He looked great today.
I was at it. Atmospherically it may have been hailed as great but I donāt believe in playing hurling under floodlights and as I said earlier as you move towards October it can get very damp at dusk.
Ya, he obviously goes better in a good Sod. But it says nothing really about my point on him with UCC. He was absent alit for them, so he didnāt deserve his place, as well as the fact he wasnāt hurling well by all accounts.
Itās amazing guys canāt see that conditions can suit some players.
I still had to be convinced heāll ever reach those heights again. Heās clever, but he is not Joe Deane, heāll always rely on other lads doing a heap of work for him.
The same lads ridiculing the over the top Brian O Driscoll media hype canāt see they bought completely into the SOD hype too. As you day he could be a star yet, but for me weāll have to wait and see.
[QUOTE=ācaoimhaoin, post: 917691, member: 273ā]Ya, he obviously goes better in a good Sod. But it says nothing really about my point on him with UCC. He was absent alit for them, so he didnāt deserve his place, as well as the fact he wasnāt hurling well by all accounts.
Itās amazing guys canāt see that conditions can suit some players.
I still had to be convinced heāll ever reach those heights again. Heās clever, but he is not Joe Deane, heāll always rely on other lads doing a heap of work for him.[/QUOTE]
Any lad like OāDonnell whoās an unknown quantity can cause problems when heās sprung on the opposition like he was on Cork in the replay. Something similar happened against Clare back in the 1997 All Ireland final, when Eugene OāNeill, who was virtually unheard of at senior level started on Brian Lohan in that yearās All Ireland Final.
[QUOTE=ācaoimhaoin, post: 917691, member: 273ā]Ya, he obviously goes better in a good Sod. But it says nothing really about my point on him with UCC. He was absent alit for them, so he didnāt deserve his place, as well as the fact he wasnāt hurling well by all accounts.
Itās amazing guys canāt see that conditions can suit some players.
I still had to be convinced heāll ever reach those heights again. Heās clever, but he is not Joe Deane, heāll always rely on other lads doing a heap of work for him.[/QUOTE]
Most forwards will rely on others doing a heap of work for them. Yeah, he wasnāt up to the level needed for UCC in time this year but I think lads writing him off was ridiculously premature. The guy is so young that he could do nothing for two years and still go on to have a great career, he is clearly a massive talent. I donāt think thereās one team other than Clare that might not accommodate him in their starting 15; kk, Galway, tipp, cork, would all fit him in at full or corner forward and the likes of limerick, Dublin and Waterford would kill to have a scoring forward like him.
Shane o Donnell scored three goals set on a platter for him in the all ireland replay. I saw him a few weeks ago when Clare played him against dublin on his own up there for long periods and peter kelly didnāt give him a sniff. Iām not sure he hit one ball all game. He clearly went well today even if waterfords full back line looked all at sea but heās not a superstar yet. One trait he does have is heās very cool when one on one with the goalie. Not sure you can coach that.
OāNeill played in the Quarter Final and Semi Final that year and wasnāt āsprungā for the final.
Nobody is writing him off Glas.
But honestly, wether itās right or wrong, I simply donāt think he would have come thru in a large count like Tipp, Cork, Galway or Dublin. Clareās size is an advantage sometimes in ways as you can microscopic about the decent hurlers in the county.
You are right, he could have 2-3 barren spells yet before he is 30 and still we a star. JBM could do very little for long periods of both games and to a lesser extent seasons, yet he was a real star and quality player.
I thought it was only a yellow card if it was a lad from a " non hurling county"
The thing o donnell has is pace. He looks very fast and he will be great til he loses that. He is no Paul Flynn, but he is a different kind of hurler. Hae was excellent yesterday. Caoimh in you canāt on the one hand say he canāt be judged by hurling in the league, and then judge him on his performances in the fitzgibbon.
I wasnāt say that. He didnāt really play Fitz to be judged. It came up originally that lads were flabbergasted such a player could not make the UCC team, I put forward a reasoned explanation which some people seem to have missed. There is also the fact that the ground might be hardening up a bit so it may suit him. Of course you would judge him on league, in fact thatās all you can really judge him on in 2014, and he had a stormer yesterday. That enthused Glas to come back an question my views, when really I had only given an explanation about not playing for UCC and asking a similar question to Manuel that could he become a one-hit-wonder, like Colm Sheehan of Cork did in 1966 did in similar circumstances.
I donāt think he will. I think if he keeps the head down he will be a thorn in the side of defences for years because of his pace. Iām not sure he will create goals out of nothing, but in this Clare team he wonāt have to, he will just need to finish, which he did again yesterday ruthlessly.
[QUOTE=ācaoimhaoin, post: 917712, member: 273ā]Nobody is writing him off Glas.
But honestly, wether itās right or wrong, I simply donāt think he would have come thru in a large count like Tipp, Cork, Galway or Dublin. Clareās size is an advantage sometimes in ways as you can microscopic about the decent hurlers in the county.
You are right, he could have 2-3 barren spells yet before he is 30 and still we a star. JBM could do very little for long periods of both games and to a lesser extent seasons, yet he was a real star and quality player.[/QUOTE]
I donāt think you meant to write him off but a couple of lads did. On coming through in tipp or somewhere else, he probably would have, Clare lads had flagged him as a future senior player a few years in advance. One thing for that seems certain though is that the current coaching in Clare from minor on up to senior is turning guys with natural talent into unbelieveable hurlers.
You are not wrong there. Maybe unbelievable is a bit much though, an āaverageā Cork team were seconds from beating them last year. If they perform at a very high level again this year (possibly even without winning it out) they may be considered āunbelievableā. Cos I think itās very hard to repeat what try had with a young team, very very hard. Iād actually be a bit wary of their present form, itās very very early and everyone is getting a great look at them. I also still believe it will end in tears with Davy, probably within 2 years.
Excellent post there kev. The perception of the last result skews everything. Clare run through a callow Waterford team for half an hour in March and all of a sudden they are unbeatable and have reinvented the template for hurling, when as you say an average Cork team had them bet in September and Dublin tonked them in the league only three weeks ago.
Its not Clare you should be concerned with right now Fagan
I agree with most of that, but they looked very very good in spells yesterday. It is aback to the same old yardstick. Until a team plays kk in the championship you never really know where they are up to. Kk are uniformly good, less mercurial than other teams.
Ya, good point. I agree with that.
I reckon most teams would be happy to play a decent QF or SF, lose in a close game and then get back to training camps ahead of championship. Getting to League final then losing players for a few weeks means short prep time for championship. More scientific s & c and coaching means teams seem to treat end of league to championship as pre season. League is for finding players, develop a bit of momentum hopefully, see a bit of character when nobody wants to be there.