while massaging their ballbag
Didnt he swing the game in the second half vs Kerry in 2013?
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He put manners on Gooch alright
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It’s the Executive which sets the culture. The leaders make sure that every player on the Dublin team doubles as an amateur janitor. Better standards of cleaning up after yourself makes better Dubs. As thee say.
Didn’t give the gooch a sniff of it …gooch aged in a half …
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Although when it was Cian’s turn to speak to the panel, the collective would zone out a little with his pwc speak. It was like the time PWC used to send him to Kildare chamber of commerce for the annual budget briefing. No one was really listening - they were just thankful he was there
Philly and Kevin McMenamon are really flogging a dead horse now at this stage hanging in there.
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Kev’s role is psychologist/match day motivator I believe
Philly is there when Aidan o Shea hype hits Croker
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They’re the last two for 9 medals ?
Cian would be a great fit for the corporate after-dinner speaking circuit. He has every bit of Bernard Brogan’s marketability but more gravitas.
“Sky Blue Thinking - Leadership Through Innovation”
with Cian O’Sullivan
James McCarthy, Clucko and maybe Fitzsimons?
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Cluxton and McCarthy as well. It speaks volumes about McCarthy that not only is he still going, he’s a nailed on starter and no signs of deteriorating.
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An animal
It’s small fish in the grand scheme of things, but Paul Galvin retired Daithi Waters, Michael Furlong and Kevin O’Grady in winter 2019 and gave intermittent print and broadcast interviews casting aspersions on their characters for ages afterwards. He was still at it on Off The Ball AM as recently as a couple of months ago. None of the players in question said anything publicly in response, they kept the heads down as he sniped away. Under no illusions about the heavy beating we’ll take next weekend, but nice to see all of the above players involved today in Wexford’s first Leinster championship win since 2014 and first championship win of any sort since 2017. There’s not a lot of glory plugging away in the bottom division for Wexford footballers, but these are sound lads and fine servants. Fuck you Paul Galvin.
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I’d give that two likes if possible
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That’s actually a bit depressing. I think it was someone here said last year the best thing by far Dublin could have don’t for their own legacy was to lose the 2020 final to mayo having won the 5 in a row. Would have made their achievement seem far greater. Now no one really cares.
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Amen.
Cian O’Sullivan for me was a superb footballler. His quietening of Gooch in 2013 has been noted but his role following that as the fulcrum of the Dublin defence which lead to the commencement of the historic run cannot be overstated. Up to then the sweeper was an arbitary single player, plucked from up the field to play in front of the full back line. O’Sullivan played that role from centre back knowing where to position himself at all times in line with the game as it progressed. It gave rise to a more zonal type of overall defending, and while some may say its damaged the game overall, it more than anything else gave Dublin the springboard to win All Irelands, and many of them.
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I think O’Sullivan’s decline has precipitated Dublin’s evolution into a duller, more possession based team. That possession is both a form of attack and defence which tries to eliminate risk as much as possible. The attempt to eliminate risk is because that solidity at the back isn’t really there any more.
Dublin sort of remind me of Barcelona’s evolution. Barcelona ended up evolving into a parody of their former selves. One of these days some team, likely Kerry, will bang in about four goals against Dublin and rip them to shreds.
The problem with the Dublin possession game is on a day they meet a team firing (most likely) Kerry, they won’t be able to go through the gears quickly enough to react.
It’s a system which is begging to blow up in their face and a system that won’t work if they fall behind in second half. Can they change if mid game I don’t l know if they can anymore