Kildare v Offaly

Gaa1928 wrote:

Kildare by 7.

That's the spirit my friend. . So the score will be 11 points to 4.

If the Hogan Stand preview is correct we'll be there all night

Kildare v Offaly, Newbridge, 6.30pm

These Leinster neighbours meet for the second successive year at the same stage of the qualifiers.

Kildare won by 1-15 to 1-13 last year in Tullamore to record a fourth successive championship win over Offaly, whose last win over the Lilywhites was in 2006.

To say that Cian O'Neill's team has flattered to deceive so far this year is something of an understatement.

They scraped over Wexford (0-9 to 0- in the Leinster quarter-final before making a tame 1-11 to 1-12 semi-fin
al exit to Westmeath.

Verdict: Draw

If we play that defensive system again I think we are in trouble tonight. Is O Neill stubborn or does he think we are going to click after tonight it might be to late. I read where Tomas o Shea said for Kildare to win just let them play and stop confusing the players with tactics formations systems etc especially against these lot. If we couldnt beat Offaly man on man we are going absolutely no where..
The same should be said against Wexford & Westmeath.

They say it's darkest before the dawn, hopefully the sun is rising and we drive these invading hoors back to the bog where they came from. Kildare by 4.

Jez lads you'll be accused of having ego's.
Draw and xtra time to give some value on the €20.

First Kildare championship game in the flesh since 2012. Expecting to be blown away!

maybe kildare batting at no 1 in under age in leinster at the moment its time to start soldering on at senior level build for say next 3 years and then have a serious rattle at silverware devise a system that suits us and then go for it

TommyKeegan wrote:

First Kildare championship game in the flesh since 2012. Expecting to be blown away!

Dead right Tommy.... That wind that comes in from the Kilcullen end would shave you in the stand.....

Best of luck to Kildare.

Great to get the win, well done fellas and playing a style that suits .. Longford beat monaghan in a major shock.

Well there was far more positives in that display. Thankfully Cian saw some sense and abandoned the the shuddering system that was going to bring us an early exit. Although the more open brand leads to us conceding far more, we actually give our forwards a chance of scoring and creating by playing this way. 1.22 is a fantastic score no matter who the opposition is and great to see Kelly, Flynn and Tyrell get a few scores between them. Question marks still exist over discipline in defence which has been the case for years. We simply cannot keep making life easy for teams by consistent fouling. Has been happening since the latter stages of the Mcgeeney era straight through to now. Bigger and better teams will punish us. In saying that, great morale boosting win and roll on next week.

Huge congrats to Longford on a magnificent win.

Gaa1928 wrote:

SeamusMurphy wrote:

Will cian change things now for the offaly game  ?. This "system " isn't working so far.. if he sticks with it I fear the outcome v offaly.

I hope he goes 15 v 15 and forget about this defensive system and see where that brings us.  I certainly don't want to see a 0.07 to 0.06 game.  Its not as if we are going the win the All- Ireland so why not get back to playing entertaining football and give the fans something to cheer about ( win, lose or draw).

I think back to the final day of the 6 nations rugby last year when as the games progressed each team needed to win by more points and the 'coaching manual' went out the window and players expressed themselves and we probably had the best 3 games of rugby in years.

I really think most, if not all, team sports are been 'coached to death' and indeed Gaelic football is starting to look like basketball ( in so far as when you don't have the ball everybody just retreats into their own half ) or dare I say it, soccer, except that you can handle the ball.

That's what I call a football match and entertainment.

Great to get the win and great atmosphere in Newbridge tonight. For sure there are a lot of things we can improve on but it was great to see the players show a bit of fight after Offaly got back level in the 2nd half. Good leadership shown by the likes of David Hyland, Tommy Moolick and Niall Kelly. We look a lot more comfortable playing more orthodox but our defending was pretty non-existant at times.

I still think it's strange playing 8 defenders if we are playing more orthodox. And it was very strange to see Fionn Dowling playing around midfield and Kevin Feely playing full-forward towards the end. Didn't make any sense to me.

Anyway well done to the team and management on a good nights work.

I don't care tonight about poor tackling, poor defensive mistakes or sloppy passes. What I cared about was were they going to show a bit of grunt, a bit of passion, some fight and grit when they needed. Basically everything that was missing against Westmeath. Happily the did all that, which makes me happy as it's been a while since they have shown it.

Well done to them all, a bit of pride restored and a step forward from two weeks ago.

If we could just get the balance right between defence and attack they could do a bit if damage.

jim wrote:

Gaa1928 wrote:

Kildare by 7.

I love your optimism.  I really hope your right.

Fairplay you called it right.

Great display by the boys. I suppose it's trying to get the balance right with the defensive and offensive game.

Well done to all involved.

Well I was glad to be proved wrong as I predicted an Offaly win. Tbh after the last couple of years I can't see Offaly beating us - they had golden opportunities last year and today but they choked both times. It's weird - Eugene McGee has always been banging on about how Kildare teams are flaky whereas Offaly are the ones with serious resolve. In my experience watching both counties playing each other over the years, it is generally the exact opposite. Wouldn't hold my breath for an admission by McGee that he's hopelessly wrong though.

