Dubs for Sam 2009

[highorlow]

.....well Liam Hayes thinks so anyhow

Football Analyst, Liam Hayes - Capital returns at last
Dublin have used the league to find fresh faces for the summer and are looking good for a serious run at the All Ireland this year

Blue light: the appointment of Paul Griffin as Dublin captain is a good sign for the summer ahead You look at something half your life, and then one day you scratch your head and you, genuinely, ask yourself what you are looking at? Like Goofy.




We all know Goofy. We know what he looks like, we know what he sounds like, and still, when we first heard the four young chappies in that happy-sad little movie Stand By Me ask, "What's Goofy?", we all shared their dead-end conversation. Remember it?




"Mickey is a mouse," stated Gordie, "Donald is a duck. Pluto is a dog. What's Goofy?"




"He's a dog. He's definitely a dog," said Teddy.




"He can't be a dog," replied Chris. "He wears a hat, and he drives a car."




"Yeah, that is weird. What the hell is Goofy?" asks Vern, and the four little amigos continue walking along the train tracks in search, it so happens, not for a Disney cartoon character, but for the body of another young boy who is missing and presumed dead.




Next question!




What the hell are the National Leagues? Nobody ever appears to be hell-bent on winning them. All the teams in lower divisions try with all of their might to avoid relegation or gain promotion, but once teams arrive in Division One, it's all smiles and little pressure. The National League is not a competition. Whoever happens to win it refuses to be seen celebrating.




What the hell are the leagues?




Today, that question sits in the minds of the four teams competing in the Division One and Two finals in Croker, and it dwells in the conversations of their supporters too.




All the gates into the stadium could be opened wide at 8.00am today, with 'Free Admission' signs enthusiastically greeting Gaelic football fans and anybody else nosing around the place, and there'd still be 'nobody' at today's two league finals.




Our new president is kindly offering reduced prices, and letting adults in free if there's a man or a woman with 10 kids hanging out of them, but Christy Cooney probably should have gone for broke. They say there'll be 25,000 people in the ground. They'll be doing very well, I'll tell you that.




The most interesting thing for me about the last couple of months has been the utter disdain which both Kerry and Dublin have shown for the competition in 2009, but at the same time how over the last two or three months both counties ran the legs off themselves, searching high and low, behind walls and over ditches, looking for lads who might happen to be county footballers.




Kerry breezed through, unbeaten in their seven games, and in advance of this afternoon's Division One title decider against Derry, Jack O'Connor, very curiously given the ease with which Kerry have landed in the final, told us that he'd already have a fair shot at naming 12 of his starting championship 15.




If I was a Kerry supporter, I wouldn't be thrilled at hearing Jack say that, not on the evidence of the league about to end. That was Wednesday afternoon when Jack O'Connor spoke at a media day in Croke Park. Same day, in another location across the city, Dublin team boss Pat Gilroy handed out one very long sheet of paper with the names of footballers still on his training panel. The league is over for Dublin, and Pat, by my count, still has 39 lads in front of him.




Kerry and Dublin, once this league commenced, moved at some speed in different directions within Division One. Kerry north, Dublin south. A lot of positives and good performances came the way of the Kerry team boss. From Tadhg Kennelly's reappearance back home for good, to David Moran's impressive impersonation of a younger Darragh Ó Sé in the middle of the field, to Jacko's son and the other young bucks who looked ready for it when they were given their first Kerry start.




But everything has gone a little too well for Kerry. Meanwhile, for Dublin, for their geriatrics and their youngsters, the league appeared longer and harder, and every point gathered, whether it was way over in Charlestown against Mayo or back home in Parnell Park against Kerry – and let's not forget those two most valuable points of all taken on Donegal soil – can safely be classified as character-building by Pat Gilroy and his trusty old right arm, Mickey Whelan.




I'd say Mickey, more than Pat, is quietly (extremely) pleased with where things are for The Dubs. This week, without any game, two things happened which can help Dublin finally win 'The Big One' in '09. Paul Griffin was named team captain. Griffin is a defender, and his position in defence has still to be determined. But he is in my book, braver on the ball than any other Dublin player – creative, calm, and without too much unnecessary emotion or theatrics. This is good news for Dublin. The other boost, or jolt if you like, for the entire Dublin squad was the sudden retirement of 28-year-old Collie Moran.




