Alan Smith

We started with 2 defenders in the forwards and brought on 2 more when we were looking for scores. We scored 1- 10. Maybe next time our manager might consider trying a few forwards instead. Could understand if Smith was upset over that but glad he is still around.

Ogie wrote:

It's rubbish.

Good to hear. Sorry for wasting anyone's time.

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.

Now is this the manager or a player...................

Neither I would say Stonecold. All GAA managers and players these days are so removed from the real world they don't feel the need to address or answer the plebs who sit at home on their holes whilst they train.

This is not a uniquely Kildare thing by the way ask any journalist , local paper editor or radio around the country and ask them about availability of players and managers for comment.

Xavi you dont need the local media, the Sash lads fill you in..

Thought it would be rubbish. Whatever criticisms you have of Smith he has been there through thick and thin. I'd expect him to start, and I'd also predict that he'll play well.

Even if he was playing he would of been on his own. Niall Kelly a nippy good fast forward was left on his own in the full forward line against 2 or 3 players. No matter how good you are. If the "System" does not allow for the ball to be played into out danger men then no scores will be got. I am coming to to believe that Cian O Neill has not got a clue and is just a trainer.

Botch wrote:

Even if he was playing he would of been on his own.  Niall Kelly a nippy good fast forward was left on his own in the full forward line against 2 or 3 players.  No matter how good you are.  If the "System" does not allow for the ball to be played into out danger men then no scores will be got.  I am coming to to believe that Cian O Neill has not got a clue and is just a trainer.

He was good enough to coach Kerry to an All-Ireland, so don't know about that Botch (actually the first non-native ever to be a Kerry selector, but he was coaching, much more than a physical trainer).... I say that in complete acknowledgement of the two poor championship performances but that's a fact.

Also, someone else said that there is no way he would have learned this system in Kerry but that Kerry team had two players fronting the creaking full-back line around the D when they won the All-Ireland.

And finally, people were crying out for the same system last year and indeed, during the league a couple of months ago!!

To my mind, seeing how other teams use it and how it was used just the previous night, the system isn't the problem. It's the implementation of it. That was brutal. And while they could have been better defensively even within that system, it is what they are doing WITH the ball that's the big problem.

That's how I saw it anyway.

This is off topic but since Ogie has mentioned it. 

As far as I see it the defensive blanket works best when you overturn the ball and attack at pace with runners of both shoulders. One of the fundamental flaws in what we are trying to do is we don't overturn attacks because we can't tackle properly and won't close down in sufficient numbers. Donegal and Tyrone sucker you into positions where you get trapped and give up possession allowing the Counter. They bring you in then hunt in packs cutting off the escape route. We allow teams to come up to our 45 but don't press them enough.  One man may go close down but others don't so it's pointless. The first man to move should be a trigger for another three. 
The amount of time Westmeath a limited team were able to get a shot off even though we had 13 men back was criminal. Until the players push themselves and put in the effort in matches all the effort in Hawkfield is wasted time.

But surely asking Bolton, the flats bros, tyrell, leper to do this defend and counter attack game isn't going to work..

Rex wrote:

This is off topic but since Ogie has mentioned it. 

As far as I see it the defensive blanket works best when you overturn the ball and attack at pace with runners of both shoulders. One of the fundamental flaws in what we are trying to do is we don't overturn attacks because we can't tackle properly and won't close down in sufficient numbers. Donegal and Tyrone sucker you into positions where you get trapped and give up possession allowing the Counter. They bring you in then hunt in packs cutting off the escape route. We allow teams to come up to our 45 but don't press them enough.  One man may go close down but others don't so it's pointless. The first man to move should be a trigger for another three. 
The amount of time Westmeath a limited team were able to get a shot off even though we had 13 men back was criminal. Until the players push themselves and put in the effort in matches all the effort in Hawkfield is wasted time.

I wouldn't be overly critical of our game plan . In principle it's the right thing to do. However I believe the problem is either it''s not being coached correctly or the players aren't implementing what is being coached .

It's all well and good getting 11/12/13 behind the ball but unless players know their roles and carry it out it looks like what it did Sunday. For example Westmeath''s number 7, James Dolan I think had 5 wides and scored their goal. All of his wides he wasn't under pressure. He could easily of had 1-3 or 1-4 Sunday . Who was picking him up?

There was no intensity when trying to turn them over in possession. When we did we were far too slow transitioning to attack. Too many lateral and backward passing rather than driving out in numbers off the shoulder

Not only that we were extremely poor in the tackle and conceded far too many kickable frees. We seem to cough up and concede far more scores from frees than we score ourselves from frees.

They scored 1-12 against us Sunday and could have had much more.

What is needed for such a game plan is a forward who can win their own ball, possibly under pressure of being double marked and has the ability to hold it up till support comes or make/take a score.
Our best exponent of that type of forward play is in Australia unfortunately.
I believed Dan Flynn was playing well in such a role in training before getting injured again.

Our other forwards are all similar in that they need space to win the ball and in the modern game you have to go out the field far from goal to get this space so when they do pick up possession its not in a scoring position.

So while in principle the system has its merits, you have to work with the type of players we have.