[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 960534, member: 24”]The World Cup is starting.
The sun is shining.
Up the Ra![/QUOTE]
I get it alright dickwad
Your sister would get it alright.
[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 960534, member: 24”]The World Cup is starting.
The sun is shining.
Up the Ra![/QUOTE]
the women that will be around the likes of the Living Room , D2 and diceys will be fookin phenomenal this evening with Brazil playing…ooh to be young again…
Wahey!
I thought the equation was
Garda + teacher = politician.
[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 960534, member: 24”]The World Cup is starting.
The sun is shining.
Up the Ra![/QUOTE]
Soon the women of the 2014 world cup thread will be starting. Well I hope it will.
Ha, it’s funny. I have 2 and they live close enough to where your from.
[QUOTE=“tazdedub, post: 960576, member: 312”]I thought the equation was
Garda + teacher = politician.[/QUOTE]
Exactly = dickhead.
Three Armagh players and two from Cavan have been handed one-match bans following the pre-match scenes that marred the Ulster SFC quarter-final tie on Sunday last.
Armagh’s Andy Mallon, Brendan Donaghy and Kieran Toner and the Breffni duo of Fergal Flanagan and Martin Dunne have all been banned for the incident as the teams lined up for the parade at the Athletic Grounds.
Both county boards have been fined €5000.
Armagh GAA are expected to appeal the decision.
A Cavan spokesperson said the county board had not had time to discuss a possible appeal, but that the board had not previously indicated it would appeal, and that it could not condone what had happened.
Mallon and Donaghy would be huge losses for Armagh in the semi final.
[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 960524, member: 24”]Everyone whose opinion I respect agrees with me with regard to this.
I know a few lads who would clearly make good guards. They must be close to the guard scene and they also think I was right.[/QUOTE]
I disagree with you farmer.
[SIZE=4]Tomás Ó Sé[/SIZE]
[SIZE=5]It has been creeping up quietly on me since I retired, but I think I’ve developed a soft spot for Mayo. Not sure why. In my career, I never seemed to have an easy day against them and one of the most conflicted memories I have is of our victory over them in the '06 All-Ireland final.[/SIZE]
Billy Joe Padden gave me a bit of a runaround that day and the tin hat was put on a lousy year for me, personally, when Jack O’Connor decided to give me the hook at half-time.
I was fairly sour about that afterwards. We were miles ahead in the game, but I think Jack was maybe feeling a bit of pressure that same day about Eoin Brosnan not starting.
Even now, I can’t really figure out what was wrong with me that year. I won All Stars in '04 and '05 and then again in '07 and '08. But, in between, I had the proverbial season from hell.
The more frustrated I got, the harder I tried and, the harder I tried, the further backwards my game seemed to go. When it came to the final, I probably felt Jack could have given me more time. But it was as if he was sending me the message “You’re just not right Tomás!”
And I wasn’t.
All year, I’d been chasing my tail, and getting the runaround on the biggest day of the year really hurt me. I can honestly say I felt differently at the celebrations that night to any other time I won an All-Ireland. I always took poor performances personally and, for a long time after, the memory of '06 bugged me.
Maybe it also fed into this sense of edge I experienced when playing against Mayo. As a wing-back, I always felt they had forwards who could do damage. Maybe not embarrass you with an exhibition of point-scoring, but marking an intelligent fella like Alan Dillon was tricky.
Funny, when I think of Mayo players, the word that immediately comes to mind is confidence. Playing against them, you always had it in the back of your head that they had the potential to beat you well.
In Kerry, we liked to foster a belief that there were 31-and-a-half counties pulling against us.
We knew all about the fellas at home who would be down on us like a ton of bricks within seconds of a defeat. Of course, the same beauties would be giving you a clap on the back if you won.
So, I’m kind of curious about Mayo now and the strange business of having a grown-up relationship with supporters. I wonder if it’s possible.
Here’s the thing. Mayo are there or thereabouts every year and, for me, that’s the sign of a really good team. I still think they’ll win an All-Ireland and, in fact, I genuinely hope they do.
But a problem, I suspect, is something creeping into their sub-conscious all the time, telling them, ‘Yeah this is our year!’
When we played them in the finals of '04 and '06 you could feel that vibe building and we just got the feeling that they were airing it a bit too publicly. It wasn’t so much the players as the supporters, every year the Mayo drums beating louder. "This is our year … "
I remember the team made a big thing one year of flying to Dublin, every last one of them pictured in their shorts at the airport. You’d see that and be thinking, ‘Jesus Christ, just get in and get out, do your business quickly’.
It isn’t about sending messages across to other people. It’s about you, about the team.
I get the impression that James Horan is trying to get them into that mindset. I like Horan as a manager. I like his honesty and the fact that he’s not afraid to try stuff.
They had two new fellas in the half-forward line against Roscommon last Sunday and, if they didn’t have great days out, it will still stand to them.
He has brought Gavin Duffy into the panel and, while I don’t expect him to see a great deal of game time, he might have an impact in other ways that people outside the group won’t recognise.
