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Cannot disagree with one word of that post Crete Boom.


I suspect your watching this site with baited breath too...

http://www.kidneyclock.net/

I'm sure the leinster boys check in on that one daily

Seriously though I'm a fan of Kidney's I just think he was given the Irish job too late! Really I wanted him to take over from Gatland. For all Eddie O Sullivan's acheivements he was even more conservative than Kidney and while it would have been a hard call the IRFU should have made that call and chose Kidney there and then( shades of what my own county did with John O' Mahoney). The game has moved on rapidly fom the 2007 world cup and unfortunately while undoubtley a great leader and motivator Kidney is just an old school conservative first generation pro Rugby coach. He really should have been up for review after the World cup which looking at the 3 years previous ruthlessly he would have been replaced with someone like Wayne Smith if going for experience or for a home grown coach Connor o' Shea or Brian McLoughlin.

Should Gilroy not have been given a chance in New Zealand or at least been a part of the tour party for some experience?!

Yep - again, blame the one eyed clown that picks the squad.


Both Gilroy and DKearney are significantly further along in their development than Zebo. But, neither Gilroy or DKearney play for Munster...

I personally would have Madigan in instead of O Gara and would leave Darcy at home so you could at least try McFadden or Drico at 12. Also I would have D. Kearney in and probably pick one of Gilroy/Zebo/Tiernan O' Halloran. In the forwards I would have taken Toner or maybe Ian Henderson instead of O' Callahan, Dominic Ryan instead of Ferris and Rhys Ruddock or John Muldoon instead of O' Brien ( purely becauuse both were carrying serious injuries into the Heiniken cup final). Also from left field I would have found space for Luke McGrath or more conservatively Paul Marshall at scrum half cause while Reddan is decent at club level he just can't cut it at international level unless getting an armchair ride form the pack!
This crap that to beat New Zealand we have to put out our full team in all three tests is a fairytale. Can anyone tell me what was the closest we came to beating New Zealand since the game started to go pro after the 87 world cup?.......................
Of course everybody knows it was the first test of the famous 1992 tour where we lost 24-21 in Carrisbrook after leading till the last 10 mins of the game! Still doesn't ring a bell? Well maybe all the batlled scared vertan players on the team will jog the auld memory :
15: Jim Staples (10th cap)
14: Ronnie Carey (first cap)
13: Philip Danagher (9th cap)
12: Vincent Cunnighham (7th cap)
11: Neville Furlong (first cap)
10: Peter Russell (first cap)
9: Mick Bradley  (23rd cap)
8: Kelvin Leahy ( first cap)
7: Brian Robinson (10th cap)
6: Mick Fitzgibbon (first cap)
5: Paddy Johns (2nd cap)
4: Mick Galway (5th cap)
3: Paul McCarthy (first cap)
2: Steve Smith (16th cap)
1: Nick Popplewell (8th cap)

(Drico and ROG have more caps individually than all the above team )

And just if you think the all blacks had some backwater junior provincial team out that day it contained legends such as Sean Fitzpatrick, Ian Jones , Jamie Joseph, Walter Little , Frank Bunce , John Kirwan and ( just poached from Western Soma and the original Lomu) Inga Tuigamala!

The main concern here is are we reaching a point where the physicality of the game is going to lead to more and more players retiring due to injury. The worse thing is that we won't hear of the most careers ending with an injury as those players will never reach their potential, I'm thinking along the lines of Thom Evans, Fogarty, Best, Jackman and some less publicised cases. I think rugby is now in the group of sports who must consider the long-term health implications for players.

In Fairness bar Tom Evans Fogarty, Best  and Jackman had reached their potential. John Fogarty was 32 when he retired and he played over a 100 games with Connacht and while he was a good club pro he wasn't international standard( a legend for Connacht all the same). Simon Best again made 115 appearances for Ulster and captained them to a Celtic league title but had plenty of chances at international level particularly after Emmet Byrne retired. Bernard Jackman played for Connacht ( two stints) , Sale and Leinster( where he won a Heineken Cup). While he was dynamic in the loose and solid in the scrum his throwing let him down all through his career hence the relative few caps for Ireland.
Also Jackman was 34 when he retired , Best retired because of a rare heart condition which had nothing to do with physical exchanges and Fogarty(who was 32) retired due to recurring concussions which if the cognitive rules on concussion injuries were enforced by the IRB this would have be greatly reduced!

