General GAA - AOB

Tom Cribben before every Dublin game: "It's a great experience for our lads playing Dublin, it will stand to them. We need to put in a 70 minute performance this time."

Tom Cribben after every Dublin game: "They are one of the greatest teams of all time, we were doing well to keep it kicked out to them. But it will stand to our lads. We need to put in a 70 minute performance next time."

Jim Gavin has reignited Connolly controversy with post-match press conference. Attacked Pat Spillane, Colm O'Rourke and Sky Sports... Very uncharacteristic, which is good. Will also be a media circus around Dublin for the next few weeks - which is also good.

Btw you can hear it on FM104 Soundcloud. Psychologically, things are going to get very distorted for Dublin in the run-up to this match. All they'll be hearing is the usual media fawning and Diarmuid Connolly guff. More good news.

JohnnyC wrote:

Hard to listen to the RTE commentary on that match. At one stage Ger Canning said "these players have totally dedicated themselves to the pursuit of sporting excellence...Training 6 times aweek..." FFS - they were playing against a team that played in Division 4 this year.

The kick-outs will be key as I can't see us catching as many clean ones as we did against Meath so we'll have to win a lot of the breaks. Mannion and Kilkenny were excellent today so well have to mark them closely. A lot of Dublin's points came from 30-35 yards out - an area we let Meath have too much room the last day.

We'll be rank outsiders in the final. Hopefully we can show a bit of the spirit/madness that Down showed last night and rattle them.

Went to bring the dogs over to the Curragh this evening  and had the utter misfortune of listening to the Marty squad. Jesus wept it is atrocious. Lad texts in saying the preferential treatment of Dublin in Leinster has ruined the province. Marty straight out denies this and says he loves watching the Dubs and the entertainment they bring. In pops Tomas o flathertha or however you spell it telling everyone that scoring 4-29 is great entertainment. Well for who exactly. The paltry 32,000 that turned up, the Westmeath fans who will probably never go watch their County against Dublin in Croke Park again or the idiots like myself who wasted an afternoon watching that tripe.

Anyway he did a bit of research and said we have good forwards in Brophy and eh eh eh eh Callaghan and eh eh Damien Flynn.

The Dubs are getting to not be arsed at all with media until it suits them. Most of their availability comes at an AIG photoshoot or some other partner. They want to control everything and this is the next step.
They can´t be arsed talking to anyone and yet they know when Lifestyle Sports are stocking their latest training top all the hacks will be along to the launch.
The broadcast media are being banned due to RTE and Sky TV yet their official partners FM 104 get the chats.
Gavin being Gavin didn´t just decide this on the hoof and that is what is most confusing. Everyone had moved on from Connolly (and his good name) and now it's all kicked off again.

Re the other point...Second Captains canned in favour of the Marty Squad...I give up! Honestly who thinks this is what the GAA people want. Every time you flick over it´s some lads being roped into singing a song!

Here's a question... In the future, but probably not irrelevant to us given we're back in Leinster finals, Div 1 with good underage etc. Let's say we're in the Super 8 next year. You get at least one game at home, don't you? Would we be able to play that in Newbridge, or would they're be capacity/regulation issues? Also wonder if we'll get a home league game against Dubs any time soon? Trying to compete at the top end without key home games, talk about fighting with one hand behind your back...

HauntedGraffiti wrote:

Here's a question... In the future, but probably not irrelevant to us given we're back in Leinster finals, Div 1 with good underage etc. Let's say we're in the Super 8 next year. You get at least one game at home, don't you? Would we be able to play that in Newbridge, or would they're be capacity/regulation issues? Also wonder if we'll get a home league game against Dubs any time soon? Trying to compete at the top end without key home games, talk about fighting with one hand behind your back...

in super 8 every team plays one home one away and one Croke park.

The championship structure is a hot topic again and this is worth noting from Conan Doherty on joe.ie

Put it this way, if the championship was divided two ways in 2017 based off the top two divisions of the national league and the bottom two divisions of the national league, you'd still have had these results.

