Doire v Mhuineacháin 24/5/09

[Schkite]

All I seen was an article in last Sunday's paper which was all hearsay, no quotes. No official word at all as far as I seen and I doubt there will be now.

[JMohan]

I sincerely hope not - don't think there's much to be gained from it apart from dragging both teams and the GAA further into the mire


********************

Interesting interview ....

From The Sunday Times
June 21, 2009

Truly, madly, Paddy Bradley
Michael Foley


It began just as Paddy Bradley knew it would. A jersey tug first. Then a belt. Then a trip. A few words in his ear. Maybe about his mother. His girlfriend. Water squirted in his face. More ankle taps and belts. It's what Derry expected. It was the game they were ready to play.

When Derry met Monaghan two years ago, they left the field beaten and spooked. Monaghan had stayed in their face all day, rattled them out of their rhythm and beat them up. Last year they did the same. This year Derry spent all winter and spring working on a new, more fluent approach to their play. When they met Monaghan last month, though, they knew they would need something different. When Monaghan barked, Derry had to be ready to bite.

"The first year we played Monaghan we were shellshocked," he says. "Last year we should've learned we were going to get that. The third time, we weren't going to let it happen again. The only thing we could do was fight fire with fire. If I was being nipped, I nipped and hit back harder. Every other player did that. It was the only way we could have won that game."

Bradley shielded himself from the firestorm that followed the match. Victory made for good insulation. For years he had seen Derry teams publicly derided for their failure to stand their ground. Now they finally had, they were slaughtered. When Damian Cassidy took over at the beginning of the year, part of his work was to prepare Derry for days like that. Beating Monaghan had nothing to do with fair play. The only law that mattered to them was the jungle.

"If Joe Bloggs is going to nip at me, spit on me, kick me, I'm going to do it back when I know for the last two years I haven't and come out with egg on my face. You have people in the papers saying he's no good. He has no bottle. They're not fighting for each other. They're not a team. The only way to fight that is to give as good as you're getting. Nobody regrets what we did."

For all the trouble it brought them, the match made a statement to the team, too. In other years, Bradley sometimes entered the championship doubting everything except himself. When Derry were in trouble, they hoofed ball towards him. Bradley would lurk behind the defender, pouncing to steal the ball from his grasp like a frog snapping out his tongue to catch a fly. He produced some stunning scoring feats over the years, but they were never enough to sustain Derry for an entire summer. A few carried the burden with him: Enda Muldoon, Fergal Doherty around the middle, Seán Marty Lockhart in defence. None of them fully realised the burden until it started to lift.

"We had some players on the panel in the past and I know they're only there to say they've played for Derry. They came to training, went through the motions and saved themselves for club matches. They weren't pushing the others to make the team which is probably why the team wasn't as strong as it is now.

"Damian has given everybody time in the National League. Some of the faces he's used in the championship, if you told me at the start of the year they'd play championship football, I'd have said no. But Damian has faith in everybody.

"It's a belief (that's there) in everybody else. Maybe I'm wrong, but in the past I didn't think some players were good enough. I didn't tell anybody, but within myself I'd have felt this team isn't good enough. For the first time in a long time I can say we have a panel and all of them are capable of playing championship football."

That trust was hardened through a spring of experimentation and hard labour. In Derry, though, the landmines are scattered everywhere they walk. When James Kielt's jaw was allegedly broken by Derry teammate James Conway during a club game a few weeks back, assumptions were made about the impact on the county team. Derry's summer was filed away before it had even properly begun. Conway was dropped from the panel by Cassidy. Rumours swept wildly through south Derry that the Ballinderry boys were walking away in protest. Not this time. Instead, the panel's reaction allowed them to make another statement about themselves, and their attitude.

"If something like that had happened five years ago, we would've let it split us," says Bradley. "But when we came back to training, Damian spoke about it and said he didn't want it mentioned again. You know you say you want to draw a line in the sand here, but you always have chatter? I have yet to have someone say something to me about the incident.

"Damian's big thing is you respect each other while you're at county training, and away from county training. That's why he took the stance he did. There was a lack of respect shown. There's a big change even coming back from club games. Me and Barry McGuigan were at each other in our last game but we shook hands afterwards. What was done was left there. In other years that would've lingered on and taken a few nights to clear. Maybe you wouldn't have spoken for a night or two. But Damian has everyone focused on what Derry are doing this year."

With clubs living cheek by jowl in small enclaves scattered around Derry, the atmosphere is often ferocious. In April 2007, Bradley was entangled in an argument with a referee who had mistakenly converted a two-point win for Glenullin into a draw. He was suspended for 12 weeks for alleged minor physical interference with the referee. Although the suspension was eventually overturned, it left a dent.

"I wouldn't say it's dirty, but there are hits. If someone's marking me, he's not going to stand back and admire Paddy Bradley. We get no protection

[bingobus]

Give it a rest jmohan, you're still talking about this game 

As a Monaghan player said last night to me..."Derry played the Monaghan game like it was there All-Ireland final and yesterday they where back to the same shit team we played the previous years, no balls and no answer."

Couldn't disagree with him. Monaghan wouldn't have taken the beating Derry took yesterday against a below par Tyrone.

[JMohan]

I agree with you - Derry went back to type - serious questions over the Cassidy appointment.

However Monaghan need to ask themselves how good they are if they couldn't beat that Derry team too.
To say that Monaghan wouldn't have taken that beating is nonsense and irrelevant.

[bingobus]

I agree with you - Derry went back to type - serious questions over the Cassidy appointment.

However Monaghan need to ask themselves how good they are if they couldn't beat that Derry team too.
To say that Monaghan wouldn't have taken that beating is nonsense and irrelevant.

