Dublin v Mayo 4th March

[Minder]

You wouldn't beat Dublin if Clarke was kicking them into the FF line

[moysider]

And no Mayo poster mentioned Clarke yet

On average in inter-county football, 'presence' and shot-stopping attributes for goalies probably represent about 40% (in terms of their importance) of a goalies make-up
In Mayo's case, it is a bit higher (>50%) because we have become so porous in terms of conceding goal chances.
The bulk of the rest is 'restart' (formerly known as 'kickouts'!)

If selecting a team, i am interested in the total score of the keeper (out of 100%).
If we take 40% as the max score for presence and shot stopping then Clarke gets 40% in my book - thee. best. ever.
However, on his restarts, i would have him way down the national pecking order ... ~30% (out of 60 max) thus meaning overall score of 70%
Cluxton on the other hand .... 30% on 'presence'/shot-stopping (little more than average) but the full 60 on restarts thus equaling 90%
Media in general and uninformed sunshine supporters put far too much focus on the saves attribute. If restarts go wrong, they blame the defenders.

The problem Clarke has is that his plan B (plan A being kick short) is limited to 45-50m range with a very high & floating trajectory thus meaning long hang-time thus meaning those kicks very often become 50-50. The facts back it up ..... between the drawn and replay, Clarke had 7 long kickouts - Dublin won 4 of them resulting in 3 shots (1 score). (Mayo got 1 score directly from his long kicks).

Dublin clearly learned from this this evening, i.e.: during draw and replay last year, Dublin rarely put high and full pressure on Clarkes kickouts (which would have forced him to kick long) thus meaning Mayo won 20/22 short kickouts during Clarkes game and a half.
This evening though Dublin went man-on-man on Clarkes kickouts and put huge pressure on him (i haven't analysed the kickouts yet because Eir Sport TV schedule said the bloody game would be Eir 1, but no, was on Eir 2 so have no recording!) resulting in ballpark 1-3 directly to Dublin. Dublin were happy to press 'high and full' this evening when they know how limited Clarke Plan B is.... and it worked.
I hope all this makes it clear to people what the rationale for dropping Clarke for the replay last year actually was (Dublin won 4 of last 6 of Clarkes kickouts in the draw they pressed hard).

My worry now is that all other teams will learn from this evening and will go full-press when he kicks out the ball.
Clarke needs to do what he hasn't managed to do in the past 10 years, i.e.: practise hitting the ball with a straight foot, head down over the ball and be able to reach inside the opponents 65 with a relatively low trajectory. If he had this as a Plan B, then opposing teams would not press so much on his kickouts.
Question is why hasn't he improved on this under Horan and now Rochie ... what is Peter Burke doing.

It feels tough to write a post like this given how utterly brilliant he is in terms of presence and shot-stopping but so be it. If we had a dependable backup option who had a solid 'Plan B' and average 'presence' and shot-stopping then i would pick him because the hard truth of is (given what Dublin learned this evening), that we will never beat Dublin with Clarkes 'restarts' 

Are you serious? Anyway you realise there is no alternative? Goalkeeper is the least of our worries as long as Clarke is fit. I appreciate your break-down of things but kick-outs are not just a keeper issue. People can go on about low and high trajectory but high or low a longer kick out can be read and is about who wants it more, and Dublin did tonight. Clarke managed to pick out Mayo's 2 smallest players -Boland and McLoughlin - with longish kickouts. My dismay is the use we made of our possession tonight rather than focusing on goalkeeper and forwards. The huge margin on the scoreboard can not be attributed to keeper. We had loads of possession. I have no wish to watch it again but I suspect that Andy and Cillian gave Dublin more ammo than Clarke did.
Anyway it's up to management to come up with plans A and B. The keeper and the outfield players should not be doing stuff off the cuff. Changing the keeper isn't going to solve that. Remember glovegate. No point throwing a fine baby out with the bathwater.

[galwayman]

We would gladly take Clarke off your hands!

