My insight into the Kildare set up

Really hope we see a change of management or we'll see another year wasted.

Picking up wins in the qualifiers against low ranked teams and out of form teams? When push comes to shove geezer has made some terrible calls.
Fair play he has brought Kildare Gaa from a very bad place and has restored alot of pride. We've got all we can out of him now lets get someone with the cuteness to bring us to the next level.

Would love to see Jason Ryan or Glenn Ryan.

To me it looks like some players have already lost faith, performances show the whole team werent pulling in the right direction. He has failed to find a way of playing to get the best out of lads like Smith and Flats among others.

Some of the lowest points for me...

1. Gettin embarrased by Louth.

2. This years loss to Meath, we've been building towards Leinster for 5 years, and to be beat by a team with a relatively new manager trying to build a team.

3. Sean Hurley & Tommy Moolick been thrown on and whipped off after 10 mins.

4. Rob Kelly starting midfield, out of his depth through no fault of his own and been whipped off? cant understand this?

5. Throwing away a 2+ point lead 3 times against Donegal. Donegal of last year couldnt score unless you commit too many players forward. The Dubs had the sense to beat them.

6a. A failure over the last 5 yrs to build a solid back bone and a regular starting 15.
b. A failure to alternate from the 2-2-2 system. A traditional half forward line that could take kick passes out of defence I taught was badly missing agianst Cork. People give out to the lads for taking too long to work it out of defence and not kicking but the team is set up to run the ball out. Coughed up so many scores through lads having a lack of kicking options.

7. The total failure to adjust to games when we're down to 14 men.

And the highlights?

Highlights!

Geezer turning McGrillen and Kelly into top quality corner backs.

Kavanaghs last minute goal V Cavan.

Making All-ireland semi-final.

Ah here...

Any one that travelled to Derry in the 2006 qualifier will appreciate how far and how much Geezer has done for this team. And for me my own personal highlight of his reign so far has been the 2010 qualifier up there. Victories over meath and laois are always good for any Kildare fan also. heres hoping Geezer can get us over the Dubs next year.

I acknowledge how far Geezer has brought us and how much he has done.

Lets acknowledge that he can bring us no further, team has gone backwards this year.

I dont think it should be a case of where we've come from but a case where we're going.

He has done alot of the donkey work in preparing this team, now a new face with new ideas to refresh this group of players. Don't forget how many bad defeats they have had to take under the leadership of the Geezer. Its hard/impossible to get back to where they were without a new man in.

Lets acknowledge that he can bring us no further, team has gone backwards this year.

No egocentric, I dont acknowledge that he can bring us no further, true, the team has underperformed this year, and true, he has made some poor selection and tactical mistakes, he has another year to run, and based on what he has achieved to date he is entitled to (at least)another year, he has brought us from being the basket case of Leinster to a very competitive unit, particularly in 2010 & 2011, your posts acroos the forum has the whiff of an an impulsive agenda without any serious long term forethought, do you seriously think we would improve on where we are in the nex few years with a change? , thankfully, the players and the CB want him to stay, and hopefully next year we will be rejuvinated back to our form of 2010 & 2011, and you will rejoin the forum next autumn to give us more constructive opinions.

KILL BILL wrote:

Lets acknowledge that he can bring us no further, team has gone backwards this year.

No egocentric, I dont acknowledge that he can bring us no further, true, the team has underperformed this year, and true, he has made some poor selection and tactical mistakes, he has another year to run, and based on what he has achieved to date he is entitled to (at least)another year, he has brought us from being the basket case of Leinster to a very competitive unit, particularly in 2010 & 2011, your posts acroos the forum has the whiff of an an impulsive agenda without any serious long term forethought, do you seriously think we would improve on where we are in the nex few years with a change? , thankfully, the players and the CB want him to stay, and hopefully next year we will be rejuvinated back to our form of 2010 & 2011, and you will rejoin the forum next autumn to give us more constructive opinions.

For all our form, what did we win in 2010 and 2011 apart from an OB Cup??? THis was our most successful year in terms of trophies under Geezer...Just saying...

Div 1 football will be a major help for us next year...we have the footballers, just need to get the psychology and mindset right against the big teams

wingback wrote:

For all our form, what did we win in 2010 and 2011 apart from an OB Cup??? THis was our most successful year in terms of trophies under Geezer...Just saying...

I'd rather get to an AI Semi and win nothing than be hammered in the quarter and win a div 2 league and pre-season jokefest. So, for me, 2010 was our most successful year in recent times.

What about the role of John Rafferty in comparison to his predecessors - O'Rourke / Grimley.

O'Rourke and Grimley seem to be tactically more astute than Rafferty.

Rafferty to me seems very militant in his training - shouting and yelling at players, bellowing orders.

Rarely, if ever, heard this from Grimley or O'Rourke.

I have heard players say how much they respected and admired both predecessors input and training methods.

Defensively as well I believe we were far better setup in previous years than this year.

Is the same respect/admiration there for Rafferty?

I think we really should have at least one Leinster over the last five years.

Flourman your right about Rafferty, I dont think he has much of a role in the back room team. Rarely see Geezer talking to him on sideline, rather he has conversations with Carew and the psychologist guy.

I dont know KILL BILL if all the players want Geezer to stay on. The way they just fizzled out against Cork and some of the performances just didnt seem united bunch anymore. The way Rob Kelly shock his head when been takin off.

I think a new manager such as Jason Ryan would bring alot of rejuvenation to the team. Five years of the same methods and with nothing to show for it other than a Div 2 title can be very disheartening.