The same player offered his own opinion why Derry beat them but I'm not going into them here.

I'd don't see why its nonsense to say why Monaghan wouldn't have taken that beating...in the past few seasons no team has put Monaghan away as easily as Tyrone did yesterday to derry.

[JMohan]

Well I'd love to hear the explanation about why Monaghan were beat - you can pm me if you want.

I just don't think you can make statements like that - it's a bit to hypothetical and unfair to make claims like that. 

[Maguire01]

I sincerely hope not - don't think there's much to be gained from it apart from dragging both teams and the GAA further into the mire


********************

Interesting interview ....

From The Sunday Times
June 21, 2009

Truly, madly, Paddy Bradley
Michael Foley


It began just as Paddy Bradley knew it would. A jersey tug first. Then a belt. Then a trip. A few words in his ear. Maybe about his mother. His girlfriend. Water squirted in his face. More ankle taps and belts. It's what Derry expected. It was the game they were ready to play.

When Derry met Monaghan two years ago, they left the field beaten and spooked. Monaghan had stayed in their face all day, rattled them out of their rhythm and beat them up. Last year they did the same. This year Derry spent all winter and spring working on a new, more fluent approach to their play. When they met Monaghan last month, though, they knew they would need something different. When Monaghan barked, Derry had to be ready to bite.

"The first year we played Monaghan we were shellshocked," he says. "Last year we should've learned we were going to get that. The third time, we weren't going to let it happen again. The only thing we could do was fight fire with fire. If I was being nipped, I nipped and hit back harder. Every other player did that. It was the only way we could have won that game."

Bradley shielded himself from the firestorm that followed the match. Victory made for good insulation. For years he had seen Derry teams publicly derided for their failure to stand their ground. Now they finally had, they were slaughtered. When Damian Cassidy took over at the beginning of the year, part of his work was to prepare Derry for days like that. Beating Monaghan had nothing to do with fair play. The only law that mattered to them was the jungle.

"If Joe Bloggs is going to nip at me, spit on me, kick me, I'm going to do it back when I know for the last two years I haven't and come out with egg on my face. You have people in the papers saying he's no good. He has no bottle. They're not fighting for each other. They're not a team. The only way to fight that is to give as good as you're getting. Nobody regrets what we did."

There's a lot of crap in there too. For example, in 2007 Derry were beaten off the field purely by football. There was no other 'crap' in that game.

Secondly, there's nobody called Joe Bloggs playing for Monaghan. Can Bradley not name names?

[JMohan]

There's no point in getting into another big argument over this ... but it's common knowledge that the Monaghan backs are dirty and provocative, which is why they got so little sympathy the last day after the Derry game.
Monaghan can argue this all they like, but it's common knowledge and what's saddest or most disappointing from a Monaghan point of view is that they are not a bad team and could improve more if they looked at other aspects of their game rather than the dirty side of it.

Now I'm sure I'll get responses about Derry and Tyrone and others ... but that's only school boy arguing about what others are doing.

Every team goes through stages of progression in winning an All Ireland ...
1. First you learn how to play together as a team and beat poor teams
2. Then you learn how to stop good teams playing (think back to Armagh and Tyrone before they won anything) and disrupt their style
3. And then you learn how to combine 1 & 2 and beat good teams

Monaghan stopped at stage 2 and never progressed beyond spoiling to a more constructive team. This is Bantys biggest failing in my opinion. 

For what it's worth Derry are at 1, Tyrone at 3 ... (Derry were closing in on 3 after the League last year untii they took their eye off Fermanagh).

You can take that with Blue tinted glasses as just 'stirring' OR you can take it in the constructive manner in which it was meant and maybe we can have a decent debate on the future of Monaghan football for once.

[Maguire01]

Derry and Monaghan get fines removed
26 June 2009

The CHC have decided that both Monaghan and Derry will not have to pay the proposed Eu10,000 fine imposed as a result of their players' behaviour in the Ulster SFC match between the two sides.

Both sides were hit with suspension and fines after an Ulster SFC quarter-final which tempered with a number of unsavoury incidents.

Suspension and fines of Eu10,000 were proposed by the Central Competitions Control Committee.

Both counties appealed the fines and the Central Hearings Committee decided that the charge laid against both counties of 'Disruptive Conduct by Players (not causing the Premature Termination of a Game)' was not proven.



How stupid does this make HQ look? Do they not think before they hand out sanctions?

[JMohan]

The old Derry CB's and the National DRA or CCC aren't looking too good these days ...

[tbrick18]

I agree with you - Derry went back to type - serious questions over the Cassidy appointment.

However Monaghan need to ask themselves how good they are if they couldn't beat that Derry team too.
To say that Monaghan wouldn't have taken that beating is nonsense and irrelevant.

The same player offered his own opinion why Derry beat them but I'm not going into them here.

I'd don't see why its nonsense to say why Monaghan wouldn't have taken that beating...in the past few seasons no team has put Monaghan away as easily as Tyrone did yesterday to derry.

One word........CORK.   

[Maguire01]

I agree with you - Derry went back to type - serious questions over the Cassidy appointment.

However Monaghan need to ask themselves how good they are if they couldn't beat that Derry team too.
To say that Monaghan wouldn't have taken that beating is nonsense and irrelevant.

The same player offered his own opinion why Derry beat them but I'm not going into them here.

I'd don't see why its nonsense to say why Monaghan wouldn't have taken that beating...in the past few seasons no team has put Monaghan away as easily as Tyrone did yesterday to derry.

One word........CORK.   

What was that, 5 points?