Refereeing Performance Ratings.

I think the reason people like this Athy team is that they play an exciting brand of football and represent Kildare in a very positive way on the pitch. They are not responsible for the terrible traffic jams in the town apart from one after the county final!

fionnmccool wrote:

It's not long ago most people even hated driving through the place.

That's a disgraceful thing to say. Would you have said the same to Mick foley when you were cheering him on in the summer?

Sounds like people are getting jealous of athy's success. If this was your club, would you mind KFM 's commentator going over board in their praise? If your club had won 3 minors, 2 under 21's, a senior and pushed the Leinster champions so close would you not expect praise in the local media?

And it was hardly a one sided commentary, Eoin Doyle deservedly got mountains of praise

FuturesWhite wrote:

Thr particular commentator's knowledge of Kildare football is piss poor. He talks like he's some
sort of expert on GAA. He spent most of his life involved with soccer. It's only since they ran Kildare County FC into the ground that he's fallen into GAA involvement.
The only way he'd praise Coady today would be if he were giving Athy every decision.

I listened to the headphones while I was at the game
& he just sickened me. I turned the radio off after an incident in the 2nd half where he practically begged Coady to send the Naas player off.

Coady had a tough game on his hands today and got some calls right & some
wrong.

I thought long and hard about whether to bother to respond to this but in the end, there are so many inaccuracies in your short post that I had to reply.

I am sorry if my knowledge of Kildare GAA is "piss poor" but i can assure you that i spend my weekends travelling the length and breath of the county attending matches from cumann na mbunscoil under 11 games up to adult level and ranging then from the senior county team to the lowest junior grade, both in male and female competitions, football, hurling and camogie. For weeks on end during the summer months, I attend as many as 7 or 8 games a weekend. I'd never claim to know everything about Kildare GAA or even a lot but anything I don't know I work hard to find out.

As for the incident in the game you mention about me "begging" for a Naas player to be sent off. I did no such thing. I thought the incident involving the Naas player deserved a second yellow card, particularly when an Athy player was shown a yellow for a very similar tackle minutes later, but i also said that Dave Coady was probably trying to keep a final 15 a side and he probably deserves credit for that. But there is no doubt that the tackle by the Naas man in isolation deserved a second yellow and would have been a major talking point had Naas gone on to win.

You also seem insinuate that i had sort of favoured Athy, or to put it as somebody else said, had a "horn" for them. I make no apologies for praising Athy to the heavens. What they have achieved in the last few years and have the potential to do in the future is phenomenal and I will praise them all day long. The majority of their team today had won a senior title just a few weeks earlier and were within a kick of a ball of the eventual Leinster champions until the closing moments, they have been brilliant and whether it was Athy doing that or any other club in the county, I would say the same thing. Also, in no way was I biased against Naas. I said on numerous occasions how well Eoin Doyle played and posted on twitter moments after the game that they have the potential to challenge for a senior title with those players in the near future. Being accused of bias is nothing new for a commentator I suppose, I was accused of the same thing when covering Moorefield and Ballymore games last year. I have no bias towards any team other than to say they are playing well when they are doing so, it seems to me that some people don't like to hear about success if it doesn't involve their own club.

The one thing you did get right is that I have been involved in soccer all my life, although I am not quite sure why that is a bad thing, it's possible to be passionate about two sports. What you didn't mention is that I also played football until my early 20's. A lot of my best sporting memories involve playing minor football for St Laurence's and one of my biggest regrets is not winning a championship with that team but seeing as we were only beaten by a point after a replay by a Moorefield team containing many of the team who went on to dominate Kildare football over the following decade, it's a little easier to take. Marking Roli Sweeney in midfield when we beat them in the Division 1 league final a few weeks later was a bit of a consolation though! The reasons for me not moving into under 21 and senior football and instead concentrating on soccer are manied and varied and scarcely interest me ten years later so I doubt anybody else cares. But not playing or being involved with a club hardly diminished my interest in football. I shouldn't really have to spell out any sort of credentials but people have asked me before what involvement I had in GAA so there you go.

