though

I thought he done very well, he's in the ilk of a Brian Flanagan and I think Kildare need that type of player for the 'dirty ball' so to speak. He also is very sound with the ball bar one turnover in Extra Time.

Not to throw a downer on all this positive reaction and i will say it was a great game for this time of year however i would ask myself 3 questions
1. How much better will Kildare get maybe 10-15%? How much better will Dublin get 30-40%??
2. Games played in Newbridge which is one of the tightest/smallest pitches in the country are a mile away from playing in Croke Park??
3. How different was winning a 50:50 ball yesterday (in a virtually training ground scenario) be than at the height of Championship fever which has been one of my personal problems with Kildare players over the last few years -too nice dont get stuck in and definitely the majority don't put the body on the line

Am seeing a few more positives this year however

I'd think we played well in patches yesterday and we are a work in progress however I am struggling to see forwards who can score 4 or 5 points from play on the team. Mulhall didn't score from play yesterday and struggled against a better team IMO, Dowling was poor until moved out the field where he improved a little, Tomas tried hard but is limited on the scoring front. Is Podge a better option?, probably !! Callaghan gave a way quite a bit of ball but scored 3 points from play.

Flats, Niall Kelly anyone else I am missing to come into the forwards?

But surely Micky, you didn't go there thinking or hoping to see enough that would convince you there could be such a turnaround in fortunes that Kildare would beat Dublin in this year's championship, meaning the Dubs wouldn't be winning the Leinster for only the second time in 11 seasons, while a rebuilding Kildare team would win a first in 17!

You are dead right of course about the size of the pitch and the type of 50-50 stuff, and the fact that Kildare will have had a lot more likely first-teamers out there than Dublin. But again, I'm probably mad looking for a bit of reality.

And as for forwards that will score four or five from play - well, the whole country apart from maybe Dublin and Kerry are looking for that!

I thought it was quite good because what had occurred up to know had been useful in no way except in terms of building up the load for the likes of Doyle, Kelly etc. If they'd have gone into the Down game without yesterday, it could have been nasty.

You can definitely see the difference Doyle and Kelly make to the defence, as well as the deployment of a sweeper. It's a problem offensively though, particularly as Tomás - who regulars will know I'm a huge fan of - can't beat his man. The support doesn't get to him quickly enough and when they do, they're a bit static, and running at the wrong angles. That will be worked on but Podge is looking fit and he can turn off either foot and score.

I don't think there are any additional injury concerns from yesterday. The early substitutions, particularly of Doyle, were I would say predetermined, making sure he wasn't at risk of picking up further injury as he steps up his return.

Love watching Peter Kelly and glad I never encountered an animal like him in the corner. Echo comments on Mick O'Grady. Looked very sharp.

Some good and some poor aspects to take from yesterdays game. On the good side as said here numerous times, our backs seemed to have improved and Kelly, O Grady and Doyle having very sound games, I thought Kelly was outstanding.
On the poor side we are in trouble from number 8 up, our two midfielders yesterday, one looked totally uninterested and the other is not up to inter county standard at midfield, Ill let you decide which is which. For our forwards could we intoduce Emmet Bolton into the forward line he has scored some cracking goals in his years and we seem to have plenty of choice for our half back line.

Ogie, how could you forget our win against Dublin in the final in 2000 which is 15 years ago but still a long time I admit.
How often did JD score 4 or 5 from play against good opposition?. You need a spread of scorers to run up a winning tally including a few from midfield and half back. We have proven scorers like Flats, Smith and Kelly to come back in still.
Not too worried about beating the Dubs, I would prefer to concentrate on the league and getting back to no. 2 in Leinster. Both are achievable but Dublins squad strength and recent underage success means beating them is a bit off still.
A win next week is vital or the trip to Navan will look daunting especially if Meath have a win next week.

One of the big problems Kildare have had against dubs recently is the concession of goals and goal chances, outside of the pen, I can't think of any yesterday so that is a definite nod to the defense and defensive structure, having said that to beat them, we are still a long way off, we will have to score goals ourselves. I would love to have a player like McManamon playing for us, so direct and purposeful in possession, we don't seem to produce players like that!!

Some true comments there and yes i think getting back to nr 2 in Leinster is key along with showing a bit of fight for the jersey and not bottling it in Championship against a team like Meath would be progress.

Think the problems of conceding goals to Dublin eventhough none yesterday will be a major problem on a big vast pitch like Croker to be honest

"Kildare is certainly a county where expectations rise very quickly. If you lose one or two games all of a sudden it can be overly dramatic at times.” ....Jason Ryan Quote...

I suppose Your right Jason.. We can be very dramatic.. not sure about the high expectations though.

Was losing Yesterday our best chance of Silverware gone this Year ? .. and at Home to the Dubs, who were missing Flynn, Connolly, O Sullivan and the Brogans.

