Doire v Mhuineacháin 24/5/09

[Kickboxer]

Cant see anything other than a Derry win. Do you honestly think Cassidy will let this one slide? Me no thinky

[Overthebar!]

I am 1993 - the other 93  only joined 2 months ago

i know what your saying Oakleafer1993! i say 93 should get the chop....

[sawel]

Got a run around Celtic Park today
Looks very impressive, i'm told the capacity for this game shall be around 18000
It looks similar to Omagh and Newry
However the changing rooms do need replaced.
Only disappointment is that the 'dug outs' shall now be in the stand as in Omagh and so there shall be no opportunity for the plebs to give bad maners to the opposition managers.
When Mayo played there in the qualifiers a few years ago John O'M got serious stick about being a'blue shirt'

[BobKelso]

No chance Derry will lose a bar brawl in Celtic Park, Derry to have 3 or 4 to spare.

[Logan]

I think this game will be one of the most interesting games this year - and certainly at the start of the season at least ...

I think Derry are physically too strong for Monaghan - if you look at Monaghan last year against Kerry and again against Cork they've poor physcial strength and size in defence where Derry against Kerry - in particular the Bradleys seem to be very strong and can win their own ball. I watched the bit where Paddy Bradley got injured and it was funny that Eoin looked far stronger than Paddy this year. I think Eoin is looking very dangerous and if he keeps going at the rate he's going he'll challenge for an All Star this year.
Midfield both teams will struggle. Monaghan have two players too similar and Derry have only one very good one Doherty - with two halves in Diver and Muldoon. I think on paper Derry should shade it - but if either dominate like Monaghan did last year then they'll swing it.


Also - This was interesting article from last week

https://www.tribune.ie/sport/gaelic-football/article/2009/apr/26/an-end-to-quibbling-rivalries/

An end to quibbling rivalries
Kieran Shannon talks to Derry's Eoin Bradley about how Damien Cassidy has helped him live up to his older brother

Blast to Kingdom come: Eoin Bradley will look to take his excellent form into the league final against Kerry today
As a rule Damien Cassidy is slow to laud his players in public when a word of caution can do but after his team blew Dublin off Parnell Park six weeks ago the Derry manager made an exception. "Listen," Cassidy told reporters, "you boys just don't know how good Eoin Bradley is. This guy's a class footballer. He's got the entire package. He was leading the Kerry full-back line a merry dance last week until he got yellow-carded. The guy has the full repertoire of skills."

Like all things Cassidy, there was a reason he was so effusive in his praise. For one Bradley's performance had been exceptional. In the space of a minute he pointed two sideline balls from 50 yards. How many other players in Ireland could have scored even one of those in training, let alone two in a match?

The lad also needed to hear how good he was. For too long he had been dismissed as some infuriatingly wayward, brainless player. When Cassidy saw Bradley he saw the ultimate confidence player and if that player understood that his manager believed in him, that ultimate confidence player could evolve into the ultimate forward.

It is, as Cassidy keeps telling us, still only the league, and Bradley has had good leagues before. In his first campaign in 2006 only Michael Meehan scored more from play in Division One yet when Derry were dumped out of the Ulster championship by Donegal that summer Bradley had been held scoreless. The following spring he was off the panel and even after he and Paddy Crozier came to an uneasy truce that allowed for his return for the 2007 All Ireland quarter-final against Dublin, Joe Brolly would attribute much of Derry's defeat that day to Bradley's introduction and errant shot selection. This past year though there are real signs that at 25, Bradley is blooming into a standout forward. Last summer he was Derry's most consistent performer, scoring a goal and a point in all three of their championship games. This spring he's been their best forward and best ball-winner, with his performance against Dublin rivalling Stephen O'Neill's as the best individual display of this year's league. Now he's the Bradley wearing number 14, with the brother having to fight for a spot in the corner. Growing up there seemed little chance that would ever happen. Up until he was 14 Eoin played all his football in goals, as if his raison d'être was to pick the ball out of the net for Paddy to blast past him again. Even after an experiment in the forwards with the Glenullin under-16s went spectacularly well, he seemed destined for a career on the margins. His McRory Cup days ended when he left St Pat's Maghera in fifth year to work as a plasterer for his uncle. "I was never a man for the books," he smiles diffidently. "That would be Patrick". In his first month with the Derry seniors he broke his leg in the McKenna Cup, keeping him out for the rest of 2004. Then in 2007 he was kicked off the panel.

"Me and Paddy [Crozier] never got on wild well. He'd say black and I'd say white. It wasn't over training or anything like that. I was always fine to train. We just didn't get on."

He will accept that at times his attitude left something to be desired. When Derry ambushed Tyrone in 2006, some of the team were still celebrating into the early hours of the following Tuesday morning and Bradley would have been at the heart rather than the fringes of the party. "We totally overdid it, me as much as anyone. There's no point in saying I didn't because I did."

