All Ireland Semi-Final 2010 Sunday 29th August 3.30pm Corke Park Kildare vs Down***Official Thread***

Right lads and lassies, we're on the brink of something great. I know that I could be tempting fate in saying so but this Kildare team seems to have a mental strength that I haven't seen in a Kildare team before. We seem to have that strength right through the squad, no matter the position. Its vital to any successful team.

When you see one or two of our 'big' name players having an off day there's one of his team mates ready to step up to the plate. In every successful team, no matter the quality levels, this is a must. Take Johnny Doyle last week against Monaghan. He was having a stinker but because of his own mental strength and because he knew the rest of his team mates believed in him he kept plugging away...... result, 8 points the following week against Meath. A further example was Flynn on Sunday, taking the mantel of main man in midfield when Early had to go off after a minute.

The match against Down on the 29th of August will be the ultimate test of the mental strength of both of these teams, I believe it will be the single most important ingredient!

awww come on let us savor beating Meath a few more days, please

Agreed Stonecold. The match is over 3 and a half weeks away and we already have 2 topics about it.

In fairness it was a good post even if it is a little early yet.

Whats the harm in talking about an All Ireland Semi Final? 3 and a half weeks away, you never know when the next one might be, its been ten years since the last one! If you don't want to then don't but plenty of other people in here that are excited about it.

You tell em mrblobby!..watch that vein now....

mrblobby wrote:

Whats the harm in talking about an All Ireland Semi Final? 3 and a half weeks away, you never know when the next one might be, its been ten years since the last one! If you don't want to then don't but plenty of other people in here that are excited about it.

dead right

I dont recall an admin or anyone saying upcoming matches cant be discussed until a certain time. I'm sure the threads will be merged etc if the admin finds it necessary.

The starting of threads is not a reserved right for certain members of the forum. some good points made in your opening post mrblobby

One of the questions McGeeney & Co will be looking at in the next couple of weeks is "How do you curtail Marty Clarke's influence on the game?"

He roves around the midfield picking up breaks and settting up play like Mikey Conway did for us last year. Do you get someone like Peter Kelly or McLoughlin to follow him everywhere he goes or leave him off and paly a sweeper in front of the full back line?

Can't wait for this game!

Bag of white, you have hit on something massive there.
I said before the game against Meeed that if we stopped Joe Sheridan you stop Meeeeeed.
Foley came on Sheridan was starved of the ball and Meeeeeeeed scored 3 lousey points for the remainder of the game.
If we find the right man to man mark Martin Clarke we will be a long way to stopping there best and most influential player. He sets up their forwards and gets a few himself. It is vital in my opinion that we get a man marker on him that will stay up his **** for the 70 mins and make him make mistakes. There are a few candidates for that role and im sure Geezzer will have his homework done.

Well it would seem the word from inside the camp, and from watching on the sidelines, the best man marker in the squad is Peter 'The Rapist' Kelly. Will be very interesting to see what way Geezer and co will handle this one. Crucial part of the contest!

Agree that Clarke must be stopped.

I think Mick Foley could be the man for him. Big and strong, you don't need a man marker if he's far from the goals, moreso someone who can read the game well and track his runs.Cut him out of the game by stopping him picking up the "handy" balls around the middle. Clarke is picking up a lot of balls deep, coming out of defence and acting as a play maker for the forward line.
Kelly will be needed closer to goal for Benny Coulter, thats where man markers are needed most.

yeh i think mick foley aswell!!

Clarke flourishes in space, Kelly is a wee nark – the man for the job.

A wee nark- brilliant!

Peter "nuns gee" kelly

And just on Kelly.

Remarked to a knowledagble Down fan last night that the young man is having a terrific season.

"Who?"

"Peter Kelly."

"Who does he play for?"

"Kildare"

"Never heard of him."

Another thread may say you are overrated, but some Down folk will defintely be underestimating you as well.

Won't be Mick Foley I'd imagine - he'd be edge of the square for a big man if they decided to lump Dan Gordon or someone in there... I'd say Kelly it is but Coulter must be watched too... Mac will prob take him. Could be the other way around but I'd agree if you kept Clarke out of the game, you'd go a long way to upsetting Down so Kelly for me.

I wouldn't be surprised Down don't know him, most GAA fans in the country wouldn't. Most GAA fans in Kildare wouldn't know him if he walked past him. He's a baby at this level. And he's a corner-back. But hopefully the Down lads will know him after the game.

