Eamonn Fitz. Not up to his ratings?

[imtommygunn]

Murphy was motm in last year's ai final and enright was the second best corner back in ireland this year!

Bb got out in front of him... He gets out in front of everyone.

[sid waddell]

Fitzmaurice is a good manager but no more than that. He's certainly not the genius he's been hailed as.

It's all about narrative.

The narrative last year was that Fitzmaurice pulled a master stroke by bringing on Donaghy in the drawn game with Mayo. The reality was that it was an act of desperation similar to bringing on Galvin in this year's final, but one which got lucky. Donaghy had barely featured all year for Kerry.

The narrative in the final was that his tactics completely neutralised Donegal. The reality was that they got two flukey goals at vital stages - a deflected shot dropping into Geaney's arms and an unforced goalkeeping error from Durcan. If one of those, particlarly the second, hadn't happened Donegal would likely have gone on to win as they'd got to grips with the way Kerry were playing.

Kerry were unbelieveably lucky to win last year's All-Ireland. They got every break going. Keegan getting sent off, Mayo continually making naive tactical mistakes, Enright not being red carded, Aidan O'Shea and Cillian O'Connor crashing into each other, dodgy penalties in the Mayo replay, Dublin being beaten by Donegal, two flukey goals in the final.

Even this year, Kerry were lucky to get to where they got. Cork should certainly have beaten them the first day out and Tyrone could well have put them away with a bit more luck and/or assurance in front of goal.

[Il Bomber Destro]

Murphy was motm in last year's ai final and enright was the second best corner back in ireland this year!

Bb got out in front of him... He gets out in front of everyone.

No, he doesn't. Barrett had him for a lot of ball against Mayo the last day out. There were plenty of better corner backs than Enright this year - Ronan McNamee, McCarron, Philly McMahon, Dermy McBride, Ryan Wylie to name a few.

Murphy is only suited to a very specific type of player and I think Fitzmaurice knows this which is why he is not a guaranteed starter on a team with a pourous defence.

[ashman]

Fitzmaurice is a good manager but no more than that. He's certainly not the genius he's been hailed as.

It's all about narrative.

The narrative last year was that Fitzmaurice pulled a master stroke by bringing on Donaghy in the drawn game with Mayo. The reality was that it was an act of desperation similar to bringing on Galvin in this year's final, but one which got lucky. Donaghy had barely featured all year for Kerry.

The narrative in the final was that his tactics completely neutralised Donegal. The reality was that they got two flukey goals at vital stages - a deflected shot dropping into Geaney's arms and an unforced goalkeeping error from Durcan. If one of those, particlarly the second, hadn't happened Donegal would likely have gone on to win as they'd got to grips with the way Kerry were playing.

Kerry were unbelieveably lucky to win last year's All-Ireland. They got every break going. Keegan getting sent off, Mayo continually making naive tactical mistakes, Enright not being red carded, Aidan O'Shea and Cillian O'Connor crashing into each other, dodgy penalties in the Mayo replay, Dublin being beaten by Donegal, two flukey goals in the final.

Even this year, Kerry were lucky to get to where they got. Cork should certainly have beaten them the first day out and Tyrone could well have put them away with a bit more luck and/or assurance in front of goal.

The bottom line is that Fitzmaurice took over a team in serious decline and overall has done a wonderful job.  There are no such thing as geniuses in sports management.  Fitzmaurice got plenty of luck the year he won all Ireland but he had the team in a position to benefit from that luck. 

No one serious ever suggested he was a genius .

[imtommygunn]

Murphy was motm in last year's ai final and enright was the second best corner back in ireland this year!

Bb got out in front of him... He gets out in front of everyone.

No, he doesn't. Barrett had him for a lot of ball against Mayo the last day out. There were plenty of better corner backs than Enright this year - Ronan McNamee, McCarron, Philly McMahon, Dermy McBride, Ryan Wylie to name a few.

Murphy is only suited to a very specific type of player and I think Fitzmaurice knows this which is why he is not a guaranteed starter on a team with a pourous defence.

No nepotism in there at all?

Enright is a very good corner back. Not sure why you don't see that. There are few better about.

I don't entirely disagree on murphy though you chose probably the best game he ever had as an example of why you think he was poor!

[Il Bomber Destro]

Murphy was motm in last year's ai final and enright was the second best corner back in ireland this year!

Bb got out in front of him... He gets out in front of everyone.

No, he doesn't. Barrett had him for a lot of ball against Mayo the last day out. There were plenty of better corner backs than Enright this year - Ronan McNamee, McCarron, Philly McMahon, Dermy McBride, Ryan Wylie to name a few.

Murphy is only suited to a very specific type of player and I think Fitzmaurice knows this which is why he is not a guaranteed starter on a team with a pourous defence.

No nepotism in there at all?

Enright is a very good corner back. Not sure why you don't see that. There are few better about.

I don't entirely disagree on murphy though you chose probably the best game he ever had as an example of why you think he was poor!

I didn't say he was poor. I just pointed towards his defensive weaknesses as some are saying he is one of the main options for the Kerry full back line in the future with O'Se and O'Mahony likely to depart the scene. He will likely be playing in a position I think he will be a weakness in.

On Enright, I really don't get the hype about him. I've seen him live four times this year, twice against Cork and Tyrone and Dublin. He did a decent job on Hurley in one of the games against Cork but Hurley has been fairly routinely snuffed out by loads of corner backs in Championship football over the past few seasons. I felt McCurry got a lot of joy from play off him when Tyrone played Kerry and Brogan had him beaten to every single ball only that he was dealing with the ball like it was a bar of soap.

He also had that nightmare against Mayo in the replay last year and I recall him being taken ashore against Tyrone in the league game last year (where O'Donoghue destroyed us) in the first 20 minutes because McCurry was giving him the runaround. For me, he's only been talked about in high regard this year because he plays for a team who made it to an All Ireland final.

It's all about context, David Moran was favourite for POTY before going into the game on Sunday despite only have two good games all year round and one of them was a non-contest turkey shoot. I happen to think Enright is far removed from a top class corner back.