Dublin v Cork

[Northside Dub]

DUBLIN (SF v Cork) - S Cluxton; P Griffin, R McConnell, D Henry; B Cahill, B Cullen, G Brennan; D Magee, C Whelan; C Keaney, A Brogan, C Moran; T Quinn, J Sherlock, B Brogan.

Subs: J Leonard, N O'Shea, C Goggins, P Casey, S Ryan, J Magee, D Murray, D Connolly, D O'Callaghan, K Bonner.


Interested on seeing how McConnell does at full back. bit harsh on Dotsie, i dont think he did much wrong but im glad to see BB get a start!

[Gnevin]

So after 3 league games and 3 O b cup games O shea is finally moved out of full back . Looks like a strong defence pity we are playing to avoid the drop now instead of looking for league

[dubnut]

I think Bonner is most unlucky to miss out, he has been the one to roll the sleeves up and do the dirty work so far.
But sure you gotta make room to have a look at other guys.

Very strong bench should we need a shake up later on.

[Hound]

Harsh on Dotsie alright, but we need to see young Brogan in from the start. Dotsie has done as well as any forward in the league so far, but still not enough to say "you have to pick me".

No way you'd pick Keaney ahead of Bonner based on recent form, but I suppose the hope is Keaney will play himself back into form - the talent is certainly there. Personally I think dropping him for this game would have been the best plan - sometimes dropping a player can be the best thing that happens to them, and sometimes continuing to play someone who's out of form just prolongs the bad spell.

Barry Cahill was dire against Donegal. Hopefully he'll put that right on Saturday.

Ross McConnell doesnt strike me as being anywhere near nasty enough to be a good full back - but that assessment is based on very little knowledge of the chap. Of course Paddy Christie was never nasty enough either, but he did have superb fielding ability and determination to mitigate against that.

Colin Moran was our best half forward against Donegal, but he didnt have to play particularly well in his spell to get that accolade. He's a super footballer but has a proven weakness IMO, i.e., whenever he hits a wide his confidence just evaporates. I'd much prefer him to get a run at 7, where I believe he'd do better than either Brennan or Goggins.

[Romeo]

Harsh on Dotsie alright, but we need to see young Brogan in from the start. Dotsie has done as well as any forward in the league so far, but still not enough to say "you have to pick me".

No way you'd pick Keaney ahead of Bonner based on recent form, but I suppose the hope is Keaney will play himself back into form - the talent is certainly there. Personally I think dropping him for this game would have been the best plan - sometimes dropping a player can be the best thing that happens to them, and sometimes continuing to play someone who's out of form just prolongs the bad spell.

Barry Cahill was dire against Donegal. Hopefully he'll put that right on Saturday.

Ross McConnell doesnt strike me as being anywhere near nasty enough to be a good full back - but that assessment is based on very little knowledge of the chap. Of course Paddy Christie was never nasty enough either, but he did have superb fielding ability and determination to mitigate against that.

Colin Moran was our best half forward against Donegal, but he didnt have to play particularly well in his spell to get that accolade. He's a super footballer but has a proven weakness IMO, i.e., whenever he hits a wide his confidence just evaporates. I'd much prefer him to get a run at 7, where I believe he'd do better than either Brennan or Goggins.

I think the problem is that they're still looking for someone on the half forward line. Thought he looked sharper when he came on against Donegal, will be interesting to see how he goes this time out!

[timmykelleher]

Cork team announced:
CORK (SF v Dublin): P. O'Shea; E. Sexton, M. Shields, K. O'Connor; N. O'Leary, G. Spillane, A. Lynch; D. Kavanagh, N. Murphy; S. O'Brien, D. Hurley, K. McMahon; J. Masters, D. O'Connor, K. O'Sullivan.

Just the one change with Nicholas Murphy coming in for Alan O'Connor.

Hopefully they'll be able to maintain the form they showed against Tyrone.

[tayto]

Murphy back in, should be an interesting battle in midfield as he's a cracking player. Whelan was awful when he came on v Donegal, looked very rusty, hopefully he's done a lot of work int he meantime.

[Northside Dub]

Grim reading, we owe Cork a beating.......

The counties have met five times since then with Cork winning four while there was one draw.

2006: Cork 1-11 Dublin 1-10

2005: Cork 0-18 Dublin 1-6

2004: Cork 0-9 Dublin 0-9

2003: Cork 0-16 Dublin 0-8

2002: Cork 1-13 Dublin 0-10

2001: Didn't meet

2000: Dublin 2-10 Cork 1-11

[Declan]

Its not all-ticket either so hopefully a decent crowd in Parnell. For some reason I just can't get excited about the league maybe its because of the performances but we definitely don't seem to care about qualifying depsite the usual cliches from Pillar and the boys. If we don't get something from this one we're in serious trouble of relegation

[tayto]

Caffery has definately gone for experimentation rather then trying to win the thing this time tround, that's for sure, which i think is a mistake but anyway at least he's having a look at the backup players and he's giving them game time. can't beat a league game in a packed parnell park, great stuff, i think [hope to god] we'll see better dublin performances from here in, although bonner and dotsy had argueably been two of our better forward to date, b.brogan definately deserves a look.

[DUBSFORSAM1]

I think Caffrey had decided that Barry  Cahill wasn't the answer for full back so was  going to play McConnell but he got suspended....then due to injuries in mid-field he was required for a mid-field role.....now he is going back to full back....

