We won’t forgive them for it.
They are coming alright. But they’ve a couple of years to go yet.
We have bidness to take care of this year. I’m sure a few will sail off into the sunset after it. The last of the 2013 crew most likely. Probably, at least some, of the management included. None will be easily replaced.
But that’s next year’s problem.
Thought Conor Donoghue looked a bit short for this level as the sweeper/centre back for Dublin today. Didn’t really cut off any space and Cork ran down the middle continually despite Dublin having a decent grip at midfield.
Hard to know what to make of Cork but Shane Barrett is hurling very well and was a constant threat.
Shanagher has his limitations for sure, I’d say he’s a player that would drive you mad if you had him in training & challenges and the whole lot. When he’s bad, he’s very bad, his work rate is poor for a big athletic lad but there’s no doubt that he’s a serious aerial threat, he’s quick and can definitely score off his left.
It’s weird that he’s gone from getting a minute or two or no run at all to starting.
When games were getting away from them in the last 15 in Munster, you’d think he’d make an impact from the bench at least, even to help win puckouts if they played him on the wing.
He’s an awkward fucker to handle. Could do anything. Which is both good and bad I suppose
He roared out the gate last 2 games in the first half but drifted alarmingly out of them once into the 2nd half(no coincidence Cork were threading water each occasion) he gave a 70 min game against Tipp and absolutely filleted them. Corks biggest worry is Connolly has been literally marked out since the same Tipp game and their inside line in general is struggling to get on decent ball.
Only made the first game in Thurles as I had to rush off for a game on the BOICMC cc: @peddlerscross
It was a game that never got going. League/challenge match intensity. It was like both teams were fulfilling an appointment. Cork to get through without bother and Dublin not to get embarrassed.
There was a lot of loose stuff to begin with. Sean Currie and Shane Barrett rising above it. Barrett really makes Cork tick. His lateral movement is constant and in possession always tries take his man on. Their most important player. He was central to their goal chances, the Dublin full back line did well to quell them. Currie did well off scraps as Dublin have no idea how to utilise or supply the inside line of their attack.
As the half progressed the difference between the teams was the Cork HFL who pilfered six points in that half. Donohoe as astute judge @Big_Dan_Campbell said was taking on water vs Barrett. Crummy was really disappointing in counteracting Dalton.
Dublin however were doing well in MF. Conor Burke dominating the show pony Fitzgibbon. Brian Hayes also was causing Coleman issues. The missed frees from Burke would have made it closer at HT. I had it at 21 shots each at the interval.
Dublin never got going in the 3rd quarter. Wides punctured any hopes of momentum. Cork kept the scoreboard ticking over to give them a nice cushion. Eoghan O Donnell moved to the middle 3rd in the final quarter and his strong running was the catylst for a comeback.
I was really disappointed with Cork. Maybe they were towards Lk and keeping their powder dry. Dublin neutralised their long PO. Collins doesnt have the mid range ones in his locker. The full forward line was poor and didnt get hit enough. Hayes needs to be further out. A lot of individual stuff again.
The only sign of atmosphere in Thurles was walking past Lar’s bar on the way back to the car. It was hopping.
Thought Dublin got a decent kick off their bench but had left themselves too much to do. Forward play is an issue, far too isolated in the first half and no real interplay. Too much hand passing makes them very predictable too, far too lateral or backwards, they need to send the odd direct ball in to keep teams on their toes.
Clare v KK on at 3pm on a Saturday.
It’s gone beyond a joke.
Be lucky to have 40k at it.
TK’s fifth point was a thing of beauty.
Encouraging signs from the sideline today, made changes in game and at half time which worked. Started a hungry player who put his hand up and it worked. Five hard working forwards and a functional midfield made an enormous difference
Good summary
O’Donnell did well in the full-back line but I’d agree that his strong running really helped Dublin actually open Cork up. You would wonder whether they have to just play him up the field full-time next year.
I know they’ve tried it before and received criticism in the media but they lack forwards/midfielders and tend to have decent backs.
It’s a joke.
There are two aspects of these Exceedingly Attractive Double Headers cc @Cheasty that i really like.
The sound as the teams break from their pre match huddles for Game 1. There’s no anthem/parade/warning that the game is going to start until this muffled noise begins which starts slowly before reaching a crescendo. I only just made it in to the stadium in the nick of time to experience that moment today but it was well worth it.
The bit of chaos when Game 1 ends and the players are mingling/swapping jerseys/meeting family while the other teams involved in Game 2 are running out onto the field. The moment Game 1 ends, there is a coach from one of the teams involved in Game 2 on the pitch laying out cones for the warm up. You really see the brilliance of Big Rob as a steward orchestrating proceedings during this chaotic 2-3 minute period. Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen blaring out on the tannoy just adds to the brilliance of it all.
The long and the short of these teams like Dublin/Wexford is they have lads playing for them that wouldn’t get on a 26 squad the minnows of Tipp/Waterford and they get totally exposed when they’ve to play any of the top teams in big pitches like Semple stadium/PUC/Croker.
Fact, Tipp as bad as they are and WD would have beaten the pick off those Leinster chumps today
Paddy Doyle should have started. A sacrificial lamb for the last day. Better than Grey or Donohoe.
Dublin have no clue how to set up/use an inside forward line. Paul Crummy has one trick. He has a good hand. However they position him on the top of the D and hit no ball on him. Sean Currie was inside him. Ball hit in front of him rather than outside him to take laterally.
A lot of short passing up the field in the hope of finding one of the Burkes in space to shoot or Brian Hayes to run through a gap is their only attacking plan.
Doyle is decent tbf but that Crummey lad is worse than bad. They’d be better off giving O Dalaigh minutes than persevering with him.
Brian Hayes needs serious feeding
There’s an essential loneliness to exceedingly attractive double headers. If you decided to stay for the entire two full games, the make up of the crowd around you is likely to be entirely different by the end of the second game to what it had been at the start of the first.
It would be like returning as old man to where you grew up and finding the place largely the same, but the people are all different, all the people you knew from when you were growing up (the start of game 1) are now all gone, replaced by a crowd you don’t know at all (the people there at the end of game 2). The place feels empty and lonely.
Exceedingly attractive double headers are a metaphor for life. We’re all only passing through, nothing stays the same, people come and people go. What starts out pregnant with possibility in most cases peters out with a whimper. Many of us experience a mid-life crisis when we thinking of checking out (ie. I don’t think I’ll bother staying for this Tyrone v Laois game).
My favourite bit of chaos after a game 1 of an exceedingly attractive double header was when there was a pitch invasion after Derry beat Westmeath in the 2004 All-Ireland football quarter-final, before Dublin got spanked by Kerry to end the @Arseboxin era.
This was at a time when pitch invasions were creeping back in after a few years of having been banned. This particular pitch invasion felt like a drunken dare by young lads down on minibuses who were on the Buckfast. It was shambolic, there was a self-conscious absurdity to it.
Perhaps Gooch and Declan O’Sullivan ran into this alcohol-fuelled absurdity, perhaps not.