I just get the feeling that Mayo’s biggest problem is the pressure coming from their own people. It’s become an ‘All-Ireland or bust’ every year, that gap to '51 always getting a mention. Because of this, they seem to get a harder press than the likes of Galway, who’ve achieved so little in the last decade.
Wouldn’t it be a lot worse for Mayo if nothing was happening for them?
To me, Horan and the panel need to just think about themselves only. They need to be selfish. In Kerry, very often, we blocked out our own county. The idea was just get yourself in a zone, shut out everything else. That has to happen for Mayo now.
They’re desperately close to closing the deal and, personally, I think they’ll benefit far more from last Sunday’s struggle against Roscommon than they possibly could have from any number of the hidings they’ve been dishing out in Connacht in recent times.
Look through the team and there’s very few obvious weak links. I’d just have two qualms. They’ve a really attacking half-back line and, in Lee Keegan, the best half-back in the country. But sometimes they’re inclined to over-commit, leaving themselves wide open behind. A trap I know too well.
I remember playing an All-Ireland semi-final once and spending the first half bombing forward. Going in at half-time, I was bouncing off the ground, delighted with myself. Well, by God, did Tom Sullivan and Marc (ó Sé) and Mike McCarthy eat me when I got inside.
The three of them were livid. “What in the name of God are you doing?” Only for the fact that these were three of the best man-markers I’ve ever seen play the game, there could have been so much damage done with the space I was leaving in behind.
BRILLIANT
I see a bit of that in Mayo now. The half-back line is a brilliant attacking spring-board, but you have to remember what’s behind you and strike a balance.
My other qualm is at midfield. To me, Aidan O’Shea is a fine footballer who has the weapons to be great. But he’s too sporadic. He needs to be bossing games day in, day out. When he’s having a dip in a game, something has to go off in his head. "Hang on a second … "
The point about Mayo, I feel, is that tiny improvements could get them over the line now. People talk about them needing a so-called ‘marquee forward.’ I disagree.
If they could get even a 2pc improvement from every player, that could be all they need.
What I’m trying to get across is that they have the raw material, but there just might be something in their heads.
Their forwards need to stop thinking they have to shoot the lights out and just play a little bit cuter. I think as a group, maybe they could be more comfortable with themselves. They need to realise that you don’t have to play as if you’re parked outside on a double yellow line. Remember, Alan Brogan was nearly a decade playing with Dublin before he got to win an All-Ireland. If it’s meant to happen, it will.
The way I see it, Sunday’s Hyde Park win is money in the bank for Mayo now. It’ll stand to them. Years ago, we won a dog of a league game in filthy conditions above in Scotstown and Jack would often refer back to it after as a sign of our ability to dig really deep. That’s what Mayo showed last Sunday.
They dug themselves out of a dark hole. It might be the best thing they’ve done in a long time.
Dara Ó Cinnéide
Both Monaghan and Tyrone come into tomorrow’s Ulster quarter-final at Hyde Park with a few points to prove.
ULSTER SFC QUARTER-FINAL:
Monaghan v Tyrone
Perhaps it’s a sign of my cynicism but my first action on sitting down to deface the white page this weekend was to check the identity of the appointed referee for tomorrow’s clash between Monaghan and Tyrone.
Eddie Kinsella brings no baggage to this potentially explosive match-up and he’s coming in on the back of a brilliantly instinctive performance in Hyde Park last weekend. One only has to look back on the free kick he correctly gave against Roscommon centre-back Niall Daly in the first half to see that this is an official on top of his game. He’ll need to bring that game with him from Laois tomorrow.
Despite the playing down of the rivalry by players on both sides during the week, there is a sense of tension within both camps after last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final.
It irks Monaghan that the Ulster Championship began with them fourth favourites at 8/1, despite being reigning Ulster champions and the only team in the country to win back-to-back promotions in league football this year. This is perhaps based on the sense Monaghan got lucky last year by being drawn on the easier side of the Ulster Championship and by meeting a jaded Donegal team ripe for the plucking in the final.
Subsequent events seemed to bear that out with Donegal folding the tent against Mayo and Monaghan falling short once again when the shining moment was there for them in Croke Park. It was very easy to pigeonhole Monaghan after that and it is something they are going to have to address if they are to be taken seriously this year.
It irks Tyrone that they were branded toxic after last year’s quarter-final because of Martin Penrose’s sending off and Seán Cavanagh’s infamous tackle. They will point out that Monaghan were never shrinking violets either and that issues around cynical tackling had been festering for months beforehand.
Nothing carries as much currency in Ulster football as a sense of being slighted in some way. It feeds into pre-match rituals as witnessed last week in Armagh, it manifests itself in every gesture, every tackle and every breaking ball on the field of play, and it is there again after the game when, inevitably, somebody will talk about finding motivation in the fact that nobody gave them a chance.
So how will this one pan out? I believe much will depend on how many of Niall Morgan’s restarts Tyrone can retain and on how some of the individual match-ups go. When Tyrone manage to salvage their own kickouts, they are more than adequate. When they don’t, as witnessed during a nine-point swing in the second half of their first game against Down, they are rudderless.
