Sam Maguire permutations

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/05/31/sean-moran-this-is-a-wide-open-football-championship-but-who-will-get-the-decisive-bounce/

Week after week, media and public have vibrated with approval at the Munster hurling championship and its succession of fire-eating performers sequentially outdoing each other while football has plodded along playing the harmonica.

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/06/01/ciaran-murphy-gaelic-football-in-pressing-need-of-fundamental-reform/

The weekend just gone offered up a bracing reaffirmation of what has been happening for the last couple of years. And this isn't really a scathing criticism of the game as it's currently being played – it's just the reality. The boring thing to do is now also, almost always, the right thing to do.

So Roscommon holding on to the ball for over six minutes in their own defensive third and middle third is boring to watch. It is also without doubt the right thing to do, as proved by the point they kicked at the end of that now famous phase of possession, 77 passes, almost 10 per cent of the total game time, and a score to finish. It brooks no argument.
On Saturday, Westmeath had three minutes and 50 seconds of basically uncontested, and uninterrupted, possession at the start of the second half.
Monaghan had been comprehensively outplayed by Derry four weeks before their rematch on Saturday. They learned their lessons, and one of the key lessons was that they would have to drop their two best attacking threats, Conor McManus and Jack McCarron.

. It takes no skill whatsoever to hold on to possession inside your own half and hand-pass the ball back and forth between your goalkeeper and full-back line. All it takes is patience, and discipline. And it is, under the current rules, absolutely the right thing to do for many teams.
A few months ago, Denis Walsh wrote in this paper about Limerick's hurlers' laissez-faire attitude towards wides. Give the ball to the right player in the right position enough times, accept that there will be a few wides, and take your shot. The team that takes more shots usually wins the game.
That has not infiltrated Gaelic football. The refusal to take on a shot, even when you have 14 or 15 of your own players inside the opponents' 65, is a real part of the frustration for the spectator. You're in an ideal position to press the kick-out, even if the ball goes wide, and you have every chance of winning that kick-out if you force the ball to go long. It might go over, and if it doesn't, at least you haven't wasted three minutes of game time searching for a chance that might not materialise anyway.
Teams have likely crunched the numbers and realised that two or three minutes of possession football aids recovery, slows down the game, and is risk-free. I always thought a tactical innovation would naturally happen that would bend the game back towards more kicks to a contest, more scores, more attacks, and more excitement.
But the reality is that it may not happen, that it hasn't happened. Rather than walking around the edges of the problem, it might be time for the big idea – whether that's a shot clock, or a restriction on how many players you can have inside your own half, or restricting the use of the handpass.
If the last few weeks have proved anything, it's that managers are now smart enough to adapt to whatever the new reality is. At the moment they're expertly playing the hand they're dealt by the rule book. We thought the game would fix itself. It hasn't.



They wanted Rory Beggan, and 14 athletes. And it was the right thing to do. I can't say it enough times. Every one of these selection or stylistic decisions was correct. It doesn't mean it didn't make me a little sad, though. Any sport that sees selecting an attacker of the luminous ability of McManus as an unconscionable risk is probably in need of a course correction.

[Blowitupref]

Round 3 fixtures confirmed

Saturday June 17

Group Four

Clare v Derry,Pearse Park, 6pm
Donegal v Monaghan, Healy Park, 6pm

Sunday June 18

Group One

Kerry v Louth, O'Moore Park, 2pm
Cork v Mayo, Gaelic Grounds, 2pm

Group Two

Armagh v Galway,Páirc Seán MacDiarmada, 4pm
Westmeath v Tyrone, Breffni Park, 4pm

Group Three

Dublin v Sligo, Breffni park, 1.45pm
Kildare v Roscommon, O'Connor Park, 1.45pm

[larryin89]

Be lucky if they get 5k in limerick for that

[Eire90]

should be neutral provinces

[Cunny Funt]

Again why isn't half of the fixtures played Saturday?  Be interesting too see what type of crowds attend these games, only Clare have nothing to play for but pride. 

[Blowitupref]

Be lucky if they get 5k in limerick for that

Should at least be 10k I can imagine.

[CK_Redhand]

I think all fixtures should be on at the same time. The situation could arise where the last teams playing could look at who has finished 2nd and 3rd in the other groups, and then throw their own game to get a potentially easier draw.

[Eire90]

you cant cater for every outcome just in the small chance a team would rather come 3rd than 2nd which means throwing away a home game  quarter finals should be played at the home of group winners if you come 3rd it should mean you have to go on the road twice to get to semi finals it should be that coming 3rd makes it very hard to win the all ireland while still giving them a chance so we get no dead rubbers in round 3 of group games.

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/06/07/darragh-o-se-dublin-are-being-written-off-and-thats-what-they-will-like/

Mayo kept tipping and tapping away against Louth, but struggled to kick points the way they did against Kerry. Sure, Matthew Ruane kicked a great point, Paddy Durcan later on too, but they didn't get the same spread of scorers, or range of kickers, as the last day.

That's still their Achilles heel and could come back to haunt them. They don't have the consistent range of kickers that Dublin or Galway have right now.

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/06/07/sean-moran-football-needs-to-stop-obsessing-over-form-and-pay-attention-to-substance/A final point about form: surely there is no need in future to elevate the seeding of provincial finalists – whatever about champions – in the composition of the groups. The league standings have been extraordinarily accurate in predicting the outcome and should simply underpin the seeding of everyone from five to 16.

[An Fhairche Abu]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/06/07/darragh-o-se-dublin-are-being-written-off-and-thats-what-they-will-like/

Mayo kept tipping and tapping away against Louth, but struggled to kick points the way they did against Kerry. Sure, Matthew Ruane kicked a great point, Paddy Durcan later on too, but they didn't get the same spread of scorers, or range of kickers, as the last day.