[blast05]

Are you serious? Anyway you realise there is no alternative? Goalkeeper is the least of our worries as long as Clarke is fit. I appreciate your break-down of things but kick-outs are not just a keeper issue. People can go on about low and high trajectory but high or low a longer kick out can be read and is about who wants it more, and Dublin did tonight. Clarke managed to pick out Mayo's 2 smallest players -Boland and McLoughlin - with longish kickouts. My dismay is the use we made of our possession tonight rather than focusing on goalkeeper and forwards. The huge margin on the scoreboard can not be attributed to keeper. We had loads of possession. I have no wish to watch it again but I suspect that Andy and Cillian gave Dublin more ammo than Clarke did.
Anyway it's up to management to come up with plans A and B. The keeper and the outfield players should not be doing stuff off the cuff. Changing the keeper isn't going to solve that. Remember glovegate. No point throwing a fine baby out with the bathwater.

I didn't say he should be dropped and i know full well there is no alternative at the moment and of course his performance on restarts was not the only factor yesterday (although 1-3 was 50% of the winning margin).

Again, to break it down as simply as i can .... he is the best ever at 1 on 1 and overall presence. He is mediocre at best on his restart. Restarts are so so important in the modern game that Clarke can't be immune to having someone take a critical look at that aspect of his game.
Take the Dublin goal ..... notwithstanding that i couldn't believe he didn't pop it straight to McLoughlin who was standing in 15m of space just inside the 45, the goal really came from the length of time it took from when he decided where he was going to kick it to when the ball got there. When he decided where to kick it, it looked like an OK decision - corner back in space 10-15m from the sideline on Cusack stand side. However, his execution involved slowly skipping 2-3 steps to his left to be able to hit the ball in the required direction. He then slow ran up to the ball (3-4 strides) and hit an excessively high, floating kick to intended target. From time of decision to time of ball landing at target area, its ballpark 4 to 5 seconds. Cluxton with a similar kick would have quickly taken his 2 steps up to the ball and hit it with greater speed and better trajectory - taking 2-3 seconds for ball to reach required area. That 1 to 2 second difference is huge - it allows the Dublin players cover 10+ metres more in their efforts to get to the pitch of the ball.... and thats exactly what happened last night

I'm almost certain that it is this type of thinking that lead to Hennellys selection for the replay. Fear must have been that Dublin would go full man-on-man on his kickouts if picked for the replay. Irony was that when he came on, they didn't go man-on-man for whatever reason and so all kickouts could go short and we won all 7 of them easily. They did last night though and we suffered accordingly .... and guaranteed that if we come up against them later in the year, that they will do the same again.

We desperately need Clarke to work harder on the plan B i have already described .... but 10 years on i just don't see it happening. It was the lack of a Plan B and the poor short restarts that i have described that lead to Hennelly being #1 on occasions in the past number of years. Hennelly won't feature again though barring Clarke injury ... management wouldn't be brave enough to pick him again even if they thought it was the right decision and i doubt he will ever fully recover psychologically from last year.

So drive on we will with Clarke (a legend, a truly deserving All-Star but with 1 significant sub-standard part of his game)... and the restarts may well not be exposed again by anyone bar if we meet Dublin .... although as already stated, i fear there will be plenty of others looking closely at replays of the game from last night and plotting and planning.

[straightred]

Are you serious? Anyway you realise there is no alternative? Goalkeeper is the least of our worries as long as Clarke is fit. I appreciate your break-down of things but kick-outs are not just a keeper issue. People can go on about low and high trajectory but high or low a longer kick out can be read and is about who wants it more, and Dublin did tonight. Clarke managed to pick out Mayo's 2 smallest players -Boland and McLoughlin - with longish kickouts. My dismay is the use we made of our possession tonight rather than focusing on goalkeeper and forwards. The huge margin on the scoreboard can not be attributed to keeper. We had loads of possession. I have no wish to watch it again but I suspect that Andy and Cillian gave Dublin more ammo than Clarke did.
Anyway it's up to management to come up with plans A and B. The keeper and the outfield players should not be doing stuff off the cuff. Changing the keeper isn't going to solve that. Remember glovegate. No point throwing a fine baby out with the bathwater.

I didn't say he should be dropped and i know full well there is no alternative at the moment and of course his performance on restarts was not the only factor yesterday (although 1-3 was 50% of the winning margin).