By the way, I saw somewhere he's 21... was he U21 this year? I can't give out about other counties not knowing him 'cos I don't remember him playing for the 21s!

Kelly played midfield for the under 21's in the champ.

Yes He's 21. Played midfield for the u21's and corner back for the Juniors until he got the call.
He's from Two Mile House who play in Junior, plays centre back for them.
He really has been the find of the reign of McGeeney in my opinion, in an area where we have struggled for years.

I wonder are the lads who thought they were too good for the Juniors and decided not to play with them sorry they didnt try prove their worth as Peter Kelly, Thomas O'Connor did?

think he plays college for ucd as well

Yeah fone he does and played corner back against kildare in the o'byrne cup this year too.
Hes was average enough that day,has improved massively since

fionnmccool wrote:

Yes He's 21. Played midfield for the u21's and corner back for the Juniors until he got the call.
He's from Two Mile House who play in Junior, plays centre back for them.
He really has been the find of the reign of McGeeney in my opinion, in an area where we have struggled for years.

I wonder are the lads who thought they were too good for the Juniors and decided not to play with them sorry they didnt try prove their worth as Peter Kelly, Thomas O'Connor did?

Dont think anybody thought they were "too good" some fellas just prob werent arsed giving up 6days a week unless they were on the seniors.

Prob better off that Down supporters or even players dont rate our backs, esp "unknowns" like kelly - let them. they will know all about him when he is halfway up clarkes hole after 10seconds.

No harm in starting this thread so early. It's not every year we have an All-Ireland semi-final to be looking forward to.

How good are Down?

On the basis of Saturday's result against Kerry, Kildare are up against it. However, it's not so long ago though that they were unconvincing against Glenn's Longford team and they really struggled to overcome an Offaly team that most of us would expect Kildare to beat with a minimum of fuss.

They have a good midfield and some excellent forwards. Clarke and Coulter will clearly need watching (O'Flaherty to shadow Clarke and Kelly on Coulter for me) and we'll need Dermot fit to compete in the air against Ambrose Rodgers. The way our backs snuffed out the Meath forwards in the second half last Sunday was impressive but the difference between the Meath forwards and the Down forwards is that the Down forwards have pace. I said before Sunday that I couldn't see the Meath forwards stopping our backs attacking from deep and we got great joy from Bolton, Flats, McGrillen, McLoughlin etc. bombing forward to create overlaps. They might not get that freedom against Down who will funnel men back to stop our half-backs.

Their defence has been suspect in the past few years but they are much improved this season (as we found out in Newbridge in the league). I was particularly impressed with their centre half-back on Saturday who had a stormer. People will point to them snuffing out the Kerry forwards as a sign of their huge defensive improvement but they wiped Kerry out at midfield and Cooper and Donaghy were starved of ball. Our midfield won't be cleaned out so hopefully we'll be able to give their backs a stiffer examination. Jimmers and Smithy seem to thrive in the open space of Croke Park and they'll do damage to any team given the right supply. As good a footballer as Dan Gordon is, I'm not convinced he's a full-back. If we can manage to isolate him one on one inside and run at him, we can get make hay.

Let's start.

Coulter is absolute class so Kelly goes on him.Benny may have lost some of his pace but he is as good a forward that has been in the country in the last ten years.

McGrillen will take John Clarke.

Bolton takes Poland.

For me it's Foley on Marty Clarke.Unfortunately that means dropping a defender at the start which would be tough.Then again Leper could do this job.

Mac or Flano on McComiskey.Another very good player.

Morgan goes on Hughes who is a really good player.Some clash here.

Jaysus those Down forwards are good but that is always the case with the red and black.But Kildare forwards are also very good.We did beat them in an AI u/21 semi-final a couple of years back.

Midfield will be good.Rodgers , the big lad and Gordon who will be moved out the field against Flynn ,Earley , Whyte ( 2 ) and Lynch.KIldare will shade it here.

Armagh4Sam might match their backs against our forwards.I know that there is a McCartan ( legendary Down name ) , Garvey who was a very good underage player and McKiernan ( dad won an Ai in 1991 ).

This will be close.Two fit teams with very exciting forwards but I just think that Kildare have better momentum at the moment.Roll on the 29th.

Don't bank on Foley starting against Down, just because he done well last week coming off the bench, haven't we seen many cases under the mcgeeney reign where players have come off the bench and done well only to be instantly relagated back to the bench??.

At least in Eoghan Flats case he has virtually rubber stamped a place on the starting 15 against Down.