No, I would say the preparation/effort/standard is somewhere between Senior and Intermediate (in a good county) level in Ireland in the 3 main states WA, Vic & NSW.
[QUOTE=âcaoimhaoin, post: 990995, member: 273â]There is no black card man. They have clearly disregarded it.
You are right, it could be an amazing game if they stopped bottling it.[/QUOTE]
A friend of mine plays club football in Mayo and told me thereâs a gentlemans agreement between refs and clubs the last few months that they just wonât give black cards. We should look to american sports who have no issue tweaking the rules to make the game more competitive and watchable.
Thats some pile of bollox if true.
Very interesting, Iâd say Mayo arenât the only ones at it either. I donât know about looking to American sports, youâd be stopping the game after every âplayâ. Football has to be fluid if itâs to be watchable at all. Agree with the sentiment though
happens in a lot of games, some refs will dole them out no problem, others will simply dole out the yellow.
Speaking from personal experience.
Itâs the same everywhere, here as well. The refs are making excuses for not giving black cards. A diving tackle hand trip got a yellow card yesterday. Itâs bizarre.
Reminds me a bit of the AISF against the Tyrone of Peter caravan. Everyone thought weâd get hammered but Galway flew out of the traps and destroyed them until half time allowed them to regroup. I think Kerry will win, as galway have nowhere near the talent across the board that we had then, but hopefully they will go and play and you never know what might happen. I was there :-))). An atmosphere of incipient thuggery like you get at old Trafford was generated by the Tyrone fans.
Galway performed very well last year against Cork and really should have won it. Felt there was an element of performing well as theyâd probably achieved a par target for the year in reaching the last 12 and the pressure was off a bit. Maybe they could do something similar on Sunday having reached the last 8. Kerry have struggled a bit in the quarters in recent years losing to Donegal in 2012, Down in 2010 and pushed all the way by Galway in 2008 and Monaghan in 2007. Its still a Kerry team without Tomas OâSe, Paul Galvin and Colm Cooper.
[QUOTE=âLazarus, post: 990988, member: 286â]Nonsense, if Mullhalland manages a win over Kerry it will be a right mugging off and quite a happy one. But one qualifier victory over Tipp does not a mugging off make my learned Queens-county friend.
I think you are probably right but itâs a lot more fun letting patriotism influence you especially when every other cunt up for raceweek will be telling us weâll get stuffed. Fuck ye all, Gaillimh abĂș![/QUOTE]
Contrary to MBBâs assumptions of my seethingness at my alleged mugging off by Alan Mulholland, Iâm quite happy to report that I felt rather happy leaving Tullamore after our win over TippâŠStrange that, isnât it. As Laz has alluded to above, Galway beating Tipp at football isnât enough for Mulholland to claim a mugging offâŠGiven their respective histories in the game, Galway would always go in to a Tipp match expecting to win. In fact, if anyone has been mugged off here it has been the Laois footballers and their supporters, given that they have dished out hidings to Galway in their last two league meetings but when it came to championship football, they were well beaten by the division 4 winners who Galway went on to defeat comfortably enough in the next round.
There is no doubt about it though, the first 30 minutes of that game was worrying enough viewing for Galway fans, Tipp were well in control in the middle of the field and winning almost all the breaking ball. The 2 goals before half time were absolutely priceless and Tipp came out for the second half still in shell-shock, leading to the rapid concession of two more goals. It was Red Rover after that, and even when Tipp did start coming back at them, Galway were always able move up the field and pick off a score here and there to keep a decent gap between the teams. Granted, it was disappointing to see a 14 point lead whittled down to 5 before the end but itâs still a decent margin of victory and Iâd argue that the penalty that led to the last goal should never have been awarded for a non-existent foot-block by Finian Hanley.
There were some excellent performances by the likes of Shane Walsh, Paul Conroy, and Paul Varley, who looks be our best No.7 since Sean de Paor. Michael Martin, Danny Cummins and Michael Lundy all contributed decent scores as did Sean Armstrong when he was introduced. I must admit, I do appear to have been mugged off when it comes to LundyâŠI was rather sceptcal of his ablilty after the Mayo match but he put in a great effort against Tipp, heâs full of pace and energy and is one man in the Galway team who is alert to the breaks. James Kavanagh was easily the worst of our forwards and his man Colin OâRiordan had a field day.
Fintan O Curraoin scored an excellent goal and his midfield partner, Tom Flynn also got in on the goal-scoring act, but they have struggled with their primary function of winning clean possession around the middle of the field over the last two games and Galway have been very poor at picking up breaks in this area.
