Just say they canât. PLEASE
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Kerry will be ranked outside top 4 by end of year
That has nothing to do with what I said.
It has everything to do with it
Winning a once off match and finishing in the top four are not mutually inclusive.
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Itâs not worth a fuck outside CP.
It is actually highly unlikely they will ever play together at this stage anyway.
Clifford is still talking to AFL clubs and JOD is goosed. Shameful shit from Kerry management on that particular
They are as far from winning an Ireland as they have been since 1995 . That said it is hard to say there will be 4 better championship teams .
Time will tell .
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He never did it consistently at IC level. A player with more talent than Anthony Maher but with much less achieved.
If Dublin slip up, who is most likely to capitalise?
Whatâs the story with JOD?
the last time they did was 2014 âŚ
Injury and attitude
Thatâs a shame.
There was always a bit of a theory that favourites were most vulnerable at quarter final stage, particularly if they had a procession in the provincial championship. Super 8âs all but eliminate prospect of shock last 8 exit. Mind you, not many favourites over years have crashed out at quarter finals. Kerry losing to Down in 2010 ranked as a big shock, even if it was in keeping with the historical outcome of that fixture.
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Reigning All Ireland champions cork lost to an unfancied mayo in 2011 Q/f
Armagh against Fermanagh in 2004.
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Tipp v Galway 2016
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Roscommonâs chances of winning a second successive Connacht football title could take a major hit if they and Galway qualify for the final on June 17.
The rota system entitles Roscommon to host Galway in their next championship game but it has now emerged that Dr Hyde Park is experiencing capacity and safety-related problems.
The matter will be discussed tonight at a meeting of the Connacht Council, where itâs likely that the ground will be ruled out as the venue for the final, irrespective of the pairing.
Roscommon face Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon on Saturday, with Galway hosting Sligo in Pearse Stadium in the second semi-final eight days later.
Roscommon and Galway are odds-on favourites to reach the final for a third successive year.
They drew in Pearse Stadium in 2016, while Galway won the replay in Castlebar after Dr Hyde Park was ruled out. Roscommon beat Galway in Pearse Stadium last year.
The Roscommon team and supporters would love to return to Dr Hyde Park for a Connacht final, but itâs understood that there are serious concerns over safety - and other - issues at the ground, where the current capacity is 18,000.
Of course, Leitrim and/or Sligo may tear up the script, in which case the final would probably be played in Castlebar.
THE reaction to Dr Ed Coughlanâs column in last Wednesdayâs Irish Examiner was somewhat predictable.
For some sensitive Mayo souls who will hear no word of criticism of this Mayo team, Coughlinâs article â which ran under the headline, âAre Mayo responsible for their own downfall?â â was sacrilege.
For those who froth at the mouth when discussing Mayo football, people who have lost faith and patience with this Mayo team, the piece was on the money.
As with so many things in life, the truth was somewhere in between.
Because Ed Coughlan was involved with the Mayo senior team for four years under James Horan â overseeing both the squadâs strength and conditioning programme and their skill acquisition work â his comments are always worth reading and examining.
No more than Mayoâs former sports psychologist Kieran Shannon, who weâve quoted many times in these pages, Coughlan has true insight into this group of Mayo players.
Most analysts have to interpret what they see and hear from the outside which, in any team environment, is often only the tip of the iceberg.
Coughlan, like Shannon, has seen the inner workings of this group. He has a better understanding than you or I of the dynamics of the Mayo camp, its strengths and its weaknesses.
So the Cork-born sports scientist is speaking from a position of authority.
He makes some good points and some questionable ones.
We would question a number of his assertions in his column last week.
From the off, Coughlan suggests that Mayo were never as badly prepared for a Connacht championship opener. This yearâs performance was, however, nowhere near as low a level as against Galway in 2016 and London in 2011.
In fact, weâd go as far as to suggest that it was one of their opening games that they were best prepared for. They were up for it, and delivered a lot of very decent individual performances despite playing most of the game with 14 men.
Indeed, the frustrating thing is Mayo lost a game they could have won against a Galway team who did not set the world alight.
