Journalist Write-Off 2009

[ONeill]

Here, quit thon. That's unfair advantage.

So it's

Duggan v Hayes
Heaney v Harte
Brolly v Humphries
Archer v Silke
Yossarian v Keys
Moran v Shannon
McEvoy v McKenny
Freestyle (anyone can enter week

[Sandy Hill]

Fantastic piece by Duggan!

[ONeill]

OK - Match 1

Duggan v Hayes

This time no marking criteria - just decide which article you thought you appreciated/enjoyed/liked/intrigued you the most.


KEITH DUGGAN

Dublin better watch out for the Meathies

Sat, Jun 06, 2009

SIDELINE CUT : DUBLIN AGAINST Meath has been the archetypal clash of city and country and has provided great national entertainment for the past 20 years. For the burghers of Ulster, Connacht and Munster, there is nothing better than settling back to see what kind of mischief and dark sorcery the hardy and unknowable men from Meath will inflict on the GAA's Showtime team.

Meath defy all handy categorisation. It has sacred heritage in the Hill of Tara. It has the River Slane and legendary rock festivals. It has townie-towns but is resolutely of the country. It seems to produce a freakish number of successful comedians. The sprawling Dublin metropolis has swallowed parts of the county, yet when you are bombing along the motorway, you instinctively know when you hit Meath: something feels different.

Let's face it: all football counties are a bit frightened of Meath and it is a private relief whenever the poor Dubs have to test their mood first. The Meathies will, as the cliche goes "invade the capital" tomorrow in their own sunny and boisterous way, in denims and retro Kepak jerseys signed by Gerrys McEntee and Harnan – in their own blood.

In gait, they have a take-me-as-you-find me swagger reminiscent of Burt Reynolds in his heyday. The hoors are built like Sherman tanks. Walk up Jones' Road when Meath teams are entertaining at "headquarters" and you will see it. It may be they have some secret ancient charter in the Royal County that any man standing under 6ft and not at least as broad as the narrowest oak tree in Trim just packs his bags and seeks fortune in America. Only the Meathies have the chutzpah to behave as if they genuinely "own" Croke Park. I remember seeing Meath playing Donegal in a pulverising All-Ireland semi-final back in 1990 on a big screen in the Hammersmith Odeon. Afterwards, the doorman, who was visibly impressed, told me this was the most intense crowd he had seen since the night in '73 when Bowie killed off Ziggy Stardust.

Meath have never fielded a player named "Ziggy", but you wouldn't put it past them. Think of the Meath roll call of honour: at random – Graham, Trevor, Nigel, Bill Halfpenny, Ollie, Red Collier, Bernard, Jodie, Hank, Robbie. These are not the names we see on bog-standard match day programmes. They serve to illustrate that Meath has a past and a heritage that runs slightly deeper than the scrabbling for potatoes and fishing that the rest of the population got on with.

All that history and those venerable monuments have given a druidic dimension to Meath. It was no great surprise their greatest ever manager was also a shaman of herbal medicine. I saw Seán Boylan not so long ago bounding up the steps of Croke Park, taking about five at a time.

They say around the time Meath won the Centenary Cup in 1984, a night of terrific lightning burst over the Hill of Tara and during the flashes you could see the silhouette of a small, energetic man circling a cauldron. He was wearing Dunboyne club shorts and waving a hurley in the sky and tossing various items – the famous black and white picture of the '77 Dublin team, a Cork jersey, Kildare shorts and so on – into the pot.

It probably isn't true but who knows? Boylan was – and is – the most courteous man who has ever answered a telephone. There were a few years when he was simultaneously training All-Ireland winning football teams who were like crack commando units and healing half the county of aches and sores and chestiness so he must have been busy but he gave the impression he was glad you had called.

He always thanked the Lord ("the Man Above") after one of Meath's (suspiciously frequent) "miracle" victories. His faith mattered deeply to him and he was a traditional Irish man but it was no real surprise (crazy, but not surprising) when he spoke with Dave Fanning about his lifelong friendship with Tony Wilson, the iconic music impresario and TV host from Manchester.