A strange game for our backs, for three-quarters of the game they did quite well, but the cushion of big lead and a seeming unwillingness to give away a free led to Tipp waltzing through for a few late goals. Paul Varley as mentioned, played an excellent game, and Bradshaw, while squandering a lot of possession, kept the much-vaunted Quinlivan quiet. They werenât seriously affected by the loss of centre-back Gary OâDonnell with a more than able deputy replacing him in the form of dual-player, DĂĄthi Burke. Finian Hanley looked a lot more comfortable playing a more orthodox full-back role rather than being asked to follow his man all over the field, while DĂłnal OâNeill and Josh Moore gave decent performances in the corners. TomĂĄs Healy in the goal is worryingly small but there wasnât a whole pile he could do about the goals and he actually made a very good save shortly after the first Tipp goal, midway through the second half. I have a bit more faith in him than Maghnus Breathanch who seems completely incapable of pulling off a save when you badly need one.
There have been some very good clashes between Galway and Kerry over the last 14 years but the depressing thing from a Galway point of view is that we havenât beaten them in any of those games. There will be a lot talk about pure football before the game and I expect that there will indeed be some excellent footballâŠBut I also expect to see quite a lot of funneling back. Galway have done their fair-share of funneling back against Mayo and Tipp, but many of them seem to be doing it for the sake of funneling back, with their opponents still managing to dissect them rather easily for goals. I donât know if they are afraid of picking up black-cards or what but they seem extremely reluctant to give away a cynical free now and again that might lead to a point rather than a goal being scored.
There will be huge pressure again on Conroy, Walsh, and the midfield duo to deliver, but if they do Galway are in with a right shout. There have been doubts over Aidan OâMahony at full back for Kerry but you donât hang around a Kerry team for as long as he has without being a quality footballer, his best years are probably behind him and Conroy will have a decent height advantage over him, but it should be a very good tussle between the two of them. Conroy has been excellent for Galway this year and is showing real leadership as captain. Shane Walsh and Killian Young should also be a great clash, it will be Walshâs first time to start a game at Croker for Galway so nerves could be a factor, heâs being doing very well on the frees so hopefully that will continue. He certainly shouldnât be lacking in confidence after all the plaudits he got during the week for that super point he scored against Tipp. Our midfield are probably more mobile than Kerrys but the Kerry duo would edge it physicallyâŠAs usual the breaks are going to be so crucial here and if Galway donât up the ante in this dept. we could get a hiding.
Itâs a huge test for our backs. Iâd expect they will try and double-team James OâDonoghue, like they did Jamie Clark last year, with DĂłnal OâNeill being his marker in chief. They will have to decide whether to follow Declan OâSullivan if he is going to drops deep behind his own midfield and spray passes around as he did against CorkâŠI think theyâd be better leaving the backs to hold their positions and and giving responsibility to Shane Walsh, Lundy and Co. to put the pressure on OâSullivan. I think the Galway forwards are better off tackling high up the pitch anyway for all the good their funneling back has been doingâŠIf anything they nearly seem to be getting in the way of their own backs from making a half-decent challenge.
Galway have named the same starting 15 as last week so OâDonnell has obviously recovered from the shoulder injury that took him out of last weeks game. James Kavanagh has been poor enough in his Galway career so far so tomorrow would be as good a day as any to start producing, otherwise I would hope to see Armstrong introduced sooner rather than later. Other than that we havenât a whole pile on the bench at the moment, Dathai Burke could probably play anywhere across the back if needed, we have a few talented under-21 forwards in Damo Comer, Cathal Mulryan and Adrian Varley, but in midfield we only have the lumbering Greg Higgins. Itâs at this stage of the championship that we are really going to miss Johnny Duane and Gary Sice, in fact if we had them in our team tomorrow I reckon weâd give Kerry a right run for their money. Theyâre actually not a whole lot more experienced than Galway and if I was to match them up player for player I think weâre pretty even, but they certainly have a much more tactically astute manager in Eamon Fitzmaurice and they seem to have some notion of how to execute a game-plan. I really hope Galway can keep it respectable tomorrow and I believe they will, but I do expect a Kerry win by a 5-7 point margin. Weâre long overdue a win over The Kingdom mind⊠GĂĄllimh AbĂș.
Massive game tomorrow, if we hit the ground running Iâd say we have a right chance but on all known form Kerry should win. Form can be a peculiar thing though(as anyone watching the racing this week can attest). Itâs important that this side puts in a big performance, anything on top of that is a bonus to be honest.
