Alan Smith

According to people on Twitter he's retired?

Too young ?

Still think he had plenty to give and should have played yesterday

Kildare missing. Two cribbens. Flynn feely Kildare cannot afford to lose players like that. I have anything to have brophy in white jersey again

Agree on Brophy Fone. Most significant loss other than JD over the last few years.

Who is tweeting this Crofter?

It's official on facebook

If you're just going by the posts on his Facebook then it just looks like a joke to me

Ah I was going by a couple of tweets from Sarsfields lads. Looks like we've been hoodwinked Fone.

I could list a few I'd prefer to see retire ahead of Smithy.

I'd say there could be a few.

This is true. Spoke to some sarsfields lads earlier.

Outrageous timing . Massive loss. It''s all imploding.

Not sure if its true but if it is I'd be telling him to shut the doir on the way out. Everyone talks about character and not having character well if he has walked out now they same as David Hyland did this time last year well that says it all about his character.

he was told he would not be playing sunday on thursday night the system there where playing was working its the true,2 put 2 half backs on ahead of him was madness,we where 3 pts down.no p.o,neill no f.dowling but 2 half backs,its not working manager is lost.

spot on wrote:

he was told he would not be playing sunday on thursday night the system there where playing was working its the true,2 put 2 half backs on ahead of him was madness,we where 3 pts down.no p.o,neill no f.dowling but 2 half backs,its not working manager is lost.

dowling is not up to inter county football

fone wrote:

spot on wrote:

he was told he would not be playing sunday on thursday night the system there where playing was working its the true,2 put 2 half backs on ahead of him was madness,we where 3 pts down.no p.o,neill no f.dowling but 2 half backs,its not working manager is lost.

dowling is not up to inter county  football  

He's not on his own.

jim wrote:

Not sure if its true but if it is I'd be telling him to shut the doir on the way out.  Everyone talks about character and not having character well if he has walked out now they same as David Hyland did this time last year well that says it all about his character.

Disagree there. If he's playing well, was up for Man of the Match in the previous game, is fully fit and is then informed by management that he's not going to being picked for "tactical" reasons what more can he do? He doesn't make it into the top 6 "forwards" to be chosen on the starting 15, then 3 of them are substituted (1 for a black card) and he still doesn't get a run, even for a few minutes. It doesn't add up.

Lily8 wrote:

jim wrote:

Not sure if its true but if it is I'd be telling him to shut the doir on the way out.  Everyone talks about character and not having character well if he has walked out now they same as David Hyland did this time last year well that says it all about his character.

Disagree there. If he's playing well, was up for Man of the Match in the previous game, is fully fit and is then informed by management that he's not going to being picked for "tactical" reasons what more can he do? He doesn't make it into the top 6 "forwards" to be chosen on the starting 15, then 3 of them are substituted (1 for a black card) and he still doesn't get a run, even for a few minutes. It doesn't add up.

Wheather he should or shouldn't have been on is an entirely different debate. If everyone walked away because they should be on sure we'd have a panel of 15. Does he think he's too good to be just a panel member? Its a team sport and in a team sport you have to have a genuine respect for your fellow teammates . Thats not to say you don't strive to get a starting place but your character should show respect for the guys that are on the pitch.
The way people talk on here somes up the attitude of lot of players both on county panels and lets be honest a lot of club players. He took me off I'm not going anymore or i should have started ahead of him.....bla bla bla. Instead of putting your head down and working hard and saying I'm not starting but by jayus if i get a chance I'll show what im able to do.
Lads on here saying lads shouldn't attitude bother going to play in house games sure their only making up numbers ....its bullshit. Attitute is everything in sport.

Let us remember it is an amateur game. If he doesn't want to be involved anymore that is perfectly understandable.

Would you commit those hours and make those sacrifices if you were getting absolutely nothing in return?

Can't understand the demands put on players by some on this forum, these lads burst their arses in training for the majority of the year with little to no reward.

I understand the performances have been poor but none of these players owe anyone anything. If they don't feel like they want to be involved then it is better they leave, imagine someone who didn't want to be there yet staying around and being negative, that would be much worse.

If you weren't enjoying your work and felt you weren't getting your fair rewards then you would look for a different job and you get paid for your job!

Very easy for people to say these lads have "poor attitude". They don't have poor attitude when they are killing themselves training throughout the winter as we all sit on our arses watching telly. They don't have a poor attitude when they don't attend friend and family weddings as they have training etc.