It is hard to imagine what the man behind Joy Division and the man behind the Murphy-Geraghty division had in common but they were like brothers. One All-Ireland Sunday, Alan Erasmus, who ran Manchester's fabled Hacienda club showed up at Boylan's house in Dunboyne. They weren't playing Cork until three. Boylan most likely took the clubbing man to mass. He probably gave him a run in the back garden to see if he might slot in at half-back. Boylan's combination of bonhomie and iron will were borne out by the attitude of his teams. They were remorseless and unrepentant.

In 1996, the Mayo folks found them unbearable in victory but, like Churchill, the Meathies were unbeatable in defeat. When they were beaten, they never complained. They were always busy men. I once suggested meeting a well-known Meath man for "lunch" and he was genuinely mystified by the idea. They just disappeared for the summer.

We knew that what we saw – the big bridge at Navan or the gorgeous walk on the way to see Dylan or the Boss at Slane Castle – was not the real Meath. We knew there was another place just out of sight, dark and majestic and that on some field or other, their prized football teams were going through bone-shuddering training sessions. As Dustin sang in his classic Charlene cover: I've Been To Paradise But I've Never Been to Meath.

It is no coincidence Meath have not won an All-Ireland final since the back-door system was implemented. I think once the knock-out days of old were abolished, football lost much of its life and death romance for the Meath men. They thrilled to the life-on-the-tightrope sensation. You know Philippe Petit, the genius who walked the wire between the World Trade Centre Towers in 1974? Well, he was French all right but they say he has Nobber blood in him.

The Meath psyche does not have the patience for the forgiveness – the softness – permitted by the back-door system. To Meathies, the back-door system makes as much sense as non-alcoholic beer.

But they will make an exception for Dublin.

© 2009 The Irish Times

LIAM HAYES:

Football Analyst, Liam Hayes -

Big games set up for underdogs

Kerry and Dublin go into their matches on shaky ground and will have choices to make if they end up in the bloodbath of the qualifiers


Today Kerry and Dublin start the march towards a new and defining era for both counties but, in so doing, each team is leaving its respective dressing room in Fitzgerald Stadium and Croke Park with quite possibly the weakest starting 15 we have ever seen emerge from either camp, for the first round of the championship, in a quarter of a century or so.

Pat Gilroy is doing so as a matter of choice. Jack O'Connor's decision has been partly forced. Both team bosses, however, might be facing into even tougher decisions when they go to choose their teams for their second games in the championship. This might be infinitely more pressurized, in truth, because Kerry and Dublin look like they might just be plunging into the darkest and bloodiest All Ireland Championship qualifying pool we have ever had the pleasure of observing from close up.

Picture it like this.

Dublin lose to Meath. It doesn't matter a whit whether they lose by one point, or half a dozen points. Gilroy, suddenly, will find himself questioned by fans and journalists, and former Dublin footballers, daily, sometimes hourly. His answers will melt before his eyes, such will be the rabid, heated demand for more answers, and better answers.

Privately, Gilroy will have to answer some questions for himself – and himself (and Mickey Whelan) alone. Does he continue down a road of change? Does he turn back? Bryan Cullen? Ciarán Whelan? Jason Sherlock? The other leaders and fathers of this Dublin team over the last eight and a half years or so? Like old gutsy, dependable Shane Ryan?

Bottom line, for his second game, does Gilroy put out the best football team Dublin can muster, or does he continue to name a Dublin team which is bravely, but quite clearly, being built for medium-to-long term results, more than quick and early victories in the short term?

Will Pat and Mickey stand by Ger Brennan at number six, and will they endure the possible slow growth of Ross McConnell in the middle of the field, and Mark Davoren at full-forward, and Denis Bastick, Alan Hubbard, Paul Flynn and Paddy Andrews around the field? Four of the seven men who form the spine of the Dublin team which presents itself to Meath in Croke Park will need Pat and Mickey's support far more in the weeks ahead, than they did in the week just past in which the Dublin managerial duo spent their time slowly writing names on pieces of paper.