Best of luck to Galway today. Would be great to see yee beating Kerry
[QUOTE=âJimmy Mc Nulty, post: 993634, member: 1168â]Contrary to MBBâs assumptions of my seethingness at my alleged mugging off by Alan Mulholland, Iâm quite happy to report that I felt rather happy leaving Tullamore after our win over TippâŠStrange that, isnât it. As Laz has alluded to above, Galway beating Tipp at football isnât enough for Mulholland to claim a mugging offâŠGiven their respective histories in the game, Galway would always go in to a Tipp match expecting to win. In fact, if anyone has been mugged off here it has been the Laois footballers and their supporters, given that they have dished out hidings to Galway in their last two league meetings but when it came to championship football, they were well beaten by the division 4 winners who Galway went on to defeat comfortably enough in the next round.
There is no doubt about it though, the first 30 minutes of that game was worrying enough viewing for Galway fans, Tipp were well in control in the middle of the field and winning almost all the breaking ball. The 2 goals before half time were absolutely priceless and Tipp came out for the second half still in shell-shock, leading to the rapid concession of two more goals. It was Red Rover after that, and even when Tipp did start coming back at them, Galway were always able move up the field and pick off a score here and there to keep a decent gap between the teams. Granted, it was disappointing to see a 14 point lead whittled down to 5 before the end but itâs still a decent margin of victory and Iâd argue that the penalty that led to the last goal should never have been awarded for a non-existent foot-block by Finian Hanley.
There were some excellent performances by the likes of Shane Walsh, Paul Conroy, and Paul Varley, who looks be our best No.7 since Sean de Paor. Michael Martin, Danny Cummins and Michael Lundy all contributed decent scores as did Sean Armstrong when he was introduced. I must admit, I do appear to have been mugged off when it comes to LundyâŠI was rather sceptcal of his ablilty after the Mayo match but he put in a great effort against Tipp, heâs full of pace and energy and is one man in the Galway team who is alert to the breaks. James Kavanagh was easily the worst of our forwards and his man Colin OâRiordan had a field day.
Fintan O Curraoin scored an excellent goal and his midfield partner, Tom Flynn also got in on the goal-scoring act, but they have struggled with their primary function of winning clean possession around the middle of the field over the last two games and Galway have been very poor at picking up breaks in this area.
A strange game for our backs, for three-quarters of the game they did quite well, but the cushion of big lead and a seeming unwillingness to give away a free led to Tipp waltzing through for a few late goals. Paul Varley as mentioned, played an excellent game, and Bradshaw, while squandering a lot of possession, kept the much-vaunted Quinlivan quiet. They werenât seriously affected by the loss of centre-back Gary OâDonnell with a more than able deputy replacing him in the form of dual-player, DĂĄthi Burke. Finian Hanley looked a lot more comfortable playing a more orthodox full-back role rather than being asked to follow his man all over the field, while DĂłnal OâNeill and Josh Moore gave decent performances in the corners. TomĂĄs Healy in the goal is worryingly small but there wasnât a whole pile he could do about the goals and he actually made a very good save shortly after the first Tipp goal, midway through the second half. I have a bit more faith in him than Maghnus Breathanch who seems completely incapable of pulling off a save when you badly need one.
There have been some very good clashes between Galway and Kerry over the last 14 years but the depressing thing from a Galway point of view is that we havenât beaten them in any of those games. There will be a lot talk about pure football before the game and I expect that there will indeed be some excellent footballâŠBut I also expect to see quite a lot of funneling back. Galway have done their fair-share of funneling back against Mayo and Tipp, but many of them seem to be doing it for the sake of funneling back, with their opponents still managing to dissect them rather easily for goals. I donât know if they are afraid of picking up black-cards or what but they seem extremely reluctant to give away a cynical free now and again that might lead to a point rather than a goal being scored.
There will be huge pressure again on Conroy, Walsh, and the midfield duo to deliver, but if they do Galway are in with a right shout. There have been doubts over Aidan OâMahony at full back for Kerry but you donât hang around a Kerry team for as long as he has without being a quality footballer, his best years are probably behind him and Conroy will have a decent height advantage over him, but it should be a very good tussle between the two of them. Conroy has been excellent for Galway this year and is showing real leadership as captain. Shane Walsh and Killian Young should also be a great clash, it will be Walshâs first time to start a game at Croker for Galway so nerves could be a factor, heâs being doing very well on the frees so hopefully that will continue. He certainly shouldnât be lacking in confidence after all the plaudits he got during the week for that super point he scored against Tipp. Our midfield are probably more mobile than Kerrys but the Kerry duo would edge it physicallyâŠAs usual the breaks are going to be so crucial here and if Galway donât up the ante in this dept. we could get a hiding.
