NFL Division 1 - 2020

Started by thejuice, January 07, 2020, 12:18:22 AM

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saffronandblue

How many chances are some of these Mayo players going to get?  3 of those forwards that started and were substituted during the course of the game today have been given 3 or 4 games each to prove themselves over the course of this league.  Bar a 3 minute cameo by one of them at the end of the Donegal game, all 3 have been poor.  They aren't even close to the standard unfortunately.  Not sure what Horan is looking at, if he's looking at anything at all.  I fully expect him to play all 3 again in Galway and again all 3 will be substituted. 

Lar Naparka

Quote from: moysider on March 01, 2020, 08:46:26 PM
Quote from: Farrandeelin on March 01, 2020, 08:31:35 PM
Should Horan have made a couple of changes earlier in the game larryin? The subs all seemed to have made an impact when they came on.

He can't keep picking some of those lads that started. Can he?
I think he is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea here. On the one hand, he had a lot of what would be first choice players who are out through injury or at least not match fit. If he starts panicking and throwing some of them on he is risking further injuries to his better players and enforced absences during the championships coming up soon. It's Hobson's choice I'm afraid.
On the other hand, some of the newer players are showing potential and sooner or later, he will have to let a raft of the old guard go. Unless he bloods replacements in, he will be in even more trouble than he is right now.
I thought a few likely lads showed up last year and this year to date has been even more promising. We have always had problems getting youngsters to mature enough to play at championship level but the last few years, and this one especially, there has been quite a few.
Ossian Mullin looks the real deal already and Tommy Conroy, Towey, O'Donoughe and a few others are developing nicely. Throw in Matty Ruane and probably Fionn McDonagh from last year and things are looking good for the future.
Maybe not too good at present but dammit!, Tiocfaidh ar lá arís very soon. ;D
Nil Carborundum Illegitemi

larryin89

Quote from: saffronandblue on March 01, 2020, 09:18:58 PM
How many chances are some of these Mayo players going to get?  3 of those forwards that started and were substituted during the course of the game today have been given 3 or 4 games each to prove themselves over the course of this league.  Bar a 3 minute cameo by one of them at the end of the Donegal game, all 3 have been poor.  They aren't even close to the standard unfortunately.  Not sure what Horan is looking at, if he's looking at anything at all.  I fully expect him to play all 3 again in Galway and again all 3 will be substituted.

That's the part I don't get , James durcan is not as good as James Carr or Brian reape imo but reape seems to be completely out of the frame and Carr seems not his favorite either
Walk-in down mchale rd , sun out, summers day , game day . That's all .

Tubberman

Jaysis after that analysis by Spillane and Whelan you'd never think it was a one point game.
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

moysider

Quote from: Tubberman on March 01, 2020, 09:46:36 PM
Jaysis after that analysis by Spillane and Whelan you'd never think it was a one point game.

They're right though. 

From the Bunker

Quote from: moysider on March 01, 2020, 10:11:20 PM
Quote from: Tubberman on March 01, 2020, 09:46:36 PM
Jaysis after that analysis by Spillane and Whelan you'd never think it was a one point game.

They're right though.

Who cares what either of them think? Really? Fans invest to much into TV match critics.

moysider

Quote from: Lar Naparka on March 01, 2020, 09:28:55 PM
Quote from: moysider on March 01, 2020, 08:46:26 PM
Quote from: Farrandeelin on March 01, 2020, 08:31:35 PM
Should Horan have made a couple of changes earlier in the game larryin? The subs all seemed to have made an impact when they came on.

He can't keep picking some of those lads that started. Can he?
I think he is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea here. On the one hand, he had a lot of what would be first choice players who are out through injury or at least not match fit. If he starts panicking and throwing some of them on he is risking further injuries to his better players and enforced absences during the championships coming up soon. It's Hobson's choice I'm afraid.
On the other hand, some of the newer players are showing potential and sooner or later, he will have to let a raft of the old guard go. Unless he bloods replacements in, he will be in even more trouble than he is right now.
I thought a few likely lads showed up last year and this year to date has been even more promising. We have always had problems getting youngsters to mature enough to play at championship level but the last few years, and this one especially, there has been quite a few.
Ossian Mullin looks the real deal already and Tommy Conroy, Towey, O'Donoughe and a few others are developing nicely. Throw in Matty Ruane and probably Fionn McDonagh from last year and things are looking good for the future.
Maybe not too good at present but dammit!, Tiocfaidh ar lá arís very soon. ;D

The names you mention as positive I will give you yeah. In fact I think I mentioned them in an earlier post and would raise you Swanee O Hora as well. They are fairly obvious as well. On the other hand there are lads wheeled out every week that are as obviously not at it at all. These are JH's projects so if he is caught between devil and deep blue sea ....... If you look back at recent panels, there were young lads that were indulged for years that never were good enough.