With Darren McCurry and the two O’Neills on the inside line and Seán Cavanagh on the 40, it is crucial for Tyrone to get these four on the ball as early and as often as they can. While Cavanagh is free to roam to get into the game, the other three are dependent on supply from others. For this supply to materialise, Morgan is going to have to get much more tactical with his restarts than he was in both games against Down.
In last year’s Ulster final Monaghan allowed Donegal possession from their own kickouts, invited them on to them, then tackled like dogs and countered quickly after the turnover.
Donegal eventually got tired of the ambush and introduced Neil Gallagher at midfield to save themselves the hacking. Tyrone don’t have a Neil Gallagher-type catching midfielder so they must go tactical on kickouts tomorrow.
Monaghan’s game plan, carried out by their higher-than-usual quota of relentless scavengers (Dessie Mone, Kieran Duffy, Padraig Donaghy and Paudie McKenna) between numbers 5-12, makes securing possession from these kickouts more difficult than normal. Dermot Malone is also likely to retreat towards midfield from his starting position at number 13 to give Kieran Hughes and Jack McCarron that bit of extra space inside. All of this means that getting hands on the breaking ball becomes a proper scramble.
An appreciable rise in temperature is expected today and tomorrow, making it an occasion for those of endurance and stamina in Clones. Monaghan are better served in this department with a new group of players taking ownership of the team’s core over the past year or so. Drew Wylie and Colin Walshe have established themselves as defenders of substance and won’t be fazed by Stephen O’Neill and Darren McCurry after holding both scoreless in last year’s quarter-final.
The Hughes brothers are becoming leaders in their own right, even if they should have regrets after the way 2013 ended. For their part, Dessie Mone, Vincent Corey, Dick Clerkin and Paul Finlay owe this group very little but they too are going to have to show the Clones faithful and most importantly, Malachy O’Rourke, that the twilight Ulster medal of last year wasn’t the be all and end all for them. For them to cruise through another season on the back of last year’s success would be stupid and dishonest. Tyrone teams of the Mickey Harte era have a reputation for punishing both stupidity and dishonesty. Monaghan teams could rarely be accused of dishonesty, but some of their mistakes in big matches in the recent past have bordered on stupid and, worse still, they came from the aforementioned experienced players who gave so much to Monaghan football. If Monaghan play stupid tomorrow, they won’t survive.
Regarding match ups, expect Malachy O’Rourke to get it right. Wylie and Walsh on O’Neill and McCurry. Mone and Corey on Penrose and Cavanagh (or even Darren Hughes on Cavanagh if the Moy man starts to exert his usual influence). And the big one that Monaghan must make work to their advantage; a fired-up Kieran Hughes at full forward on Justin McMahon, who can’t be up to the pace of such a challenge after a broken season.
After 26 years without beating Tyrone, form and fate points to a Monaghan win. After the disappointment of last August weekend, Monaghan’s first championship outing of 2014 offers them an immediate opportunity to settle up for the bubble-bursting failure of last year.
It shouldn’t be this easy.
The few balancing theories go as follows. After two earlier outings against Down, Tyrone have been tempered in battle in 2014 whereas Monaghan have not. Monaghan struggle for goals, scoring none in their last two championship matches and only three in a league division they dominated. Monaghan, and particularly Paul Finlay, have a history of getting little change out of Tyrone and the last time they had to do without Conor McManus for any period of time, they ended up in Division 3. And, finally, Monaghan just don’t do back-to-back Ulster titles.
I am loathe to make predictions until I see both teams line up just before throw in, but I trust the hard pragmatism of the Ulster champions to see them through.
I don’t know what game O’Cinneide was watching last weekend as Eddie Kinsella was probably the winning factor for Mayo in the end.
Quote from JBM re Croke Park is interesting in looking at advantage Croke Park provides Dublin footballers
“One of the big differences was Croke Park. The pitch there is totally different and takes on a life of its own. The speed of it is extraordinary – no comparison with other surfaces. It’s big but I don’t know if it’s actually bigger than Thurles and if you tell me Thurles is bigger I’ll believe you (Semple Stadium is fractionally longer but narrower). But Croke Park plays very big and seems to reward more athleticism and better touch.
You could almost consider picking a different type of player if you were playing there.”
[QUOTE=“TheUlteriorMotive, post: 961764, member: 2272”]Quote from JBM re Croke Park is interesting in looking at advantage Croke Park provides Dublin footballers
“One of the big differences was Croke Park. The pitch there is totally different and takes on a life of its own. The speed of it is extraordinary – no comparison with other surfaces. It’s big but I don’t know if it’s actually bigger than Thurles and if you tell me Thurles is bigger I’ll believe you (Semple Stadium is fractionally longer but narrower). But Croke Park plays very big and seems to reward more athleticism and better touch.
You could almost consider picking a different type of player if you were playing there.”[/QUOTE]
Its a no brainer.
Clare 1-6 Waterford 0-6 at half time in the replay
Clare 2-9 Waterford 0-8
Clare won 3-11 to 0-12 in the end.
here, fuck off.