Kildare v Offaly

It's all kicking off in Meath anyways.

Apparently they went on the beer after the Louth game and Mick O'Dowd was carried out of a nightclub.

You would have to wonder about discipline.

Jaysus lads, if beating Louth in the first round is the highlight of the year, Meath football is in a shocking state altogether.

There's a thread for talking about Meath, Longford et al. This is "Kildare v Offaly".

Great to get the win. Feely shocked me the most, in a good way. Dare I say it, Dermot Earley would've been proud of that performance from him tonight. Thought Fergal Conway was very good too, we need to see it on a more consistent basis.

Would have to disagree with JohnnyC regarding McNally at the end. He said something to Niall McNamee which kicked it all off and the ensuing handbags effectively killed off the game. Anyone remember being 5 points up against Tyrone in injury time in the league a few years ago..?

Disappointing to see Peter Kelly being hauled off at half time. He found the going very tough and he looks to have lost a lot of pace since coming back from his most recent injury.

It'd be great to get Mayo at home in the next round.

I see the final round of SFL matches are fixed for next Saturday evening,  are kildare definitely out again next weekend  ?.

Hey lads which do you think is actually worse....the goading or the diving.....???

There's a bit more to be positive about after that performance. Whoever we face are likely to be much tougher opposition next week but at least the attitude was right from the off tonight. If we can go about things in the same manner again next week we're in with a shout.

There was much more of an urgency to our play which was sorely lacking against Wexford and Westmeath. Niall Kelly was much more involved than the last day and the likes of Conway, Flynn, Tyrrell, Doyle, Moolick and Byrne upped their game considerably. Feely provided a great outlet and his distribution was on the money for the most part. Hyland was good again but Peter Kelly has had much better days and he will hopefully redeem himself the next day. Fitzpatrick did well up until his error for the penalty. Will Ollie Lyons be fit to play next week I wonder?

Yes and I wonder if there's any chance of Daniel Flynn and Paul Cribbin being involved... We are always a much more formidable attacking unit with them on the pitch.

We're onto Dallas? Okay, it was great fun and entertaining but if we lost, poor JR would be getting a machete across the back of the head while he lay, post-shave, on his hotel bed having a moment!

Not negative. Loved it, great atmosphere, entertaining. But ultimately the difference between this and the Leinster campaign, all gameplans aside, was this... In terms of results what counts is Offaly were similarly sh*t to Wexford and slightly more sh*t than Westmeath. I know it sounds depressing but think destination rather than journey, otherwise why not hit the car park, beat up kids, and think this is big fish, big pond.

Honestly, enjoyed it, crowd made it so good, game fascinating, win wonderful, but sweet Jesus? Lose a low-quality, highly-flawed belter and we'd be calling for heads on pikes. Win a low-quality, appallingly-flawed belter and all is well. I know a win is better than a loss, but Freud would give up over the humour shifts around similarly positive/negative efforts.

Did anyone see the reality aside from the victory? Kerry and Dublin would have done the same as last year so we are celebrating acceptance of a lower level? Again, great to win but Christ almighty - Offaly, did you see them, really? A gamey intermediate team off a good wintering. That's all well and good but I'd prefer not to be getting exciting games from that, rather offering lectures they'll never, ever forget.

Of course there are steps, but we are crawling into a minefield. I'll give a few examples (notes on phone which is dead but bloody obvious as terrifying.)

Make up the minds people, because for a county like this we need a plan, not a reaction every other week that gets loose over average!

TommyKeegan wrote:

We're onto Dallas? Okay, it was great fun and entertaining but if we lost, poor JR would be getting a machete across the back of the head while he lay, post-shave, on his hotel bed having a moment!

Not negative. Loved it, great atmosphere, entertaining. But ultimately the difference between this and the Leinster campaign, all gameplans aside, was this... In terms of results what counts is Offaly were similarly sh*t to Wexford and slightly more sh*t than Westmeath. I know it sounds depressing but think destination rather than journey, otherwise why not hit the car park, beat up kids, and think this is big fish, big pond.

