GAA books

Started by Jinxy, August 17, 2011, 12:13:06 PM

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BennyCake

Kerry v Dublin was a good read.  Loved the bit about Micko, and him being an auld rogue.  He always went to a match with one football, came home with two  :D

I must take a stab at Jack O'Connor's book sometime, what with him criticising us Northerners and all.


ONeill

I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames.

cornafean

Looking forward bigtime to Declan's book.

The title is a bit unfortunate though, for a Fermanagh supporter in 2011 ;)
Boycott Hadron. Support your local particle collider.

heffo


ONeill

It chronicles the intercounty season from the individual persepctives of Paddy Cunningham, Stevie McDonnell, Val Andrews, Aidan Carr, Mickey Conlan, Kevin Cassidy, Barry Owens, Dick Clerkin and Ryan McMenamin with a few eye-opening revelations from each protagonist. Cassidy's story will be some read.
I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames.

Milltown Row2

Does Paddy talk about the wee dance he does before hitting the frees? I'd love to hear about that  :P
None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an after thought. Ea

rrhf

Big dick getting some   attention.  Not my kinda book oneill.


ONeill

Quote from: Milltown Row2 on October 15, 2011, 09:15:24 PM
Does Paddy talk about the wee dance he does before hitting the frees? I'd love to hear about that  :P

Straight after the Galls tapping up chapter.
I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames.

ONeill

Quote from: rrhf on October 15, 2011, 09:23:48 PM
Big dick getting some   attention.  Not my kinda book oneill.

You have a gripe with Big Dick?
I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames.

Milltown Row2

Always on cue O'Neil, always
None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an after thought. Ea

ONeill

Big Joe's book.

Extract.


Tyrone player mocked Marsden after wrongful dismissal in 2003 final
By Martin Breheny/Kernan

I've seen a lot on football fields and I have to say that nothing ever annoyed or frustrated me more than what happened to Diarmaid Marsden in the 2003 All-Ireland final. I'll say it straight -- his dismissal against Tyrone cost Armagh the title.

I haven't a doubt that if Diarmaid had been there over that crucial finishing stretch, Armagh would have won the two-in-a-row. Now, if he had done something that warranted a dismissal we could live with it.

Do the crime, do the time and all that.

In this case, there was no crime but plenty of time. Well, certainly enough to sway what had been a tight, tense game where inches were always going to be crucial. Instead of having Diarmaid's intelligent presence on the run-in, we were down to 14 men after he had been sent off by referee Brian White.

Tyrone's Philip Jordan ran at Diarmaid, who instinctively put up his arm in self-defence. Jordan went down as if he'd been hit by a crowbar, the Tyrone crowd starting baying and suddenly Diarmaid was in the referee's firing line.

If White saw the incident clearly, I have no idea how he could have sent Diarmaid off on a straight red card, which implied he had been guilty of striking. Was the ref serious? A guy is running straight at you and you're supposed to stand there with your hands down by your sides and take what's coming?

I was disgusted by the actions of at least one Tyrone player who mockingly clapped Diarmaid off the pitch. There's an honour among players -- or at least there should be -- and to see a man gloating at an opponent's bad luck in an All-Ireland final is something I could never understand. It's not the GAA where I was brought up or one I ever want to be part of.

Diarmaid's dismissal meant he would miss the first game of the 2004 championship and placed a black mark against his name which had to be challenged.

We were furious that he had been wronged. Diarmaid was conscious that, among other things, his little girl, Lara, who was too young to understand at the time, might ask him in years to come why was he sent off in an All-Ireland final. He could explain as much as he wanted that it was an injustice, but the record books would show otherwise unless he had his name cleared.

You would have thought that the Games Administration Committee might have decided in favour of Diarmaid on the basis of video evidence. But, no, he was suspended and we had no option but to set about having it overturned. The final port of call in that frustrating process was Central Council and, to their credit, they acknowledged that an injustice had been done. The suspension was struck out and while it was of no value to us or Diarmaid in footballing terms, it at least cleared a good man's name.

Irish Independent
Saturday October 15 2011



Facing up to bankruptcy and end of my Tribal tribulations
A wise man once said: "There's no tow bar on a hearse." How right he was. I suppose we all tend to lose sight of that from time to time, but it's one of the truest sayings of all.

We all look back at particular years in our lives and analyse them. You could say they fall roughly into three categories: the great years, the tricky years, and the tough years you're glad are over. All you can hope for is that the first outweighs the others. For me, the year 2010 will always be, very definitely, lodged in the third category.

Think of September, and you think of All-Ireland finals. When you're managing a county that has reasonable prospects of making serious progress in the championship, you're in an exciting place.

So, when I took over as Galway manager in September 2009, I felt that, with a bit of luck, we could be in Croke Park for the All-Ireland final a year later. Galway is that sort of county -- as they showed in 1998 and 2001 -- when they get a run going, they grow with the challenge.

There's no point in taking on a job unless you aim to make it work, so my ambitions were at their very highest when I started working with Galway. Who knew what the future held for us? Maybe, September 2010 would be a memorable month for Galway and me.

It wasn't.

