Kildare v Wicklow - 11th May

HauntedGraffiti wrote:

I remember reading an interview with Cian where he talked about learning such & such from Jim McGuinness’s book, blah blah blah. Unfortunately he missed the most important part of that book.

That happens going into the 2011 Ulster championship, when Donegal have already been promoted to Div 1 & done everything McGuinness has asked of them. Nonetheless he takes them aside one evening and says, “This is fucking bullshit. You have NO IDEA what it’s going to take for us to win an All Ireland.”

It’s totally unreasonable, insane, but it’s what was necessary. Until we in Kildare, collectively, reach that level of zealotry, we may as well be in a fucking knitting circle. It is actually laughable how deluded we are about what’s required.

And as a Moorefield man, have no problem saying that to Cian’s face.

Ah here HG, on a Tuesday morning with a crap day ahead of me, you just cheer me up!

Also as a fellow Moorefield person, I don't for one minute believe you would say BOO! to CON and I also doubt if frankly he would give a sh*t about what you say... Too many people think they are experts on what is going on behind the scenes however the fact is you and I don't know. I do know CON and have a huge amount of respect for who and what he is and what he has done for Moorefield in the past and his history with Tipp hurlers, Mayo and Kerry GAA. I am the first to admit that it is not working out with Kildare seniors and I imagine that he will be gone at the end of the season (for his own sake) however it is so much easer to sit behind a computer and write hearsay than to actually say it to peoples faces who will challenge you.....
Lets just hope the lads get their act together and give a decent performance against Longford.
I am an eternal optimist!

As we all know Pat Gilroy changed the Dublin team he stripped it all back from 2009 and started from scratch in 2010 he went through hundreds of players to find the right ones for the system he wanted to play and built from there it took a couple of years with changes here and there that team started to win and they kept building from there each year and are now one of the most hated team around. What im trying to get at is should Kildare start from scratch with hopefully getting the right people involved looking at as many players from the top of the county to the bottom as possible because the best player might not be the best player for a system etc because at the moment it looks like we are falling into the same site each year. McGeeney did it from 2007 to 2011 with some great highs. I would love Kildare to be hated up and down the country.

Agree Stevie about emphasising players to suit a system rather than people thinking of a county senior panel as some sort of all-star team.

Observations from Saturday
During the warm up the only player you could hear talking was Kevin Feely. Symbolic of the lack of leadership / responsibility to come after the Wicklow goal.

Brophy wanted to play full-forward and I felt moped around a little when not playing full forward. He got his chance Saturday and instead of staying in and providing the focal point the attack needed he drifted out to an already congested space between the D and the 45 looking for easy ball. His lack of physicality and aggression is frustrating. The way I would put it, he’s 6 feet 2 or 3 but plays the game like he is 5 feet 9 or 10. At this stage of his career, that’s not going to change. Once he drifted out, Hyland had little option but to do the same.

4 of the 6 starting forwards weren’t fully fit for their clubs 2 weeks ago and in the case of Jimmy Hyland is still not fully recovered from injury. Kick in the teeth for Neil Flynn, Hartley and Archibald.
During the first half when we were suffocating their kick outs, there were times where we won the ball but the likes of Ben McCormack ran to the person with possession to get some easy ball when the ball should have gone direct to the full-forward line and McCormack should have received the ball from them running in a straight line towards goal. McCormack needs to play in the full-forward line if at all as he is one of these players who, the more time he has on the ball, the more likely he is to do something stupid with it.

Tyrell got on a lot of ball but achieved little. Playing with Moorefield he has a number of big physical players around him who run straight towards goal and he starts out on the wing and loops around for handy scores that you are not going to get in inter-county football. On a broader point the team management need to give players more clearly defined roles about what they should and should not do because some of these lads clearly can’t figure it out for themselves.

Mark Hyland v Conor McGraynor I thought was a disaster waiting to happen. Maybe Wicklow didn’t fully exploit it but Hyland did better against him than I thought he would.

Thought Keith Cribbin was taken off too early and I think Gibbons is a better option than O’Donoghue. Late on, every time O’Donoghue got the ball you expected him to give it away. Gibbons is a better footballer. The 5 minutes after the goal were a horror show starting with Donnellan’s kick outs, goes back to leadership.

For Longford I would start Moolick at midfield (given his dad is from there he usually raises his game for them going back to underage days), play Hartley and Archibald on the wings with O’Flaherty at centre-forward, Slattery roaming out from the corner as a 4th half-forward with Flynn inside possibly with McCormack. Longford by all accounts will defend in numbers so this nonsense of forwards dawdling on the ball has to end for us to have any chance of winning.

Starting Hartley and Archbold not a bad shout at all. This team is in severe need of a boot up the hole. They sort of manic energy they bring could really help.

It's ridiculous how conservative O'Neill is when Plan A is so manifestly failing. Honestly if I was in charge I'd drop half of them after a performance like that.

Agree re McCormack - he is our main goal threat after all and Brophy- hard to believe Brophy played Aussie Rules . Flynn and McCormack in the FF line is a nobrainer.
HG- are you back from Cork having given CON that eyeballing?

It won't make a big difference who's in the full forward line if players further our the field aren't getting their heads up and looking at guys who are making runs inside.

Slats was regularly getting outside and then in behind his man on Saturday with space between him and the 21, Hyland was regularly in front of his man making runs into space and towards the sideline and Ben when he was in there looked like he had the beating of his marker as well.

If fit then I'd go with Ben and Neill inside (with Hyland ready to come in for either of them) and then Flats, Brophy, Tyrell and Conway / Moolick across the half forward line. If the game opens up and Longford are pushing a few players forward then it's ideal for Slats to be brought off the bench to exploit a bit of space.