Very different system employed tonight - played with a sweeper and a bit of extra defensive cover but in general it was a high pressing attacking game. 1-22 is some score in a championship game. I think we'd seriously need to tweak it against Kerry or Dublin - and possibly Mayo in next round - but it is the way we should play against most teams. Offaly came to go to war - I caught a bit of the captain's speech in the dressing room when I was out getting a cup of tea and he nearly ripped the door off the hinges. Their crowd were also very vocal - there was a guy behind me in the stand and I thought his head was going to explode.

Fair play to team and management - showed serious character to lift themselves after last game and the team really responded today when the game was on the line. It's turned to be a great week with minors winning as well and now we can look forward to next weekend after all.

It's hilarious that we're still in it and Monaghan are out - massive congrats to Longford. GAA hacks are always fawning over Monaghan and saying we should all be copying them, or something. In reality they are like Poland in the soccer with Lewandowski - it's McManus and a bunch of passengers. We were hopeless under Jason Ryan and we still should have beaten them a couple of years ago. Have to be the most overhyped team in GAA.

Did they not win 2 ulster in the last 3 year's HG ?.. bit harsh imo.
Anyway looking forward to the draw on Monday morning now.. how things change in the world of football.

They did Seamas but I still contend that Donegal were a shadow of themselves on both occasions. 2014 and 2016 were more serious tests and they lost both. There have also been several big games where they've absolutely disintegrated - Dublin 2014, Tyrone 2013 and 2015, etc. And now beaten by Longford at home!

I had a long conversation with one of the Sunday Game pundits in 2014 and Monaghan came up. He said, "Trust me - winning Ulster last year was the end of that project, they'll never get further than that. They don't have the overall quality of Donegal and Tyrone." He was right.

Anyway, it's only a footnote today and it's off-topic. Probably best to get back to discussing Kildare.

As good as that win was tonight and it was, Id be still very worried by our defence when we attack like tonight. A prime example of this was that when three points our full back David Hyland ended up in the full forward line for at least two minutes instead of minding the house.

Defending was not great alright. One passage of play where we had a break on and Feeley who was excellent in Midfield just delayed a second moving towards the ball and allowed an Offaly player to intercept leaving us wide open for their first goal. One moment of hesitation should not open up the whole field.

But as I said tonight was about passion and the desire to win. We got that so that is a 100% improvement. We also looked a bit fitter. That's probably more to do with actually playing in a ground with a decent atmosphere than empty CP.

A home draw on Monday against any of the three will really get the juices flowing again. However if we are pulled away Longford showed what can be done.

Yes, I would agree Rob. When we play that more open attacking game we can be very vulnerable defensively. Offaly have great heart to be fair but they are an average team and we still shipped 2-14. Now granted the goals were criminal - one of them came from a disastrous pass and Fitzpatrick was skinned for the other - but still, it's a big total.

I'd be worried that one of the top teams would absolutely fillet us if we set up that way. It's a tricky balancing act for O'Neill but that's the job spec, it's not easy.

Incidentally, the soft frees again - killing us!

Oh, and McNally nearly starting a riot near the end. Don't blame him as he was getting dog's abuse. It actually wasted a fair but of time as well so worked out alright.

Also, was pleased to see a bit of tactical innovation tonight. We stuck Feely on the wing first half and Donnellan aimed numerous kick-outs in his direction. He was either fielding it, breaking it or tapping it down to the runners. Offaly put three different markers on him but couldn't get to grips with him. It launched several attacks and heaped pressure on the Offaly defence. There were actually no short kick outs first half - it was attack, attack, attack. It worked very well and probably wasn't what Offaly were expecting.

I thought Feely was superb. He is also a real leader - he's constantly talking and directing play on the field, a quality we've lacked for a while.

Some on here might be too young to remember but tonight was the football equivalent of that famous Dallas episode where Bobby Ewing was in the shower and it emerged that the previous series of the show was just a dream and not real - yes, the games against Wexford and Westmeath never really happened - it was just a dream - tonight was the Kildare that I love, warts and all. Ok there were lots of areas that need improvement but I prefer to play that way and lose rather than the type of performance we saw against Wexford and Westmeath.

There were some great performances tonight - I thought Fergal Conway was immense - he showed the type of spirit and passion that has been sorely lacking in the last few games. Kevin Feely was superb particularly considering it was his first game back after injury. In all honestly there wasn't a bad performance from any of the Kildare team tonight (rose-tinted glasses I know)- everyone did their bit - I loved the way Cormac McNally got such a rise out of the Offaly team in the last quarter of the game - ok he got a black card but Jaysus it was worth it!

So we get either Mayo, Cork or Longford in the next round - to be honest I don't care who we get if it's at home. The spirit we showed tonight, we could beat any of them in St. Conleths.

Ha, Dallas - love it Jimmers!

jimmers wrote:

 I loved the way Cormac McNally got such a rise out of the Offaly team in the last quarter of the game - ok he got a black card but Jaysus it was worth it!

I disagree. I thought it was disappointing that 2 Kildare players (including our captain) got black cards for what I would call "goading" the opposition. I think in both cases we had a free and then the ball was thrown up after the cards. I know both sides were at it and the Offaly number 14 probably should have walked as well. I know we have to get a mean streak but I'd prefer to see us keep our discipline and bury lads with a few big hits than this type of carry on.

Rant over. Well done to the lads tonight. Cill Dara Abu.