He'll also appreciate that it was Crozier that introduced him to a couple of people that transformed his game. Last year Crozier enlisted the services of Armagh's physical trainer John McCloskey who in turn brought in a 30-year-old performance consultant from Monaghan called Fergus Connolly. Last autumn Connolly was snapped up by the Welsh Rugby Union as their sports science director and the Bradleys will testify as to why.

When Connolly and the Bradleys sat down at the start of last year about what they were trying to achieve, they agreed it was about one word: unmarkable. Connolly's job was to help make them unmarkable.

With Paddy that meant making him more explosive off the mark and making him stronger. With Eoin he could only make him marginally quicker than he already was but Connolly could make him a whole lot stronger. That didn't mean putting on biceps like Kieran McGeeney's but being stronger with the weight they were, an approach Connolly would use again with Bernard Dunne. For Eoin that meant cutting out the crisps and the bread and doing a pile of weights. The result was that last year the pair of them were rarely beaten to a ball and never brushed off a ball. One on one, as Fermanagh's Peter Sherry learned when conceding the goal of the Ulster championship, Eoin Bradley and his brother were virtually unmarkable.

The problem for Derry throughout the Crozier era was that the pair of them could be snuffed out by the kind of mass defences that Fermanagh, Monaghan and Tyrone would employ. This year Cassidy has impressed upon them that when they do get on the ball they're to make quick, smart decisions before they're not only closed down but the chance goes missing for everyone else. The result has been a more rounded, effective Eoin Bradley if a less spectacular one.

"A couple of years ago I'd try to do things on my own. Wild shots and that. This year I'm bringing other players into it far better. Damien had a word with me. We beat Westmeath well and I kicked something like five points but Damien got the DVD out and slowed down this piece when I shot from an impossible angle. He says, 'Eoin, there are times we have to come back.' It was in front of the whole group, aye, but it wasn't as if he was slagging me off. It was very factual the way he said it and I got the message."

A number of things strike you listening to Bradley: there's his refreshing openness, "To be honest, at half-time against Fermanagh [last year] I was already looking forward to playing in my first Ulster final"; the way he refers to his famous older brother as Patrick rather than Paddy, "My mother would kill me if I didn't"; but above all there's his respect for his new manager.

In the course of an hour-long interview he uses the phrase "Damien says" a dozen times. Damien tells them they've won nothing as just the Paddy Bradley Show. The league's not about winning but performance. If the forwards get the ball they're to turn and take their men on. And this is a mission they're on.

"There's a real belief this year that we're going to do something big. Damien has instilled that in us. We're properly trained, well drilled; everyone knows what they're doing and what's expected. Last year Fergus gave everyone programmes to do but if everyone is truthful, not everybody did it. Boys would have liked Paddy [Crozier] but Damien seems to have that bit more clout with the board and the players."

Cassidy has cultivated that respect by reciprocating it. He gave Bradley the McKenna Cup off. He gave him the captain's armband for the Donegal game. A few years ago people would have laughed at the idea but Cassidy felt that the father of three-year-old Cathayr would thrive on such responsibility.

There is one thing Cassidy and Bradley disagree on. Bradley's last game against Kerry was cut short with a yellow card for an innocuous if careless foul on Tom O'Sullivan that triggered even Paul Galvin to remark "God, that was harsh, ref", yet he's disappointed that today will be the last game under the experimental rules.

"I think they sped games up. Throwing out these rules will suit Monaghan, to be honest with you," he smiles. "Them boys like their hitting, pulling and dragging, speaking from past experience anyway. Look, fair play to Monaghan. They work hard, they're in your face and we've got to match that this year otherwise they'll beat us again. That's Ulster. If we were in any other province we'd be walking into Croke Park but in Ulster you could be gone in the first round."

Before Monaghan in four weeks' time, there's Kerry but early last week all the talk in Derry was of Conor McCusker who died last weekend. Eoin met him a few times in recent months. After the Tyrone game in Omagh, he and his cousin Gerard O'Kane had gone out in Cookstown with Conor and Niall McCusker and met up with Owen Mulligan. "Conor seemed a good fella," says Eoin shaking his head. "Poor Niall's devastated. You could tell the pair of them were very close."

Paddy and himself would be tight too. "There are times when we fall out. He would think I should have passed the ball to him and times I'll go, 'For feck's sake, Patrick! Why didn't you pass it?!' But a minute later, we'd be fine. He can be hard to play with because everyone is trying to hit him first but sure if I was playing out the field I'd be looking for him as well. But in all, he's been great for giving me advice and I still look up to him. You like to play with the best forwards and Patrick is one of the best forwards in Ireland."

