Monaghan result

I have rarely called for players to be dropped, but NONE of the other players apart from Dermot has such a history of consistent excellence as Johnny does. One aspect of his game wasn't working, and I do agree that twice he should have laid the ball off instead of attempting a crazy shot - and Geezer did refer to bad choices afterwards - but if Colm Cooper is having a bad day, he's never taken off. Ever. Because he has it in his locker. And he doesn't put in the shift Johnny does. Johnny was fulfilling the other parts of his job. I'd be fairly confident he'll take the first three frees next weekend.

Peter Kelly has been some find is right, but like Rob Kelly, he's someone who has improved beyond recognition by virtue of his involvement in the Kildare set-up. And he looks to me like he's absolutely loving it

Eventually a forum I'm allowed join.

Anyway about yesterday, in my opinion JD was poor enough yesterday on frees and in some of his general play, as was already pointed out many times. However nobody will know this better than Johnny himself. We'll all be raving about him next week if he stitches a 72nd minute goal. (When we're already up by 6 points )

Backs were excellent again. I'll jump on the Peter Kelly bandwagon too! He's impressed me more with every game with the county. Saw him play for TMH in the county final last year and in fairness he did stand out. Gave Rob Kelly a good game.

Younger Flats was brilliant too when introduced. Took his scores well and always seems to know where to find space. Bright future.

Smyths gereral play was excellent. As was Flynn, Leper, Kav...Sweeney when he came on.

Ogie wrote:

I have rarely called for players to be dropped, but NONE of the other players apart from Dermot has such a history of consistent excellence as Johnny does. One aspect of his game wasn't working, and I do agree that twice he should have laid the ball off instead of attempting a crazy shot - and Geezer did refer to bad choices afterwards - but if Colm Cooper is having a bad day, he's never taken off. Ever. Because he has it in his locker. And he doesn't put in the shift Johnny does. Johnny was fulfilling the other parts of his job. I'd be fairly confident he'll take the first three frees next weekend.

Peter Kelly has been some find is right, but like Rob Kelly, he's someone who has improved beyond recognition by virtue of his involvement in the Kildare set-up. And he looks to me like he's absolutely loving it

I think this is the most pleasing aspect of Geezer's set up. When you can see players improve under his regime then you know there is something good going on here!!

When I saw Des Moine hit McCormack as they were switching ends before the first half throw in I knew what Monaghan's game plane was, to be physical, hit hard and try the disrupt Kildare. I was relaxed because I knew it wouldn't work.

I thought Smith and Kavanagh were imense and won EVERY ball that came their way. Some of the scoring was just breath-taking.. I thought that the back unit worked really well together and snufffed everything out pretty well, although Monaghan's ball to the inside forwards was atrocious at times either too long or misdirected to over the sideline... Peter Kelly was brilliant in my eyes..

JD had a bad day at the office with respect to free taking and shot selection, but we are not a one man show. I thought his general play was good. Was delighted to see Roli come off the bench and give a great performance - exactly how it should be..

Praise also to the management team, thought the made the right calls early and they had a positive outcome on the game. Eoghan O'Flaherty is some serious piece of talant....

Yeah, overall I am delighted Roll on Meath..

The Six-Day Syndrome, whereby defeated provincial finalists on Sunday lose their qualifier game six days later, struck with a vengeance for Monaghan in Croke Park.

After a promising initial burst, they disappeared for a long period immediately before and after half-time. Kildare scored 10 points to just one from Monaghan and from there on, the result was a foregone conclusion.

Kildare comfortably marched on and are well capable of reaching the All-Ireland semi-finals. This is a substantial achievement despite no Leinster title coming during the first three years of Kieran McGeeney's term.

The fact that it was James Kavanagh from Ballymore who was the star of the forwards this time, instead of the usual Johnny Doyle, must also be a major source of encouragement for the Lilywhite supporters.

Dermot Earley, though, is still the most important man on this Kildare team, for his leadership qualities as well as his actual playing performance, but overall, there seems to a greater sense of direction to the whole Kildare set-up with each passing year under McGeeney.

Their newly converted custom of doing plenty of physical damage, legally, to opponents still looks a bit strange to those of us who have been long-time Kildare watchers, but results count, so who are we to quibble about this new 'he-man' approach?