Some weeks earlier, I had quit Galway, having been left with no option but to resign after being told that I would have to make changes to my back-room team. I couldn't accept that interference, and left.

It was all very disappointing but it certainly wasn't the only setback I had to deal with at that time. Away from football, I was staring at a deep and personal crisis.

It had been looming for a long time but there's still something chilling about turning on the television to watch the news and seeing your face on the screen, accompanied by a report that you've been declared bankrupt.

There isn't much to laugh at when you're hit with something as traumatic as bankruptcy, but it was comical how the banks seemed to think that I had salted away millions from my days in management. Maybe some of the guys in these banks can't differentiate between Alex Ferguson and the manager of a Gaelic football team, but they definitely thought that management had made me wealthy. It took me a good while to convince the banks that my football activities hadn't made me a cross between Bill Gates and Donald Trump.

I don't want to give the impression that I'm solely blaming the banks for our financial crash. We went in with our eyes open, the same as many others, north and south. People will say that those who went into property were greedy, but it's not that simple.

It was a very natural fit for us as we were already in the estate agency, mortgage, letting, insurance and property businesses. I had started it all off as a small insurance business in the early 1990s. I built up a good business, developed it further over the years and, in due course, my sons Stephen and Aaron joined me. With the lads aboard, it was a chance to expand further, which we did.

I loved the idea of having a business that could provide jobs for my family, all the more since we were running it from an office attached to our house in our hometown of Crossmaglen. To me, it was all about providing security for my wife and five sons, so it seemed logical to expand the business into property at a time when it was very much the thing to do. It worked well for a few years but, unfortunately, we were in too deep when the crash came.

I'm prepared to take responsibility for what happened but, as so many others in our situation discovered, the banks don't want to know you when things start going wrong.

By the time the bankruptcy was formally announced, I had already left Galway. My departure from the Tribesmen is another reason I won't recall much of 2010 with any great fondness.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy my spell in Galway, but I left with a sense of frustration that it was unfinished business. Looking back at my Galway experience, a number of things strike me. For a start, we were desperately unlucky with injuries.

There was also a problem with a lack of consistency. When we played well, it was very good but the bad periods could be terrible. I got a shock in the opening league game against Mayo in Castlebar. I had heard so much about the famous Galway-Mayo rivalry that I was looking forward to a real battle, but it didn't happen. Mayo won easily and I was really disappointed by the lack of mental toughness Galway showed that day.

It's all very well being a skilful side, but you need more than that. Afterwards, I was accused of trying to turn Galway into Armagh replicas which, of course, wasn't true. However, I did want to make them harder in certain respects. I remember a Galway man tapping me on the shoulder after the 2004 National League final where Kerry had just beaten Galway by a point and saying, "Joe, that's how football should be played."

It was, undoubtedly, an enjoyable game to watch. However, there was very little close marking and no real intensity. Sure, there were plenty of great skills on display but they don't always win games.

My Galway friend seemed happy to have contributed to a game like that, even if they lost. I also presumed the Galway supporter was implying something about how Armagh played so I couldn't resist reminding him what had just happened. I turned around and countered, "Yeah, but ye lost."

A few weeks after Wexford knocked Galway out of the 2010 championship, I met John Joe Holleran (football board chairman), Seamus O'Grady (secretary) and Milo Costello (treasurer) for a review and I came away believing that everything was in place for another year. I mentioned some changes that I wanted to make and I thought I had agreement on them.

But then I got a call from John Joe and he told me that, while they wanted me to continue, I would have to change my back-room team. I took that to mean I would have to get rid of John McCloskey as trainer and Paul Hatton as strength and conditioning coach, something I was not prepared to do.

Once I was prevented from appointing the people I felt would do the best job, then I had no option but to resign. I was, after all, bringing these people in for the good of Galway football.

In hindsight, perhaps some of the changes I suggested at the meeting didn't go down all that well. Maybe those suggestions caused a change of heart between the meeting and the phone call to tell me that I would have to alter my back-room team.

I was disappointed my tenure ended the way it did, but I wouldn't have a bad word said against any of the players or indeed most of the people I dealt with in Galway. I was just sorry that I couldn't take them where they were trying to go. I'm also sorry that we didn't get a chance to continue working together.

However, one thing that surprises me is that, despite the unsettling effect on Galway of changing manager after just one season, they did the same thing again this year and removed Tomas O Flatharta.

Why Galway keep doing this is beyond me. Players need stability and changing manager every year makes no sense. It's no longer my concern but I feel sorry for the Galway players, who I still believe are an excellent group with the potential to be very competitive at the highest level.

They aren't being given the best chance to do themselves justice. For their sake, I hope the decision-makers recognise that what happened over the last two seasons was bad for Galway football.

As for me, well, things didn't work out. But I shook hands on the way in and again on the way out, which is as it should be.
I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames.

Orangemac

Obviously the sending off was harsh but it didn't cost Armagh the game. We had been hanging on to Tyrone's coat tails the whole game mainly due to them missing several goal chances and I don't think the sending off was any kind of turning point

If Stevie McDonnell had scored that goal at that stage of the game then we may have won as it would have left Tyrone shell shocked with minutes to go.