Honestly, enjoyed it, crowd made it so good, game fascinating, win wonderful, but sweet Jesus? Lose a low-quality, highly-flawed belter and we'd be calling for heads on pikes. Win a low-quality, appallingly-flawed belter and all is well. I know a win is better than a loss, but Freud would give up over the humour shifts around similarly positive/negative efforts.

Did anyone see the reality aside from the victory? Kerry and Dublin would have done the same as last year so we are celebrating acceptance of a lower level? Again, great to win but Christ almighty - Offaly, did you see them, really? A gamey intermediate team off a good wintering. That's all well and good but I'd prefer not to be getting exciting games from that, rather offering lectures they'll never, ever forget.

Of course there are steps, but we are crawling into a minefield. I'll give a few examples (notes on phone which is dead but bloody obvious as terrifying.)

Make up the minds people, because for a county like this we need a plan, not a reaction every other week that gets loose over average!

Absolutely hilarious post.

There really needs to be a sports forum equivalent of mansplaining... Except of course it IS mansplaining!

Quiet everyone - Tommy needs to go into a trance and ascend to a higher spiritual plane. That way he can attain transcendence and recharge his phone battery - followed by speaking in tongues (ie. reading out notes).

Very happy with the performance last night. Great, entertaining game compared to the last two. Thought Conway was brilliant, possibly the best match I've seen him play for Kildare. Feely made a big difference too. Moolick was great as well. They definitely all came out fighting last night. Would be concerned about the full back line though. They tend to come out too far. Too many times if Offaly got possession and ran towards the goal they were going to be left one on one with Mark Donnellan. Need at least one of them to stay back infront of him to protect the goals.

As for the black cards, McNally's was laughable. He was the one after getting hit by the Offaly centre forward. Not sure how Doyle got picked out for his after that big pile up either.

Great to see such a big Kildare crowd in Newbridge last night too. Made for a great atmosphere. So much better to watch matches in smaller venues that are fairly full than an empty Croke Park.

The draw tomorrow will be interesting. Fingers crossed whoever we get we'll get the home draw. Looking forward to it.

I had a dream....I mean I really did have a dream last night that Cork drew Longford in Cork and Kildare drew Mayo in Newbridge...let us see.....

Who won Tom?

Double header in Castlebar
Mayo v Kildare
Galway v Roscommon replay

What's the bettin'

I'd say the connacht final replay will be in Hyde Park.

Connacht Final replay is confirmed for Castlebar next Saturday, if we draw Mayo away, I doubt it will be a double header and with our minors playing in Croke Park on Sunday, I would guess it will be moved to the following weekend.

Senior league matches originally advertised for next Saturday on the kildare gaa website have been taken down.
I suppose we won't know what happening until tomorrow draw.

Wanted to read the biffo angle so popped over to their forum. 7 (seven in vidi printer style) posts pre match none post match. At least three of them about the state of St.Conleths. Did they not pay the internet bill or what. They didn't pay the dry cleaning bill anyway because they were wearing last year's jersey on Saturday.

But they have a nice stand in Tullamore so that's OK.

Incidentally we have now beaten them 9 times in a row, that never gets old because I know it must piss off Eugene McGee and Pat Nolan something rotten.

They couldn't afford the internet after putting all their money on this gem..

As usual Kildare don't have great firepower. Against sides of a similar or lower level than them, they are good at keeping the ball until a scoring chance presents itself. If we can keep them shooting from difficult angles and from tight spaces they won't rack up much. wrote:

Only the 1-22.

I'd have to side with TK over the general state of play.
OK, I only listened on the radio, and it sounded very exciting, I was glad to hear us playing more positively, and delighted to just get a win.
But you couldn't say it marks a drastic improvement in general. We were level with a division four team with a few minutes to go on our home patch. Is that really any better than the Ryan era? OK, we were humiliated by Dublin and Kerry, but they're the best teams in the country. We also beat Cork, took Monaghan to extra time, and were destroying teams you'd rank lower than us, like Louth and the much-vaunted Longford.
Don't want to be overly negative but the overwhelmingly positive reaction on here bemuses me a bit.

As for formations and game plans, I'd like to see us go for the throat against poor teams and be a bit more conservative and counter-attacking against good ones. On the evidence of this season so far, you'd have to say we're not that good at either. We don't score enough when we shut up shop (Wexford, Westmeath) and we concede way too much when we go for it (Clare, Offaly).