Itâs a huge test for our backs. Iâd expect they will try and double-team James OâDonoghue, like they did Jamie Clark last year, with DĂłnal OâNeill being his marker in chief. They will have to decide whether to follow Declan OâSullivan if he is going to drops deep behind his own midfield and spray passes around as he did against CorkâŠI think theyâd be better leaving the backs to hold their positions and and giving responsibility to Shane Walsh, Lundy and Co. to put the pressure on OâSullivan. I think the Galway forwards are better off tackling high up the pitch anyway for all the good their funneling back has been doingâŠIf anything they nearly seem to be getting in the way of their own backs from making a half-decent challenge.
Galway have named the same starting 15 as last week so OâDonnell has obviously recovered from the shoulder injury that took him out of last weeks game. James Kavanagh has been poor enough in his Galway career so far so tomorrow would be as good a day as any to start producing, otherwise I would hope to see Armstrong introduced sooner rather than later. Other than that we havenât a whole pile on the bench at the moment, Dathai Burke could probably play anywhere across the back if needed, we have a few talented under-21 forwards in Damo Comer, Cathal Mulryan and Adrian Varley, but in midfield we only have the lumbering Greg Higgins. Itâs at this stage of the championship that we are really going to miss Johnny Duane and Gary Sice, in fact if we had them in our team tomorrow I reckon weâd give Kerry a right run for their money. Theyâre actually not a whole lot more experienced than Galway and if I was to match them up player for player I think weâre pretty even, but they certainly have a much more tactically astute manager in Eamon Fitzmaurice and they seem to have some notion of how to execute a game-plan. I really hope Galway can keep it respectable tomorrow and I believe they will, but I do expect a Kerry win by a 5-7 point margin. Weâre long overdue a win over The Kingdom mind⊠GĂĄllimh AbĂș.[/QUOTE]
Thats a hell of a climbdown, but its good to see you on the Muller bandwagon pal.
Mull is a fraud.
It appears that there are 4 candidates in a battle to manage the Galway hurling teamâŠ
Cunningham, Brendan Lynskey, Johnny Kelly and Mattie Kenny. Nominations are now closed and the CB reserve right to add another candidate if they deem it necessary.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
[QUOTE=âKinvaraâs Passion, post: 996330, member: 686â]It appears that there are 4 candidates in a battle to manage the Galway hurling teamâŠ
Cunningham, Brendan Lynskey, Johnny Kelly and Mattie Kenny. Nominations are now closed and the CB reserve right to add another candidate if they deem it necessary.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
Mattie being overlooked again?
[QUOTE=âKinvaraâs Passion, post: 996330, member: 686â]It appears that there are 4 candidates in a battle to manage the Galway hurling teamâŠ
Cunningham, Brendan Lynskey, Johnny Kelly and Mattie Kenny. Nominations are now closed and the CB reserve right to add another candidate if they deem it necessary.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
Who would the Galway lads like to see in charge? Continue on with Cunningham or bring someone fresh in?
[QUOTE=âKinvaraâs Passion, post: 996330, member: 686â]It appears that there are 4 candidates in a battle to manage the Galway hurling teamâŠ
Cunningham, Brendan Lynskey, Johnny Kelly and Mattie Kenny. Nominations are now closed and the CB reserve right to add another candidate if they deem it necessary.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
Sweet Jesus. We are fucked.
[QUOTE=âKinvaraâs Passion, post: 996330, member: 686â]It appears that there are 4 candidates in a battle to manage the Galway hurling teamâŠ
Cunningham, Brendan Lynskey, Johnny Kelly and Mattie Kenny. Nominations are now closed and the CB reserve right to add another candidate if they deem it necessary.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
Whatâs the background on each of them KP? Who would ye want to see out of them? Or who outside of them?
Johnny Kelly would be the obvious one but youâd imagine there would be a Portumna bias there which may bring its own problemsâŠ
Mattie Kenny didnt sit well with the current panel so I can only imagine he would bring a complete cleanout if he got the job. The one thing I will say about Kenny is that he appears to have that obsessive streak in him that would wreak havoc but might actually get results. An excellent trainer by all accounts⊠but manager I am not so sure.
Lynskey? Would be make for great entertainment but dont think the CV bring anything.
Anyway the county boards has left the door open so I am assuming there is another candidate currently assembling his line up as I write.
The candidates in rural personality types
Kelly- the diminutive in stature half head case lad that constantly wants to fight lads from other clubs on and off the pitch. Think whacker in mike Bassett.
Kenny- the intense over thinker who wants to argue with everyone for not training hard enough and giving everything for the master plan. however no one can ever achieve his required level of commitment. Think Stalin but lower murder levels.
Lynskey- the quiet, polite, but completely psychotic lad who will take loads of slagging and add it to his inner ball of rage but then snap and tear your head off. Think Michael Douglas in falling down.
Cunningham - the harmless friendly lad who just wants to keep people happy. Think Anthony Cunningham.