The GAA thread - part deux

I may be a week late, but its better than never.

Kerry were impressive, Mayo were so shoite it was embarrassing for them. Match was over in 8 minutes, the Mayo goals before half-time only ensured Kerry would come out fighting in the second half.

Galvin was immense, Darragh O’Se practically non-existent, Cooper looked back to some of his old form, Donaghy caused havoc until his knock, O’Sullivan justified his recall, Moynihan had one of his best days in a Kerry Jersey (its sad to see him retire, but he went out at the top). Brosnan played well when introduced for the ineffectual Tomas O’Se

MacDonald, Nallen, Heany were brutal, that Aidan O’Mahony (MacDonalds marker) got two points to MacDonalds none, sums up Mayo’s day.

The highlight of the Day was the minor match, it was one of the finest football matches I have ever seen, the fielding, pointtaking, tackling, running and all round play was a joy to behold. In my opinion it was a better match than the Dublin-Mayo senior semi-final. It was pure proper football and should be required viewing for any young footballer. Alas we lost the replay on Saturday but deserved to too. At least 3 of the minors should be Kerry seniors in a few years, Walsh, Curran and Moran. The future without Moynihan and possible Darragh O’Se may not be so bleak after all.

WoW, a quick one for you. Where were you on the 15th March 2006, 20th May 2006 and 17th September 2006? Stick up a post or give me a pm if you remember.

No idea Bandage, I’m terrible with dates, I was probably on the couch watching some unimportant sporting event, ahem.

1. Stephen Cluxton (Dublin) 1 goal conceded all championship, nuff said.
2. Marc O?Se (Kerry): Phenomenal in latter half of championship, especially against Armagh and Cork (3rd Time) could have picked him at wingback but deciding to stay true to positions.
3. Barry Owens (Fermanagh): No stand out full-back in championship really.
4. Joe Higgins (Laois) Great man-marker
5. Aidan O?Mahony (Kerry): Phenomenal against Mayo in Final, deserved Man of Match in Final
6 Seamus Moynihan (Kerry): Great year, one of few players to come of out losing Munster final with any credit, immense against Mayo & Cork Semi, Great second half against Armagh. A major loss to Kerry football and football in general. A local and well respected Kerry football commentator called him the second best Kerry player ever, difficult to argue with that.
7. Aaron Kernan (Ourmagh): Stand out player from Armagh half back line, gets forward like Tomas & Mark O’Se
8. Darragh O’Se (Kerry): Magnificent since loss to Cork and even played well in Munster championship
9. Ronan McGarrity (Cork): Tough call on Murphy (cork) but mayo need some all ?stars after reaching final
10. Alan Dillon (Mayo) Despite being invisible for the final, had a blinder against Dublin
11. Alan Brogan (Dublin): Carried Dublin against Mayo, only consistent forward all year for the Jackeens
12. Paul Galvin (Kerry): like him or not, he’s a forager, has a great work ethic and has scored in every round this year, what all Half forwards should aspire to be! Heard it said that Armagh & Tryone would love to have him, some praise for a Kerryman. Dillon lost it
13. Stephen McDonnell (Ourmagh) a class act.
14. Kieran Donaghy (Kerry): A revelation, tore 3 respected full-backs apart, brought new life and vigour to a struggling Kerry team, takes pressure of Gooch and Mike Frank. Not just a tall donkey that can catch, has great awareness of players around him and knows where the net is.
15. Ciaran McDonald (Mayo): Have to find a place for him in forward line even with his atrocious final display.

6 Kerry
3 Mayo
2 Dubs, Armagh
1 Fermanagh, Laois

Player of the Year
1 Darragh O?Se (Deserves it)
2 Kieran Donaghy (Will probably get it on popular vote)
3 Seamus Moynihan (Might get it as he?s retiring)

Young Player of the Year
1 Kiernan Donaghy
2 Yer man from Longford, centre forward

Match of the Year
1 Kerry V. Roscommon, drawn minor final, best match I?ve seen in years
2 Dublin V Mayo
3 Kerry V Armagh

Worst Match of Year
1 Donegal V Fermanagh
2 Cork V Limerick
3 Cork V Donegal

Goal of the Year
Donaghy, Kerry V Armagh

Think I’d find a place in the full forward line for Niall McNamee.