I'd also have to question O'Neill's substitutions. The net effect of them on Saturday was that we ended up with Fionn Dowling on for Neil Flynn. That's not very clever.

The boys on the Sunday game weren't to interested in discussing our game.. maybe whelan was afraid he might have to give us a bit of praise or something.

Whelan tipped Kildare to win as part of his Gaa bet with boylesports

Agree that it wasn't much of an improvement results wise O2B and we looked like conceding a lot of the time Offaly (division 3 team) were in our half, but at least there was a better attitude and the players looked more comfortable with what they were doing. We looked like we understood what we were trying to do for a change, even if the execution was mixed. Small steps. And you can't keep using that Cork game to hammer future Kildare managers. Cork mailed it in that night after losing the Kerry replay and we had a weekend off to prepare for it. There's a reason we're in the same division in the league next year, they're not great.

Offaly are Div 3 and only missed promotion on scoring difference / head to head (can't remember which) not a Div 4 team O2B.

It was an improved performance . Baby steps .. But yes we looked a million miles off where we need to be longer term. Panel is very limited with bench options uninspiring. Need to bring through a good few younger players next year but that in itself means you have to treat this as a long term
project.

tomoneillandhissisteranne wrote:

I had a dream....I mean I really did have a dream last night that Cork drew Longford in Cork and Kildare drew Mayo in Newbridge...let us see.....

Hey Tom, your dream just turned to a nightmare

[quote="Crofter"]Offaly are Div 3 and only missed promotion on scoring difference / head to head (can't remember which) not a Div 4 team O2B.

In fairness to the manager I think he always saw it as a long tem project. The panel we have is nowhere near good enough to win anything. However if ( and there are a lot of ifs here!) we could get Flynn and Cribben back we would be a much better team going forward. Next year we may have a few of the U21's available and they will make a difference imo.
Of course a returning Brophy would be a real game changer.
Better days ahead and lets give it a lash againnst Mayo and see how far off the pace we are against a top team.

Ohtoohtobe wrote:

I'd have to side with TK over the general state of play.
OK, I only listened on the radio, and it sounded very exciting, I was glad to hear us playing more positively, and delighted to just get a win.
But you couldn't say it marks a drastic improvement in general. We were level with a division four team with a few minutes to go on our home patch. Is that really any better than the Ryan era? OK, we were humiliated by Dublin and Kerry, but they're the best teams in the country. We also beat Cork, took Monaghan to extra time, and were destroying teams you'd rank lower than us, like Louth and the much-vaunted Longford.
Don't want to be overly negative but the overwhelmingly positive reaction on here bemuses me a bit.

As for formations and game plans, I'd like to see us go for the throat against poor teams and be a bit more conservative and counter-attacking against good ones. On the evidence of this season so far, you'd have to say we're not that good at either. We don't score enough when we shut up shop (Wexford, Westmeath) and we concede way too much when we go for it (Clare, Offaly).

I'd also have to question O'Neill's substitutions. The net effect of them on Saturday was that we ended up with Fionn Dowling on for Neil Flynn. That's not very clever.

I'd be inclined to agree also O2. If we couldn't muster a performance against our neighbours on our own patch in knockout championship football, serious questions would have to be asked of all involved. We've had 3 really stinking performances up until the Offaly game, (Clare, Wexford and Westmeath) lost 2 and possibly could have lost all 3. Confidence would have to have been on the floor.

On 2 different occasions during the Offaly game we had got ourselves into positions where we had commanding leads adn could have really put the game to bed as a contest. 1st half we were up by 5 and 2nd half up 6 only to be pulled back and make it extremely hard on ourselves.

Not to nitpick but Offaly are a Div 3 team, but that is irrelevant and I get what you are saying.

Fionn Dowling came on and was excellent around the middle 3rd in my opinion. Looked composed and assured on the ball. I could not fault the decision to bring him on at that juncture in the game.

It's probably too early to judge on "whether it's better than the ryan era".
We have a number of changes in personnel and indeed a different system.
Perhaps Mayo on Saturday will tell a lot.