O'Se was given a number of games to prove himself one way or the other and it seems he has proven that he isn't an option...

Lets hope that Christie comes back after his thesis and that McConnell proves a good player there also..

[INDIANA]

hell of a gamble- doesn't even play there at club level but with no options there it's wortha go i suppose- powerful cork 1-9 - if they had more consistent forwards kerry could struggle to beat them this year- could be avery low scoring game on saturday 2 good defences on paper.

[Hound]

I think its very generous to say about Dublin that because they lost a couple of games means that they dont care about the league.

I also totally disagree with the opinion that the poor displays can be put down to experimentation.

There's been feck all experimenting in my opinion.

Goalkeeper - Cluxton has played every game. No experimentation.

Full back line - Griffin and Henry have played every game. The management have given up on Barry Cahill at full back and Paddy Christie is unavailable. So we need a new full back badly. Trying out two different lads is not experimentation. Desperation maybe, but there is no choice in the matter.

Half back line - Cullen took a longer break than most over the winter. But since he's been fully fit he's back at 6. Brennan could arguably be called an experiment. But we need to look at options. I wouldnt call picking Cahill ahead of Casey an experiment.

Midfield - This is the first time Whelan has been ready to start a game, and so straight away he starts. Pillar has never really fancied Ryan, only goes back to him when other options have failed. I dont call playing Magee, O'Mahoney, McConnell at midfield an experiment. Caffrey picked his best pairing available (in his opinion) for each game.

Forwards - There has been a small amount of experimenting in the forwards. But Brogan and Keaney have played every game. The Connolly experiment as freetaker didnt last very long. Jason starts - again probably the first time this year he's fully fit. Dotsie has been on the fringes for years. BBrogan certanly deserves his chance on merit. Cosgrove is simply not regarded as first choice, so we'll only see him start if the forwards are playing really badly.

Overall I think Caffrey has done very little experimenting. Anyone who has been fully fit and who Caffrey is certain will play in the summer has started every game. I'm certain (with no more than 2 exceptions per game) Caffrey has picked what he thinks is his strongest side at that time for each game. And the team simply hasnt been good enough.....  I hope training has something to do with it, because there is no raft of players out there who are just being rested

[INDIANA]

have to say that assessment would be very close to my own bar o shea which i believe was an experiment.
dublin v meath won't be too different from teh following:

cluxton
henry
mc connell/christie
griffin
casey/cahill
cullen
brennan
whelan
magee/ryan
moran
brogan
bonner
quinn
keaney
sherlock/dotsie

only possible changes up front are the likes of connolly who 'll be an impact sub this year or vaughan if he hits form when fit or b brogan does something special in the next few games- other than that no other real options have emerged. and the "experiments" have largely been on players who've around the panel a fair while.

[tayto]

I think its very generous to say about Dublin that because they lost a couple of games means that they dont care about the league.

I also totally disagree with the opinion that the poor displays can be put down to experimentation.

There's been feck all experimenting in my opinion.

Goalkeeper - Cluxton has played every game. No experimentation.

Full back line - Griffin and Henry have played every game. The management have given up on Barry Cahill at full back and Paddy Christie is unavailable. So we need a new full back badly. Trying out two different lads is not experimentation. Desperation maybe, but there is no choice in the matter.

Half back line - Cullen took a longer break than most over the winter. But since he's been fully fit he's back at 6. Brennan could arguably be called an experiment. But we need to look at options. I wouldnt call picking Cahill ahead of Casey an experiment.

Midfield - This is the first time Whelan has been ready to start a game, and so straight away he starts. Pillar has never really fancied Ryan, only goes back to him when other options have failed. I dont call playing Magee, O'Mahoney, McConnell at midfield an experiment. Caffrey picked his best pairing available (in his opinion) for each game.

Forwards - There has been a small amount of experimenting in the forwards. But Brogan and Keaney have played every game. The Connolly experiment as freetaker didnt last very long. Jason starts - again probably the first time this year he's fully fit. Dotsie has been on the fringes for years. BBrogan certanly deserves his chance on merit. Cosgrove is simply not regarded as first choice, so we'll only see him start if the forwards are playing really badly.

Overall I think Caffrey has done very little experimenting. Anyone who has been fully fit and who Caffrey is certain will play in the summer has started every game. I'm certain (with no more than 2 exceptions per game) Caffrey has picked what he thinks is his strongest side at that time for each game. And the team simply hasnt been good enough.....  I hope training has something to do with it, because there is no raft of players out there who are just being rested

What about starting back training in jan? Where is Shane Ryan? Jayo? Cosgrove? [don't agree that he's not first choice], Cahill isnt comfortable at 3 but he's better there then O'Shea was, if we'd had a championship match there last week Cahill would have started at 3. Brennan instead of Goggins? He looks a good player but if it was do or die last tim eout Caffery would have gone with Goggins. Moran at 6 for several games, with Cullen not looking in shape due to the late start back training. Even now he's dropped Dotsy and Bonner both of whom have done better then most in order to have a look at bernard brogan and hoping keaney will play himsef into form. I think it's clear he's targeting championship and not picking his strongest 15 at any given time, a lot of players have looked half fit but if Caffery was going all out to win the league surely he'd have started back before christmas.