Ronan Sweeney

This should raise a bit of debate - some interesting stuff from Roli here about the grants (http://www.kildare-nationalist.ie/2013/02/26/for-the-love-of-the-game/) and what exactly the GPA do plus his views on the club scene and some interesting comments about the new lads in the panel, strong young bucks
http://www.kildare-nationalist.ie/2013/02/26/a-success-to-savour-but-sweeney-far-from-sated/

Interesting to see training for Kildare has become football based and technical. It was something I noticed last year when watching training sessions. There did not seem to be any tactical or technical training going on. It was all A v B games with no structure on where players should be in certain situations.
Good to see there is more in the way of tactical work happening. To me it's obvious to see in the opening few games that players are playing to a defined system.

Last year was a big backward step in terms of training/coaching. Rafferty for O'Rourke was not like for like. I think there was plenty of football used prior to last year... in fact Andriú Mac said a few weeks ago that McGeeney changed the way Kildare trained completely by introducing more of the ball, and dealing with game situations.

So I'm not surprised to read what Roli says because Jason Ryan is a coach primarily, and always has been. As you say Rex, the signs are visible. They've gotten back to the system of two years ago with a few tweaks in terms of personnel (Mikey as first receiver and QB instead of Morgan/Niall Kelly as Leper etc) and it's not working too badly. Guys are still bedding it in but so far, so good.

Ogie wrote:

Last year was a big backward step in terms of training/coaching. Rafferty for O'Rourke was not like for like. I think there was plenty of football used prior to last year... in fact Andriú Mac said a few weeks ago that McGeeney changed the way Kildare trained completely by introducing more of the ball, and dealing with game situations.

So I'm not surprised to read what Roli says because Jason Ryan is a coach primarily, and always has been. As you say Rex, the signs are visible. They've gotten back to the system of two years ago with a few tweaks in terms of personnel (Mikey as first receiver and QB instead of Morgan/Niall Kelly as Leper etc) and it's not working too badly. Guys are still bedding it in but so far, so good.

Yes and its paying dividends so far, we are now scoring more touchdowns than in previous seasons, and the old myth of Kildare not having any offence is slowly being put to bed

Who suggested this myth. Said numerous times, we were the second highest scoring team in the championship based on average score per game in 2009 and highest scoring in 2010.

It has always been 'lazy' to propagate that myth, given it's not based on facts. But where it comes from , is the couple of games people have seen i.e. All-Ireland quarter-finals and the scoring rate has dropped against better organised teams. That is the challenge. But Lord God, they kicked 19 points in a Leinster final, most of them from play. Just two instances of rank bad defending, allied with two or three very soft frees at the end, meant that the best team, playing the best, most exciting brand of football on that day, did not win. I don't think I have ever been excited with how a Kildare team played as I was that day.

But anyway Tommy, you were missing the whole point of LOP's post...