NFL V Tyrone, March 31st.

[mrtierneyesq]

Well this still leaves things wide open for qualification, wouldnt be surprised at all if Mayo & Dublin draw as well

[kerryexile]

Overall poor performance by the forwards given the level of possession we had esp in the half forward line.

Only Quill emerged with credit.

The sooner the Crokes lads and DOS are back the better.

Both Marc and Dara had immense games. We will be fecked when Dara does retire.

The backs also performed better in the 2nd half after a ropey first half.
Murphy was also outstanding.

Kerry were marginally more guilty in the messing that went on in the 2nd half. Galvin was very lucky not to be sent off after the punch he threw. The guy has a bad enough rep as it is without adding to it.

Mahoney also needs to be careful as he is now acting the "hard man" and throwing his weight around the way he normally does in club football. Intercounty refs won't be as lenient.

[sullyschoice]

The intensity levels were quite high in the game although the standard of football didnt match those levels.

Darragh O Se had a very good game.

MFR couldnt win a 50 50 ball to save his life.

Scanlon is not good enough.,..his control of the ball under no pressure was poor

And as for Paul Galvin... I watched him from the moment he came on. He ran around the field after his man, gave him sly digs, jersey tugs, trips and kicks. I have never seen him as cynical in all my days. It finally worked for him when the Tyrone fella (was it Mc Cullough) kicked him and got sent off. I hate to say it but he is turning into ryan Mc Menamin. All he needs now is for his eyebrows to meet in the middle and get white boots and he is there. Paul Please kop on and cut out the filth.

We should have won in the end though

[kerrygold]

i thought it was a dull enough display from kerry to be honest.

positives.

considering the fade out in the last 10 minutes v donegal 6 days ago it was proberly a good result to get a point from tralee.

dispite missing most of their forwards all the league,trying to replace seamus and mike,a lack of training and coming off the back of reaching three all-irelands in a row it proberly a big result to be sitting in third place in the table right now considering the circumstances.

as i predicted last week kerry wouldnt win this years league,i feel they will beat dublin next weekend to secure div.1 status and concentrate on getting themselves right for august.

i think kerry will have to become totally focused this year to win sam,the yellow and red card count suggests either a lack of concentration or a lack of indisipline,either or both would be worrying.

were a good bit of the pace at the moment in relation to the last three years.still after next weekend they will be a huge amount of time to get things right,maybe missing out on the league might be a good thing in the long run.

[seamus]

Was at the game. The interesting thing for me was that several of our fringe players are just not up to inter county football.
Galvin, Declan, Gooch and Brosnan will walk back into the team without any pressure.
We have learned nothing positive from this league campaign. All we have learned is that:

Quill is still not tough enough to win his own ball in the white heat of championship
Walsh, bohane, guiney, lyons, reidy and scanlon all look a step off the pace
Brian Sheehan has not improved and has probably gone backwards in his development
Quirke might as well pack it in when he did'nt get a run Saturday night. We had no fullforward and Darragh had no help midfield and he still got no run.
Fitzmaurice has got messed around again and has not been given the opportunity to stake down a place in his preferred position of centre back. Moving him to fullforward the last night was a joke and an insult.

Advice to Pat O'Shea
1. Mahoney is your centre back. Don't move him out of there again needlessly
2. Be prepared to switch Marc and Tom Sullivan if Tom comes under pressure from the high ball. I would target Kerry here if i was playing against them.
3. Killian Young is the one positive from the league campaign
4. Get a back up free taker fast - Sheehan cannot keep his place on a Kerry team just for frees.
5 Pick a support midfielder for Darragh and stick with him. Griffin, Scanlon and Brosnan are your options. Scanlon is the best aerial player if teams do what tyrone did and move Darragh out to the sideline for their kickouts.
6. Tell Galvin to cop on. He was a disgrace the last night. If they bring in Player Cam's he will be suspended for years!
7. If Donaghy is 14 play diagonal ball into him rather than the big straight hoofing we have seen all year.
8. For this reason and his speed andworkrate we need Sean Sullivan at 10.
9. Teach Darren O'Sullivan, Donnacha Walsh, Bohane, Guiney, Lyons have to play intercounty football. Some of them hide from the ball and just pass it off to the nearest man to them. Need to take responsibility on the field. Others like Walsh and Darren just put the head down and run aimlessly.
10. Take the Gooch on the beer for a couple of weeks and bring him back fresh.

[kerrygold]

you'd be 100% happy with aidan at centre back seamus?

[seamus]

I think he is the best option Kerrygold.
I would have liked Fitzy to get a run there but i think it is too late now.
Tomas does'nt hold it down enough for me.
The only downside is that the have earmarked Mahoney to do the man marking jobs on dangermen in the half forward line.

[kerrygold]

thats the crux for me seamus,tom and aidan were superb v mayo in the final as man markers on mortimor and mcdonal,by bringing them into the centre you are losing out on that.

what would you think of marc for centre back,he would be full of football in that position,id prefere to see eamonn there at this stage flanked by two strong wing backs.

[kerryman]

Surprised that Tommy Griffin was that poor. He may have been a good option at centre back bu apparently not.

The free taking thing will be a major worry if and when Sheehan loses his place. He can't hold it based on play making. Gooch has plenty of practise taking them with Crokes at least, but we need someone who can condifently and consistently knock over a 45.

Indiscipline is an issue alright. If the likes of Galvin or Aiden are suspended for big matches we're toast.

