Kildare U21 (2012)

townend wrote:

kildare also had mickey kelly sent off

They actually started to play better when they had 14 players.

I dont like to criticise lads who give there time and dedication for the jersey but there were very few that can be pleased with how they did. I thought o shea, feely, mcgovern, fogarty and donnellan who made a super save were the best players for us on the night and they didnt get much help from the supporting cast.

As has been mentioned the kelly sending off was foolish but the management shud have taken him off when he got the 1st yellow card. A blind man and his dog could see that the way the ref was handling the game that someone was gona be reduced to 14 and kelly was acting up all game. In the end he took sullivans bait. Couldnt fathom out the substitutions at times but i suppose we dont know what goes on behind closed doors and who is performing and who isnt. Hindsight is a wonderful thing i just woulda liked to see des holton on to pick up sullivan. He'd know him well from that edenderry school team that got to a all ireland a few years back and i reckon would have put it up to him. But its easy to say that from behind the railings. Hard luck to all involved can't fault the time that was put into it just wasnt our night.

p.s. Bit sickening to see biffo Cowan leave with the biggest grin on his face since he played golf with seanie. Thank God there were children around

its funny offaly done the same last week again Meath when they went down to 14 men
but they say that always happens .

I was pleased with our win but have to say Anton was lucky not to see yellow much earlier.

Pleased with out unhearlded number 5, covering a lot of ground but got a nose bleed when the goal chance prenested !!!

Kelly was silly, pointless off the ball trip with play nowhere near, just after being booked, even if he was being mouthed at..

For Kildare, plenty of size but no drive. Why is the first instinct always to go back. On at least 4 occasions Kildare player taking a pass going forward fell over trying to turn back immediatly they had hands on the ball.

Messing around in midfield waiting until the 3 full forwards were double marked was hardly a good tactic ?? First time delivery might have worked much better in the first half.

In last few minutes pumping ball deep into the right corner, when a ball in direct might have won a free for the equalizer, was not a suscess.

The county board must take a big share of the blame after the fiasco tonight. Offaly seemed to have the better forwards and tried to be creative. The way that we played is down to the management and our creative players were crippled by the system imposed on them. These guys were beaten in a Leinster final replay in 2009 and unluckily beaten by Armagh in the All Ireland quarter final that year. At that time they were being coached rather than managed. The lads tonight played with a major fear of losing rather than the expressive manner that they played with in 2009. Offaly had the benefit of having played a game last week and they completely dictated the way the game was played. After Mulhall went off we had 2 six foot plus guys in the full forward line and we never managed to hit in the correct ball into them. Offaly seemed to have the better forwards and tried to be creative. Fionn Dowling briefly lifted the team but if he was fit enough to come on he was fit enough to start. We should have went out with a more ruthless attitude and tried to win the game in the first quarter

Very disappointed. A bit clueless didn't know what to to. No game plan, just out hoping it'll happen. This comes down to management as there's some decent players on that team. If that team was properly managed they'd have had a right crack at Leinster. Fair play to Offaly. They knew how they wanted to go about their game, had a plan and executed it as best they could.

The underage set up seems to be miles off the standard of our senior set up particularly at U 21 level. In my view Kildare have always struggled without a top class scoring forward. We just dont produce them. This is compensated for to an extent at senior level through the system they play and a superb half back line. However none of this is evident in the U 21 set up. There needs to be cohesion between all the grades and I can't see this at the moment. We need a Kildare way of playing and coaches to implement this at all levels.

for all the talk before the match about that forward line they looked clueless. With out doubt there is talent but as offaly kept pulling so many men back the message never came from the sideline to let the ball in.

at one stage in injury time there was fogarty, hurley and bolton in the ff line and the ball was turned over because of a dodgy handpass - that was shocking.

agree re hurley and moolick. Far too much emphasis on size and bulk have seen the basic skills of the game which they had been masters of a couple of years ago completely neglected. I think tommy's confidence is competely shot after those early substitutions with the seniors.

theres only 6 inches between a slap on the back and a kick up the arse, perhaps these lads have been getting far too much of the former and this might be the kick up the arse they need!!

Son of Sarsfields

Well said.

There are so many things that can be said about last night . I have to say that I was disgusted with my county last night but I want to make a few points that are are not intended to be insulting.

