I said Mullane had a good year, I was just saying there were signs that he was showing his age.
There were a number of occassions where he got the ball and the Mullane of 2 years ago would have burnt his name and driven on with it. He looked reluctant to do that this year and ended up looking to lay off the pass (which isnāt necessarily a bad thing given he over-indluged at the running in the past).
He Is still easily one of the best 18 forwards in the country so there is no need for anyone to have a conniption if he gets an All Star nomination. [quote=āThe Runt, post: 593531ā]
I said Mullane had a good year, I was just saying there were signs that he was showing his age.
There were a number of occassions where he got the ball and the Mullane of 2 years ago would have burnt his name and driven on with it. He looked reluctant to do that this year and ended up looking to lay off the pass (which isnāt necessarily a bad thing given he over-indluged at the running in the past).
[/quote]
The extra hike in final tickets is to offset the decrease in prices for the qualifiers. Makes perfect sense when you consider the genuine fans who go to the qualifiers and the bandwagonners who turn up at the final. [quote=āThe Runt, post: 593526ā]
ā¬80 is too dear alright. The extra ā¬5 hike in the price of tickets is worth around 350,000 to the GAA coffers. I based that on their being 12,000 tickets allocated to sponsors, players etc, a figure which I just plucked off my head.
Also 70,000 tickets @ ā¬80 a pop is ā¬5.6m
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the bandwagoners go the championship ā the genuine fans go the league games
Well said.
What does that make you?
Lost
I reckon thereāll be huge pressure on Seamus Callanan and Bonnar Maher to deliver on Sunday. Callananās impact of the bench was massive last year but this it a very different challenge for him. Gearoid Ryan got through a huge amount of work in last yearās final and had an outstanding second half in particular. Work wouldnāt be Callananās strong point but if they are to win the midfield battle youād imagine heāll have to roll his sleeves up. Bonnar Maher has had a mixed year. Has provided well at times, especially in the Munster campaign, but heās looked a little sloppy on a number of other occasions with his touch looking out of place in that Tipp forward line. He fared remarkably well against Tommy Walsh last year, but faring well against Tommy Walsh is a rare enough phenomenon.
There is a bit of a game of chess in what to do if they employ the same tactics as last year with regard to Maher and Walsh.
If they plan on bombing ball down on JJ all day, Cody has a number of options:
- He might decide to get Walsh off the island and move him to midfield and have Paddy Hogan deal with Maher.
- He might tell Walsh to mark the space and let Maher stand on the sideline alone and sweep in behind Hogan.
- Have Tommy swap wings with JJ. If they fear Tommy so much, will they be willing to bomb ball on JJ vs Maher?
this has been trotted out a few times since last years final and having watched the match a couple of times since i still donāt think it to be true. He set up the last goal for Lar but that aside his impact on the game was minimal. The fact that Tippās gameplan was engineered around keeping the ball away from Tommy Walsh was the reason he was on the periphery of the game. He was obviously part of that plan and shadowed Tommy and didnāt give an inch but it wasn;t a case that he was breaking ball that Tommy should have been winning or hurling much ball.
Looking at last yearās final you could definitely see the advantages in having moved him to midfield or even to centre-back alright. I just canāt see him being as quiet again anyway. The thing about telling him to mark the space is that against Tipp of all teams, a loose runner can really punish you. In fairness to Maher heās set up a lot of goals over the last two years so you couldnāt let him off either.
Thatās fair enough but if you were in Bonnar Maherās shoes youād have said you did alright.
:lol:
I could have sworn you were the one who didnāt know where Croke Park is but I must have you mixed up with someone else.
MOTM from Paddy Power:
L Corbett 11/2
H Shefflin 7/1
N McGrath 8/1
T Walsh 9/1
P Maher 10/1
M Fennelly 14/1
E Kelly 12/1
M Rice 14/1
B Maher 16/1
S Callanan 16/1
R Power 18/1
E Larkin 18/1
Bonnar Maher 20/1
JJ Delaney 20/1
[left] [/left]
Callan could be good value at 16/1. I have a feeling heāll either have a savage game or flop.
Tommy didnāt show himself up as a particularly intelligent hurler in last years final.
:rolleyes:
for fuck sake
Kilkenny need to do one thing above all others and that is to stop goals. In my view they have three options for doing this because if they go orthodox man to man it will end in disaster for them.
i) Having their half back line drop back deep thus crowding the 30 metres in front of the goals
ii) Having their wide defenders push into the centre in a kind of a Donegal-type choking move
iii) Playing a sweeper who would be Tommy Walsh and bringing in Paddy Hogan to operate an orthodox right half back role. But this robs them of a forward.
I think whatever happens we will see Kilkenny put in the most defensive performance weāve seen from the since the 2006 final and itāll be a lower scoring game than the last two years.
However if the Tipp half back line get on top they still hold the upper hand. The KK half forwards v Tipp half backs is probably the most key line of all for me.
The quality of respective benches will definitely come into play. Hard to know who has the advantage here. Neither bench looks particularly strong to be honest.
What? Heās the type of player that if things go his way he could have a stormer and 16/1 it might be worth taking the chance that things will go his way.
the fact that you said āI have a feeling heāll either have a savage game or flopā - You could say that about every championship match Seamus Callinan plays for Tipp. All the ability in the world but inconsistent, it was the fact you felt the needed to use such cliched drivel was what i took issue with
Is Benny Dunne on the bench? What chance redemption for him?