Kildare footballers are onto a hiding to nothing, unfortunately not likely to win anything of note for the next 5 years anyway but still get bashed. Imagine how tough it must be for them to show that level of commitment in Nov, Dec and Jan when being realistic your goal is to reach a leinster final (with no chance of winning) and a run in the qualifiers.

kildare12345 wrote:

Let us remember it is an amateur game. If he doesn't want to be involved anymore that is perfectly understandable.

Would you commit those hours and make those sacrifices if you were getting absolutely nothing in return?

Can't understand the demands put on players by some on this forum, these lads burst their arses in training for the majority of the year with little to no reward.

I understand the performances have been poor but none of these players owe anyone anything. If they don't feel like they want to be involved then it is better they leave, imagine someone who didn't want to be there yet staying around and being negative, that would be much worse.

If you weren't enjoying your work and felt you weren't getting your fair rewards then you would look for a different job and you get paid for your job!

Very easy for people to say these lads have "poor attitude". They don't have poor attitude when they are killing themselves training throughout the winter as we all sit on our arses watching telly. They don't have a poor attitude when they don't attend friend and family weddings as they have training etc.

Kildare footballers are onto a hiding to nothing, unfortunately not likely to win anything of note for the next 5 years anyway but still get bashed. Imagine how tough it must be for them to show that level of commitment in Nov, Dec and Jan when being realistic your goal is to reach a leinster final (with no chance of winning) and a run in the qualifiers.

I agree they don't owe anyone anything. But if you commit then you're committing to it all. If its not for you then thats fine and as you rightly say they are better saying No than being half arsed.
I don't agree with you on the point that the demands on players are greater now than they were say 20 years ago. In sport or life if you want to achieve anything its hard work sure you need a bit of luck but its graft that normally gets you success. Do the present team train as hard as say the team in 98.....I'd say no they don't. Maybe some will disagree but i heard Glenn Ryan saying that in January of 97 they trained all bar 4 nights in the month. Micko ran them untill they threw up. Has that happened this year....i don't know but I'd doubt it.

Without being a sports scientist I would hazard a guess that trainers/teams are much more informed now, tailoring training and rest days as needed and vomiting while training is not a good thing.

Maybe not but its a sign that your pushing your body out of the comford zone. To a place where if you get to and you know you can get there, that you are not afraid of anything a game will throw at you because you faced and beaten you head telling you you cant

jim wrote:

Lily8 wrote:

jim wrote:

Not sure if its true but if it is I'd be telling him to shut the doir on the way out.  Everyone talks about character and not having character well if he has walked out now they same as David Hyland did this time last year well that says it all about his character.

Disagree there. If he's playing well, was up for Man of the Match in the previous game, is fully fit and is then informed by management that he's not going to being picked for "tactical" reasons what more can he do? He doesn't make it into the top 6 "forwards" to be chosen on the starting 15, then 3 of them are substituted (1 for a black card) and he still doesn't get a run, even for a few minutes. It doesn't add up.

Wheather he should or shouldn't have been on is an entirely different debate. If everyone walked away because they should be on sure we'd have a panel of 15. Does he think he's too good to be just a panel member? Its a team sport and in a team sport you have to have a genuine respect for your fellow teammates . Thats not to say you don't strive to get a starting place but your character should show respect for the guys that are on the pitch.
The way people talk on here somes up the attitude of lot of players both on county panels and lets be honest a lot of club players. He took me off I'm not going anymore or i should have started ahead of him.....bla bla bla. Instead of putting your head down and working hard and saying I'm not starting but by jayus if i get a chance I'll show what im able to do.
Lads on here saying lads shouldn't attitude bother going to play in house games sure their only making up numbers ....its bullshit. Attitute is everything in sport.

It's different from a guy just walking away from a panel because he isn't being picked or he's been taken off. Cian O'Neill praised Smith when asked why he wasn't picked for Sunday but said he was dropped for tactical reasons so if you have a manager who is actually saying a player is good but isn't being picked because of this new defensive gameplan then it's out of Smith's hands. No matter how good he does, how well he plays, how hard he trains, at the moment O'Neill is saying well he doesn't fit our plan so in that case I couldn't blame him for going. It's not as if he just got in a huff after being taken off and then left.

Anyway as expected the retirement rumours aren't true so lets see what happens against Offaly.

Lads is it a bit much to have a long thread on this without any evidence that it's true?

Very true. Id be very surprised if Alan was gone. He's alot to give to kildare football.

It's rubbish.

It's definitely not true. He's already said it himself other lads were only messing around online.

Regardless, I'd rather have him as our go to man than the half backs we are relying on to get us the scores.