Some Kildare followers may be somewhat concerned that a very poor Monaghan attack on this occasion scored an impressive 1-11 against Kildare, while only getting 0-7 against Tyrone six days earlier.

But, in general, it is very unfair to ask beaten provincial finalists to recover in time to be at their best six days later and this must be changed in the interest of fair play.

Sligo suffered an even worse fate than Monaghan on Saturday and and it's an interesting fact that out of 40 losing finalists since 2001 only 13 have managed to win their next game.

And of the beaten finalists that have been forced to play within six days, only one (Dublin in 2001) has managed to bounce back and win. That should be sufficient proof that change is urgently needed. Had any provincial final ended in a draw, the next game would have had to be postponed anyway, so a change is possible if the will is there.

-

hey fionn,that wasnt you was it!!!!!.

Sober reflections:

1. Whatever you do DON'T criticise Johnny Doyle or you are leaving yourself open to the charge of deliberate confrontation!, I can understand the thinking that he'll get it right the next one and then the next one, but after six awful wides it was obvious Johnnys confidence was shot to pieces and surely would have tried the patience of another manager, ah but Johnny works his socks off!.

2. Those wides? what is it about this team they seem to have about the same amount of wides as their final tally, 21 wides ffs against Antrim in the first game 16 on Saturday, the plus side is we are creating bundles of opportunities and if we were more consistent in the forward dept we would be the best team in the country, we are entitled to be more than optimistic of beating Meath as this team never panics under adversary, they cooly play their way back into games but it would be nice for a change for us to actually score first?.

3. Why did I doubt the pin up manager McGeeney I wanted his head on a platter with loads of veg after the Louth debacle, I admire his patience, he looks unflappable and this seems to be instilled in his players, just keep your head and things will turn around.

4. Thought the ref White was outstanding, hardly made a poor decision in the whole game and no hint of bias, and as you know I don't dish out praise to refs like confetti.

5. Finally I still think that boxer looks like Alan Smith through a glass of Gin & Bitter!

kildarecat wrote:

Sober reflections:

5. Finally I still think that boxer looks like Alan Smith through a glass of Gin & Bitter!

I think you had more than one glass of gin and bitter

Kildarecat

JD is not for taking off and that is the end of it.He is one of the finest Kildare players of his generation and there is no way the Geezer is going to humble him as he enters the twilight of his career and rightly so. As some other punter said , Kerry would never take the Gooch off.Some players are not for taking off and that 's just the way it is.

As a Carbury man , I had great fun Saturday night asking why the f..k wasn't JD taken off today but I didn't mean if for one second.Nearly got a few thumps as well. He can give it to us Carbury lads as well.Knowing him , he would have taken it to heart and he will come back better the next day. He is a most unassuming person who probably still does not know how good he is.Actually , I heard from his family that he got some stick on Saturday and that simply is not good enough.Shame on any Kildare supporter who carried on like that.Bad enough when the opposition fans are abusing you.

ps Carbury beat Kilcock yesterday by a point.Sash let Allenwood beat them

tomcruise wrote:

He is a most unassuming person who probably still does not know how good he is.Actually , I heard from his family that he got some stick on Saturday and that simply is not good enough.Shame on any Kildare supporter who carried on like that.Bad enough when the opposition fans are abusing you.

To me, after the first 15 minutes I didn't think the game was in doubt, we had the answers for Monaghan across the park. So it too saddens me to hear some of the soccer mentality hurled at players during the game.

tomcruise wrote:

I heard from his family that he got some stick on Saturday and that simply is not good enough.Shame on any Kildare supporter who carried on like that.Bad enough when the opposition fans are abusing you.

If true that is quite unbelievable and it saddens me that we have idiots like these who go to games.
No matter how poorly a player is playing what is the point of giving him stick, it's not like it will boost his confidence.

Some supporters need to wise up.

tomcruise wrote:

I heard from his family that he got some stick on Saturday and that simply is not good enough.Shame on any Kildare supporter who carried on like that.Bad enough when the opposition fans are abusing you.

It was the same in '98. I remember a few Kildare 'fans' giving guys like Lynch and Graven dogs abuse nearing the end of the game, after they giving us one of the best years. I'm sure it was most of their first games that year too. Sad to have so called fans like that 'supporting' our county.