Dubhaltach

#952
Quote from: saffronandblue on March 01, 2020, 09:18:58 PM
How many chances are some of these Mayo players going to get?  3 of those forwards that started and were substituted during the course of the game today have been given 3 or 4 games each to prove themselves over the course of this league.  Bar a 3 minute cameo by one of them at the end of the Donegal game, all 3 have been poor.  They aren't even close to the standard unfortunately.  Not sure what Horan is looking at, if he's looking at anything at all.  I fully expect him to play all 3 again in Galway and again all 3 will be substituted.

For one of those three you mention, it was only his second start of the year. While he was poor today, he was decent the last day and had a very good season last year.

Another one of them played a lot of today in the full forward line...way out of position. I wouldn't be writing him off just yet.

Mac2

Quote from: saffronandblue on March 01, 2020, 09:18:58 PM
How many chances are some of these Mayo players going to get?  3 of those forwards that started and were substituted during the course of the game today have been given 3 or 4 games each to prove themselves over the course of this league.  Bar a 3 minute cameo by one of them at the end of the Donegal game, all 3 have been poor.  They aren't even close to the standard unfortunately.  Not sure what Horan is looking at, if he's looking at anything at all.  I fully expect him to play all 3 again in Galway and again all 3 will be substituted.
Well at least they got substituted, there's one lad never gets substituted and he's clearly not intercounty standard.

moysider

Quote from: Dubhaltach on March 01, 2020, 10:29:18 PM
Quote from: saffronandblue on March 01, 2020, 09:18:58 PM
How many chances are some of these Mayo players going to get?  3 of those forwards that started and were substituted during the course of the game today have been given 3 or 4 games each to prove themselves over the course of this league.  Bar a 3 minute cameo by one of them at the end of the Donegal game, all 3 have been poor.  They aren't even close to the standard unfortunately.  Not sure what Horan is looking at, if he's looking at anything at all.  I fully expect him to play all 3 again in Galway and again all 3 will be substituted.

For one of those three you mention, it was only his second start of the year. While he was poor today, he was decent the last day and had a very good season last year.

Another one of them played a lot of today in the full forward line...way out of position. I wouldn't be writing him off just yet.

if you are talking about who I thinking you are talking about; imagine if he had gone toe to toe with Gavin White today :o Maybe it was a mercy to him to be put inside. The reality is a 10 has to be able to go with a McCaffrey or a White.

moysider

Quote from: Mac2 on March 01, 2020, 10:57:56 PM
Quote from: saffronandblue on March 01, 2020, 09:18:58 PM
How many chances are some of these Mayo players going to get?  3 of those forwards that started and were substituted during the course of the game today have been given 3 or 4 games each to prove themselves over the course of this league.  Bar a 3 minute cameo by one of them at the end of the Donegal game, all 3 have been poor.  They aren't even close to the standard unfortunately.  Not sure what Horan is looking at, if he's looking at anything at all.  I fully expect him to play all 3 again in Galway and again all 3 will be substituted.
Well at least they got substituted, there's one lad never gets substituted and he's clearly not intercounty standard.

There's another that's going to be pushing him. Lasted more than an hour today. If Towey was in earlier we could have got a result. Diarmuid missed 2 frees he would likely have got.

MC

Made me chuckle when Spillane was praising Kerry for 4 players tackling 1 man - wasn't that Tyrone's puke football!

An Fhairche Abu

#957
Quote from: galwayman on March 01, 2020, 07:29:35 PM
Any of the Galway posters in Navan today?
Did we improve our kick outs today?
I was in Navan alright.

This was the worst day out for the Galway kick outs yet, I'm only slightly exaggerating when I say that the main reason Galway nearly lost that match today was our kick outs. The number of scores Meath got from unforced Galway errors on the restarts had to be seen to be believed. This was really reinforced when after Meath got a point to bring it back to two points late on, the next one was a crucial kickout, exactly the time for Galway to pull out a prepared manoeuvre to guarantee possession from the restart. Instead a really tame, poor short and low kickout to Mulkerrin (I think) who had to go very low to gather with a Meath player already on top of him, he fouled the ball resulting in a tap over free in for Meath and a one point match. At that stage one Galway supporter in my vicinity questioned "Are they practising them at all?", I'm sure they are but it was easy to see why the question was asked.
Even on a time when Galway won a great mark from D'Arcy, he then proceeded to hand pass it straight to a Meath player under no pressure and 20 seconds later it was in the Galway net. Meath did much better on engineering short kickouts in the second half into a huge breeze than Galway did at any point during the match. It's just down to pumping it out long and hoping for the best at the moment, there's blame both on Gleeson who is not quick enough to see some of the opportunities that are there and on the management for not putting in place some better system for the outfield players to engineer space for themselves.
It is the number one issue that needs to be rectified for me, the likes of Dublin in high summer would destroy Galway on their current kick out strategy.