If – and I have a sneaking suspicion it might even be a when – Dublin are crowned 2009 All Ireland champions, you'll hear every second player mention that Collie Moran's forced retirement due to an unforgiving hip, reminded him and him and him just how sudden the dream can die. Too many of this Dublin football team have given the impression that they have forever to win their first All Ireland medal. The team's mentality this summer will have Last Chance Saloon embedded within it.




But there's more I like about Dublin, starting with the two principal members of the management team. Mickey Whelan, in good days and bad days, has always thought and talked like a winner. And Gilroy – only a pup in the management stakes when compared with hardened, medaled-generals like Jack O'Connor and Mickey Harte – will have been told by Whelan that he has as much chance of winning that All Ireland in his first year as Dublin team boss, as he has in year three, four or five. Gilroy, like a great many people in Gaelic football, will have believed Mickey as well.




And there's also so much to like about so many of the new faces on the field. The Dublin defence needed to be broken down and rebuilt, and that appears to have successfully come to pass. Alan Hubbard has been strong and quick in the full-back line, and Denis Bastick definitely thinks and plays like the string of safe, tight full-backs who were so good for Dublin right through the '80s and '90s. No full-forward is going to like being in Bastick's company for 70 minutes. Ger Brennan looks like a man wanting to play total-football this summer. So too David Henry. I'm believing there's real energy in this Dublin team which, if topped up with self-belief thanks to a couple of the right wins in the early stages of the championship, can amount to something different, and something we have not seen from Dublin in over a decade.




The release of Ross McConnell from the number three jersey is a further 'win' for Gilroy and Whelan. McConnell has ball-winning ability, which is less important in Gaelic football than ever before, but he's also got a fine work ethic, and he's got vision on the ball. I'd keep Darren Magee with him, and save Ciaran Whelan and Shane Ryan, sometimes starting either one of them in the half-forward line, but mostly keeping the pair of them for 20-minute roles in games.




You know where this is going, because I've already suggested that this is a team which can win this All Ireland. I honestly do! There's going to be a greater mixture of young and old blood in the Dublin team than we've seen in years, and in between there are two or three lads who might also feel it in their gut that this is the season. Injury-free, the Brogans, could be dynamic, but personally I've given up on them ever getting a full lash at it for one summer without one or the other, Bernard or Alan, having to pull up. For Dublin, it will be more interesting to see if Mark Vaughan turn up in Croker in June and play as confidently and supremely as Ray Cosgrove did in 2002. That can happen. A surer thing is Conal Keaney make a good effort at being the country's number one forward in the championship. He's the sort of full-forward, and he should always be full-forward, who, if he explodes for a full month, especially for four weeks in August and September, can convince the whole team that this is Dublin's year.




Me? I've never liked Dublin more than I have this spring. I still think they might lose to Meath in the first round in Leinster, who knows? But a loss so early on might further reinforce the character of Pat Gilroy's team. Anyhow, Dublin don't need a Leinster! Leave that for Meath, because that's all Meath are going to be capable of winning this year.




If Mickey Whelan has not already put that thought into the heads of one or two of the older lads, he'll be all set to announce it within minutes of Dublin 'crashing' out of Leinster.

[INDIANA]

f*** off liam. Don't think liam has tipped the winners ever Rarely will one read such fawning shite. Simply setting up dublin up so he can knock them down.

[Jinxy]

Liams usually on the ball when it comes to stuff like this. 

[time ticking away]

i really hate his style of writing... whats goofy?  you are liam

[comethekingdom]

Trying to sell more newspapers to dubs would be more the issue here one thinks!

[thejuice]

I didnt read all that, but good man Liam pile on the pressure. Keep it going. I think he should try get on the radio and TV and say that Dublin are class and are sho-ins for Sam as much as possible in the next 6 weeks.

[mannix]

good luck to the dubs but I cannot see them landing Sam if the league was anything to go by, tyrone can be forgiven for a stuttering league and kerry pretty much won their games without sweating, can anyone honestly see dublin beat either in august or september?
Would anyone bet on them against galway cork mayo or derry in a must win game?

[INDIANA]

not against cork- wouldn't be afraid of the rest though - but then again they wouldn't be afraid of us galway-derry-mayo and dublin all much of a muchness.

[milltown row]

Dublin seemed to have a better chance to win Liam

[Coddler]

It's a fairly transparent tactic by Hayes at this stage. For the semi final in 2007 he predicted the Dubs to beat Kerry by 7 or 8.

[micka the dub]

thanks liam,thats us fcuked so.

