Messages

[Armagh]

Its a bit one sided. The home draw for the semi final significant.
Lucky in the GAA that we don't have home semi finals where blue teams can fill the stadium with their supporters and overawe the opposition.

the Dubs can't fill croke Park this time of the year after 14 in a row. Who is responsible for this?

The stadium is never going to be filled unless it's an AI final or at a stretch Dublin against either Mayo or Armagh in a semi final.
When has it ever been any different?
Croke Park has rarely ever sold out for anything but an All Ireland final. This isn't a new phenomenon.

Eh??

On the basis that Armagh have huge support.

I love Gaelic football - I have since I can remember.
I'm in my forties now and this is the first year ever that I just can't get excited about the championship whatsoever.
The format has completely fucked it up. I honestly believe the only way forward is to get rid of the provincial championships. It won't happen because the Ulster championship is so strong & competitive. The elephant in the room is that the other three are a complete and utter pile of horse shit.
When a team would be better off losing a provincial semi final (if they were to go on and lose the final) so that they could potentially get a pot two opponent of Louth, Clare or Sligo it says it all.
Dublin & Kerry can sleepwalk into a top seed spot in a group.
It's a completely uneven playing field.
It has to change so that teams of a similar standard are playing against each other and teams such as Dublin & Kerry can't just proceed through to the business end in first gear every year.
I get that they are quality teams and would do well anyway but there's no real peril for them at the moment unlike any of the Ulster teams for example.
Even ourselves last year - once we beat Roscommon we had a handy game against Sligo to get into pot one.
A lot of the games now don't mean a huge pile.
It's killing the football championship

Its a bit one sided. The home draw for the semi final significant.
Lucky in the GAA that we don't have home semi finals where blue teams can fill the stadium with their supporters and overawe the opposition.

the Dubs can't fill croke Park this time of the year after 14 in a row. Who is responsible for this?

The stadium is never going to be filled unless it's an AI final or at a stretch Dublin against either Mayo or Armagh in a semi final.
When has it ever been any different?
Croke Park has rarely ever sold out for anything but an All Ireland final. This isn't a new phenomenon.

It will take a very good team to stop Mayo winning the minor All Ireland this year.

Yeah I think it's probably a good idea to reward the top team with home advantage.

What I just can't get my head around re this Galway team are the things that we have been poor at/areas we have been weak in for a long time now seem to not even have been worked on.

Kickouts firstly. The "plan" if you can call it that goes like this...
If the opposition don't have a full press and leave one of our full back line free - Gleeson will tap it to them. If the opposition don't leave said corner back free  he literally boots it as far down the field as possible and hopes for the best.
I was watching it very closely today and there was absolutely no deviation from this for the whole game.
Nothing innovative that you would see from other teams who seem able to manufacture space to retain their own kick outs.
And the length of time he takes to actually get the ball on the tee and get the kick away is junior C stuff.

Secondly - the speed of our transition from defence to attack off turnover ball is ridiculously slow.
We slow it down, go backwards and sideways etc. instead of getting bodies bombing forward at pace to take advantage of a disorganised defence. Instead we give them all the time in the world to get organised and start our slow ponderous build up play again.

It's shocking that we're still struggling in these areas of our game.

Hard to describe how poor we were today.
It was daylight robbery.
Missing three great goal chances in the first ten minutes didn't help but Sligo would have been full value for a win today.
Comer was the difference as usual for us.
He's the main man. Walsh might just be the most naturally talented player in the country but he just doesn't deliver on a consistent basis.
For every decent game he has he has another 4 shite ones. He's infuriating.
Pj doesn't get a pass here either.
O Conghaile has been poor in the league and was dire in London, while McCabe has barely played at all for the seniors yet both started today.
Absolutely not on merit.

If we plau like we did today we'll lose the Connacht final by double digits.

Mayo are miles ahead of the other Connacht teams at u17 this year.
This particular years crop have been exceptional all the way up

Connacht Minor championship started tonight. Draw in Tuam and a six point win for Mayo in Castlebar with Kieran McDonald son Kobe MOTM with 1-5.