1.The underage coaching in Kildare is not working. As i have said before there is absolutely no point in having ex Kildare footballers running around to the schools teaching youngsters the bad tricks that they were thaught and played. Outside coaches are required fast. This is the biggest problem in Kildare underage football presently.

2.Some ( or maybe most ) players in KIldare are being overhyped and overrated long before they win anything. There was one future senior intercounty player on that Kildare team last night and that was Kevin Feeley. Furthermore , none of his clubmates that played last night will make it. I am certain of that.

3.It is not a requirement to be over 6 foot and keep running backwards to be an intercounty forward. Kildare forward play at all levels is badly coached and unless it is properly coached ( see 1. ) , Kildare are not going to win anything for a very long time.

Look at the line up of our forwards last night

Moolick ( maybe a midfielder but definitely not a forward )
Hurley ( same as Moolick )
Reynolds ( no comment )
McGovern ( a grafter who could not kick a 21 yard free over the bar )
Mulhall ( no comment )
Fogarty ( slow but has some ability ; could be a good full back )

Bolton ( same as Moolick )

Every underage Kildare team that I have ever seen has or had the same profile.

4.It is not the managers fault that we lost last night as he can only deal with what he inherited. I would still think that he is not the option going forward. He may stand down anyway. On a downside he did pick and watched the Kildare no 2 last night. Enough said.

5.And finally well done Offaly I wrote you off but I should not have doubted you. It was a pleasure to watch 11 , 12 and 14 play football last night and it reminded me of some of the great forwards that you have produced in the past. The skill and vision of those three forwards was something else. I hope that you go on to win Leinster.

Another under achievement for Kildare. I could see this coming. Weather they did not deserve to win or not it does not matter. In tight games like that its the decisions of the managment team and the buzz around the squad that gets you through. Kldare had NOT GOT A CLUE. Its was obvious that offally had a better idea how to score than we did. Our possession of the ball around the 45. GREAT. KICK THE F****** thing over the bar or kick pass it in to a forward in a better position. Instead we think we are great working it back out again. Another poster said it. We seemed to have a mentality to turn around and work the ball out again. BARRY HAS NOT GOT A CLUE. And if you thing he has you are mad. What has he ever done to make anyone believe he could of done something with this team. I am so livid that another team that had POTENTIAL had slipped away. And I say only potential as its the magement team that turns that potential into success. Offaly had potential. They had the ideas. They had a better plan. The simplest plan.

Devastating result. I hope the people who were saying a few weeks ago that established senior players should be dropped because they thought these U21 forwards would improve us feel very foolish now. Lads the simple bottom line is they're not good enough, not yet anyway. As usual we are building up young players who have achieved very little.

Tom Cruise, I agree with most of your points but do you not think David Hyland will make it? He is a great prospect in my opinion.

I had a bad feeling about this game,not that I dont think there are good players there, but the whole setup was failing for the last three years so what was to Change this year. The County board are a disgrace and someone neds to be accountable for this.

Dublin look like they have some serious underage prospects and I expect to See and Offaly Dub Final.

What about the Kilkenny U21s lining out for Laois yesterday, that underage gravy train is truly over

you don't hear as much bullsh.t this week over laois been beating by 23 points as kilkenny
been hammer last week.

and laois would be a strong underage football county down the years, and you know why
its because kilkenny are so great at hurling and win all irelands as laois win nothing
so it just a thing to knock down kilkenny as they can't fine anything to moan about in there hurling.

You'd feel sorry for any football people down in Kilkenny. There is no excuse not to have competitive football teams even at division 4 level and to some extent underage.

Other counties have got their act together in recent years to get the "2nd game" up to scratch.
Notably Limerick , Waterford and Tipperary in football and even non hurling counties like our own in Kildare, Westmeath, Kerry etc with the whole Christy Ring cup. At least teams are being fielded at certain levels and games are being competitive.

I think the GAA are failing the game of football in Kilkenny.

Dublin have their shit together now at all levels and its a scary prospect for the rest of Leinster.

There is a lot of anger on this forum at the moment and I have to say i'm one of them.