And then finally, and probably the reason above all else that I bothered to reply to this, is your Kildare County jibe. You obviously know more about me than I do about you but clearly you don't know enough about Kildare County to talk about them with any accuracy. The fact that you say "they ran Kildare County FC into the ground" and use a plural term clearly means that you are also talking about my father's involvement with the club. Now what business a former League of Ireland club have on a Kildare GAA forum, much less my father's involvement with them, is beyond me but you are the one who brought it up. Before you go posting about stuff you don't know about, why not contact me or my dad if you are that interested in what happened to Kildare County. We're easy to find, any soccer club in the county will give you my dad's number or any GAA club in the county either has mine or has access to it. Or else, and much preferably, you could avoid posting about things you don't know about.

Was at the match and didnt have the radio so have no idea what was or was not said but in my opinion the ref had a poor game. The number 9 for Nass was given his "last chance" at least 4 - 5 times. Now I know the ref probably just wanted to keep the teams level but that is not his job. His job is to ref the game that is played out in front of him. If one player deserves a card for a challenge and another player does the same challenge then it is a card also.
Well done to Athy yesterday. Good for these lads to finish off the year on a high after the disappointment of 2 weeks ago. I know a lot has being said about a lot of these lads in the past but young Hyland (no. 6) is really starting to look like a player that could have a really bright future in the game.

Fair play to Ger McNally to have the b*lls to come onto this forum, use his real name and defend his position. Too many posters think because a forum in anonymous that they can say what they like.

Ah get a room Seasthestars

Nice of Ger to post a reply alright, although Im fairly sure it isnt his first time to post in here.
I dont doubt that you spend your weekends travelling the length and breadth of Kildare covering games for the radio and the newspapers. Would I be correct in saying that this comes under the remit of a reporters job?

You did point out that an Athy player had been booked for a similar offence earlier in the game, at least 3 or 4 times. You repeated - during the break in play that the Naas player had to get a second yellow "if the ref was being consistent". Why go to such lengths?

I did point out that you had and have favoured Athy yesterday and indeed all year which YOU DO! Im not sure if this is because of your Larries background (which I was unaware of) or through a sense of obligation - being a Kildare Nationalist employee? On the couple occasions that I have listened to your club coverage this year, and in my opinion you have been way over the top in the praise dept. Yes they have won a senior title and won it playing some decent - football at times.
There is no way you can claim they were a kick of a ball in beating Garycastle, in fact they came up a good bit short of the mark on that day. It was amusing yesterday to hear yourself and a couple of the players almost take some pride in the fact that Garycastle had won a Leinster title.

Perhaps you were accused of bias in the past - I dont know or care. But at least the likes of Ballymore had won a Leinster title with Moorefield winning yet another senior title. Just as deserving (if not more) than a single senior title some would say!

As for you or your fathers involvement in Kildare County, I was also unaware of this. The word 'they' certainly did not refer to either of you. But it is no secret that the setup in Kildare County was far from what it should've been. My reference to that particular club was pointing out where your sudden interest in GAA coverage came from and NOT a slight on you or your family.

More importantly, you did mention Dave Coady on more than a few occasions for not giving decisions which you said you thought were strange. Now I wouldnt be a fan of referee's by any stretch but Dave Coady didnt do anything massively wrong yesterday. It was a tricky enough game to ref and I feel he did a decent job. As Murof said in a previous post, he did not influence the outcome of the game in any way.

Finally, Fionn mentioned that people hated driving through Athy. Whats wrong with that? I hate driving through the place. Congested with traffic, narrow one way streets. I also hate driving through Naas, Newbridge or any other town which takes ages to pass through.
If that offends you BFFF - then tough!

Way off topic here. The thread was for Referees performances and it came with a warning to stick to the topic, but they have not been heeded.

If you want to continue the argument then do so using PM.

Any more posts off topic will be deleted.

Locked until there are performances to rate again and because some lads can't help themselves.