Mayo 2-13 Roscommon 2-7
Galway 0-11 Sligo 2-5

This years Mayo minors will take beating. Very very strong at u15 and u16 the last two years.

Derry have turned into a seriously good team since 2022.
We beat them twice that season but unfortunately have gone in the opposite direction since.
There is definitely an All Ireland in that team in the near future.

Better team won, but why gift possession back to England with 90 seconds left?

My thoughts were the same at the time.
Ireland usually keep the ball much better than they did today. Albeit they are not usually dominated physically to the extent they were today either.
But it was asking for trouble giving possession back to England given how physically dominant they were - conceding a penalty was always a big possibility and it came to pass.
England were the better side on the day

I made my way down to Kerry from Clare yesterday with my 8 year old daughter for what was a mostly enjoyable day. Nice weather, the Kerry scenery beautiful as always. The game wasn't too bad either bar the Tyrone wides and ref a little whistle happy at times for both teams. Doesn't feel like a bad defeat for Tyrone. A few defensive tweaks in the second half and we were back in it but it was too little, too late. During melee, I was disappointed to hear"shower of kna**ers, always were, always will be"from the row behind me. Middle aged, well dressed man from Kerry with small kids. Not nice to hear and disappointing for all within earshot, Kerry and Tyrone fans alike. I know there's always one but it felt very personal. Could do without it.

That sounds very unpleasant. It was definitely not about Tyrone people. Kerry football is not in great shape. In the last 20 years Kerry have been unable to beat first Tyrone and now Dublin. Kerry have lost 5 all Irelands to these 2 teams AFAIK. The roll of honour is now under threat. Kerry fans are used to winning and those days are over, at least for now.

They were reigning All Ireland champions this time last year.
Kerry will never be far away

We got the result that we expected to get in Pearse Stadium.
We are really struggling at the moment.
I was up in Owenbeg two years ago when we beat Derry comfortably.
Only 5 starters that day started today.
You just can't see where the scores are going to come from at the moment.
We're missing loads of players but even when we get them back (if we do) they will have been out for so long will it be too late for us to get some cohesion going - that's the question.
Being able to start a game with Silke, Kelly, Conroy, Tierney, Walsh, Comer, McDaid should transform a team in theory - it's half a team right there.
Somehow though I just feel as if it won't this year for some reason.
I think we'll bow out without firing a shot. Can't put a finger on it

Mayo 2023 are another warning sign for Derry.So are Galway 2023.  Journalists will always focus on the now and both teams got loads of attention in the run up to May, just like Derry now , but neither county was there at the business end.  Both counties have learnt their lesson .
Fans love winning but the All Ireland now is about pace, patience and avoiding injuries. Nobody was talking about Dublin this time last year.

What lesson have Galway learned? How have they shown to have learned from it?

They have been trying out other players in order to broaden the panel.The stars have not played in the first 3 matches.They aren't interested in the league final. I think that is significant. the all Ireland now starts in January.  It's more like the EPL now. Arsenal had basically the same team last season and they were gassed  with a month or so to go.

Let's be clear about this - the "stars" as you call them haven't played because they have been injured. Comer, McDaid and Silke have all been unavailable through injury for every game so far. Kelly was unavailable until last weekend and they are easing him back.
Shane played the first league game and hasn't played since purely because he is injured.
Not playing them is not part of some master plan it's circumstance.
They'd be trying out one or two anyway for sure but that's about it

A hard watch but an important win in terms of trying to stay in Div 1. 
Some terrible turnovers late on that could have been very costly but got away with them.  A poor enough day from placed balls also.  Great to have Kelly back but more of the frontline lads will be required in the next few weeks.

Absolutely there are a few lads not up to this level (in my opinion) getting game time at the moment.
If we can get everyone fit we'll be a different animal.
Sean Kelly, Liam Silke, Cillian McDaid, Shane Walsh, Damien Comer.
Daniel O Flaherty had a huge impact today when he came on. He has wheels