Big wind in Navan which Meath had for the first half but even playing into that, Galway started very poorly and Meath were the much better team for the first 25/30 minutes before Galway started to make any inroads, this was the time of the match that would frustrate Meath fans most, they should have really put themselves into an unassailable position. To be honest Galway were blessed to go into the changing rooms only 4 points down although we had started to play a bit better down the stretch of the first half.

A lot of players were sub par for Galway today, it was a really lethargic showing in general. Meath had great success running and handpassing through the middle of the Galway defence. Daly didn't hold the centre as well as he has in previous matches, he had a couple of nice tackles but way down on his standard to date but he was accompanied by a good number of other Galway players who didn't play up to standard.

In all fairness to him Paul Conroy came on in the 27th minute and basically won that game for Galway today. He's been knocking around for a long time now but that was one of his finest ever performances in the maroon and white.
Won two vital frees to get things going in the first half, took a fine mark and score, passed Steede in for the goal and his final score from play was an absolute beauty from near the side terrace in the corner, just lightly caressed the side footed kick of the ball towards the goal judging the wind to perfection.

People may call it harsh on Farragher to get such a quick hooking but subbing him for Conroy was the winning of the game, Galway turned it completely around for the following twenty five minutes either side of the HT whistle to hit 1-6 without reply.
It was a very tough station for anyone in the FF line in the first half but even so Farragher's work rate and run making for his team mates looking to play the ball in was nowhere near the standard required. Varley was far better at providing an outlet. The one ball he did take from a kick pass was in his hand for about a half second because he didn't feel the defender coming for the tackle and he lost it straight away. In contrast the first ball Conroy got it stuck in there and he was fouled for a free in.

Steede starting to show well on the scoreboard and he initially intercepted the misplaced Meath kick pass that led to his goal but he's loose enough in general play, three passes intercepted today and they were ones that should never have been taken on, there's a balance to have between adventure and needlessly giving the ball away.

The absence of Comer was certainly felt out there but D'Arcy did ok considering, he seems quite limited but couldn't fault the effort.

Shane Walsh was in and out of the game but Galway wouldn't have got any result without him either. He threatened to cut loose a couple of times in the second half but his shots and passing was slightly off, his score from play to put Galway one up was another absolutely superb solo score though, real clutch play. Bizarre to me that League Sunday didn't show either it or Conroy's final point on the highlights package this evening, they were the two best scores of the day.

Lot of talk/whinging from McEntee after the match about the cynicism of the Galway players, and certainly from a number of the restarts in the first half Galway players did their best to block and hinder the Meath runners but equally in that first half I saw Johnny Heaney dragged to the ground on a Galway counter attack to stop him going up the pitch. On at least two separate occasions Sean Kelly was dragged into incidents when on a yellow card by Meath players clearly looking to gain the numerical advantage. The locals are going to be one eyed about it but there was two teams at it out there from what I could see.

It all got very heated in the run up to half time when Galway started to get back into the match and being polite I'll just say that some of the Meath fans were somewhat overly raucous in their interjections during this stage of the match, the antics on the sideline from some of the Meath backroom team were of the same character and fuelled the charged atmosphere as well. John Concannon has to take more than a fair share of the blame here as well, needlessly getting involved with incidents on the pitch and sideline.

Having heard McEntee's interview with LMFM after the match, I was really struck by how much his comments post match throughout the league and again today reminded me of every post match interview Cian O'Neill gave during the 2018 league, can the refs really be the cause of every single loss? It's not the same man in the middle for each game so how likely is it?
While it's very easy to understand his frustration at results, particularly today when Meath did play well and deserved some kind of a result, maybe it'd be more worthwhile longer term if he did a better self assessment, did Meath convert enough of their possession dominance in the first half 25 minutes into scores? I would posit that they clearly did not, with the aid of a very stiff breeze why was this? Did he made any - or enough - adjustments when Conroy came into the forward line for Galway and proceed to do absolute wreck? Easy say it's bad luck or the ref instead.

Galway have a mountain of work to do ahead of welcoming our neighbours to Salthill on the 15th but even more so in the longer term. I'm fairly confident in saying that if Galway don't improve on their retention of possession on kick outs moving forward in 2020 that we won't get near as far as PJ wants to go.

moysider

Quote from: MC on March 01, 2020, 11:31:23 PM
Made me chuckle when Spillane was praising Kerry for 4 players tackling 1 man - wasn't that Tyrone's puke football!

Yeah. But of course it's different when Kerry do it. Yearrah. ye know yourself .

larryin89

You'd wonder are Kerry as good as we think , it's an accepted narrative they have built a team now ready to take down the dubs , I'm not fully convinced it will be achieved . Clifford is a fantastic footballer for example but I seen signs today he's not unmarkable . 

Lots of negative stuff today we can dwell on but Mullen will be one of the best defenders in the game if he stays put in Ireland obviously, both O Donoghues have the fire in the belly for it too. Hope Horan starts eod v Galway . Carr and cillian should be slotted in if both are good to go too
Walk-in down mchale rd , sun out, summers day , game day . That's all .