[whiskeysteve]

It's a fairly transparent tactic by Hayes at this stage. For the semi final in 2007 he predicted the Dubs to beat Kerry by 7 or 8.

Yes, I reposted that article after Kerry won the all-ireland that year and I'll resurrect it again as a health warning against trusting this mans logic. To be fair im sure it garners plenty of attention for his paper, which is the bottom line for them.

Here it is again, his preview to the 2007 semi final which Kerry went on to win by 2 and of course subsequently stuffed Cork in the final, have defending all-ireland champions ever been so bizarrely written off before a semi?:




Rock-bottom Kingdom ripe to be stormed if Dublin's true believers hold their nerve

Football Analyst Liam Hayes


KERRY football surely reached its lowest point in the last 30 years, midway through the second-half of their quarter-final victory over Monaghan earlier this month. It was sad to watch. Pathetic, even. Sure, Monaghan stopped two feet short of the finish-line and refused to budge, even an inch further, in the last two minutes of the game itself and the three minutes of stoppage time.

And, sure, Kerry stormed by them to win by a whisker. It is from this low, low point that this Kerry team are viewing this afternoon's great semi-final meeting with Dublin.

They have a long uphill battle ahead of them after their dreadful quarterfinal performance. With the game looking out of their reach and with Monaghan looking good for an historic victory, a half-decent Kerry team was reduced to the antics of a bunch of juvenile footballers. We watched grown men in green and gold, a great many of them with two All-Ireland medals pinned to their chests, carefully working the ball up to within 70 yards and 60 yards of the Monaghan goalmouth . . . and then lobbing it in the direction of Kieran Donaghy.

Eventually, a defender under pressure from Donaghy knocked down one ball and Kerry got the goal that saved Pat O'Shea's bacon.

But it was bad, bad, bad football, and I couldn't help trying to work out for myself how far Kerry football has fallen, in full view of the last generation of GAA fans.

Kieran Donaghy acting as a telegraph-pole in front of an opponent's goal got Kerry out of a 'bad place' last summer and won them an All-Ireland which, thanks to Mayo's second vanishing act in three years, was of precious little value. But if the future of the Kerry football is dependant upon 'Hail Mary' (that's what they call them in the American NFL) passes being sent in Kieran Donaghy's general direction, then it has to be said. . .

The Kingdom no longer rules. It's finished, it's kaput. There is no such place worthy of . . . and living up to - this mighty name anymore, and the GAA has lost its most prized territory.

Now, let me tell you, I don't like writing this and I don't like you having to read this judgement of mine on the morning of yet, another, so tempting Kerry-Dublin meeting. I love Kerry football. Some of my best friends are Kerry people. Actually, I am in awe of the fabulous county and the smart, always sensible men and women produced there.

However (and this is a thundering however), I'm not going to come out with the false patronising commentary which almost everyone else in this writing business has been offering up in recent years. They're all afraid of saying 'boo' in front of a Kerry football team - terrified, most of them.

I'm going to tell you that Kerry football teams have barely left a mark on the game for over 20 years - less than a handful of All-Irelands, and not one of them truly memorable in my book.

Equally, Kerry stopped producing 'giants' of the game over the last two decades. Apart from Darragh O Se.

He's for real, a living giant. But Seamus Moynihan was never one of the greatest footballers of this or any other generation - he was, just, exceptionally good, and strong and brave.

A few weeks ago, I wrote that 'The Gooch' was like Tiger Woods stuck on two 'majors', and I firmly believe that he gets far too much praise, far too quickly from most quarters. Colm Cooper is a tricky, accurate inside forward, with a sublime touch on occasions which are quite infrequent. He needs a massive 'second-half ' to his career if he is to be measured up against Pat Spillane or Mikey Sheehy or John Egan.

Naturally, it would be right to assume that I give Kerry no chance of winning this afternoon's semi-final, and gaining access to an All-Ireland final against Cork which would warm all Kerry hearts. Kerry and Cork, right now, are both in Dublin's pocket.

If Kerry are to make a real game of this 'semi', they will have to begin by taking Donaghy from full-forward and allow him 70 minutes of athletic 'fun' beside O Se in the middle. Pat O'Shea should actually take this page from Billy Morgan's game-book last Sunday.

Morgan sent Michael Cussen roaming and for a tall, rangy player he played a significant, little role in Cork's stunning, though predictable, victory.

Donaghy is twice as good a footballer as Cussen. He's got greater confidence in himself, and he has the intelligence to make a difference on the football field. He's really lost at No. 14. The Kerry management would be far better off putting Cooper in that shirt for the next four or five years and asking him, every single game, is he a man or a mouse or is he 'Gooch the Great'?