Will be interesting to read Joe's take on the 2005 sf and the substitution of McGeeney in particular.

tyroneman

QuoteThe final port of call in that frustrating process was Central Council and, to their credit, they acknowledged that an injustice had been done. The suspension was struck out and while it was of no value to us or Diarmaid in footballing terms, it at least cleared a good man's name.

This is the one indecent that will run and run for generations. Every Armagh fella I know thinks this was an injustice of the highest order. Every Tyrone fella, less so.......

From what I remember it was overturned on a technicality, not on any substantive merit. Raise your hands and put them into an opponents face - you go, self defence or not, them's the rules, even if a fella is running at you (which Jordan did, no argument).

Marsden was a great footballer and not (that I can recall) especially dirty in any way, shape or form but he broke the rules and got punished for it. End of.

Rule 5.1: To strike or attempt to strike an opponent with arm, elbow, hand or knee
Rule 5.3: To behave in any way which is dangerous to an opponent

Either of those 2 applied.

QuoteI haven't a doubt that if Diarmaid had been there over that crucial finishing stretch, Armagh would have won the two-in-a-row

Tyrone were easily the better team up to the sending off. In fact that incident seemed to galvanise Armagh and they put up more of a show after it than before.

Think it will be a fascinating book though and like Orangemac I will be very interested to hear Joe's thoughts on taking Geezer off in 2005, which effectively gave Sean C the freedom of the pitch.

Orchardman

Tyrone man, dont give us your rubbish about letter of the law etc, it was brutal was phily jordan did, marsden should never have been sent off. Besides that, i dont agree we would have won with him on the field. I thought it was a shite final and we wer the worst team on the day. On the other hand, 05 is the one that definately got away.....

regarding the geezer decision, it was already published in yesterdays indo, along with the other two pieces that have been posted here earlier. Nothing to chat about really, quite boring and too much has been made of it, here it is:


Management is about making decisions. It's about backing your judgment and living with the consequences.

It's about being your own person, although not to the extent that you ignore what everybody else says. Indeed, as far as team selection or changes in Armagh were concerned, I never made a decision without discussing it with Paul Grimley, John McCloskey and John Rafferty, when he came on board. That's why they were there.

One of the hardest calls I had to make during a game was in the 2005 All-Ireland semi-final against Tyrone. I took off Kieran McGeeney after 63 minutes and sent in Enda McNulty, a decision that I knew would have repercussions if we lost.

'Geezer' was more than just our captain, he was very much the on-field leader, the enforcer who got things done. The Armagh public loved him, his colleagues looked up to him and I trusted him implicitly, both as a player and as a man.

It was against that background that I found it very difficult to take him off. As it happened, we lost the semi-final by a point which, inevitably, left me open to accusations of getting it badly wrong.

I know that Kieran was very put out about it, which was understandable. I got some stick for taking him off from some sections of the media and the Armagh supporters, but I still maintain it was the right thing to do. I have no regrets about it and, having looked back, I remain convinced that it certainly wasn't the reason we lost that game.

It was claimed afterwards -- by some people who wanted to make mischief -- that it was a decision I took on my own without reference to Paul Grimley and John McCloskey, but nothing could be further from the truth. Although the call was, ultimately, down to me, they were both heavily involved in the decision.

The balance of power in that game had see-sawed over and back all afternoon, Tyrone making much of the running with us coming back at them. Indeed, we took the lead for the first time in the 58th minute.

However, there was something else going on which was of concern to us. 'Geezer' hadn't been in the game for quite some time and certainly wasn't making the impact that we needed at that stage. I spoke to John and Paul to see what they thought.

After our discussions, I felt it would be best to wait a few minutes and see how things developed.

Besides, other things were happening which needed attention. Andy Mallon was beginning to have some problems with Peter Canavan so we needed to address that. Enda McNulty, who was sitting on the bench and eager for action, had a good record against Canavan so putting him into the full-back line and releasing Andy to the half-back line looked a decent option.

'Geezer' still hadn't got into the game, so I went back to speak to Paul and John.

"Things haven't changed lads ... what should we do about it?"

We talked for a little while about bringing Enda into the full-back line, switching out Andy and taking off 'Geezer'. Andy had plenty of pace which he could use to our advantage from the half-back line.

"Get Enda ready," I told John.

When we lost, it was claimed in some quarters that taking 'Geezer' off had cost us the game. I expected that people might make that connection but I don't believe it to be true. Lots of great players have been taken off over the years and, while it's always a tough decision to make, that's what management are there for.

Kieran has been managing Kildare for the past few years and now knows how lonely and difficult a role it can be. I'm sure he will be in management for a long time to come and will probably find himself faced with the sort of decision I had to take in that 2005 All-Ireland semi-final.

What's more, it will hurt him just as much as it hurt me when I took him off that day.

All I can say is that it was done with the right intentions.

Even Mickey Harte acknowledged there was method in what I was doing and pointed out in his autobiography that it would have been regarded as a masterstroke if we had won. But we didn't, so I took the flak.

- Martin Breheny/Joe Kernan