Prefer my football to hurling but have to say I’m pretty pleased with Loughnane’s appointment as Galway manager. We are currently just shy of Cork and Kilkenny but with Loughnane there I reckon we can bridge the gap, pretty much straight away.

the GAA is for bogger fooks. they dont play GAA in the USA.

USA USA USA

Anyone know im heading to USA tomorrow? From the moment i get off the plane im gonna pull my cacks down to my ankles and leave them there the whole week.

USA USA USA

Following on from WoW’s post, my football All-Star XV is:

  1. Cluxton (Dublin)
  2. Marc O Se (Kerry)
  3. Owens (Fermanagh)
  4. Lacey (Donegal)
  5. Kernan (Armagh)
  6. Spillane (Cork)
  7. O’Mahony (Kerry)
  8. Dara O Se (Kerry)
  9. Murphy (Cork)
  10. Dillon (Mayo)
  11. Brogan (Dublin)
  12. Galvin (Kerry)
  13. Clarke (Armagh)
  14. Donaghy (Kerry)
  15. McDonald (Mayo)

5 Kerry, 2 Mayo, 2 Dublin, 2 Cork, 2 Armagh, 1 Fermanagh, 1 Donegal.

Agree with most but a couple of differences. Apologies to Seamus Moynihan and Bryan Cullen but I thought Ger Spillane was the most impressive centre back this season. Not giving Higgins one due to Conor Mortimer getting too much off him, thought the young Lacey guy was exceptional for Donegal. Probably harsh on McGarrity who I was championing all year but his abject final display pissed me off so in comes Murphy. Finally, I know he’s a full forward but I’m accomodating Clarke ahead of McDonnell as I thought he was Armagh’s outstanding player this year.

Player of the year:

  1. Donaghy (Kerry), 2. Dara O Se (Kerry), 3. Clarke (Armagh), 4 Marc O Se (Kerry), 5 McDonald (Mayo).

Young Player of the year:

  1. Donaghy (Kerry), 2. Niall McNamee (Offaly), 3. Paul Duffy (Armagh)

Paul Barden of Longford is 24 or 25 as far as I know. He made his championship debut against us in 1999 as a child.

Match of the year:

  1. Mayo vs Dublin
  2. Kerry vs Armagh
  3. Drawn minor final

Worst match of the year:

  1. Cork vs Limerick
  2. Offaly vs Westmeath
  3. Dublin vs Westmeath

btw ball ox, they do play GAA in New York you mong. Hope you went up and checked out Gaelic Park, part of GAA folklore.

Finally, a few more interesting management appointments. Liam Kearns to Laois which put Pat Roe’s nose out of joint - he’s now gone to the Biffs, their arch rivals. Roe did a good job with Wexford, he really wanted to manage his home county too so surprised they went for an outsider again.

Any word on a Wexford hurling manager?

Didn’t see enough footie to pick an all star team, Moynihan would be there for me though given his latter stages of the championship. Serious question marks about McGarrity, taken out too easily by Whelan. Not able to look after himself a la Dara O Se, who is world class.

Pat Roe has a big enough nose and to have it out of joint of joint may cause serious consequences No doubt he should’ve got the Laois job, Offaly is a bad move for him, a team on a par with Wexford. He should’ve held off until he got a chance to move up the ladder. He’s as goods as Kearns so it was a strange one. But then Laois GAA seems to full of strange ones. An all out civil war by all accounts in the recent SHC semi final(If ball ox hears of it the GAA is fooked). I don’t think he’ll achieve anymore with them than he did with Wexford.

A Wexford SH manager? Painfully slow process. Embassingly slow… no urgency it seems, symptomatic of the malaise that afflicts the county at present.

BTW, Bandage…what goes in Gaelic Park are games played under the same rules as Hurling/Football but the ref’s interpretation is shall we say slightly different. Dangerous stuff, saw an attempted decapitation there once and the ref waved play on out of fear for himself. Great craic though.

