Fitzgerald is the anti Will O’Donoghue.
I’m struggling to see when he has ever been a playmaker or ball winner or disrupter or anything other than a player running quickly off the shoulder and slapping over a couple of scores.
Am I right in saying cork are starting 5 from 6 of the defence that started the 2021 AI final?
Correct. Eoin Cadogan is the only absentee.
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Those points look class… But it’s rare you see him look up to play in a man in a better position. It’s rare he puts in the hard yards…is he a tad improved on these this year? But overall he’s not a team player.
His goading of Richie English in 2018 lost Cork that semi final.
I clicked into this thread with 75 new posts since this morning and I notice @peddlerscross has got a lovely little discussion going again
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Jesus, will you stop crying over wind ups from years ago ffs…
I’ll see you, your sombrero and your kids in their Limerick jerseys in the Marina on Saturday night.
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The Corks only have years ago left at this stage… Don’t take that from them too.
I thought Darragh Fitz hit a couple of outstanding scores against Clare and made five or six probing runs. Think he had a decent goal chance, 2 wides and 2 points and caused issues with his running and was one of their better players on the day.
But outside of those runs there is nothing else to his game. One dimension, which would be fine if surrounded with two or three grafters in the middle third to compensate but there isn’t.
In eight years of championship hurling I can’t recall him ever making any kind of telling block or interception inside his own 40. I’d say if you went back and looked at the three Clare goals and Rodgers goal chance from behind the goals which all started around the middle of the field before a 20 or 30 yard ball inside opened things up you would find Fitzgibbon standing in or around the the midfield line with little interest in getting involved until Cork have it again, no interest in even dropping 20 odd yards in case the Clare attack would breakdown.
It’s a shame really as there is talent there but only in one direction.
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I’m not a huge fan of Fitzgibbon, I’ll admit that. I think part of it is because I think he could be so much better than he is; I just watch him standing around waiting for other people to do work and it fucking irritates me.
But I would stand by what I say in terms of his striking. He’s a lovely striker on the run but I’ve never seen him ping short stick passes around, left & right. Maybe he can do it, but I’ve never seen him to do it in Championship. It’s just not his game. He doesn’t really deliver the ball; his first instinct is to run at defenders. And why wouldn’t he, his pace is electric. He is a truly elite player at taking the ball off the shoulder and driving at defences. But the rest of his game is nowhere near what I would expect from an intercounty midfielder.
I had to do analysis of him for a team a couple of years ago and, based on what I looked at, pretty much every possession he had, he ran with the ball and generally took a shot or was turned over.
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If Limerick are any way up for this they’ll pound that Cork team into the dust.
Also, we’re talking about stickmen which I don’t think those two players are; doesn’t mean they couldn’t be top top players.
Shane O’Donnell is up there at the moment as one of the very best players in the country. His striking is, at absolute best, average. In reality, there’s probably 10 players on Clare’s bench + extended panel who are probably better ‘stickmen’. But he’s unbelievable at pretty much everything else in fairness to the fucker; his game has developed massively in the past few years.
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The three lads you mentioned have all the technical and physical attributes to be top class SIC hurlers. In fairness they have all shown flashes of their ability at different times.
Two big issues are at the heart of all three in my opinion. Firstly all three lack the defensive discipline to be top level middle 3rd players. This can either be shown by their willingness to track back or gets their hands dirty doing defensive work such as winning ruck ball or making tackles.
Secondly and the bigger issue is that all three seem to play as individuals rather than for the collective good of the team. All three would rather run and carry ball/shoot than give good ball to an inside forward. Compare all three to the selfless play towards the collective team effort of Cian Lynch/Noel McGrath both of whom are more skilful than the three Cork men mentioned.
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I’ve said this before but once limerick win the five and there’s no more worlds left to conquer I’d love to see him take up with the Mayo footballers. Never going to happen of course but by God if there was ever a man to drag them over the line surely it’s him?
And they should if they can. Always take your chance to grind your rival into the ground when the going is good. For it will not always be good.
If I had Fitzgibbon, I’d be very tempted to play him inside in the full-forward line. I know it’s a completely different level but I saw him play there for Charleville before and was impressed.
You’d lose the coming off the shoulder piece but I think they already lose on balance from what he currently offers in midfield. The lack of work rate would be less exposed.
And he has truly frightening pace; if you were able to create the type of space for him that teams do nowadays, what corner-back would live with him? Once he gets the ball in his hand, he’s fairly direct and he’s well able to take a goal. Obviously he’d have to work on his touch back to goal, but I remember being impressed with that and his ability to turn at pace (again, I know, it’s a much lower level). His touch would be a better than another flyer like Jack O’Connor.
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Combined Limerick (2024) - Kilkenny (2014) - Tipp (2014) team:
- Eoin Murphy (Kilkenny/Glenmore)
- Sean Finn (Limerick/Bruff)
- JJ Delaney (Kilkenny/Fenians)
- Cathal Barrett (Tipp/Hollycross Ballycahill)
- Padraic Maher (Tipp/Thurles Sarsfields)
- Declan Hannon (Limerick/Adare)
- Kyle Hayes (Limerick/Kildimo Pallaskenry)
- Brendan Maher (Tipp/Borris-Ileagh)
- Michael Fennelly (Kilkenny/Ballyhale Shamrocks)
- Noel McGrath (Tipp/Loughmore Castleiney)
- Cian Lynch (Limerick/Patrickswell)
- TJ Reid (Kilkenny/Ballyhale Shamrocks)
- Aaron Gillane (Limerick/Patrickswell)
- Seamus Callanan (Tipp/Drom & Inch)
- Richie Power (Kilkenny/Carrickshock)
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I’m just after scrolling the last few posts. Good god @peddlerscross has taken an awful bateing here.
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I’d actually play him in that 13 role that David Reidy/Graham Mul plays. If you got him coming at pace to recieve the ball off an inside man that has won it he would br lethal. However that role is often selfless and needs a lot of positional discipline that Fitzgibbon does not possess in my opinion
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Hard enough to argue with that to be honest
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You fairly nailed that in fairness. Fine selection.
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