And picture this in Fitzgerald Stadium today. Kerry lose to Cork. Jack O'Connor looks in a mirror, and perhaps quietly snatches glances at the footballers re-filling their kit bags with wet towels, and sweaty togs and socks. Do you reckon he will think for sure that Tommy Griffin is the best centre-back he's got, or that Tadhg Kennelly and Michéal Quirke are as good a midfield pairing as he or anyone else could find in the whole of the Kingdom? And do you think he will look over at Darren O'Sullivan and curse his luck at the feckin' GAA laws in Kerry which stop him from naming his own man to lead his team into battle?

Also, with Kieran Donaghy lost for the opening months of the summer, and with Darragh ó Sé possibly only on call for emergencies in games in 2009, O'Connor knows in his heart that this Kerry team is significantly inferior right down the middle of the field, than either of the two Kerry teams which earned All Ireland titles on his behalf in 2004 and 2006.

O'Connor, in my book, whatever happens this afternoon and over the course of the next few months, is certainly a hero. Coming back for more as Kerry team manager and doing so, so quickly after his initial three-year reign, shows him to be as strong and courageous as I always assumed he was. He's either entirely mad, or completely honest. I'm going to go for honest.

He, no more than tens of thousands of Kerry folk, didn't like me telling him that Sam in '04 and '06 had the stuffing, and most of the goodness, kicked out of it by the atrocious performances by their opponents on each occasion. O'Connor, I guess, still wants an ultimate victory, and in choosing to come back and look for exactly that, he has put himself in a position where he might have to spend the next three or four years building, and re-building, and deftly refining the next great Kerry football team. The raw talent is all around him in his dressing room, but the work for him is still going to be continuous, and occasionally over-powering.

Courage and honesty has brought him back, and both qualities look like they could be tested and backed up a little by an early loss to Cork in the magnificent setting of Fitzgerald Stadium. Such a loss will, if it occurs, not be as shocking to O'Connor and those who sit with him when he selects his team, as it will be to the rest of the people in Kerry and Gaelic football supporters throughout the country.

Kerry and Dublin are both sending out teams which are looking for trouble in their respective first round games today. Cork appear to be ready and waiting to take up that invitation, and with some gusto. And after playing quite poorly on three occasions against Kerry last summer, and still almost winning every time, Conor Counihan will have his lads mentally prepared to decisively win a game which would be properly character-building. Unlike last year's Munster final which was a cheeky, snatch 'n' grab performance, and was only fleetingly worthy of comparison to any of the fine Cork victories over Kerry in living memory.

Every single line on the Cork team looks strong, and capable of doing the job required in Killarney today. Both lines of defence look the part, and each line is also well aware that allowing Kerry to take three nice, big leads in each of the three games last summer, ultimately was the entire team's undoing. The Cork defence has to get on top and dominate, individually, from the very start. I think they can, and I also believe that in the middle third of the field Cork can be in a dominant position by half-time, especially so if Pearse O'Neill goes charging through Griffin once or twice.

Furthermore, there's skill upon skill upon skill in the Cork full-forward line – and, yet, it's this line, as always with very good Cork football teams, which worries people most.

If only there was a real, untouchable self-confidence, and an unforgiving sense of ruthlessness about the men who get to wear the numbers 13, 14 and 15 on Cork's better football teams! And, since this day of all days in the championship is a day for absolute honesty from the Cork football manager, as well as the Kerry football manager, we know that Counihan must be privately owning up to the exact same sentiment.

Cork and Meath can win today, there's no doubt about that. To do so, however, this Cork team may have to show that it can out-gun the best of them, from the first minute to the last. Cork have to prove that they have a forward division to match the abilities and the instincts of the rest of the team. Meath, meanwhile, more than anything else, have to prove that they can defend properly against Dublin in Croke Park.