That's still their Achilles heel and could come back to haunt them. They don't have the consistent range of kickers that Dublin or Galway have right now.

The talk of Galway depth upfront is overplayed.
In terms of the forwards, outside of Comer and Walsh, no one has put up a big match winning scoring contribution in a match that mattered in CP. Galway depth at the minute is in the middle eight, plenty of lads in HF line that can chip in with one or two points (maybe that's all that will be needed but we didn't get it in the final last year) but would be worried that Walsh is miles out of form. Galway really need another heavy scorer to step up, Finnerty could be that player but he's been injured all year basically, if the ankle has hobbled him again then forget any meaningful impact this year given how much of the IC season is left. Tierney has it in him but needs to do it more often, Ian Burke is never going to be that big scorer, Cooke will get scores but unrealistic to expect 4 points from him every day given his role. Galway are really poor at finishing goal chances this year as well, my biggest worry about the team is up front to be honest.

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/06/07/darragh-o-se-dublin-are-being-written-off-and-thats-what-they-will-like/

Mayo kept tipping and tapping away against Louth, but struggled to kick points the way they did against Kerry. Sure, Matthew Ruane kicked a great point, Paddy Durcan later on too, but they didn't get the same spread of scorers, or range of kickers, as the last day.

That's still their Achilles heel and could come back to haunt them. They don't have the consistent range of kickers that Dublin or Galway have right now.

The talk of Galway depth upfront is overplayed.
In terms of the forwards, outside of Comer and Walsh, no one has put up a big match winning scoring contribution in a match that mattered in CP. Galway depth at the minute is in the middle eight, plenty of lads in HF line that can chip in with one or two points (maybe that's all that will be needed but we didn't get it in the final last year) but would be worried that Walsh is miles out of form. Galway really need another heavy scorer to step up, Finnerty could be that player but he's been injured all year basically, if the ankle has hobbled him again then forget any meaningful impact this year given how much of the IC season is left. Tierney has it in him but needs to do it more often, Ian Burke is never going to be that big scorer, Cooke will get scores but unrealistic to expect 4 points from him every day given his role. Galway are really poor at finishing goal chances this year as well, my biggest worry about the team is up front to be honest.

Mayo don't even have one marquee forward. They don't produce them, for some reason
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nFGkGbs4DE&t=1012s

[An Fhairche Abu]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/06/07/darragh-o-se-dublin-are-being-written-off-and-thats-what-they-will-like/

Mayo kept tipping and tapping away against Louth, but struggled to kick points the way they did against Kerry. Sure, Matthew Ruane kicked a great point, Paddy Durcan later on too, but they didn't get the same spread of scorers, or range of kickers, as the last day.

That's still their Achilles heel and could come back to haunt them. They don't have the consistent range of kickers that Dublin or Galway have right now.

The talk of Galway depth upfront is overplayed.
In terms of the forwards, outside of Comer and Walsh, no one has put up a big match winning scoring contribution in a match that mattered in CP. Galway depth at the minute is in the middle eight, plenty of lads in HF line that can chip in with one or two points (maybe that's all that will be needed but we didn't get it in the final last year) but would be worried that Walsh is miles out of form. Galway really need another heavy scorer to step up, Finnerty could be that player but he's been injured all year basically, if the ankle has hobbled him again then forget any meaningful impact this year given how much of the IC season is left. Tierney has it in him but needs to do it more often, Ian Burke is never going to be that big scorer, Cooke will get scores but unrealistic to expect 4 points from him every day given his role. Galway are really poor at finishing goal chances this year as well, my biggest worry about the team is up front to be honest.

Mayo don't even have one marquee forward. They don't produce them, for some reason
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nFGkGbs4DE&t=1012s

They have the top scorer of all time, I'm no fan of O'Connor because of his other antics but he scores often and scores heavy, how is that not marquee?

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/06/07/darragh-o-se-dublin-are-being-written-off-and-thats-what-they-will-like/

Mayo kept tipping and tapping away against Louth, but struggled to kick points the way they did against Kerry. Sure, Matthew Ruane kicked a great point, Paddy Durcan later on too, but they didn't get the same spread of scorers, or range of kickers, as the last day.

That's still their Achilles heel and could come back to haunt them. They don't have the consistent range of kickers that Dublin or Galway have right now.

The talk of Galway depth upfront is overplayed.
In terms of the forwards, outside of Comer and Walsh, no one has put up a big match winning scoring contribution in a match that mattered in CP. Galway depth at the minute is in the middle eight, plenty of lads in HF line that can chip in with one or two points (maybe that's all that will be needed but we didn't get it in the final last year) but would be worried that Walsh is miles out of form. Galway really need another heavy scorer to step up, Finnerty could be that player but he's been injured all year basically, if the ankle has hobbled him again then forget any meaningful impact this year given how much of the IC season is left. Tierney has it in him but needs to do it more often, Ian Burke is never going to be that big scorer, Cooke will get scores but unrealistic to expect 4 points from him every day given his role. Galway are really poor at finishing goal chances this year as well, my biggest worry about the team is up front to be honest.

Mayo don't even have one marquee forward. They don't produce them, for some reason
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nFGkGbs4DE&t=1012s

They have the top scorer of all time, I'm no fan of O'Connor because of his other antics but he scores often and scores heavy, how is that not marquee?

He is some freetaker but at the business end in all of those finals Mayo always seemed to come up against a scoring ceiling. This problem is very old. A marquee forward would have fixed it with a bit of support.