Can’t believe you left Mattie Forde off? Have you become non biased all of a sudden?

All valid claims and could be argued about til the cows come home and left again. Would only disagee with you on Moynihan, cos i’m biased and he was exceptional this year. You could argue that Clarke and McDonnell are both full-forwards and corner forwards as Armagh play a 2-man full forward line.

Dont know what to make of Kearns’s appointment in Laois, thought they might take a break from Kerrymen for a while. He did well with Limerick while never landing that elusive Munster title, he was hamstrung by the dual player saga, but he did bring them up to be a handy division 1 team. Might work out well for Laois as he was highly rated in Limerick and will have a better quality of player to choose.

Micko in Wicklow. Now that will test the good manager and mediocre players theory. And Nicky Brennan’s mantra on payments to managers. Coz they have plenty of mediocre players and presumably he’ll be getting paid.

Not only will he be getting paid, but also a helicopter to training and back from his home in Waterville. I wonder whose helicopter it is? Paidi O’Se had use of Micheal O’Learys one when he was managing Westmeath.

I fear for Micko this time, He worked wonders with Laois and Kildare but i cant see it happening here in Wicklow, Laois had a great minor team and he was able to work with them, Kildare had strong players and he also able to work wonders with them too. Have Wicklow any decent players? Aren’t they constantly fighting with each other? or is that just the hurling club teams who regularly batter each other and managers and referees?

I hope its not a step too far for him, like a great player playing that season too long. He is without doubt the greatest manager in GAA ever, but there’s only so much a manager can do, if the players are shit, the team can only be shit too.


The Gaelic Players Association has revealed the official nominees for the 2006 Opel Gaelic Players Awards for hurling.

A total of 45 players have been named on the shortlist for the Opel Gaelic Team of the Year, with five players nominated for the Opel Gaelic Player of the Year award.

The shortlist contains three players for each position.

All-Ireland champions Kilkenny have received nine nominees, while vanquished finalists Cork lead the honours list with 13 players in contention. All-Ireland semi-finalists Clare and Waterford received six and seven nominations respectively. Players from Wexford, Offaly, Limerick, Galway and Westmeath have also been nominated.

The five nominees for the player of the year accolade are: Henry Shefflin (Kilkenny), Donal g Cusack (Cork), Ronan Curran (Cork), Tommy Walsh (Kilkenny) and James Fitzpatrick (Kilkenny).

The shortlists were drawn up by a selection committee consisting of Donal OGrady, Cyril Farrell, Dominic McKinley and Michael Duignan.

The winners will be selected by GPA members, all of whom have been issued with voting cards.

GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell said: "The inaugural Opel Gaelic Team of the Year for hurling will see 15 individuals selected from todays nominations by their peers.

“The player of the year will receive an Opel car valued at 25,000 and the hurlers selected for the team of the year will each receive 2,500.”

Shortlist for Opel Gaelic Team of the Year:

  1. James McGarry (Kilkenny), Davy Fitzgerald(Clare), Donal g Cusack (Cork)
  2. Damien Reale (Limerick), Gerry OGrady (Clare), Eoin Murphy (Waterford)
  3. Paul Curran(Tipperary), Tom Feeney (Waterford), Diarmuid OSullivan (Cork)
  4. Brian Murphy (Cork), Keith Rossiter (Wexford), Frank Lohan (Clare)
  5. John Gardiner (Cork), Eoin Corcoran(Tipperary) Tony Browne (Waterford)
  6. Ronan Curran (Cork), Senie McMahon (Clare), Ken McGrath (Waterford)
  7. Tommy Walsh (Kilkenny), Mark Foley (Limerick), Sen g hAilpn (Cork)
    8/9 Jerry OConnor (Cork), Tom Kenny (Cork), Shane McGrath (Tipperary), Michael Walsh (Waterford), James “Cha” Fitzpatrick (Kilkenny), Derek Lyng (Kilkenny)
  8. Dan Shanahan (Waterford), Eddie Brennan (Kilkenny), Timmy McCarthy (Cork)
  9. Tony Carmody (Clare), Niall McCarthy (Cork), Henry Shefflin (Kilkenny)
  10. Andrew Mitchell (Westmeath), Eoin Larkin (Kilkenny), Martin Comerford (Kilkenny)
  11. Damien Hayes (Galway), Ben OConnor (Cork), John Mullane (Waterford)
  12. Brian Corcoran (Cork), Eoin Kelly (Tipperary), Joe Bergin (Offaly)
  13. Joe Deane (Cork), Tony Griffin (Clare), Aidan Fogarty (Kilkenny)