I was very confident about a win on saturday, predicted an eight point victory and we should have won by at least that amount, JD missed a few frees that he would normally have converted but even when the shots are missing the target he is worth his place for his work rate and chasing back defending but saying that i thought he looked very tired and drawn on saturday, maybe a rest from training this week might refresh him a bit.
I can't fault any of the players and Kavanagh looks like he is the future of Kildare football, pure class, if the whole team play to their best ability and all have a good day we can beat any team in the country including kerry.

I'll say no more on the Johnny Doyle issue other than that I've read nothing since to make me change my mind.

On another point why is there such sympathy for Monaghan having to play within six days of losing the Ulster Championship? They had a gap of three weeks between their semi-final and final matches and a further three weeks back to the quarter final. In the case of Kildare they will be playing their sixth match on Sunday, all within a period of only 6 weeks. There doesn't seem to be much sympathy from the various sports reporters for them.

Don't think there is much sympathy for Monaghan on here. They media love talking it up.

It's all the better because sure we only won because of the six day turn around. We are still flying nice and low , well under the radar. With the Dubs playing Tyrone on the Saturday it will completely overshadow every other game and keeps the profile even lower.

Before they know it we'll have beaten Meath and will have a nice two week break before taking a cut a Kerry/Down.

Plus Karma's a bitch and Meath have it coming on Sunday.

I agree JME,I can see it going wrong for Meath but obviously still wary. Geezer saying there is more to come and given a warning to Meath. Can see a win for us but wont be easy but I believe we have the players in the better areas that meath dont. Our midfield and backs are better than theres. Forwards i would say we are on a par.

I see Woods couldnt go the 70 minutes without getting his usual cowardly dig in at someone. Caught Dermot a sweet one on the jaw from behind and then had the nerve to try and pick him up as if Dermot was faking it.

There was loads of 3rd man tackles going on and Kildare players runs being checked all over the place. Our lads showed great experience and guile not to rise to it and kept their focus and punished the deeds on the scoreboard.

Its worth mentioning that because its easy for weak teams to bitch and moan and loose the focus when that type of stuff is going on.

As comfotable a four-point victory you have probably ever had, why take JD off and give his confidence a blow? Was looking at the stats box today, you absolutely trounced Monaghan in the break ball count – guess who was your chief winner of break ball?

Callaghan

I'd say Flats the elder or Bolton.

What's this stats box you speak of?

Nah I'd say he means Doyle? Just looking at the game M Flats, Flanno and Sweeney seemed to go through an ocean of breaking ball. Are the stats somewhere on the net A4S?

Mr JD himself!


Irish News does a comprehensive stats thingymajig on a Monday for some games involving Ulster teams.
In the office here, but if I can find the paper i'll throw a few up for you lot.

So much for having a bad day.

imagine people looking for JD to be taking off,yet he cleaned up on the breaking ball,are these people living in dream land or what..thanks a4sam.What do you think of our chances against meath??

carburyman wrote:

imagine people looking for JD to be taking off,yet he cleaned up on the breaking ball,are these people living in dream land or what..thanks a4sam.What do you think of our chances against meath??

It really is hard to tell.

I watched them against Offaly and, despite tagging on a few scores, they were really brutal that day. The Dublin match was a freak and the Leinster final was..wel we've all heard it.

Their forwards can be electric on their day, but their defence is suspect. The Kildare forwards hsould be posting another big tally - momentum and confidence would make this very likely.

That said, six games in six weeks, will it have an impact? Personally I don't think it should, the management will have the layers ready and you would imagine that the players will be well up for it. That said, if it's tight, tense and a real battle, you'd expect Meath to have the legs in the last 10 minutes given the events of the las tfew weeks.

Some people are thinking Meath will have questionmarks over their head since the Louth result. Bullshit. It's Meath, not a chance it will hamper them.

I find it really hard to call, logic would still point to Kildare, so i'll go the Lilywhites by two.

Look, taking JD off is a none starter and is a very myopic view of the player and his overall contribution to the team. It's the sort of rash decision that could kill a team and a player.

On the supporters giving him stick, awful stuff and not the actions of a GAA supporter. Obviously some of the band wagon lot. But it wasn't just confined to JD, some ejits behind me were shouting dogs abuse at Donnelly too, stupid cowardly supporters that haven't a clue. He's the first lad to hold his hands up and admit things didn't go well for him but we don't need the Joe Brolly's in the stands mouthing off...you're there to support!!