I said earlier in this topic that Kildare would not go far because of our management setup how in the name of god did Alan Barry get a third year he has being a disaster the last two years, for this I blame the county board I don't care if Barry is a McGeeney favourite the county board should have the power to pick the manager and not let McGeeney dictate who the manager is.

Playing football all my life you hear its all about the team not the player there is no I in team etc we were not a team last night the players are probably good individual players (but have not proved this yet) we had no structure a brutal game plan if there was one.

Why are most players being brought on the Kildare panels big athletic etc there skill level is so poor you have lads going around even at club level look at my arms my six pack get back out to the field start kicking the ball kicking scores get the skill level to where it should be.

I could go on & on but whats the point all I can say its a disgrace .

Crossie

I have not seen enough of young Hyland to comment on him although I am sure that he could not give a shit what I think and he is right. I have heard very good reports about him.

What really got to me last night was the difference in skill between the two forward lines. Ours was massive , slow cumbersome, kept running out the pitch and could not kick a decent score if they were there all day. Feeley was our top scorer.

Offalys were direct , intelligent , ran at the goals all night long and kicked great scores. They also missed 3 great goalscoring chances . Sullivan missed one that he would normally put away in his sleep and in fairness the goalie made a great save.

But once the County Board and clubs are making no effort to deal with the forwards problem on all teams and at all age groups , we will have to suffer heartbreak forever following Kildare teams. That is what really gets me.

And to be honest , I could not give a shit about how Laois got on last night and neither am I gloating in their heavy defeat. I live close to the Offaly border and would be delighted to see them winning Leinster.

I am a football fan , and a Kildare football fan and I want to see us being given every chance to win things.

At the moment , our underage coaching structure is a joke and until we realise and do something about that we are going nowhere fast.

read my post tomcruise....your a disgrace

hard luck to the lads last night. things just didnt go their way on the night. it happens but why wasnt alan igoe on the panel last night? he could of turned that game around

One performance doesn't make bad footballers outta them. 6 or 7 of these will move up and play senior eventually...
Some lads couldn't wait for them to lose so they could slate Barry and the few athy lads on it

A few of these players seem to have gone back a huge amount since minor.. I wonder are they being over/under trained, have gotten a little big for their boots or were they just not that good to begin with. On a positive note Kevin Feely was magnificent, especially when the chips were down towards the end. I remember this age group playing some excellent, free flowing football at minor grade, and now some of them seemed to have lost that yard of pace. This shouldn't really happen between the ages of 18 and 21 and I seriously think the powers that be have to look into what kind of training these lads are doing.Too much emphasis on size in my opinion.

lilys4sam wrote:

read my post tomcruise....your a disgrace

why for telling the truth will you grow a pair fcuk sake

townend wrote:

lilys4sam wrote:

read my post tomcruise....your a disgrace

why for telling the truth will you grow a pair fcuk sake

I think lilys4sam point is we should not be picking on individual players, they are only youngsters at the end of the day.
Apart from that what TC says does make sense

Jimmy white wrote:

One performance doesn't make bad footballers outta them. 6 or 7 of these will move up and play senior eventually...
Some lads couldn't wait for them to lose so they could slate Barry and the few athy lads on it

Similarly One performance doesn't make you a good footballer either. We've not performed at this grade in 4 seasons now Jimmy.

Can be any number of reasons, we either don't have the footballers required or its down to management.

I'm not sure what its like in other counties but we have a habit here in Kildare of building lads up to be superstars without ever proving themselves. Problem is I think some of the players started to believe this status.

I could see it on this thread all week, building up the players we have coming through, building up that they will be future senior stars when the stark reality is that at the moment is that for a lot of them they couldn't be further from the senior panel.

What we have is lads coming on the forum from their respective clubs building players for their club up and putting them forward as saviors to the future of Kildare football.

I seen nothing there last night that will improve what we currently see at Senior level with Kildare at the moment. Nothing. That is reality. Dowling looked lively when he came on, Fogarty done well when he had space, very often he was crowded out. Everyone else the game just completely passed them by.

I just want to say hard luck to the lads, they tried very hard but simply came up against a better team, who played smart, direct and intelligent football. We also lacked a game plan which has to call into question the input of management, as surely they had sight of Offaly last week on the same pitch and should have been able to come up with some / any sort of decent tactics to counteract their strengths.