And deep down you sense Cassidy and Patrick's kid brother know he's not far from being one of them himself.

kshannon@tribune.ie

April 26, 200





Another ...
http://www.nwipp-newspapers.com/GL/free/334224768946288.php

[Maguire01]

I think Derry are physically too strong for Monaghan

Have they become physically much stronger since 2007 and 2008, or have Monaghan become physically weaker?

[Schkite]

I think Derry are physically too strong for Monaghan

Have they become physically much stronger since 2007 and 2008, or have Monaghan become physically weaker?

Sure it's the "pulling and dragging" that beat them those times, poor Eoin's had enough of it!

[Logan]

I think Derry are physically too strong for Monaghan

Have they become physically much stronger since 2007 and 2008, or have Monaghan become physically weaker?

VERY good question - Monaghan seem to have opted for smaller lighter men to run and cover ground more and I think many of them are not as physically intimidating as the Derry team.
I remember Monaghan getting an absolute plastering against Armagh and losing out badly in the physical stakes - but then again Armagh were an exceptional team then.
It's probably a combination of the two.
What are your thoughts?

[Logan]

I think Derry are physically too strong for Monaghan

Have they become physically much stronger since 2007 and 2008, or have Monaghan become physically weaker?

Sure it's the "pulling and dragging" that beat them those times, poor Eoin's had enough of it!

He's a good man for a goal
One against Monaghan, Fermanagh and Donegal in championship ... not a bad return

[Schkite]

Eoin's a good man for a goal alright, it'll be interesting to see who's on him, I'd imagine Dessie will have Paddy again.

You mention Monaghan getting an absolute plastering against Armagh, what game was that? 2004? If so then it's completely different to now.

[Logan]

Eoin's a good man for a goal alright, it'll be interesting to see who's on him, I'd imagine Dessie will have Paddy again.

You mention Monaghan getting an absolute plastering against Armagh, what game was that? 2004? If so then it's completely different to now.

I don't think Dessie started on him last year as he was on the 40 .... 

But after watching Dessie last week I think Monaghan have a problem there as even though the new rules are gone I think ref's are starting to look at the things Dessie Moen does off the ball more.

(Yeh, it's completely different now, Monaghan were like boys against men, McGrane and McGeeney etc.) But it's funny Monaghan have not changed that much I think.

[Logan]

He'll also appreciate that it was Crozier that introduced him to a couple of people that transformed his game. Last year Crozier enlisted the services of Armagh's physical trainer John McCloskey who in turn brought in a 30-year-old performance consultant from Monaghan called Fergus Connolly. Last autumn Connolly was snapped up by the Welsh Rugby Union as their sports science director and the Bradleys will testify as to why.

When Connolly and the Bradleys sat down at the start of last year about what they were trying to achieve, they agreed it was about one word: unmarkable. Connolly's job was to help make them unmarkable.

With Paddy that meant making him more explosive off the mark and making him stronger. With Eoin he could only make him marginally quicker than he already was but Connolly could make him a whole lot stronger. That didn't mean putting on biceps like Kieran McGeeney's but being stronger with the weight they were, an approach Connolly would use again with Bernard Dunne. For Eoin that meant cutting out the crisps and the bread and doing a pile of weights. The result was that last year the pair of them were rarely beaten to a ball and never brushed off a ball. One on one, as Fermanagh's Peter Sherry learned when conceding the goal of the Ulster championship, Eoin Bradley and his brother were virtually unmarkable.

This was the bit I thought was most interesting.
And a Monaghan man too!
A bit ironic

[Main Street]

Monaghan seem to have opted for smaller lighter men to run and cover ground more and I think many of them are not as physically intimidating as the Derry team.

"Opted"   assumes there is a choice.  

"to run and cover ground more"
How about the wee lads can also play a bit and are the best footballers on offer.

"I think many of them are not as physically intimidating as the Derry team".
At last. the penny has dropped  
But according to some  (uninformed ) opinion, it is the dark arts of the Monaghan lads which level that playing field.

Does the old Derry adage ever run out of fuel, the one that goes  'we are a good football team, if only the others would let us play'.  

[Logan]

Well it's a contrast in styles.

Opted - yes - you can either spend time in the gym getting bigger and stronger or more time on the field running - Monaghan have opted to run.
Not that I think either is wrong (in fact I think it's more about the balance between the two) but that's the Banty's choice

Well I'm not sure what the dark arts bit is - but it's obvious that Dessie Moen is no angel and he would be classed as somewhat dirty etc. But I don't think you could class Monaghan as dirty (though McQuaid's outburst didn't help that cause). Nor Derry either for that matter.

I think Derry will do well this year if they have the bit of steel that Crozier was missing and Cassidy probably has - though time will tell.

[Schkite]

Logan, how have Monaghan not changed since 2004? Take a look at that team and tell me. There may be maybe half the players still there but all have improved considerably and most bulked up alot too. Monaghan were at the very bottom rung of the ladder that year, of course it was boys against men, did you think it would be a tight contest?