I see Mickey Moran’s position is in some doubt with Mayo. Apparently the senior team cost the county half a million last year and they don’t consider such an expensive manager worthwhile. He was too expensive for Sligo a few years ago and he may have priced himself out of another job.

According to Hoganstand.com, the Mayo county board are blaming himself and Morrisson for their collapse in the final against The Kingdom.

Not one player has stood up for the management pair. Bunch of cowardly fucks on the pitch and off it. The Mayo fans dont deserve those players. The same players that were patting themselves on the back after beating a Dublin team that collapsed and then failed to show up on final day. Bunch of fucking wasters.

It riles me that the players seem to let Moran & Morrisson take the blame when they should accept a minimum of half of it.

If memory serves me correct, I think the Kerry county board spend 1m in 2004 on the senior team (it may have been all teams - but considering our hurlers are shite, they would definitely spend more than 500k on the senior team)

In fairness to Conor Mortimer I think he came out(not from the closet) and backed Mickey Moran the other day. Expressing regret for the players performance, as did Kevin O’Neill a few weeks ago. Even saying he had no problem being subbed(even tho he was the only decent forward they had) as he trusted the judgement of the manger.

They should be saying it now, not letting the fucking county board rant and rave about training etc etc and then settle on slagging the manager.

Mayo have experience of getting to All-Ireland finals, so its unlikely their preparation was inadequate. The players are to blame.

Didn’t say they weren’t, but only those in the “family” as Moran called it know exactly what happened. All we have is hear say, half truths and what we see from the outside.

The long and the short of is that they didn’t produce the goods when it mattered, and there appeared to be a lack of effort on some of the players part which is shocking.

To say they have enough experience of getting to finals is a bit off the mark, quite a difference between getting to a final and winning.

And finally…players in the 3 blue chip counties (Kerry in football, and Cork and Kilkenny hurling -Tipp to a lesser extent) are imo at a distinct advantage every year in terms of mental approach. They don’t have to pioneer anything, their tradition has been established by men that did the donkey work years and years ago. Their current incumbents are merely torch carriers as opposed to wannabe trail blazers. They have guys that are breaking down the door trying to get onto teams whereas its not quite like that in the counties trying to make the breakthrough. Its far easier to put ones life on hold if the prospect of An All Ireland medal is very real as is the case in Kerry, Cork and Kilkenny. Mayo and the likes have to take a leap of faith - to dream that this is their year. A dream they’ve dreamt for 50 odd years and to be wrong every fooking year in the process must be galling and shattering for the psyche.

So the start that befell them in the final again imo, shattered them and it was a case of here we go again. So for us to hurl rocks at them is a little unfair.

By the way nothing against Kerry, Cork and Kilkenny. Fair fooks to them, all worthy champions over the last few years but like I say a Kerryman starting in 07 is benefitting from the winning his predecessors did in the 20s 30s 40s etc. right through to 06.

Good point, tradition has a lot to do with it.

[quote=Appendage ]

To say they have enough of getting to finals is a bit off the mark, quite a difference between getting to a final and winning.

[/quote

Who said that?

[quote=Appendage ]

players in the 3 blue chip counties (Kerry in football, and Cork and Kilkenny hurling -Tipp to a lesser extent) are imo at a distinct advantage every year in terms of mental approach. [/quote]

Agree with your sentiments there Appendage, however to include tipp in this even to a lesser extent is an insult to the other 3. These clowns are no longer one of the big hitters in the hurling world. The only people who consider them ‘blue chip’ is themselves. I think 3 All Irelands in 35 years says it all.

Left out the word experience there tommymoore!