Again, to break it down as simply as i can .... he is the best ever at 1 on 1 and overall presence. He is mediocre at best on his restart. Restarts are so so important in the modern game that Clarke can't be immune to having someone take a critical look at that aspect of his game.
Take the Dublin goal ..... notwithstanding that i couldn't believe he didn't pop it straight to McLoughlin who was standing in 15m of space just inside the 45, the goal really came from the length of time it took from when he decided where he was going to kick it to when the ball got there. When he decided where to kick it, it looked like an OK decision - corner back in space 10-15m from the sideline on Cusack stand side. However, his execution involved slowly skipping 2-3 steps to his left to be able to hit the ball in the required direction. He then slow ran up to the ball (3-4 strides) and hit an excessively high, floating kick to intended target. From time of decision to time of ball landing at target area, its ballpark 4 to 5 seconds. Cluxton with a similar kick would have quickly taken his 2 steps up to the ball and hit it with greater speed and better trajectory - taking 2-3 seconds for ball to reach required area. That 1 to 2 second difference is huge - it allows the Dublin players cover 10+ metres more in their efforts to get to the pitch of the ball.... and thats exactly what happened last night

I'm almost certain that it is this type of thinking that lead to Hennellys selection for the replay. Fear must have been that Dublin would go full man-on-man on his kickouts if picked for the replay. Irony was that when he came on, they didn't go man-on-man for whatever reason and so all kickouts could go short and we won all 7 of them easily. They did last night though and we suffered accordingly .... and guaranteed that if we come up against them later in the year, that they will do the same again.

We desperately need Clarke to work harder on the plan B i have already described .... but 10 years on i just don't see it happening. It was the lack of a Plan B and the poor short restarts that i have described that lead to Hennelly being #1 on occasions in the past number of years. Hennelly won't feature again though barring Clarke injury ... management wouldn't be brave enough to pick him again even if they thought it was the right decision and i doubt he will ever fully recover psychologically from last year.

So drive on we will with Clarke (a legend, a truly deserving All-Star but with 1 significant sub-standard part of his game)... and the restarts may well not be exposed again by anyone bar if we meet Dublin .... although as already stated, i fear there will be plenty of others looking closely at replays of the game from last night and plotting and planning.

Its a good analysis. Shot stopping is very important but there'll be games when he mightn't have any to save. Kickouts are a must every day. Compare him with monaghan keeper. If the short ball isn't on he is able to hit it hard with a low trajectory past midfield. At least if they lose that there is a lot of football to be played before it results in a score. Clarke doesn't have that and i don't know if he can learn it.

The goal last night came for a dropping ball that gave the dublin player loads of time to intercept. Stupid even trying to thread a ball into a narrow gap like that.

On the game itself - i was expecting and looking forward to tight game. If it hadn't been so cold i'd have fallen asleep. Mayo were shocking and to make it worse they just gave up. I know its only march and they aren't up to speed but honestly thought they would be a lot better than that.

[The Hill is Blue]

Did O'Connor get a card for this?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WJJD9Cqkv9k

[From the Bunker]

Did O'Connor get a card for this?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WJJD9Cqkv9k

You'll have to get your highly paid Solicitors on the case. Philly looked like he was being choked! Serious stuff!

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

Coldricks bad performance at the start of March balances out all Deegan's bad calls in the replay for ye last year for sure.

[Hill16 Blues]

Did O'Connor get a card for this?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WJJD9Cqkv9k

Not a chance did he get a card. The sly coward that he is is at that sh1te every game. Hopefully some day he gets what should be coming to him.

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

How will McMahon ever get his comeuppance for his long list of unpunished indiscretions?

[From the Bunker]

Did O'Connor get a card for this?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WJJD9Cqkv9k

Not a chance did he get a card. The sly coward that he is is at that sh1te every game. Hopefully some day he gets what should be coming to him.

Thankfully Philly plays within the RULES!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAqo9lUo3-U

Now go on off home and enjoy your win and don't be looking for you extra two pence worth!

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

Don't forget Paul Kerrigan sticking is shoulder into Philly's mouth and Aidan O'Shea getting his jaw in the way of Philly's forehead.

[Tubberman]

Did O'Connor get a card for this?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WJJD9Cqkv9k

Not a chance did he get a card. The sly coward that he is is at that sh1te every game. Hopefully some day he gets what should be coming to him.

Any comment on this??

https://twitter.com/edmcgreal/status/838367187127660544?s=09

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

https://twitter.com/edmcgreal/status/838367187127660544?s=09

Disgraceful from Regan, went looking to run in to Fitzsimon's raised arms.

[From the Bunker]

You won't get a reply. The Hill is Blue has gone to bed now! He has to get up for School tomorrow.