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Have we another dose of media manipulation?
Diarmuid Connolly interviewed and plastered all over the place.
"I'm a nice chap really" or in other words "Refs  please stop picking on me"

The cash rich Dublin GAA PR machine in full flow. Irish Times, Irish Independent and Examiner.

In fairness De Paper is hardly a Dublin media organ.

Don't be so naïve, Dublin GAA have all these journalists on a short leash. They do what they're told.

Have we another dose of media manipulation?
Diarmuid Connolly interviewed and plastered all over the place.
"I'm a nice chap really" or in other words "Refs  please stop picking on me"

The cash rich Dublin GAA PR machine in full flow. Irish Times, Irish Independent and Examiner.

The Duds are a busted flush at this stage. Mentally broken. The petulant kick by one of the Dublin players on a Mayo player jogging off after the final whistle spoke volumes. Mayo to win comfortably in the reply.

[tactical masterclass]

This year's Tyrone team conceded 5-24 against Cavan this summer. Cillian O Connor,Aidan O Shea,Andy Moran and Lee Keegan all got either loads of time or space on the ball before converting their points from play. That is not something you see from a much more defensive Tyrone team.

Mayo would have got more joy and scores against that Tyrone defence last Sunday if they didn't go into their defensive shell a tactic if you look at match stats on don't foul could easily have backfired.

I wouldn't agree, I think Mayo adopted the game they needed to just like Donegal did to frustrate Tyrone in the Ulster final.

Donegal were actually quite adventurous by their standards in the two games with Monaghan.

I don't think it was any tactical masterclass from Mayo because Tyrone still had the opportunities to win that game. However it was a gameplan that Mayo adopted to thwart Tyrone and it worked, they made it hard to penetrate them and a lot of players made some really poor decisions when they were turned back and rushed shots from long distance. Mayo were much smarter and much more patient in working the openings and that's why they won.

Yeah, they just got lucky.

Any news on where the reply is going to be? Portlaois?

While bitterly disappointed, I don't think we can have too many complaints about Saturday.  Yes some decision went against us and yes the referee made some dubious calls but as they say on TG4 "Sin É an breaks". Sometimes they go your way and sometimes they don't. I thought that we showed exceptional heart and courage again but we didn't really perform on the day and were second best in the middle third for long periods. We were shipping water all over the place and every high ball into the full back line was hands over the eyes stuff. Despite that the game was there for the taking and we fluffed our lines in the first half of extra times with a couple of bad wides and a missed goal chance. There's a fine line between winning and losing and again we have come out on the wrong side but lost nothing in defeat.  The pain subsides (it always does) and 2015 will be upon us and we go again.

The GPA has been suspiciously quiet with regard to transferring the 2nd biggest game of the GAA calendar to a provincial backwater. Sorry I forgot, they have Donal's pet project the Super 11's in Croke Park before the America football (football, surely throwball?) on Sunday.

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

[You know, once I gave my word that I would, I wasn't going to go back on it.]

Rory speaking with the media yesterday

Q. Were you tempted to pull out at any stage because of this, because it can't be easy with so much turmoil going on even though you've perhaps become almost used to it over the last 18 months, haven't you?

A:  No, I just I made a commitment to be here. It's the your European Tour's Flagship event. I'm very proud to be part of The European Tour. The European Tour have been very good to me over the last number of years, and I thought it was my duty to come back and play in this event. You know, once I gave my word that I would, I wasn't going to go back on it.

Is it true that Keith Higgins is the only person ever to have won a Railway cup medal in both codes?

If O'Connor could master the art of popping that shoulder back in like Martin Riggs in Leathal Weapon he'd be sorted.

On a more serious note, Andy was beaten to at least 3 balls despite being favourite when the ball was kicked. Although his presence on the teams and experience is invaluable and he will start. Varley who I've always had my doubts over, maybe it's his style of kicking, had a shocker. On watching it again he had 3 bad wides, turned over primary possession cheaply inside the 21 at least twice and that missed free at the end summed him up.

After reading Dara O'Shea's piece during the week, I think we'd be better off meeting Dublin that Kerry in the final. Despite Dublin being a superior team, I'd hope that we'd have no fear of them as we would have of seeing the Kerry jersey again.

I see Mickey Harte is complaining about the challenge on Peter Harte yesterday.

"I think that would annoy me more than anything," he said.  "He (Peter Harte) didn't even get a free for something which forced him to leave the field on crutches"

It's getting embarrassing now.

From MayoGAA on twitter

Team: Hennelly, Cunniffe, Cafferkey, Higgins, Keegan, Vaughan, Boyle, AO'Shea, SO'Shea, McLoughlin, Feeney, Dillon, O'Connor, Freeman, Moran

Its gas, lads getting firece worked up over sound bites. It's all irelevent comes 4pm on Sunday.

I expect Donegal to win on Sunday. I don't know where all the Mayo optimism comes from. The all Ireland final last year, Donegal went into an 8 point lead and kept the lead for the remaining 60 minutes and kept us at arms length. I don't buy into the comments that it was "there for the taking for Mayo" and that we were the better team over 60 minutes. I actually think that Donegal had another gear if needed.  Both teams have the same amount of mileage on the clock over the past 3 years, accepted that Mayo has a bigger panel. I've been to CP when Mayo have been expected to win and been expected to meekly surrender. The former is usually a dissappointment and the latter an unexpected  joy. 

I expect that Donegal will grind out a lead over 50 minutes and we will  begin to run into a brick walls and Cul De Sac's  and turn over ball, start chasing the game and lose by 4/5 points. We will not score a goal. Donegal 2-10 - Mayo 0-12.

I thought we put all this parochial nonsense behind us and matured as a nation. There is no England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, there is a single entity called the Loins. We're all Loins, Jonathan Davies is as much a Loin as is (was) O'Driscoll.

Darragh Ó Sé doesnt include Mark McHugh in his team of the year and does include Aidan O'Mahoney!!!


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/1003/1224324774352.html

Dara manages to mention "Kerry" 12 times in the article, enough said.