Alan brogan was poty so there's your 2 forwards. On top of those you had diarmuid Connolly who is a top notch forward on his day and would be mayo's main scorer if he played for them. Dublin's footballing ability is very much underrated and in MDMc they have one of the better midfielders in the country. I agree with Lar, AOS and mcgarrity would be a match for most but Mayo don't have the scoring power upfront to beat the best.

Sorry Zulu agree with you about the brogans but don't agree with you about Diarmuid Connolly and to say he would be Mayo's top scorer is a silly statement and a highy debateable opinion even, especially since Mortimer despite his faults was top scorer in the championship twice I think. Having lived in Dublin for 10 years and have seen Connolly a lot in club football. Despite his undoubted natural ability he's very inconsistent and anyone who watched Mayo club football over the years would have seen the natural scoring ability of Michael Conroy who'd I would put in the same bracket as Connolly but unfortunately he blows hot and cold just like Connolly. I think Cillian O Connor will more than likely step up to the mark with Andy once he's fully fit so we potentially would have two All Ireland quality forwards along with the likes of Conroy , Mortimer , Mcloughin, Dillion and Freeman to provide scoring support on any given day. My main worry in midfield, the balance of the half forward line and the lack of a full forward at the moment rather than having two top quality forwards out of our current pick.

 Good luck to the rossies today. Threw a sneaky tenner on you at the crazy odds paddy power were giving and I think I've a good chance of seeing a return.

Fook off to the aviva and stay there with your stupid thread.

Have you no respect for the Tiger's game.  We've lost the property bubble , the banks , Fianna Fail , Bertie , the Grand slam , the Ryder Cup and Bulgarian property investments so all that's left of the BOOM is the beloved oval ball game! For shame.

Barry Moran's continued selection at midfield baffles me. 
I can only guess that he must be doing some wonderful things at training that he has not produced in games. Danny Geraghty, Seamus O'Shea, and Pat Harte have all performed better than him, even with only brief appearances, and all 3 should be ahead of Barry Moran in selection.

In fairness I though he was excellent against Down but I thought he struggled big time in the Kerry match(granted these were the only times I got to see him). Pretty happy with the team especially the options off the bench with Seamus O' Shea and Alana Freeman back.

Mayo should have joy vs that Cork full back line & Cork still doesn't have settled midfield. When is Daniel Goulding expected to return from injury?

I'd be a lot more worried about our half-back line than the full-back line to be honest. Canty and Kissane are fine pushing on in attack but suspect defensively. Canty doesn't really have the pace to hold down the middle of the half-back line anymore.

Goulding lined out for his club the other week and came on briefly against Down. A bit away from full fitness yet but close enough. Apparently Ciaran Sheehan is due to tog out for the same club (Eire Og) in a week or so but his injury was a lot more complicated so no guarantee he will be the same player again so soon.

Good to hear Goulding and Sheehan are back playing two serious players for Cork. Any word on the Mayo team are will it be announced the night before like all through the league?

I think Anthony Rainbow played for the Leinster u20s. Also Brian Lacey played on the same Clanwilliam team as Alan Quinlan. His brother John played on that great Shannon team about ten years ago.

Rainbow played Irish u/18s - he was in the Leinster system but Micko came calling and the rest as they say is history.

Michael Duignan won a Towns Cup Medal with Naas and played u/20 with Connacht.

Have never seen him play rugby but seemingly Joe Canning could have been a rugby super-star.

Ja Fallan and Ger Farragher recently went toe to toe in the recent Connacht J2 league final when Tuam beat OLBC with Ja scoring the winning try, OLBC had 7 Castlegar players..