So what has Jason Ryan won with Wexford that would indicate a massive improvement could be expected? , coming in and throwing names around is just not making any sense, is Alex Ferguson available?

egocentric wrote:

The way Rob Kelly shock his head when been takin off.

What did you expect of him / cartwheels off the pitch in joy.

You really have spouted awful lot of rubbish in these last few days. Going on relentlessly about Jason Ryan as new manager - how many leinsters has he won with Wexford, his wexford players have bottled great opportunities to beat Dublin in each of the last 3 times they have met - hardly a ringing endorsement.

You argue about Kavanagh being top scorer a few years, having to work to hard for the ball, and then name him at Midfield in your "Team I'd like to see". Stating him and Flynn were "an awesome pair" at underage level - care to elaborate on this? When was this?

Willie Heffernan and Daryl Flynn were awesome in 2004 at Midfield in winning Leinster - should we bring big Willie back into the senior setup???

Do you honestly expect Rob KEly to be happy with being taken off? Did you see Rob shake his head in disgust when he kicked that ball directly to a Cork player?

OF course these guys don;t go out to under perform. The majority of them play well in most games. Everybody has a bad game from time to time, that happens

No ye missed my point, he shock his head as if to say no that is the wrong decision i shouldnt be comin off. Ov he's going to be dissapointed, but others who have been whipped off early just came off and had faith in Geezers decision. I wasn't trying to make the point he shock his head in dissapointed as he is obviously going to be dissapointed in coming off.

Jason Ryan hasnt won anything, lets face it what manager would win anything with Wexford? From listening to the guy on rte panels and from looking at his Wexford teams operate is why i believe he can take us forward.

Yeah my arguement about Kavanagh is that if your taking one of our most creative players away from around the middle and closer to goal its because you want him to score. But Geezer hasnt created a system where we consistently create scoring chances for him and Smith. And yes I'd still rather him at midfield because he brings guys into the game with range of passing. Ask Smith or T.O'C who they want to be recieving passes from if you dont believe me.

They were midfield together for a year at U-21 level. And Willie Heff was never close to being awesome!calm down there!!

Flynn is a superb midfielder I think. But he only plays his best when he's the no.2 midfielder so to say, the one that does the most grafting and ball winning.

I`d like to know when kavanagh and flynn played midfield together from what i remember of that team heff and flynn played midfield and ross glavin filled in there some times aswell i thought jimmers was always a wing forward

Yeah Jimmers played in the half forward line with Derek McCormack on those teams. He did play in the half back line for St Jarlaths. Willie Heff was midfield with Flynner in 2004. I think O'Connor was midfield with him in 2005. Interesting that Hugh Lynch was rarely partnered with Flynn during those two years.

You really are showing yourself up now, egocentric / Kavanagh never played midfield at U21 level along side Darryl Flynn.

As already stated Willie Heffernan was Flynn's midfield partner in 2004 when Kildare won U21 Leinster Championship, and both were AWESOME that year. Big Willie was injured prior to the All Ireland semi final defeat to Mayo that year in Salthill and proved to be a massive loss.

In 2005 Hugh Lynch was Darryl Flynn's Midfield partner.

Anymore fantasies you wanna share with us to try and boost your crazy/non nonsensical arguments?

KK / nearly sure Lynch did partner Flynn in 2005 (open to correction though)

egocentric wrote:

But he only plays his best when he's the no.2 midfielder so to say, the one that does the most grafting and ball winning.

Good God it gets better / the # 2 midfielder does the most grafting and ball winning. What in the name of the lord does # 1 do (give # 2 a piggy back?)

Here's the team from the 2005 U21 Leinster final replay in Croker. A game we threw away. Think this was the day Jimmers was taken off and caused a minor furore by throwing his jersey on the ground.
Hugh Lynch was having a poor game and was replaced by Tomas O'Connor who caught a lot of ball in midfield. We lost by two points after missing some sitting goal chances.
More sickening was the drawn match: Ross Glavin got a goal heading into injury time that appeared to win it but the Dubs went straight down the other end and got a goal of their own. Even after that we missed a free to win it. Bernard Brogan was superb in the first match but only got one point in the second.

DUBLIN - M Savage; A Downes, W Lowry, D McCann; N Cooper, B Cullen, I Ward; E Fennell, B Phelan; K Leahy, D Dineen, C Moore; J O'Brien, M Davoren, B Brogan. Subs: D O'Mahony for O'Brien (41), R Fallon for Moore (55), J Coughlan for Dineen (58).
KILDARE - T Corley; I Lonergan, R Nevin, M Hogarty; M Scanlon, M Foley, J Lonergan; H Lynch, D Flynn; T O'Neill, P O'Neill, J Kavanagh; M Conway, R Glavin, T Archibald. Subs: P Doyle for Scanlon (23), T O'Connor for Lynch (23), A Kelly for Conway (30), Conway for Archibald (48), P Ennis for Kavanagh (58).

Both centre backs Foley and Cullen were brilliant in that match. It was played before a hurling league final wasn't it?

who is r nevin? i cant remember him

Richie Nevin from Clane. Emigrated to work in Australia.

kickingking wrote:

Both centre backs Foley and Cullen were brilliant in that match. It was played before a hurling league final wasn't it?

Yeah Cullen more or less helped Dubling hang on. Have some vivid memories of the day but struggling to remember the following match for sure. Was it the Armagh v Mayo league final by any chance?