Laois 4-15 Longford 0-16
Kildare 2-16 Meath 0-13
Tyrone 0-22 Derry 0-11
Monaghan 1-20 Fermanagh 1-11


Leinster is a stick to beat the provincial system but realistically if the Dubs were in any province they would dominate. Longford beat a Div 1 Ulster outfit in Monaghan last year after another bad Leinster campaign.
It also has to get the player's blessing which isn't easy as lads in Kerry play one tough game and it's a Munster final. Are they willing to give that up so the poor hoors in Leinster get a fair deal?

There’s a number of ridiculous things in Gavin’s statement.

He is concerned about Diarmuid Connolly’s good name being attacked before the referee’s report was received. No such concern about Lee Keegan’s good name before the all-ireland final replay last year when there was an orchestrated media campaign against him, co-incidentally involving former teammates and players of Jim Gavin. Also I think he’ll find the referee’s report was submitted before the Sunday Game was broadcast, and the incident discussed, almost 26 hours after it occurred.

He talks about freedom of expression and individuals having their rights. That’s why analysts have the right to pass fair comment on incidents such as this (whether we want to listen to them or not is another thing!).

"We had the national broadcaster in their post-match review - both Pat Spillane and Colm O'Rourke, but particularly Pat - read out a pre-determined statement, which was disappointing.” Actually he quoted the rules but if he rehearsed a couple of lines before appearing on television, I think that’s what is referred to in the business as preparation, hardly a crime.

“We saw on Sky Sports the rulebook being read out against them.” Yes, how dare Sky try and discuss the facts.

"We received advice from senior counsel that if this went to arbitration the case wouldn't hold but Diarmuid didn't want that to happen. He just wanted to move on in the best interests of the team. That's what he decided to do.” That didn’t stop him getting off suspensions in 2011 and 2015. Still the only player in history to get sent off in two all-ireland semi-finals and not to serve a single suspension.

"Diarmuid has put his hand up and said it was a mistake and he's prepared to accept his suspension.” No he didn’t, he appealed and failed.

"The bile and the malevolent attitude that certain broadcasters went after him with”. No they gave an opinion based on the facts that occurred. If they didn’t they would have been slaughtered.

As Flamingo pointed out, after yesterday’s display, the Connolly incident would have been forgotten about only for Gavin to start this. Also Connolly is a lot more popular in Dublin outside the dressing room than inside it. In the build-up to the Carlow game Johnny Cooper hit him a few thumps in training one night and was backed up by other senior players. A lot of the long-serving players are fed up with Connolly especially after the black card in the league final. If Captain Jimbo goes lets win this one for Diarmuid, he’ll be met with a few eye-rolls. On the other hand Philly McMahon got suspensions after all-ireland and league finals largely down to the media coverage and got no such support from Jim Gavin. I’d imagine this hasn’t gone unnoticed in the dressing-room.

This will whip up the Dublin fans like Loughnane did in 1998 in Clare but ultimately the furore just wore out that Clare team and they didn’t win the all-ireland that year.

Pity about the absence of one-to-one interviews I’ll miss him telling Joanne Cantwell after every incident that “discipline is a core philosophy of the Dublin football team”.

Have to admire a guy who can utter the words " Connolly's good name" with a straight face so often. Obviously he rehearsed it beforehand!

It's the process lads, all about the process.

Gavin's statement truly farcical – and all the more remarkable for coming from someone who is generally astonishingly dull and not someone you'd want to get stuck in a lift with.

Thought Gavin was going to cry at various points through that whinge. Waiting for the parade of usual suspects now in the media - Tommy Lyons, John O'Leary, no doubt a tweet or two from Vinnie Murphy. Great for Cian O'Neill and Kildare. Just keep our heads down and concentrate on our prep. We're 8/1 outsiders and rightly so. No pressure. Just lay into them, play with the same pace, discipline and heart as the last two games and see where it takes us. Anything under 10 points and we can move on to the last 12 with a great work out behind us. And on the offchance they get rattled enough (it happens) we might even give them a fright.

