Kildare v Tyrone & Dubs v Kerry NFL Round 1 on Sat 4th Feb 2012

[Norf Tyrone]

Impressed with Tyrone last night. A very raw performance that was far from error free. However something to build on.

O'Neill, Hub and Harte rightly getting the plaudits. However I was really impressed by Conor Clarke.

I have to admit that I had never heard of the fella before, and don't really recall him playing underage, but he was excellent last night.

[ONeill]

Hub?

[Jinxy]

Dublin were atrocious last night...............................fennell and ogara should not be on that dublin panel, what paddy andrews has to do to get a run I do not know ...........fair play to kerry well up for it and out muscled us  in every sector, donaghy is such a bloody moan hole though.................

No disrespect to the lad but he is the worst intercounty footballer I have ever seen.
Contributes absolutely nothing.
Dublin would be better off playing with 14 men.

[SC1Sports.com]

Thought I would throw in my tuppence worth of Kerry - Dublin game if I may http://bit.ly/yTmQpN Some individual analysis including a shining performance from Galvin

[Jinxy]

The lad Curtin that came on at full forward for Kerry was very impressive.
Has the ability to turn on a sixpence, won plenty of ball and used it well (set up the goal).
He was much more effective than Donaghy who is becoming a caricature of himself with the constant moaning to the ref.
He ran the length of the field at one stage to give out about something.
It's a wonder someone doesn't tell him to cop on.

[TrueGael93]

Thought I would throw in my tuppence worth of Kerry - Dublin game if I may http://bit.ly/yTmQpN Some individual analysis including a shining performance from Galvin

This is excellent stuff! Will you be doing Derry game??

[Norf Tyrone]

Hub?

It's Mugsy's new nickname. 

[imtommygunn]

Peter Harte looks like he could be a class act for Tyrone. Mugsy has still got it. They won't get the same space come championship but some good football played by Tyrone - not many teams out there capable of stringing together the moves that led to Harte's goal and created O'Neill's chance which he should have put away.

[omagh_gael]

Is there anywhere a man could view extended highlights of the Tyrone game? Have only been able to see the 4/5 mins TG4 showed earlier.

[Dinny Breen]

Early days but with only two home games to come it's definitely odds against for Kildare to reach a top 2 spot. Very frustrating and you'd wonder has anything at all been learned from the past few years. Why McGeeney persists with playing Johnny Doyle so far out the field is beyond me. He should be parked next to O'Connor and should feed off the big man because Smith and Kavanagh weren't at the races at all last night. The big man will win 4 out of every 5 balls that are kicked into him but defenders know he's not a scoring threat so they're happy to let him win it and then swarm him. The two corner forwards should be feeding off him a lot better.

Playing Eoghan O'Flaherty in the half-backs is another strange tactic. Fair enough it worked for Conway but it didn't exactly work out with Keith Cribbin in 2010 and probably set him back in his development. He's hardly going to be there come the summer when Foley, Bolton, McGrillen and McLoughlin are all back so I don't really see the thinking behind it. O'Flaherty was badly caught out for the first Tyrone goal when he lost track of his man. Actually thought the backs as a unit were quite good for about three quarters of the game but they seemed to fall apart when Ciarán Fitzpatrick went off and Mulligan began to get some space. Thought Ollie Lyons was quite impressive again and would like to see him at wing back.

Still no closer to finding a regular midfield partner for Flynn and that's something that needs to be sorted with question marks over Lynch and Earley. Mikey Conway was one of the few bright sparks last night which was great to see. Kicked some fine scores and should also have had a penalty for a fairly blatant foot-block. No point in reaching for the panic button yet but a lot of work to do.

Only seen the highlights so reluctant to comment, but goals win games and it annoys me that this something been highlighted in the media that might actually be right with about Kildare, Tyrone took theirs and we missed ours. Foley's absence was a big loss but the movement of O'Neill and Mulligan caused all sorts of problems.

Wouldn't rule out relegation if we fail to win at the weekend.

[Hound]

Not a very enjoyable day out in Croker on Saturday evening!

For all the abuse that Jedward got (mostly from people who werent there), they were at least harmless fun and entertained the kids. Whoever picked Rubberbandits as the "entertainment" is a pure idiot. I'd never heard them before but their brand of music where the word fook is the most used lyric, and they've a song about "ridin" is hardly what the GAA want as family entertainment (albeit I'm sure there are a sizeable minority of brain dead red-top readers who enjoy that type of muck).

