They must have been exhausted for the last few years at that rate.
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I’ve said all year Kerry and Dublin were there for the taking. The Dubs are gone and I disagree that Galway were brilliant. They were bang average. A fractured Derry team with stupid miles on the clock in the last year nearly beat a poor Kerry if they hadn’t run out of legs in the second half. Kerry defended well, but their attack resembled a team of Monaghan’s calibre.
If Walsh and Comer’s injury/fitness don’t improve in a fortnight, Donegal will beat them but not with the performance we brought today. We never got out of second gear and made lots of silly mistakes. Our defenders never laid a glove on Louth for most of their attacks.
We’ll beat Galway, and beat Kerry but wouldn’t be surprised either if we meet Armagh in the final as this Kerry team is on the ropes.
A celeb spot which I can’t take credit for: Paddy Small was watching the matches with my brother in a city centre pub and stuck a bet on Donegal for the AI, claiming it’s ours at a massive 4/1.
On a sidenote, my 41/1 bet on Donegal to win Sam taken out the day Jim was announced as manager is still alive.
Hard luck to Louth today. They ran out of gas in the second half. Those preliminary QF’s suck it out of teams with a week turnaround. Hard to view it as fair.
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If you finish third in a group you can have little complaints - somewhat less for second
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One of the best posts I’ve read in ages
Jack gets it
Jack O’Connor: If you think you can play gung-ho football against that type of structure, that’s not living in the real world
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Kerry have had the same team since 2019 but the age profile is grand bar Paul Geaney and Paul Murphy. Haven’t managed to add much to the team in recent years though. Tony Brosnan scored a nice point before being subbed off but he’s been around a while now. He’s the mandatory tattooed forward in a modern day Kerry set-up. Taking over the mantle from Barry John Keane and Michael Burns. That Cillian Burke fella is being integrated into the set-up but by and large it’s the same faces. They could be looking at a major overhaul at some stage in the future but they’ll be fine as long as Clifford and Seanie Sea are in their prime.
Killian Spillane must be one of the most under-utilised footballers in the game. He’s surely better than a 34 year old Geaney. They might’ve won in 19’ if he’d started the drawn game. Diarmuid O’ Connor has really stood up to fill any midfield void left by Moran and Barry.
It’s a very average Kerry team.
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And yet only for gavin white mistake last year they’d be on course for 3 in a row .
They do have the greatest ever in Clifford but outside of that it isn’t a vintage crop.
They’ll fancy their chances of making it 2 in 3 all the same. I hope Armagh have a proper cut off them though. They had some iconic battles in 2000, 2002 and 2006.
I read some amount of hyperbole about Donegal’s Ulster triumph being up there with anything Jimmy did in his first tenure. Sure Declan Bonnar won back to back Ulster titles and he was widely viewed as a nuisance shortly afterwards. You’d fancy Jimmy to oust PJ in the tactical stakes but Galway do have the better footballers if they’re all fit. Being able to bring in lads like Johnny Heaney and Tomo Culhane was a nice position to be. Both contributed vital scores. Didn’t even see Kieran Molloy who’s possibly lost some of his powers since he cut the ponytail.
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They ll probably win the All Ireland, which means they are a good team in any mans language. Came very close last year to beating the Dubs. Won in 2022. The bookies believe they’re a good team, evens favs to lift the trophy. Good luck backing against them mate. You ll need it.
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I had two bets in Gaelic football this year and I won’t be having anymore.
Ya but you could say Dublin could have beaten them in 22 as well. Galway were slightly unlucky too in the final.
Was it 4 minors they won in a row?
Just looking it’s 2 all Irelands in 14 years for Kerry. 2014 Donegal took out Dublin for them and in 22 there was that odd year where a few of the dubs didn’t commit as well.
The wheel might turn. But gaelic football looks to have passed some tipping point. Furthermore there’s a frog in slowly boiling water dimension whereby people, over time, come to accept lower quality and younger people don’t appreciate what’s been lost. Of course if it’s better if the light overcomes the dark naturally and rule-makers don’t get involved. But it’s so bad now it’s hard to believe that will happen, speaking as a hurling snob.
Hurling will have its own reckoning at some point. But the sport is so inherently spectacular that its problems will likely never be so severe. The main problem the sport has is that it’s too hard to learn. Gaelic football should be made harder for the unskilled. The spread of hurling would require making it easier - larger ball, unlimited steps, ball can be thrown. Maybe not that unthinkable.
Speaking of rule changes from 30 years ago, the '94/95 hurling league trialled a rule that I would bring back in a heartbeat - players being allowed to catch the ball once only. Coincidentally it played a major role in the develop of Loughnane’s Clare team, as he wanted them to play a high octane game where the ball was moved immediately.
The other rule trialled was the banning of kicked goals. Something that was never that big of a problem to begin with, and was eventually made extinct by the emergence of the batted goal.
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Not anymore it’s not. It’s all pulling and dragging and rucks these days.
The decline of football is overblown. It’s far more competitive and exciting than hurling at the moment where we’ve had too many one sided games.
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Two of them changes have already been made and to be fair it has seen the transformation of fortunes in a county with no real previous history of hurling success.
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Agree completely, if you go down 4 or 5 against a footballing capable, athletic sort or team with some outstanding individuals and a plan, you are dead. Win this year and Kerry can maybe look at opening up a small bit more.
The game has out raced the rules at the minute.
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Dublin were 4 up on Galway at half time yesterday.
I’d say they’re pretty good and a team that will improve. Well up to par All Ireland winners that might dominate. Galway with their individuals and a possessed Armagh flies in the ointment of course.