Good man Dinny forgot about Ja who probably played his best rugby season for Galwegians at fullback in the winter of 98 before the All-Ireland , he also terrorised my own club in the Connacht league many times. Had the pleasure of seeing Joe Canning playing out-half for Portumna in the Connacht senior schools cup , I know Connacht made a huge effort to keep him playing. Michael Duigan won Connacht junior and senior cup medals with Garbally and he played against my own club Ballina at second row in a pre season tornament for Tullamore serious athlete. John Muldoon current Connacht and Ireland international who was captained Portuma CBS V St. Muredachs in a Connacht junior cup final(the first time no traditional rugby schools made the final) was a serious underage hurler for Portumna and Galway.
Thomas Loftus who soldered for years in midfield for Crossmolina Deel Rovers( and I think was on the side that won the club All-Ireland) was an excellent no 8 for Ballina and was a powerhouse in the pack of the team that won a Connacht senior league and he cut the great Neil Francis in half a few times in a AIL division 2 game for Ballina against Old Belvedere. John Horan brother of james and current Mayo water carrier played on the wing for Ballina for a few years and James played for a year too before becoming a starter for Mayo. The final rugby connections I can think of is Gordon Darcy's Dad and Uncle both played for Castlebar Mitchells with his Uncle winiing a county medal in the late 60's I think.

I think Anthony Rainbow played for the Leinster u20s. Also Brian Lacey played on the same Clanwilliam team as Alan Quinlan. His brother John played on that great Shannon team about ten years ago.

John Lacey is now a professional rugby referee who has reffed Heineken Cup games the last two seasons and will be promoted to international level next season. Great back three player and unlucky with injuries or would surely have had a better shot with Munster.

In Mayo we've had a few who played both,
Gavin Duffy current Connacht capt, played midfield in minor for mayo who were runners up in the  to Down that year
James Gill partnered Duffy in midfield in that team and also played on strong Irish youths (U19) Ireland rugby team at no.7 or no.8.
Peter Durcan formerly of Connacht and now laRochelle in France was on a Mayo minor team captained by Colm Boyle.
Ger Brady starred against the New Zealand with Jeremy Staunton at U21 world cup for Ireland at fullback before starring for the Stephenites and Mayo in Croker.
Big Brother DB played AIL division 2 at 18 on the wing for Ballina RFC making a fool of a certain Dominic Crotty in one game who went on to star for Ireland and Munster, and Liam Brady played AIL division 4 for Ballina RFC ,the same level as the Rock for Highfield.
   The Rossies have a couple of the best young Connacht and Irish rugby prospects in Daniel Qualter and Shane Layden who both played minor football for their county. Nearly forgot Connor Finn, Connacht and Ireland U20 international , don't know if he played any football but being a Rossie I'd say there's a good chance he did.

think we'll win 0-13 to 0-9. Something along those lines. Certainly wont be high scoring. Having watched the videos Ros put  a lot of lads behind the ball so I'd expect it to be tight for about 45 mins or so.

Dineen was a a very good player and he's proven to be an astute manager.

All joking aside I think that's a fair assessment of the form lines coming into this although I do think there's is a goal each in both teams even in a defensive battle. Also I just have a feeling the rossies will shade it.

They've certainly earnt it, they've been one of the most consistently successful and competitive teams in the championship for verging on half a decade. We're talking about teams in the chasing pack behind the last three AI winners, Kerry, Cork and Dublin. It's clear as day that those teams are Mayo, Tyrone, Kildare and Donegal, likely in that order.

Agree 100% with what's written above and maybe because of the continuity with keeping Micky Harte I wouldn't bet against Tyrone moving from a team in transition in the chasing pack into to real contenders again sooner rather than later although it'd be some turn around in 1 season.

Where the heck is this idea coming from?
Is this from the lazy analysis that the media did a few years ago of how the Cork team are tall?
Or is it from James McCartan's excuse for his team that they couldn't compete with Cork were so big?