[joxer]

Seamus, a couple of points you make I agree with but some I disagree with as well. I wouldn't be nearly as negative after Saturday night as you sound.

I'd disagree on your conclusion on Quill...I think hes improving and ahead of MFR now probably. He stood up for himself on Saturday night (admittedly after 'encouraged' to do so by Galvin) and was unlucky not to score. I think we might see a better Quill again next weekend...at the moment I'd fancy him to hold on to one of the corner forward places.

I'd agree that bohane, reidy and scanlon all look a step off the pace..though not Donnacha in my view. You'd have to expect them to be a little off the pace...they haven't had much exposure at this level yet (for Scanlon, not this recently anyway). I thought those three did OK as I think Donnacha might have done if moved to FF but thats another days work. As for Guiney and Lyons, I don't think Mossy is going to make it now. Guiney might yet though. I agree Darren and Donnacha tend to put the head down and go but surely that can be a coaching issue too?

One thing I did notice (just to stray off your mail for a minute) is the amount of time we dropped the ball....are we training with ball in hand now as much as was done under Pat & Jack? We certainly had eliminated that trait under the previous management but it was obvious a couple of times on Saturday night that we seem to be heading back to our 'butterfingers days'.

Agree with you regarding Quirke and Fitz. Not sure whats going on there but Quirke deserves a run at midfield. As I ask every year, whats the plan if, God forbid, Dara gets an injury.

I disagree with your conclusion that Aidan should be Centre-Back...later comments about him being a great man-marker are closer to my own view. I'm not sure whether it was Kerrygold who made the suggestion that maybe Brosnan could be tried there but it seems like a possibility for me. Hes certainly strong enough and athletic enough.

The high ball has been an issue for a number of years...switching Marc and Tom may not cure it either. Killian Young is a great prospect and may provide another solution here. Whats the story with his injury? Is he due back soon?

I think Sheehan still can make the break through. Don't rule him out of mid-field just yet. Hes great on frees until the clincher like on saturday night (but its happened a few times before too) when the difference between winning and drawing or drawing and losing can be that last free. Hes got to put more effort in in general play but for what its worth, I think he'll make it..in what exact position I'm not so sure.

Scanlon does look a good option for midfield but ball handling needs huge improvement. Has improved a lot I think since tried a few years ago.

As for Galvin, I thought him coming on just evened things up a little? Tyrones style of high intensity while they have the ball then trying to slow everything down when they haven't got it including 'getting' injured and staying down for longer than any other teams players, is peppered with sneaky digs, apparently accidental falling on opposition players on the ground, 'accidentely' standing on opponents as they try to get up, running to the referee to try and get opposition players booked etc. We weren't nearly aggressive enough in the first half...Galvin sorted that problem. Take a look again at the 'style' of Penrose, McCullagh, McMenamin, McMahon etc. before laying in to Galvin in my humble opinion.

Incidentely, I thought the referee was the best we've seen in the league this year. That might sound like not much of a compliment but I thought he had a good game...didn't seem to buy into a lot of the manufactured situations that seem to occur more in Tyrone games than games against anyone else.

Not the politically correct thing to say I know but Tyrones 'style', particularly as evidenced on Saturday night, sickens my s***.

[seamus]

Great Post Joxer. It is great to have rational, thought out posts rather than some of the nonsense that is coming up lately.
Agree about the ref. Thought he was fine.
Also, every team needs a galvin but we only have 1 whereas teams like tyrone have 5 or 6 which means they draw less attention than Paul.
Tyrone are desperate for time wasting and diving. The only way to counteract it is to be ahead of them and force them to chase the game. Mulligan and Dooher seem to have gone back a bit.

[kerrygold]

i'd love to see brosnan getting a run at centre back,but i cant see it happening,weve seemed to forgot how to move players about since micko's departure.

i'd agree about sheehan,i wouldnt wright him off just yet,i felt he was covering more ground just before his lattest injury,especially v mayo where he was covering back more

i think getting our backs right this year will be the vital cog to retaining sam,there no pioint ending up with kevin keggan type teams,all attack and a leaking defence.

in my opinion kerry a light years off being fit enough to play intercounty football at the moment,that might shed light on the injuries also,there a huge time span between next sunday and early august,considering the lads are coming off the back of three all-ireland finals in a row maybe the management have the right approach.

i also thought tyrone had regressed a bit back to the diving and lying on the ground like what we saw in'03.The tryone set up doesnt look quite right in my opinion.

i'm not to worried at the moment,there fight in the lads hearts,thats all i care about at the moment and the only currency to judge from.

[dermot]

What game where you boys watching ?

To be fair now lads, Galvin was a hell of a lot worse than any Tyrone player ........... I though Kerry were in general a lot more physical than Tyrone - I'm actually pleased at how we kept our heads for the most part !

[owenabue]

dermot said:

What game where you boys watching ?

To be fair now lads, Galvin was a hell of a lot worse than any Tyrone player ........... I though Kerry were in general a lot more physical than Tyrone - I'm actually pleased at how we kept our heads for the most part !

Different one to you it appears Dermot!

[dermot]

owenabue said:

dermot said:

What game where you boys watching ?

To be fair now lads, Galvin was a hell of a lot worse than any Tyrone player ........... I though Kerry were in general a lot more physical than Tyrone - I'm actually pleased at how we kept our heads for the most part !

Different one to you it appears Dermot!

Must have been !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!