I can’t believe Connolly doesn’t have the nickname “Sparky”. But then again Dublin GAA has never been big on nicknames.
Clucko.
Whelo.
Jayo.
Johnno.
Berno.
Darren Homan was called “Homer”. 
Barney Rock was known as Rocko.
Can’t believe he was been touted as a captain. He’s capable of anything.
[quote=“Sidney, post: 780547, member: 183”]I can’t believe Connolly doesn’t have the nickname “Sparky”. But then again Dublin GAA has never been big on nicknames.
Clucko.
Whelo.
Jayo.
Johnno.
Berno.
Darren Homan was called “Homer”. :D[/quote]
Aussie like originality on the nicknames.
[quote=“caoimhaoin, post: 780531, member: 273”]Getting excited about Connolly performing eel in round 1 against Westmeath is pretty silly at this point. How many false dawns has there been with him.
I’d be pretty happy if he’s on the team come August. I think Gavin is being very naive.[/quote]
I don’t think anyone is getting too excited Kev. There’s just a general acknowledgment that he played well. I didn’t think he was outstanding but he was certainly good on the ball and worked really hard. He was probably unlucky to to get a couple of goals.
I also think it’s nonsense to say Gavin is being naive. You may not think that attacking football is the best tactic in modern football but it certainly suits the personnel he has. Whether it’s right or wrong is one thing but calling it naive suggests he hasn’t even thought about the implications of being so attacking, which is of course a little unlikely.
I thought Connolly was decent enough but he wasn’t clinical with those goal chances and he wasted a few other balls so he didn’t stand out as a MoTM candidate to me. But I guess it’s encouraging he was getting into positions to get goal chances and he certainly worked hard. He finished fairly strongly too with a couple of late points but I thought there were definitely 3 or 4 more impressive Dublin players.
The one that was cleared off the line was unlucky I’d say in that he slipped it under the keeper and wouldn’t have been counting on that other defender. Other misses were close but I wouldn’t give him too many marks for shooting narrowly wide. I don’t like the guy at all but he was certainly decent yesterday anyway.
[quote=“Rocko, post: 780578, member: 1”]I don’t think anyone is getting too excited Kev. There’s just a general acknowledgment that he played well. I didn’t think he was outstanding but he was certainly good on the ball and worked really hard. He was probably unlucky to to get a couple of goals.
I also think it’s nonsense to say Gavin is being naive. You may not think that attacking football is the best tactic in modern football but it certainly suits the personnel he has. Whether it’s right or wrong is one thing but calling it naive suggests he hasn’t even thought about the implications of being so attacking, which is of course a little unlikely.[/quote]
I think Tyrone’s defensive set-up in the second half of the League final unsettled Dublin to the extent where it’s not outlandish to say that a similar but better executed system could cause them serious problems in the latter stages of the championship.
[FONT=Verdana]DOWN[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana] Brendan McVeigh; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Daniel McCartan, Brendan McArdle, Ryan Boyle; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Declan Rooney, Peter Turley, Keith Quinn; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Ambrose Rogers, Kevin McKernan;[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana] Niall Madine, Mark Poland, Benny Coulter; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Donal O’Hare, Kalum King, Conor Laverty.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]DERRY[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Eoin McNicholl; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Gerard O’Kane, Chrissy McKaigue, Ryan Scott; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Charlie Kielt, Mark Lynch, Brian McCallion; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Patsy Bradley, Ryan Bell; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Aidan McAlynn, James Kielt, Enda Lynn; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Benny Heron, Eoin Bradley, Coilin Devlin.[/FONT]
Down beat Derry in the minor match by 3-10 to 0-14.
[FONT=Verdana][/FONT]
It’s not outlandish but it’s hardly naive to believe in the merits of attacking football.
[quote=“Sidney, post: 780595, member: 183”][FONT=Verdana]DOWN[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana] Brendan McVeigh; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Daniel McCartan, Brendan McArdle, Ryan Boyle; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Declan Rooney, Peter Turley, Keith Quinn; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Ambrose Rogers, Kevin McKernan;[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana] Niall Madine, Mark Poland, Benny Coulter; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Donal O’Hare, Kalum King, Conor Laverty.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]DERRY[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Eoin McNicholl; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Gerard O’Kane, Chrissy McKaigue, Ryan Scott; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Charlie Kielt, Mark Lynch, Brian McCallion; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Patsy Bradley, Ryan Bell; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Aidan McAlynn, James Kielt, Enda Lynn; [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Benny Heron, Eoin Bradley, Coilin Devlin.[/FONT]
Down beat Derry in the minor match by 3-10 to 0-14.
[FONT=Verdana][/FONT][/quote]
Pete McGrath 
All Down in the first 90 seconds.
Didn’t say it was but so few teams get that kind of defensive system right that if a team uses it effectively as Donegal have done, the opposition will have had virtually no real preparation at dealing with it.
Utterly stupid foul by Benny McArdle.
Derry firing around some lovely foot passes.
Game of the championship in prospect here.
Very little marking going on here. Nice to watch but donegal would murder a pick of them.
Absolutely stonking point from Kevin McKernan.
Miss of the year
Down accuracy has been good enough from mid-long range apart from the one bad kick by the wing back