I'd say Cian can't believe his luck. Whinging Jim has completely taken all the spotlight for himself and his team and sharply focused it on themselves. There will not be a word about us for the next two weeks. We seen it with Seanie Johnston, the constant media attention and questioning will drain them at some point. If it is the case that Connelly is not particularly liked it will only increase unwarranted pressure in the group.
Without his tantrum we would have got three weeks of blowing smoke up Dublin's collective holes and a line of questioning for our lads of how can you compete.

Thanks Jim.

It's brilliant - Joe Brolly on the Sunday Game last night was like a one-man show at the Edinburgh Fringe. Should add another few acres of media coverage. Great stuff.

Actually I was just remembering an U21 match around 12 years ago when I first heard of Connolly's good name. He was a class player but would get sent off was word on the street.
After some gentle encouragement from Chalky sure enough he saw red...
It's a pity as he is one of my favourite players to watch. I think Gavin has hung him out to dry a bit as was noted by some pundits. It was over and now he is back in the spotlight.

Think one of the Lonergans did same to mark Vaughan in an u21 match too.

So far in 2017 am I right in saying Geezer, Comerford, Connolly and now Burns all deemed guilty under same rule and all have received the same ban?
Pat Spillane has been busy!

Flamingo - was that the Leinster U21 semi in Newbridge? As far as I can recollect Gavin was manager and Glen Ryan was ours. Chalky Roasted connolly that day if I'm not mistaken! Correct me otherwise!

Apologies for the delay. Yeah it was 2008 and I had forgotten Gavin was the boss. Chalky didn't give him a sniff and was on the edge, but the victim of a nation saw red.
On a sidenote last year I was up in Croker when I noticed Connolly and a sub in midfield spraying the ball over and back to each other while the main group did their drills.
Gavin obviously let him do his own thing and perhaps the rest are sick of it.

Flamingo wrote:

Apologies for the delay. Yeah it was 2008 and I had forgotten Gavin was the boss. Chalky didn't give him a sniff and was on the edge, but the victim of a nation saw red.
On a sidenote last year I was up in Croker when I noticed Connolly and a sub in midfield spraying the ball over and back to each other while the main group did their drills.
Gavin obviously let him do his own thing and perhaps the rest are sick of it.

This, I think, is what is called confirmation bias Flamingo!

Ha! I am reading into everything as I see fit...
I actually find it hard to dislike the Dubs and lads like Kilkenny, O'Sullivan, McCaffrey, Fenton...I could go on all seem decent fellas.
Joking aside they must be like WTF a bit with Connolly.

For what it's worth ladies and gents..
Conleths second in the best pitches in Ireland!
http://www.gaa.ie/news/semple-stadium-claims-inaugural-2017-gaa-pitch-award/

lilywhites on tour wrote:

For what it's worth ladies and gents..
Conleths second in the best pitches in Ireland!
http://www.gaa.ie/news/semple-stadium-claims-inaugural-2017-gaa-pitch-award/

Imagine if this was the other way around. Be like building an Arabian racing stadium on a mountain-side bog.

Just seen on twitter that there were 300 kids at the Leixlip cul camps this week. There is so much untapped potential in leixlip is frightening to think how good they could potentially be. They have to compete with soccer and rugby however and its crazy to think that they couldnt field a minor team last year and had to amalgamate with confey. I believe johnny doyle is doing lots of works in the schools in leixlip to get kids playin gaa. I think if kildare is to push on to the next level we need to get more from big urban areas such as leixlip

BigBall, While its great to see big numbers attending these camps alot of it is smoke and mirrors. I see great play made of it the County convention. The reality is if you look at the numbers you will find Kids who are serial Cul camp goers from one camp to another in the locality as it is a form of cheap baby sitting. I would love to see someone actually research how many of the kids are actually active in clubs as opposed to how many turned up to get cheap gear, play with friends and keep out of mammies way for a couple of day. Cul Camps are a great promotion tool but show me the results. What is the participation rate as a % of the Kids in local schools. Promoting participation in local schools with a good school club link is the way forward. Sounds like JD as participation officer is doing a good job on the ground.