I defy anyone to produce specific instances of Cork using their strength more than other teams to "bully" teams?
If anything Cork have one of the most tippy tappy football teams in the country. Where other teams drop men back and gang tackle the ball carrier, Cork to me overly stick to one to one marking and shadowing the player with the ball.

Cork end up dominating some teams by monopolising possession. Their favourite kick-out is the short one to one of their full back line. They'll hand pass the ball more than any other team (check the stats!). They'll use this to get one of their backs (half backs or even full backs) to carry the ball up the field hopefully creating an overlap.

Mayo discovered the way to counteract them last year. Tackle aggressively (/foul) from the front. Don't let them break from deep and the Cork attack will become bogged down quickly.

Timmy what i was trying to say albeit very badly was not that Cork are a team full of huge tall ape-men from the mountains cutting down teams by any crude means but that they have a very powerful athletic spine to their team i.e Shields, Canty , O'Connor , O' Neill, Kelly , Walsh and use this core strength/athleticism to overpower the opposing team ( at least this is what I saw against us , Down and Dublin). I'd compare this to way New Zealand over powered teams rather than the way South Africa bulldoze teams in their respective World cup wins.
I wasn't trying to perpetuate the myth pre the 2009 final that Cork were going to pummel Kerry in to submission cause of there size when in fact the average height and weight of the teams leaned slightly in favor of Kerry.The reason I said we would struggle in midfield physically is because we are missing the O'Shea brothers, Ronan McGarrity and Barry Moran as always carrying an injury it seems so this leaves us with Jason Gibbons and one of Geraghty and Harte neither who are out and out midfielders. I realise Cork play a possession game but this is facilitated by dominating the middle third which is where I expect us to struggle. Interestingly in the Kerry Cork league game I thought Byran Sheehan and Paul Galvin with help form Donaghy came out on top in the midfield battle then. I just feel  when Cork break even at midfield their abundance of strength and athleticism sees them overpower and dominate most teams apart from maybe Dublin in 2010 and Kerry.

[Kilbride, Shine & Cregg have done the business in Croker against very good defences like Tyrone's and Cork over the last 2 years. I was at the Tyrone game last year and defenders the calibre of Mcmahon.... Gormley etc found them difficult to hold.]

Joyce in my opinion the best forward I've ever seen and I include Canavan and Maurice Fitz.
Ja? Definitely the best forward in the country by the end of '98..
Mikey D? Do we really have to explain that one?
Savage?
Thats not even mentioning Finnegan...
Between 98/01 they were among the best forwards in the country never mind Connacht.
Kilbride, Shine & Cregg have done the business in Croker against very good defences like Tyrone's and Cork over the last 2 years. I was at the Tyrone game last year and defenders the calibre of Mcmahon.... Gormley etc found them difficult to hold.
I think Andy Moran is a brilliant footballer and leader. But I dont think he is an out and out scoring forward. Mort blows hot and cold. Padraig Joyce is still brilliant but surely no longer for 70min of top class football.
I think the 3 Rossie's I've named would cause problems for any backline. We dont have the midfield and our defenders are no where near as good as Mayo's. But time will tell. If they have everyone back fit and ready for the championship I think Roscommon have an outside chance of a senior connacht title or at least a good run in the qualifiers.

Kilbride, Shine & Cregg combined scored 0-6 from play against Tyrone. David Brady scored 0-3 against them at their peak........from midfield............as a sub.

Yeah but that doesn't count. David Brady is superhuman (ask Stephenite) and his Clark Kent alter ego is Enda Kenny.

That's Blasphemy Ross matt David Brady is God not superhuman there's a big difference  and sure you can't being throwing digs at Enda didn't he promise ye a hospital! By the way muppet God started that game against Tyrone but was forced to apologise to the Mayo squad afterwards because he didn't stick to the tactics laid down by our genius general Maughan whose game plan didn't entail the great one dominating his opponent and midfield or scoring any points to turn the game in our favour.