Same on TFK. Some of the football pundits are long winded repetitive and clueless
2 Likes
Cooper is excellent alright, he has really developed the defensive side of his game in the past two seasons.
It’s not guff.
Even the best can’t go 100% flat out for a whole game if the team’s style is based on running, and both teams’ style in this final is based on running.
Mayo went pretty much 100% flat out in the middle half an hour of the 2012 semi-final and the first half of the 2013 final and weren’t able to keep that up.
Dublin were the dominant team in the first half of last year’s drawn game but weren’t able to keep up that pace for the second half.
The ideal is for a team to go about 90% for the first 55-60 minutes, and then empty whatever they have left in the remaining time. Players who are being substituted will likely know they will be coming off in advance so can tailor that slightly, eg Andy Moran.
1 Like
Yeah he was for most of it. Really good. Ability to run end to end is phenomenal really.
Got involved with a spat with gooch after about 20 minutes. Running up and down cusack sideline. Continued on. Cooper was over to linesman.
Last Few minutes of that half dubs were rattled.
RTE relegated the fistball final to second place in radio sports bulletin. Fair play.
I think i misunderstood your original post. Both Jonny and Colm Cooper have got crankier and dirtier in recent years. For Jonny as a corner back it’s no bad thing. For Colm as a creative scoring forward, not so much and its probably a slightly sad indication of his fading powers.
2 Likes
guff
of course they can go flat out for 70 minutes
its comical how people are trying to make bogball out to be a game full of strategy and processes when its just a bunch of half wits who failed at normal sports fisting the ball to each other
4 Likes
Don’t be so harsh on yourself mate
1 Like
I think that is a big part of Dublin’s success. Lads know no need to pace themselves to last 70 as they have five subs as good as what is starting to come in. Play a real 20 man game. They also deliberately assembled a panel of athletes as much as footballers.
Whats forgotten is football is an athletic pursuit and there are no rules on how easy on the eye a player needs to be.
They have not deliberately assembled anything. They have slowly grown the people best suited to winning into a squad. Some of those have silky skills, some don’t.
Its a mistake alot of people make and alot of coaches make. They don’t look at what a player actually brings to the game or team.
It was interesting to read about Rochford over the years and having spoke to lads who played under him, he almost always seems to get guys off tge bench onto the team. They get a fresh pair of eyes or he sees what they can do and not what they can’t. Gilroy also obviously saw MDM could get the ball from one snd of the field to the other as a link. It wouldn’t be pretty but it would be effective.
Its drives me bananas people going on about gym monkeys or “athletes” as footballers or whatever. As if we could all stroll onto a team if we trained the shit out of it.
1 Like
what?
The most clichéd spoof-ridden post you could imagine.
1 Like
The death of former Mayo footballer Greg Maher will cast a shadow over the county in the run-up to Sunday’s All-Ireland Final.
Greg died overnight after a long illness. He was 49.
He was a member of the Mayo senior team which played Cork in the 1989 All-Ireland Football Final. He lined out at right-half forward for John O’Mahony’s team that day.
It was a proud day for the Maher family from Claremorris as Greg’s older brother Seán lined out at midfield in that game.
Greg and Seán’s father Tom was a garda superintendent in Claremorris. Tom Maher was a native of Galway, whom he hurled for at senior level. Greg would go onto serve as a member of An Garda Siochana himself, based in Dublin.
Greg was a member of the Mayo Minor team which won the All-Ireland title in 1985. He lined out at midfield on that team along with the team captain, Michael Fitzmaurice. It would be Mayo’s last Minor success until the 2013 team ended the long wait.
From the Knock Road in Claremorris, Greg was a talented and powerful footballer, something his neighbour and coach at Claremorris GAA Club, Austin Garvin, can attest to.
“Greg was a man mountain. Like Mick Connaughton in Claremorris before him, Greg could take on a team and solo right through them. He was a natural footballer and that was obvious from an early age. He was very talented. He was strong and had a lot of skill,” Garvin told The Mayo News.
Tom Morley taught and coached Greg in Claremorris Boys’ National School. Greg was the captain of a star studded school team that won the South Mayo national schools title - before the county wide Cumann na mBunscol competition came into being.
Incredibly four of the starting Mayo Minor team in the All-Ireland Final of 1985 were in the same class in that national school. Greg Maher was midfield, Johnny Cummins was in goal, Kevin Beirne was corner-back and Johnny French was left-half back.
“Greg was a much bigger lad than the others so he had the strength but he had the football ability too,” Tom Morley told The Mayo News. “I followed his football since. When he put his mind to it, he was a very good footballer. In fact I felt he was harshly treated when he was substituted in the 1989 All-Ireland Final. There was worse than him left on.”
Greg was present in MacHale Park, Castlebar for the 2013 Connacht Final where the Mayo team which won the 1988 and 1989 Connacht titles were honoured at half-time.
1 Like
Greg was a well known Garda living in Castleknock and coached a few teams - absolute horse of a man and great dry sense of humor:
“I hate small men and good looking women”
“It takes a bigger man to walk away BUT if they say anything again I’ll go over there and kick the sh*ite out of them”
5 Likes
I was let down on a ticket, said person has gone to ground. His company has now been deleted from a tender document.
It’s not me I’m worried about but this has knock on effects…sorry @thedancingbaby …the only thing that can help you now is if I’ve to go to the Rotunda Sunday morning!
2 Likes
I’ll keep trying don’t worry…yet
He promised mate. I just reread the text.
“I’ll get you 2 stand tickets, don’t worry” he said.
I still think he’ll come up trumps.