Does anyone think dan flynn could be worth a go at midfield? Him and chalky would be pretty industrious the days of the slow high fielder i think are gone i would rather see 2 athletes that cover serious ground especially as we are going with the short kickouts(thank god)

darly obrien has broken thumb paul cribben trained tonight

fone wrote:

darly obrien has broken  thumb              paul cribben trained tonight

Lads.........Paul has had a broken bone in his foot for some time now but should be rarin to go very shortly!

naked-lilly wrote:

Does anyone think dan flynn could be worth a go at midfield? Him and chalky would be pretty industrious the days of the slow high fielder i think are gone i would rather see 2 athletes that cover serious ground especially as we are going with the short kickouts(thank god)

Yes he would be worth a go there. The idea of Cribbin the elder there isn't as mad as I might have first thought either.

totalgaa wrote:

Some good and some poor aspects to take from yesterdays game. On the good side as said here numerous times, our backs seemed to have improved and Kelly, O Grady and Doyle having very sound games, I thought Kelly was outstanding.
On the poor side we are in trouble from number 8 up, our two midfielders yesterday, one looked totally uninterested and the other is not up to inter county standard at midfield, Ill let you decide which is which. For our forwards could we intoduce Emmet Bolton into the forward line he has scored some cracking goals in his years and we seem to have plenty of choice for our half back line.  

Harsh comment on the midfielders there... Didn't think either of them were uninterested. It's certainly not something I have ever seen levelled against O'Neill so I presume you mean Lynch. He had an ok game without setting the world alight I guess, but hardly disinterested. If there's one thing Kildare fans can generally be assured of it is that the team will be committed to the cause. I do to think we realise sometimes how big an issue that can be in other counties.

The Enmet Bolton idea has some legs though to be fair..

Bolton scores his goals arriving from deep, so changing him into the forward line would not necessarily get the same results, he would spend more time running the other direction chasing back, rather than breaking out of defence, same as mccaffrey, keegan, mccarthy, vaughan etc.

I think a backline with Kelly, Fitzpatrick, Doyle, Bolton and Conway gives us a far more aggressive in you face type of defence than we have had in a while

I think we will be OK up front, especially in Div 2. I can see us getting on average 15 points a game. We always have a good spread and with Smith and OFlaherty to come in again we should be fine.
Defence looks more solid and did well against talented Dublin six on Sunday. There won't be any better six than those in Div 2.
The area we will struggle in is midfield. We have good honest players playing there but we have very little in the way of pace. Dan Flynn could provide that if he comes in, I'm sure he has bulked up since he left so physically he should be perfect for the middle.
At the moment I would go with Chalky and one other. Who that is I'm not sure.
Looking forward to Sunday.

Some interesting suggestions there. You know what position I think the two Cribbins would be suited to? Sweeper. They both have plenty of defensive experience and the pace to get up and down the field a la Mark / Ryan McHugh.

As someone pointed out to me yesterday at the game. the cribbins have always played in half forward line for Jtb and that's where there at there best. I'm not as clued up on how Jtb line up but he couldn't understand why there playing half back for the county.

Interesting stuff, although a round-robin competition is an absolutely pointless way of addressing it. As I and others have pointed out ad nauseum - and I dare say Sunday offered a good case for - Dublin having to play Meath in Navan or Kildare in Newbridge would be a good start. But as we know Leinster counties idiotically and very greedily voted against this earlier this year. Anyway, at least the issue is finally being raised, I suppose...

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/leinster-council-looking-at-ways-to-boost-competitiveness-of-football-championship-1.2080250

murof wrote:

Ogie, how could you forget our win against Dublin in the final in 2000 which is 15 years ago but still a long time I admit.
How often did JD score 4 or 5 from play against good opposition?. You need a spread of scorers to run up a winning tally including a few from midfield and half back. We have proven scorers like Flats, Smith and Kelly to come back in still.
Not too worried about beating the Dubs, I would prefer to concentrate on the league and getting back to no. 2 in Leinster. Both are achievable but Dublins squad strength and recent underage success means beating them is a bit off still.
A win next week is vital or the trip to Navan will look daunting especially if Meath have a win next week.

My bad.

I'm in total agreement about the need for a consistently high-scoring forward from play but like I said, most counties are looking for that, and two of them really... but when they're not there, you try to come up with a system. McGeeney's best teams got a lot of scores from a lot of avenues, particularly from runners from deep - the so-called half-backs.

Absolutely agree with the achievable target being No 2 in Leinster, although being No 1 obviously has to be on that list too.

Next Sunday will be very tough and it was vital to have that game last Sunday. They should be up to speed now.

That's tough luck on Daryl O'Brien now. By the time he's back, people will probably have passed him on the pecking order, unless things go very badly.

Has the panel been cut yet? Any sign of the guy from Castledermot who played corner-back, thought he looked decent in game against Louth when I was home, then again it was Louth who were a mess.

Gavin Farrell has come in on in a few games and done very well Tommy. After Louth, came on against Carlow, started against DIT and came on against the Dubs. Got least game-time Sunday but has looked good in all other games. I'd be a big fan.

Didn't want to start a new thread but I see Patrician's Newbridge will meet Edenderry in Leinster schools semi final. Not familar with either team, but Edenderry usually have a decent few Kildare youngters in their ranks. Anybody know more ?

Yes JJ, six Kildare players on the Edenderry team this year - all from Balyna/JTB: Wayne Cummins, Ian Quinn, Joe Mulraney, Sam Doran, Stephen McGlynn and Jack Robinson.

McGlynn was on the Kildare U16 squad that won Leinster in 2013 and was one of the Edenderry stars against Knockbeg, scored three points.