NFL Division 3 2016

The reality hits home - provisional fixtures released

Westmeath (A) Sun Jan 31st
Offaly (H) Sun Feb 7th
Longford (A) Sun Feb 28th
Limerick (H) Sun March 6th
Sligo (H) Sun March 13th
Tipperary (A) Sat March 26th
Clare (H) Sun April 3rd

The big time - at least four are at home .....and another positive thing ....ehm......ehm.....the days will be getting longer

Would have hoped for at least one of Clare Limerick or Sligo away for a session.
Will have to settle for a trip to Tipp ..

jimmers wrote:

The reality hits home - provisional fixtures released

Westmeath (A) Sun Jan 31st
Offaly (H) Sun Feb 7th
Longford (A) Sun Feb 28th
Limerick (H) Sun March 6th
Sligo (H) Sun March 13th
Tipperary (A) Sat March 26th
Clare (H) Sun April 3rd

This is where we are, that said we will be playing against Connacht and Leinster finalists and maybe some players from the All Ireland minor winners. We also struggled to beat Offaly in the championship a couple of months ago. I won't be taking nothing for granted or believe that we should be looking down our noses at these teams.

flourman wrote:

Would have hoped for at least one of Clare Limerick or Sligo away for a session.
Will have to settle for a trip to Tipp ..

A Me ould Flour, taking the positives from it.

Cant see a Night away in Longford as being too attractive eh.

The rule is you have to go over a provincial border for a night away ..

We are where we are because we lost 5 matches in Div 2. I actually think Div 3 will be a help to the new manager as it will give him a better chance to try out some players from the last few years underage pool. 4 matches at home will also help.
The club championship might give a few returning players a chance to put their name forward. A quick return to Div 2 is what we all expect so no early pressure on new manager then!

Where do tipp play their home games
I don't think they use Thurles for league football.

We played Tipp in Thurles a few years ago(2011 I think) under McGeeney on a Saturday night.
2016 game is set for a Saturday night too, so I'd be surprised if it wasn't Thurles.

If not in Thurles, they tend to play in Ardfinnan.

Given it is provisionally fixed for Saturday evening it will be in Thurles, possibly a double header with their hurlers if they happen to playing the same weekend.

A saturday night in thurles sounds AMAZING!comparable to killarney, Galway,cork or even Derry. I'd even go back to Tralee before thurles. Div 3 venues are worse than actually watching your county playing div 3 football.

I wouldn't think the other teams fans are over excited at visiting Conleths. Plenty on banana skins in div 3 if we have the wrong attitude but the game in thurles should decide who comes out on top

Very true St Conleths would be a Div 4 ground

micky murphy wrote:

Very true St Conleths would be a Div 4 ground

Lucky there's no Div 5.  :

micky murphy wrote:

Very true St Conleths would be a Div 4 ground

Bit of an insult to Div 4 Teams eh micky..

Was just thinking about next year's squad and how it might change.
Obviously some of the U21s will come into the frame but I imagine they will train alongside the seniors and you can include whoever is playing well. At this point I'd say Mescal, Houlihan, Neil Flynn and a couple of others could get game time next year alongside Sherry. Maybe Chris Healy or Cein McMonagle or a player like that could develop into a senior panellist.
The big issue is what to do with David Hyland and Daniel Flynn. Personally I would reluctantly have them back. New manager, new slate and I just don't think we have enough strength in depth to be discarding players like that. I still think there is something to get out of Darroch Mulhall, too, but I might be in the minority on that and we have more options in his position whereas we are not overburdened by players of the quality, or at least the potential, of Hyland and Flynn.
With all these young lads the main point I'd like to make is that I think the new manager should be on the phone to Hugh McGrillen and Morgan O'Flaherty. You look at Kerry - I know things went wrong yesterday, but they've lost one match in two years - and they're still getting good use out of players far older than these two. Even if Hank and Morgan didn't make the starting 15 I feel having a few experienced and whole-hearted players like that around the squad would do a lot in terms of them setting an example and a standard for lads in their early 20s. I also think Robert Kelly would add something to the squad if not the championship XV.
I would give John Byrne another look too if he's willing to give football a go.
Then of course Feely will be added and in a dream world, Hurley and Paddy Brophy. I would not be surprised to see Hurley back for 2016 but that's pure guess work on my part.
If you take even some of the above I feel we can build a much stronger squad than we had this year, if we manage it right.
Thoughts?

What perceived injustice has Dan Flynn done apart from pursuing a professional career and getting an operation on his groin?

... and getting off his tits pissed the Tuesday or Wednesday night in the Court before NFL game against Laois this year.

These lads have undoubted talent but just don't have the commitment of the top teams.
The Kildare jersey does not mean the same to these guys as it did to Earley, Doyle, Ryan - this needs to be addressed. We are a snip away from becoming like Laois with indiscipline, lack of committment and lads walking off the panel when things don't work out.
Maybe the last manager had a role to play in this, but it needs to be addressed
We will never will a thing with this attitude.
Stonecold eluded to the same on a recent post.

I wouldn't judge young lads to harshly. It's much easier to be committed under a manager like McGeeney than Ryan who basically hadn't a clue where he was going from game to game.
Kerry will always try to get the best players included, we should do the same. New manager, new clean slate and new players in and then we will see who is committed or not.
Brophy, Hurley and Feeley all walked away from Kildare when it suited them. Who here would not welcome them back with open arms? Cribben did likewise and was probably our best player this year.
We are a long way from becoming like Laois, things are not that bad!

flourman wrote:

... and getting off his tits pissed the Tuesday or Wednesday night in the Court before NFL game against Laois this year.

Hardly a hanging offence for a young lad, science shows consuming alcohol 4/5 days before a game has zero affect on match performance. Coming back from Australia, probably sees it as a failure, had to endure the passing of a family member. Can anyone here genuinely judge a young man whose head was all over the place a night on the beer. I don't deny he probably violated team code and I'm sure the team dealt with it but unless all the facts are presented people should come off their high before they fall off.

The guilty party here is as Murof alluded to is Ryan, compare the handling of Cribben, who had his demons as well, by McGeeney and the treatment of Flynn by Ryan. Cribben was made work for his place, it was handed back to Flynn when it should have been obvious his head wasn't right.

Does anyone here live their lives by the standards they judge players by?

You either commit 100% or you let someone else have a go, it's as simple as that.
As Stonecold said the jersey is not theirs, it is owned by the people of Kildare past, present and future. It is to be respected and not treated as a disposable object.

New man in whoever it may be, clear the decks everyone starts fresh but any more of the nonsense we have seen over the last couple of years and players should be held to account.

As for next year we are in Div 3, it's not the place to be obviously but if you need to build a team from the bottom up it is not a bad place to start.

none of us know exactly what went on inside the panel as in when the players declared their intentions to go travelling so it's hard to judge, maybe JR wanted them involved as long as possible. With a new man coming in for probably 3 years lads are less likely to take themselves off the panel as the door might not be open on their return. That said the kind of money they're getting in America is very tempting