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...cause we're going to struggle physically in the middle third for periods next Sunday as most teams have this year against Cork. .... cause Cork like to bully teams into submission using their strength through the spine of their team

Where the heck is this idea coming from?
Is this from the lazy analysis that the media did a few years ago of how the Cork team are tall?
Or is it from James McCartan's excuse for his team that they couldn't compete with Cork were so big?

I defy anyone to produce specific instances of Cork using their strength more than other teams to "bully" teams?
If anything Cork have one of the most tippy tappy football teams in the country. Where other teams drop men back and gang tackle the ball carrier, Cork to me overly stick to one to one marking and shadowing the player with the ball.

Cork end up dominating some teams by monopolising possession. Their favourite kick-out is the short one to one of their full back line. They'll hand pass the ball more than any other team (check the stats!). They'll use this to get one of their backs (half backs or even full backs) to carry the ball up the field hopefully creating an overlap.

Mayo discovered the way to counteract them last year. Tackle aggressively (/foul) from the front. Don't let them break from deep and the Cork attack will become bogged down quickly.

But nobody has cleaned a man out of it with an elbow to the head after the ball has gone either.

Timmy you are some langer. there has been no head butts or grabbing fellows by the throat either as the CCCC has not seen anything or maybe has been told not to see anything by The Sunday Game/Christy Cooney, and that is only 2 of the Cork offences to date.

As the song says: "Dry your eyes mate."


I have very little time for Darragh O'Sé's "Yerra, kerry are great" column in the times but even he admits:

"For that reason there isn't a whole pile of sympathy for Kerry out there. Nobody is shedding tears about us. And rightly so. .....
And you can't expect sympathy. Saturday was a day that was going to come. It was all going to catch up on us.

We have to be manly, dust ourselves down, stand up and accept it."

I can see Cork using the short kickouts similar to Tyrone in an attempt to draw Dublin out/ secure guaranteed possession.

..and, while we are on the CCCC....has any incident been reviewed by them since T'OSe ?

Not a f**king peep Mikey, a f**king joke the whole CCCC at this stage, you nearly start to be paranoid that Cooney's wants to present one cup to a Cork captain this year.

But nobody has cleaned a man out of it with an elbow to the head after the ball has gone either.

Come on the rebels!

Paddy Power is doing a book on the first man to be sent off.

Interesting..... without looking at paddypower.com I'm guessing...

Joint favourite: O'Leary, Galvin
Followed by:
D O'Sé
Pearse O'Neill
Miskella
Tomas O'Sé
alan O'Connor
Graham Canty

We could be down to 11 a side by the end 

Any views on Dara ó Sé's jab to the Meath full-forward's nose?

What was the meath full-forward running into him (twice) for when the ball was out of play?

How did the panel brush over it so quickly?

How did the referee miss it when it happened right beside (/behind) him? (I think he was noting the score)

The Kerry lads put on a big show of pushing and shoving once yer man went down.
Were they rattled that Dara could have been given the line?

"While on the topic of Tony Davis did anyone else find him ignorant and limelight hogging last night, he cut across the other two analysts on more than one occasion."

Yep. What makes it worse is he never adds anything meaningful when he does interrupt. I thought Tommy Lyons was cutting across Brolly once or twice as well.

I don't always agree with Brolly but he makes some interesting points and you can tell he has actually thought about the game. Or a least they would be interesting if he had a chance to make them fully.

Anthony Tohill can be decent enough at times as well. However with the likes of Davis bleating incessantly and with Tohill having the manners not to cut across other he rarely gets enough time to speak.

[I saw Darren O'Sullivan slip and do the splits at one point]

The surface conditions today in Croke park were very poor.

I think its unacceptable to have 30 lads out playing on a dangerous surface like that today in an All Ireland Semi Final. Surprised that there was just one major injury when Bray hurt his shoulder... although I saw Darren O'Sullivan slip and do the splits at one point. I'd say his adductors will be painful tomorrow! 

Apart from being dangerous I thought that it ruined the Game as well.

I thought that was Donnacha Walsh and he was subbed almost immediately after.
I was presuming he had injured himself but it was not mentioned.

Pity both of them cant lose.

I'd accuse you of begrudgery except I feel the same about the hurling 

Why was the Mcguigan blasts Splliane thread deleted?

Conor Counihan had it removed.
We do not need that kind of article posted up for Kerry players to see.
We do not need Kerry players thinking: "so they think they are going to hammer us..... "
Most unhelpful.

A box is a box and whether a man goes down or remains on his feet, should be treated as such - red card.

But that is the point we are trying to make

If a man doesnt go down the guy who done it wont be punished, end of story

How else is the man who done it going to get what he deserves if the referee's attention isnt drawn to it?

In the 1990 all-ireland Colm O'Neill gave Mick Lyons a nice clip on the jaw.
Mick turned and went back into position.
Ref did his job and sent O'Neill off without a player losing respect by rolling on the floor.

As mentioned previously in the thread a ref can't just presume a player has been hit because he is on the ground.

Imagine if a player A ran at player B in an all-ireland final.
When player B raises his hands to fend off A, player A could (if he had a lack of respect for himself and his opponent) collapse to the ground clutching his face. Imagine how tainted our game and player A's first all-ireland would be if the ref bought into this sham and sent player B off.   

Why has Tommy Walsh been dropped?

I thought it was the switch of him out to centre half forward that had helped disrupt the Dubs kickouts? (I didn't see the game just heard bits and pieces) Did he not play well in that match?
Is he not a far better player than Darren O'Sullivan?

Is he injured?

"What do you think he should have done?"

Wasn't it in the Charlie Redmond Laochra Gael program that Charlie highlighted the actions of the Cork corner back (Mark Farr??)

There was a bit of a scuffle between the 2 and Charlie threw a swipe.

In came the ref with the notebook drawn only for the corner back to get up and tell the ref there was nothing in it.

It's not soccer for feck sake. You try to play the game honourably.

After that anybody could meath anybody.

I didn't realise meathing someone had now entered standard lingo.
Poor old Mayo got a right meathing in the 1/4 final :-)