That was an amazing entrance they organised for Dublin as All Ireland champions. Bring them onto the field in the pitch dark so nobody can see them! 

Pretty pathetic 2nd half display by the Dubs. When Kerry realised all they had to do was mark-up on the kickouts because we'd nobody who could win a 50-50 high ball, they monopolised possession and our backs had a right workout! When we did have the ball our use of it was awful. Most frustrating was the basic skills were so poor, as if there was no football in us at all.

Plenty to work on. Maybe Pat should get the lads up a bit earlier.

[supersarsfields]

Was very happy with the football Tyrone played at the weekend. It was more akin to the football we would see in mid summer rather than the start of Feb so at least it was an enjoyable game to watch.
After all the retirements and then you see the team lining out without Gormely, the two McMahons and Cavanagh I had my doubts about where the leaders were going to come from. But in the second half Mugsy, SoN and Harte were brilliant. The foot passing was quick and accurate and there was always a man over on the run. This has been something we have lacked over the last couple of years. So hopefully with the young lads coming through there will be a return to the hunger that brought us the last AI.
Of the younger guys obviously P Harte stood out. Was was also very impressed with Clarke. While allowing to much space at times he had a tough number and I thought overall he should be happy with his performance. Ronan O neill also showed glimpes of why there is so much hope for him, but early days yet.

All in all a good day at the office and it's good to get of to a winning start in Croke park. Sure wouldn't it be great to finish the year of with the same.

[blewuporstuffed]

Not a very enjoyable day out in Croker on Saturday evening!

For all the abuse that Jedward got (mostly from people who werent there), they were at least harmless fun and entertained the kids. Whoever picked Rubberbandits as the "entertainment" is a pure idiot. I'd never heard them before but their brand of music where the word fook is the most used lyric, and they've a song about "ridin" is hardly what the GAA want as family entertainment (albeit I'm sure there are a sizeable minority of brain dead red-top readers who enjoy that type of muck).

That was an amazing entrance they organised for Dublin as All Ireland champions. Bring them onto the field in the pitch dark so nobody can see them! 

Pretty pathetic 2nd half display by the Dubs. When Kerry realised all they had to do was mark-up on the kickouts because we'd nobody who could win a 50-50 high ball, they monopolised possession and our backs had a right workout! When we did have the ball our use of it was awful. Most frustrating was the basic skills were so poor, as if there was no football in us at all.

Plenty to work on. Maybe Pat should get the lads up a bit earlier.

i thought the 'entertainment' between the two games was woefull aswell.
why do they feel the need to do this sort of thing at all.
a 45 minute wait between the two games was a joke and the dublin entrance with fireworks et al was cringy in the extreme

[Croí na hÉireann]

Wouldn't rule out relegation if we fail to win at the weekend.

I'll rule it out for you Dinny, ourselves and Louth will head straight back down with maybe Monaghan (haven't seen them yet) an outside bet. Banty was up in Haggardstown yesterday, he left in the second half chuckling away to himself.

Enjoyable games on Sat night and a couple of tasty pints in the bar up the back of the Cusack, trust the Durty Dubs to know all the sneaky spots 

Arrived late for the first game and the end of the first half was tame enough with Kildare to the fore. Tyrone were excellent in the second and seem to have a few weeks more training done than Kildare. They goal they worked the whole length of the field was a thing of beauty and some of their footpassing was sublime, Mulligan especially. Kildare had their chances though and I would agree that they need to play Doyle inside. I wouldn't play O'Connor there though, not enough of a scoring threat.

In the senior game I thought Galvin was sensational, got on the ball at every opportunity and found his man every time, everything was going through him. James O'Donoghue also impressed and Barry John Keane took some lovely points. They racked up some amount of wides as well, not like Sheehan to miss so many frees. They dominated Cluxtons kick outs again and won most of the breaking ball. Best for Dublin were McMenamin and Quinn, with Connolly having one of those miss as opposed to hit games. Couldn't believe it when they brought on O'Gara and left Paddy Andrews on the bench again. Lots of work for Dublin to do but they'll still make the semi finals.

[Mr. Nakata]

I always enjoy watching Stevie O'Neill play. That early retirement a few years ago was a real shock to the system. The man has such a unique talent, thankfully we'll get to see many more days of seeing Stevie swinging them over from all angles. If I'm being harsh, he kicked 2 easy enough free kicks short into the keeper's hands, the second of which led directly to the Kildare forward missing a goal by inches from the next attack. The ball should've been kicked dead. I don't think Stevie should be on the frees.