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Kildare

-------------------------------------------Cluxton

Marc Ó'Sé---------------------------Neil McGee----------------------Karl Lacey

Lee Keegan---------------------Kieran McGeeney----------------Sean óg de Paor

--------------------Daragh Ó'Sé--------------------Michael Murphy

Declan O'Sullivan---------------Ciarán McDonald---------------Sean Cavanagh

Colm Cooper--------------------Conor McManus----------------Oisín McConville

Leaving Canavan, O'Neill and all the other quality inside forwards out was difficult but McConville's club form and his consistency gave him the nod. Workhorses like Dooher, Galvin and Flynn were not needed in a team with this much class.

The forward line is flexible with Murphy and Cavanagh capable of drifting in and out, same with Cooper, McConville and McDonald all capable of rotating. Declan O'Sullivan is a deep playmaker.

Is there any hope of Paul Mescal ever wanting to play senior intercounty? Eoghan O'Flaherty would be a welcome recall before the the summer too, still should have 3 or 4 years left in him if he could commit. Hopefully Sean Hurley finds some form at club level and gets over his injury problems too.

Kildare seemed to get stuck doing these short, lateral hand-passes around the half-forward line an awful lot.
Lads practically at walking pace trudging over and back waiting for some sort of gap to open up.
Need to use runners from deep to punch through or go out wide.
Another downside to that is it pulls in too many of your own players so if you get turned over a pacy, direct team will be down within scoring range within two passes.
Niall Kelly was very good again.
Great little player.

Good analysis, it has been a problem in their play going back a few years now. They were playing a better, more direct brad of football earlier in the league but have regressed over the past few weeks. Today was painful viewing, playing in the morgue doesn't help either as it is like a soccer game played behind closed doors.

Loads of work and improving to do before Laois/Longford which thankfully will be played in front of fans.

Hard to know what to make of Galway, some exceptional talent at their disposal but they were incredibly wasteful in front of goal and struggled defensively when Kildare played with a bit of tempo to their game.

Heslin, Sharry and Martin would make almost any team in the country.

GAA said to be expecting around 40k tomorrow.
Wasn't it nearly a full house last year.
It seems people even from Dublin and Kerry are getting bored of it.
I won't even bother watching it myself.

1916 centenary commemoration rubbish was on last year. That being said there will be a terrible attendance from Kildare and presumably Galway for the D2 final, people are sick of Croke park double headers. Cavan and Tyrone would have brought bigger support last year.

'97 was the one that got away for us.

Kildare and Meath were the 2 best teams in the country that year even if Kildare were badly short a dangerous inside forward line. I wouldn't put that Kildare team of 97-00 in the bracket of great teams never to win an AI due to their lack of serious scoring power. Can't ever see 150,000+ coming to see the 2 teams play again for a Leinster semi final.

Carlow had a great league campaign and you would imagine will be capable of challenging Wexford in the championship. Banty wouldn't have had Wexford at anywhere near full tilt today but it was a fair hammering they took.
If they beat Wexford in the Championship then they play the Dubs in Laois.

Wexford's result since they got promotion stand in stark contrast to prior to that, as do their team sheets.

Carlow   2-14 - 1-7   Wexford
Wexford   0-9 - 3-24   Westmeath

Now Westmeath finished 1st and Carlow finished 3rd but still there was a massive difference in Wexford's performance in their last 2 league games versus their first 5 league games.

First 5 Games Scored 2-69(75) Average of 15 Conceded 1-54 (57) Average of 11.4
Last 2 Games Scored 1-16(19) Average of 9.5 Conceded 5-38 (53) Average of 26.5

Wexford are available at 6/5 for the Division 4 Final.

Just seen that Carlow rested a lot of key players too though. The championship game might be one of the most intriguing championship games in years involving Carlow. There has always been a good football scene down there and they should have been more competitive than they have been for the last 15 years or so (1 good game against Meath aside). Good to see them make progress anyway.

As long as there is no games played in the park in Kildare town I'll be happy. It might be blasphemy but I wouldn't be too upset if games were played down in Portlaoise or Tullamore or even Carlow during the redevelopment phase, they would be preferable than playing in an empty Croke park as a curtain raiser for Dublin.

Carlow had a great league campaign and you would imagine will be capable of challenging Wexford in the championship. Banty wouldn't have had Wexford at anywhere near full tilt today but it was a fair hammering they took.
If they beat Wexford in the Championship then they play the Dubs in Laois.

Offaly must be near some of Kilkenny's records for goals conceded in a league campaign. And they still stayed up ahead of Laois.

It has been 32 years and 11 games since Kildare last beat Galway. Cian O'Neill tried changing things up today and put out a team that Kevin Walsh would have known very little about, despite their inexperience they battled bravely and only lost by a point. Next week will be massive, a big pity it isn't being played in Tullamore and instead fans are expected to pay for the rubbish that will come after it.

3 pages already, this really is the most important issue in the GAA at the moment.

Giving the hungrier and fresher lads a chance.

Kildare team should be announced shortly but Cian O'Neill did indicate he will be making a lot of changes and giving all panellists game time.

It's actually nuts that that before last night, 2008 was the last time Kerry won a munster u-21.
How could Cork be that dominant and not see any real progression at senior level?

A succession of poor to very poor managers, poor training facilities and I suspect Kerry Group's money makes a difference too. A culture of mediocrity has crept in there in recent years too.