âSmoke and mirrors sideshowâ
COUGHLAN rightly slams the âsham team-sheetâ which saw Ger Cafferkey part of a âsmoke and mirrors sideshowâ. Nobody in Mayo thought that Cafferkey would start, and it was an insult to a great Mayo servant.
This Mayo management should be above such transparent mind games.
But to go on to suggest that if Cafferkey was coached better, he could be a much better player indicates how Coughlan thinks the Ballina man is being done a disservice by the current Mayo coaching team.
This writer is a big admirer of Cafferkey and feels he was a much maligned figure by fans when James Horan was in charge. But the reality is that he has not reached his own high levels since a horrific hamstring injury ended his 2016 season. He has not been the same player since.
Coughlan goes on to reference the infamous 2014 All-Ireland semi-final replay loss to Kerry and Cafferkeyâs role against the returning Kieran Donaghy.
Coughlan wonders if Cafferkey experienced defending against a big man like Barry Moran in the six days between the draw and the replay.
âThe evidence in the replay would suggest not,â writes Coughlan.
Now it is Ed Coughlan, and not Stephen Rochford, who is playing silly buggars?
Coughlan was part of the Mayo management at the time. Did he suggest this at the time?
If so, was he ignored by James Horan? If that was the case, why not come straight out with it in his column and criticise Horan if he felt side-lined?
In that 2014 replay, and indeed the drawn game, Coughlan was heavily involved, having been Mayoâs maor foirne on both days.
Kerryâs Marc Ă SĂŠ spoke subsequently about being told by a Mayo mentor in the drawn game that he was âfinishedâ. It is widely believed that he was making the allegation against Coughlan.
In the replay Coughlan was involved in a number of flash points while on the pitch. His conduct was regrettable, and itâs for that which many Mayo people remember him by, not for the considerable skills work he did with the team.
Coughlan is also critical of Aidan OâShea, contrasting OâShea as a free-scoring minor compared to a player now reluctant to shoot.
Having watched OâShea since his younger years, this observer recalls plenty of wild and erratic shooting.
A more recent example was his poor shot from outside the â45 metre line as Mayo trailed late in the 2016 All-Ireland Final drawn game. Had Cillian OâConnor not produced an equaliser for the ages, OâShea would have been the fall guy.
Last season OâShea was much more cautious about his shot selection and seven points from ten shots in last yearâs championship points to a much more mature player.
We agree with him on his criticisms of Mayoâs free-taking in the absence of Cillian OâConnor. Weâve said this repeatedly ourselves. Conor Loftus has stepped up to the mark but it is clear, despite the work being done behind the scenes in recent weeks, that Kevin McLoughlin is not comfortable taking frees. Yet Mayo persist with giving him the responsibility for frees on the right-hand side of the field.
Stephen Rochford is also in the dock for a number of other charges.
Particularly concerning is the lack of fluid forward play and the backwards steps Mayo took with many of their substitutions.
The inability to develop players led to risks being taken with Cian Hanley and James Durcan last Sunday week, both with plenty of potential, thrown in for their first ever senior appearances in the white heat of championship.
Where to now?
TIME will tell if this is the beginning of Mayoâs fade-out from centre stage or just another frustrating Mayo defeat to Galway early in the summer.
But one thing we feel that Ed Coughlan is on the money about is the damage being done by Mayo indiscipline.
They have lost three championship games in 12 months. In each of those theyâve received needless and merited straight reds for Keith Higgins, Donie Vaughan and Diarmuid OâConnor respectively.
Only those inside the camp are well-placed enough to identify the root cause for such incidents. Coughlan speculates they may stem from frustration in the team environment.
Thereâs every chance the scar tissue of recent final defeats, along with the management heave in 2015, has taken its toll.
Mayo need to improve, on the field and on the sideline, if they are to bounce back like in 2016 and â17. Anyone who thinks otherwise has their head in the sand.
Who wrote that?
Decent effort but a few weird things in it too.
What has AOS being erratic other times got to do with it? Surely thatâs the point. Nobody worked on it, specifically Aidan himself.
Telling Marc O Se he was finished is just shit that happens on a field. Kerry lads live that so itâs a waste of time. But hardly worth mentioning.
I do find Coughlan a bit pompous at times and I know he does not like being questioned and he still has not come back to me about the use of over sized tennis racquets.