Kildare v Cavan

e.s.b. wrote:

I forgot Robinson, also injured so we are definitely 3 or 4 short of our 1st choice attacking line up, and agree we are vulnerable this weekend on that basis

I'd have Jimmy, Neil Flynn or Eanna ahead of Jack in the corner tbh.

The defence has changed a bit, mostly positional but also some personnel changes since the O'Neill and Ryan era, when many criticised the defence for the lack of full-blooded tackles. At least on paper there appears like this defence might have more of a cut and less shadowing. There is plenty of tall players around the middle third, hopefully someone is assigned to pick up the dirty breaking ball on the ground too.

It will be interesting to see who is on duty for frees and 45's with Neill Flynn absent. I suspect Hyland close in or Ben McCormack and Mark Donellan for long range and 45's. I am not a fan of multiple free takers.

seamymurphy wrote:

e.s.b. wrote:

I forgot Robinson, also injured so we are definitely 3 or 4 short of our 1st choice attacking line up, and agree we are vulnerable this weekend on that basis

I'd have Jimmy, Neil Flynn or Eanna ahead of Jack in the corner tbh.

Yes, maybe so, we are down a lot of good attacking options in general, good opportunity for Jimmy, although I would think summer rather than winter football would suit him better, same for Robinson I suppose .

Its amazing how much you miss going to games like this, the banter. The excitement. The crac.and the disappointment ,all in 2 hours .win today would be huge

TG4 website under pressure

Cilldara_2000 wrote:

TG4 website under pressure

Have to stick to the wireless!!

Deferred coverage will have to do!

jimmers wrote:

Cilldara_2000 wrote:

TG4 website under pressure

Have to stick to the wireless!!

Deferred coverage will have to do!

It's working now

Happy with that. Some great stuff.

Good for the lads to see the game out with the nervy finish, very lucky the poor cross field pass at the end didn't end up in a goal. We missed 3 glaring goal chances in our excellent spell in the 2nd half, the fisted point and two kicked points shortly after. Were some 9 points up and would have absolutely buried them. The lads need to be ruthless, we rarely if ever spank a team and today was a great chance but we ended up finger tips away from a tied game in stoppage time. The win matters most though.

Darragh Kirwan was very good. I like the look of him.

Good win but still lacking bottle.

Yes good performance, i think we were 10 up at one stage and agreed could have had a couple more goals. Will be worked on. Good display though.

Kirwan was excellent as was Jimmy and Ben. We need to be more ruthless though. Lots to work on.
Lots of silly frees conceded. Lazy arms in the tackle.
Brophy covered every blade of grass.

Great win by the lads. Well done to all

Well done to the lads on the win. There’s something Kildare-like about being 10 points up at the last water break and just hanging on at the end. At least we held on this time.

Like many on here, I was a bit doubtful whether the full-forward line could get the scores. Delighted to be proved wrong. I think they scored 15 points between them (Hyland 9, Kirwan 4 and McCormack 2). Kevin Flynn was very good as well and well done to Mark Donnellan on saving the penalty.

Lots to work on. Our old problems of giving away soft frees (even though Cormac Reilly is very picky) and not being able to see out games. More positives than negatives considering we had to win and hadn’t played in 6 months.

I think we’ve a small chance of getting promotion if Cavan, Clare and ourselves win next week. 8 points could be enough if our scoring difference is good. If we beat Westmeath next week, we’ll be safe and have a bit of momentum for the championship (assuming it goes ahead!)

We gave away a lot of frees but largely due to runners coming from deep and not being tracked. Feely was on his own in midfield all game.
Good win nevertheless and great to see the Jimmy we always knew was in there somewhere

Agree Feely was on his own. Masterson was poor.

Great win and very much needed. Thought for 55 minutes we played as good as we have in years. Purposeful running, smart recycling of the ball to a man in a better position, no stupid hit and hope efforts and always a man making a supporting run to give options. We were also clinical in our point taking.
After 55 minutes I think we began to tire. Gaps opened up that were not previously there and runners from deep caused problems. A few lazy tackles also reared their ugly heads again.
When we went short with our kickouts and worked the ball up field we looked like scoring every time. However for a lot of the 2nd half we decided to pump the ball into midfield and lost control. Need to vary our kickouts when under the pump.
We had a number of goal chances which we spurned which should have been buried but we all would have taken a four point we at 2pm.

Best of the day were quite obvious Daragh Kirwan looked to the Manor born ably supported by Jimmy and Ben. Kevin Flynn again was flying.
One thing that was a massive improvement was good ball going in and stickingadded to excellent runs by the full forward line into space. If we added Dan Flynn coming from half forward at pace with good ball laid on it could do some damage yet this year.

Some excellent football today, well done lads, we definitely moving the ball forward quicker and with real purpose, first time really seeing Daragh Kirwan and he was very good, also Jimmy's best game with seniors, conceding 0 20 obviously not ideal, but the win was the most important thing today

Good to get a good win. Reminds me of premier league. Defences wont be at it this year. Couple of points on game. Kildares kick passing was excellent as was our point taking.
Thought our kickouts in second half was poor. Defending was very flimsy. Lots of players back but werent doing anything pro active. First line defence was beaten easily but even though at times we had 2 bodies in front of full back no one pushed out to make contact. Most of cavan points kicked from 30-35 metres. Also as was previously said we need to take our goal chances. Be more clinical

kevhog88 wrote:

Agree Feely was on his own. Masterson was poor.

I appeared that Masterson was told to stay out on the wing, he spent most of the game out there all be it linking up a lot of play.

Great to get that win, huge relief and it gives us some good momentum for next week. We're not completely out of the woods but I'm more confident.

Great to see Jimmy looking very dangerous, Ben kicking some nice scores and Darragh Kirwan kicking 4 lovely scores on his debut! I had question marks over his inclusion but he justified it for sure. I would urge caution though and I'm still not 100% convinced he'll be effective at the top level. I'm still not sure if our movement on the inside line was superb or whether Cavan were off the pace and loose! Maybe a combination of the two.

Our shape in defence isn't great and we leave big pockets of space in behind the front line at times, better teams will exploit that.

We rely too heavily on long kick outs - its a pity as we run the ball well through the hands.

Very disappointed in Paul Cribben's decision making on a couple of occasions yesterday, we need him to pick up his form by about 30%.

Its always amazes how lads can be iffy enough with club and step up st County level and opposite true where a lad can be great at club and not make much impact at top level

moatesports wrote:

Its always amazes how lads can be iffy enough with club and step up st County level and opposite true where a lad can be great at club and not make much impact at top level

Very good point actually.... I suppose a really good county manager can spot the lads who have the attributes for county football

Avoid defeat next Saturday and we should be safe.

Good win I think Kildare are looking to next year with that type of team see what this year brings and get as much as we can out of it as I dont think we would beat Meath and not a hope against Dublin.