Bar the last league game against Galway in 2017, O'Neill hasn't made too many changes between games so it's hard to see that happening for Longford and we're almost guaranteed to see a combination of the same forwards who played at the weekend.

Moolick could play half-forward – seriously we need to do something to change it up. Don't think same old same old is going to cut it this time.

HauntedGraffiti wrote:

Moolick could play half-forward – seriously we need to do something to change it up. Don't think same old same old is going to cut it this time.

Himself, Dan and Feely rotated between each other at midfield and full forward before and Conway has effectively being played as an extra for the last year and half - Paul Cribbin has done similar in that role too.

He's capable of popping over points from distance as well so wouldn't be surprised to see him named to partner Feely with Conway back to 10 and bit a of positional rotation between the 2 of them.

I think he's a superb player and I've him in my team every time. Couldn't believe when people were giving him stick about lack of pace a couple of years ago – Parsons & O'Shea not exactly speed merchants but have been country's top midfield partnership for past five years.

Moolick has savage work-rate and as you say, always good for a couple of points. Hopefully with the two extra weeks he's ready to go v Longford.

O'Neill has to spend the next 10 days drilling into them they'll need to fight for their lives in this match. In fairness, they've bounced back before so hopefully they can do it again.

Does it matter who's on the FF line if the game plan dosent include quick delivery.. CON strategy is very much a possession one.. and I don't think He's for changing.

Looking towards the Longford game, will we have any more men back? Namely Kelly, cribbin, Healy or Kevin Flynn and O Grady.

I was there Saturday and the performance was shakey but we got over the line and after last year, I’ll take that. We have been decimated by injuries also and it’s ruined our bloody season. No team would cope with the losses of such key players like we have. Even losing an unsung hero like Johnny Byrne, you realise the importance of these when they’re gone. I think based on the injuries we have faced, we are about where we should be. We are Kildare not Kerry and the fact is, we are between counties ranked maybe 9 and 26 where on any given day, a shock can happen.

CON has not GOT A CLUE about tactics. Its not his strength. As can be seen from his previous jobs he is a strength and conditioning coach and any time he tried to be something different he was extremely limited. He is just out of his depth as manager.
I say fair play to him for all his hard work but that position is just not for him.

Makes me laugh also all of us talking the Kildare players up.
They have not been performing for a long time in my opinion. As I said CON is not getting the best out of them because they do not have a way of playing.
God they look clueless at times against middle of the road teams.
Maybe they are just not good enough?

Wicklow was always going to be tricky but it was shocking.
We cannot even go man on man with Wicklow and beat our opposing player.
Maybe this just proves players are just not up to the top level of football and CON HAS NOT improved them in any way.

And let me say this.
1: We may have a couple injuries but that's is RUBBISH. Looking for excuses. CON is there to develop a squad. The sooner we stop whining about players missing the better.
2: Missing other players because they left the panel is partly down to CON and party down to personal choice. If CON had created an enjoyable environment to play and train in and an actual plan on how they should play well they may not have left.

Our players are probably not as good as we hoped but I honestly think they are a lot better than they have shown. There does seem to be a strange inability to halt the opposition when they get a run on us. It's happened a lot during the league.
Maybe its down to a lack of leadership. When you look at McGeeney's team you had a player like Bolton who showed great leadership against Meath and Limerick with vital scores from half back when the tide was against us. Or Leper with a goal and point to draw us level with Dublin in 2011 when we looked bereft of ideas.
Hard to think of anyone on the current squad who can do likewise. Think David Hyland could do more in that regard if he was in the half back line but CON does not really experiment that much with positions.
I actually expect a much better performance the next day and a win.

I would love to know what input Karl o Dwyer & Tom Cribben have I was told that they were up in the stand taking notes on Saturday????
I didnt see the Sunday game but did Brolly have a go at O Neill saying that he is saying the same Goof the last 3 years same excuses?
Roll on the club championship

SeamusMurphy wrote:

Does it matter who's on the FF line if the game plan dosent include quick delivery.. CON strategy is very much a possession one.. and I don't think He's for changing.

I believe when Cian O'Neill first got the job he said he wanted us to kick the ball more and be more direct. He's not renowned fro making changes but he's definitely changed this policy.

Stevie whatever about CON rolling our the same goof for the last 3 years, i have given up on the sunday game and brolly et al rolling out the same goof for a lot longer than that!!!!!!

I have decided to give up, it will all be over for Kildare in approx. 6 weeks and I look forward to the club championship and the county team for next year.

I have no idea where the next manager comes from or indeed who would want the job, they would probably need their head examined.

Look I know I'm pro Glenn and whether he'd even take or ever be offered the Job.. although I think He just might take it.
Anyway my point is, he knows club football and the Players.. is doing a decent job with his own fellas.. imo he'd certainly get the best outa fellas.. but shur lookit that's probably a debate for another Day.

SeamusMurphy wrote:

Look I know I'm pro Glenn and whether he'd even take or ever be offered the Job.. although I think He just might take it.
Anyway my point is, he knows club football and the Players.. is doing a decent job with his own fellas.. imo he'd certainly get the best outa fellas.. but shur lookit that's probably a debate for another Day.

At least the players would grow a pair with him in charge which I'd take right now.

They would or be gone.

It looks to me that if players are left on their own.  One on one.  In any position on the field they panic.  Or just don't have the skill to actually outplay their opposing player.  They are totally relying on cover and assistance to help them out.
Does not say muchfor the coaching ability of CON imo.
What are they actually doing in training...…..

They listen a lot to CON in training, a lot of listening, a lot of talking from CON...………… yawn!!!!

My nod is going to the army lads off the Special Forces Ultimate Hell Week for the management team for next year!!! wonder how many players would survive that week!