My money, still, would be on Cooper showing us just how great a footballer he is, and I genuinely would love to witness him living up to his name and showing us all that his reputation was not over-inflated at too young an age.

Cooper in front of the square, in front of Ross McConnell (or whoever else the Dublin management team decide to send in his direction) should be an easy call this afternoon.

Kerry were in ragged condition by the time they started celebrating their quarter-final victory over Monaghan.

Their defence had been stretched, and stretched again. Their midfield pairing had been muscled out of the contest before it was half-over. And their forward division had been sent packing by the Monaghan defence - Galvin with a sore shoulder, and Brosnan and Frank Russell, with nothing to show for the afternoon, were taken off.

The kids who replaced them are only kids. Bryan Sheehan and Darren O'Sullivan have not even finished their apprenticeships as Kerry footballers.

The Kerry team is down and that's why most of the country imagines they are going to be incredibly dangerous this afternoon. I don't think so.

If this Dublin team is worth its salt it will work solidly for 50 or 55 minutes and coast home, in a business-like manner (rather than a holiday-like manner). I honestly believe this Dublin team is lacking in genius, and has no great magical quality to it, but it has brought itself to a position over the last six years (not three) where it believes, solidly, truly, that it is the best football team in the country.

Believing is half the battle, and if Dublin hold their nerve once again, as they did brilliantly against Derry in their quarter-final win, they will be in an All-Ireland final before they know it.

This Dublin team in an All-Ireland final will surely behave like men entering a five-star hotel in a promised land.

They'll make themselves at home, and look and feel absolutely fantastic.

Dublin are so close, finally, and the poorest and most shaken Kerry team of the last 20 years are in their way. It does not have to be all that close. Dublin could, all going well, win this game by anything between five and 10 points.

It all depends, really, on the Dublin defence. It's got to hold up, that's all.

Last week, we said that in a contest between a 'great' Cork defence and a 'very good' Meath attack, that the defence looked the winner. And so it was. Today, we've got a 'very good' Dublin defence against a 'good' Kerry forward-line. If defence holds solid, The Dubs are home.

There are no real doubts over Dublin's ability to, at the very least, win an even share of the good ball and spoiled ball in the middle third of the field. Ciaran Whelan and Shane Ryan are the number one midfield pairing in the country, and Cahill, Cullen, and Moran are going to put their lives on the line for every loose ball. Kerry footballers never lack bravery when it comes to the ugly side of the game either but this Dublin team will not lose out when it comes to measuring out the raw courage on display.

It's in Kerry's front garden, however, that Dublin can also profit and win the game. Any team, coming into the month of August, which has forwards as scorehungry as Alan and Bernard Brogan, and Jason Sherlock and Mark Vaughan, has to be as happy as it is confident.

The Dubs have more forwards bang in form than Kerry, they have two 'new' forwards (in Bernard Brogan and Vaughan) who are lapping up the big time and who do not seem to realise they should be very afraid. And they have Conal Keaney - Dublin's 'secret' All-Ireland winning weapon. Keaney has had a relatively quiet summer but has time on his side to be the most important footballer on this Dublin team. He might just take what's left of the championship by the throat.

All that powerful scoring ability favours Dublin and that's before anyone thinks of Ray Cosgrove or Mossy Quinn, either of whom could be worth an All-Ireland winning point.

As I asked last week - spread the two teams out on the table in front of you, weigh them up, shake them around, hell, turn them upside down and whichever way you look at it, this day is going to end up with a Dublin victory. Unless Dublin fold, or get caught in holiday mode in the final five minutes, and neither of those happenings are going to disturb or turnaround the result of this semi-final.

Dublin by a magical, but believable, seven or eight points

[DUBSFORSAM1]

good luck to the dubs but I cannot see them landing Sam if the league was anything to go by, tyrone can be forgiven for a stuttering league and kerry pretty much won their games without sweating, can anyone honestly see dublin beat either in august or september?
Would anyone bet on them against galway cork mayo or derry in a must win game?

Wouldn't fear for Dublin against any of the others (outside Tyrone/Kerry) that you mentioned in the championship...The league did what Dublin wanted it to do in bringing through a bunch of new players like Bastic, Hubbard, Brennan etc

[INDIANA]

You can add Cork to that list DSM.

[heffo]

You can normally bet your house on the team that Liam doesn't back.