Typically, if Meath shut out Dublin early on, that's how it can remain throughout. Meath have to be solid in defence, and just as importantly they have to stop Conal Keaney and Alan Brogan in either corner from winning very much ball at all. Do that, and Meath can be there.

Dublin will be nervous in their defence, and rightly so. The Meath forward line remains in the top-five scoring threats in the country, and against a Dublin defence in which a new number three and number six are both looking to settle into the game as quickly as possible, Meath will have the opportunity in the first 10 or 20 minutes of doubling the pressure on the entire Dublin team by building up a fairly decisive lead. Meath have the ability to get in front and stretch out a bit of a lead, and if this happens Gilroy will have the choice of watching, and waiting for, his new and experimental team to chase down a lead, or else ask Whelan, Cullen and co to get out there and do a quick repair job for him and his first choice team.

I think Gilroy and Whelan might be slow to do that – certainly they will not be quick to second guess themselves in their first championship game together. They might decide to sit it out, and endure it, and that scenario for Dublin is more likely to end up in defeat rather than a stunning, comeback victory.

lhayes@tribune.ie

June 7, 2009

http://www.tribune.ie/sport/gaelic-football/article/2009/jun/07/football-analyst-liam-hayes-big-games-set-up-for-u/

[thebandit]

Duggan by 6/7 points

[Carmen Stateside]

Duggan

[Square Ball]

Duggan

[Buckass]

C'mon giys..overlook your dislike of Hayes. They're 2 very different pieces. Duggan's is v. funny but Hayes is more in-depth.That's a pretty fine piece of writing and PRE-match analysis.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

To be fair to Hayes, he could very easily have been bang on the money. Despite that though, just for the enjoyment of the read, Duggan has it.

[JMohan]

Actually the funniest opening paragraphs are always Neil Francis' in the Tribune ... after that he loses me ......

[Square Ball]

Dugans piece kept me reading and interested, Hayes's piece diddnt therefore I voted for his, plain and simple

[heffo]

Kieran Shannon
Enda McEvoy
Ewan McKenny (all Sunday Tribune)
Damien Lawlor
Dermot Crowe (both Sindo)
Liam Horan (Examiner)
Michael Foley
Denis Walsh (Both Sunday Times)
Micheal Clifford (Daily Mail)

ewna mc kenna is just a WUM - no way should be be there

Agree absolutely - he was described in the Tribune yesterday as an 'ace tipster' - all his predictions were wrong.

[heffo]

Kieran Shannon is probably one of the best writers out there - regardless of persuasion

That said I thought he did the GAA and Cork right by his work - but it was good investigative journalism.

Most of his articles from that period read like press releases wrote by Donal Og - zero analysis

[JMohan]

Kieran Shannon is probably one of the best writers out there - regardless of persuasion

That said I thought he did the GAA and Cork right by his work - but it was good investigative journalism.

Most of his articles from that period read like press releases wrote by Donal Og - zero analysis

It was obvious who's side he was on - I'll not argue that.

I'm just trying to give a little credit where it's due.

The detail was impressive - rather than simply sitting on his couch writing it was obvious he had made some attempt to get some detail and find out what were the players side of the story.

His other pieces, including on Dara O'Cinneide, Eoin Bradley recently, Damien Cassidy were good informative pieces with interesting detail. It's obvious he interviews the guys not sits at home putting it together based on Google searches like many others.

I'm not interested in opinions, I'd rather get facts.

[ONeill]

Duggan's is a wee bit misty eyed - I'm sure much of what he says about Meath men and the county could be equally desciptive of many counties in Ireland, but it's enjoyable as long as it's not taken seriously. Hayes' article is steady and relatively informed but could've been written by a few lads on here.

Duggan for me.

[Croí na hÉireann]

Hayes' is an improvement on then usual tripe he trots out but it's still Duggan for me...