Seanie Johnston Switch and outside managers

[Syferus]

Like it or not he's clearly an immediate upgrade in the forward line. A Seanie Johnston who's as fit and as focused as the current Kildare team will be a noticable improvement over the one playing in last year's league with a weaker team and a manager he didn't get on with. Removing politics the reason the person with the most intimate knowledge of the Kildare squad wants Johnston is because he feels they need help there. He's not wrong.

[mylestheslasher]

Sorry, I forgot 1 game from last year when cavan thumped Roscommon, added above. Johnston wasn't playing..

[mylestheslasher]

Richie - My mistake on Roscommon, thought it was last yr

When Cavan beat a team without Johnston you declare that team to be crap. When Johnston scores in the McKenna cup you declare it an achievement even though its no more than a glorified challenge game. Your worship of johnston seems to me seems greater than your support for the Cavan team and your anger at the current Cavan management gets greater every game that passes   and with every improved performance. You are losing the plot so much on this you just declared that the county board should pick the panel - that is a lunatic of a statement and I defy you to tell me of any gaa, soccer or rugby team managed in that manner.

Johnston is gone, dropped and continues to make his pathetic attempts to declare for a county for which he has no connection to what so ever. How could any true Cavan man behave like this? You do know that John Joe O Reilly played with  the army in the curragh but never switch county, in fact when he came back from the polo grounds he skipped the celebratorary parade in Cavan to play a club game in the curragh. That is a Cavan man. Johnston is making a total idiot out of himself, lying about where he lives and going watching a team he will never play for. Do you honestly think the GAA will let one player undermine the whole association and rules of the association? I don't know Johnston personally but I know he is the type of lad I would not let near any team I was in charge off. Seems Val Andrews, for all his faults, is in agreement with me on this and I suspect his right hand man Terry Hyland (the man who lead Cavan U21's to an AI final) also agrees. In the GAA circles I move in (ie not Cavan gaels) I have yet to meet one person that is sorry to see the back of him.

[LilySavage]

Seems to be a lot of negativity around this potential transfer for some reason. Cork won 2 All Irelands with two Kildaremen as their best players . I dont think anyone in Cork gave a sh1t. Kildare had 3 non-natives on panel who played in 98 AI Final, people didnt seem to mind that at the time. We are only talking about one player here and people seem to be hung up on fact that he wont sleep in a Kildare bed every night of his intercounty career. If hes training with McGeeney, he will be spending enough time in Kildare, 95% of his spare time , i would think. And he will probably move down anyway during summer .

[heffo]

Seems to be a lot of negativity around this potential transfer for some reason. Cork won 2 All Irelands with two Kildaremen as their best players . I dont think anyone in Cork gave a sh1t. Kildare had 3 non-natives on panel who played in 98 AI Final, people didnt seem to mind that at the time. We are only talking about one player here and people seem to be hung up on fact that he wont sleep in a Kildare bed every night of his intercounty career. If hes training with McGeeney, he will be spending enough time in Kildare, 95% of his spare time , i would think. And he will probably move down anyway during summer .

All of the players you mentioned above had a justifiable reason for being in Cork & Kildare respectively though - the Johnson saga along with the approach to Supple and another high profile midfielder based in Kildare is another matter entirely.

[Donnellys Hollow]

Seems to be a lot of negativity around this potential transfer for some reason. Cork won 2 All Irelands with two Kildaremen as their best players . I dont think anyone in Cork gave a sh1t. Kildare had 3 non-natives on panel who played in 98 AI Final, people didnt seem to mind that at the time. We are only talking about one player here and people seem to be hung up on fact that he wont sleep in a Kildare bed every night of his intercounty career. If hes training with McGeeney, he will be spending enough time in Kildare, 95% of his spare time , i would think. And he will probably move down anyway during summer .

Maybe the fact that he'll take the place of a Kildareman and that he's not even resident in the county is what gets most people?

Harking back to the loss of Tompkins and Fahy in the late 80s and gaining O'Dwyer, Murphy and Lacey in the mid 90s is pointless. That was then and this is now. While a lot of people were uneasy with the involvement of those three in the late nineties their eligibility and commitment could never be called into question. All three are still resident in the county and they all contributed to Kildare football even after their respective retirements - Karl with Grange, Lacey with Nurney and Murphy with Clane and the Kildare juniors. In Johnston's case, he cannot even convince the powers that be that he is resident in the county now never mind working here.

This has the potential to be quite divisive within the squad and the management should have had the good sense to drop it now before anymore damage is done. KCB should also have the balls to stand up to the management on this issue.

[LilySavage]

You think Karl O Dwyer just happened to get a teaching post in same county as his Dad was managing? Also whos to say that SJ wont refuse to be paid to train Kildare clubs when he finishes here either. I dont see much difference to be honest.

[mylestheslasher]

You think Karl O Dwyer just happened to get a teaching post in same county as his Dad was managing? Also whos to say that SJ wont refuse to be paid to train Kildare clubs when he finishes here either. I dont see much difference to be honest.

He'll add nothing to your team in my opinion except strife, I can't believe why McGeeney is so keen. I also think if Kildare don't win something this year there is a chance McGeeney won't be there next year. Where will that leave Johnston??

[orangeman]

You think Karl O Dwyer just happened to get a teaching post in same county as his Dad was managing? Also whos to say that SJ wont refuse to be paid to train Kildare clubs when he finishes here either. I dont see much difference to be honest.

He'll add nothing to your team in my opinion except strife, I can't believe why McGeeney is so keen. I also think if Kildare don't win something this year there is a chance McGeeney won't be there next year. Where will that leave Johnston??

He might leave lovely Straffan and move to another wee house somewhere convenient.

[mylestheslasher]

Richie, cavan v kildare in the backdoor this year. Johnston plays for kildare and andrews manages cavan. Honestly, who are you cheering for?

[Westside]

So Johnston realised faking the address wouldn't work so he actually has moved down for as long as it will take to get the transfer through? A pillar of integrity...

[Westside]

I always had a soft spot for Kildare and McGeeney but whether or not Johnston gets his transfer I sincerely hope they have no luck this year and that they get nowhere near a Leinster or All Ireland title.

[Onlooker]

How did a "so called push in the back" cost Kildare a Leinster title last year.  If that free had not been given, the game with Dublin would have ended in a draw.  How are you so sure that Kildare would have won the replay.  Dublin were the better team in that match and were beating Kildare with 14 players until they were caught by a sucker punch of a goal.   Neither Kildare not Johnston emerge from this charade with any credit, although in fairness to Kildare, a lot of their supporters do not like what McGeeney is trying to do.

[Donnellys Hollow]

You think Karl O Dwyer just happened to get a teaching post in same county as his Dad was managing? Also whos to say that SJ wont refuse to be paid to train Kildare clubs when he finishes here either. I dont see much difference to be honest.

While I was always uneasy at Karl's involvement he was both living and working in the county and was thus eligible for selection. Johnston cannot satisfy Croke Park that he is living in the county and he is still employed in Cavan. He initially wanted to remain playing with Cavan Gaels while also playing for Kildare. Hardly suggests that he's fully committed to Kildare does it? When that was a non-runner the convenient move to Kevins became the plan of action. The whole thing stinks to high heaven and someone in the county board really needs to call a halt to it.

I always had a soft spot for Kildare and McGeeney but whether or not Johnston gets his transfer I sincerely hope they have no luck this year and that they get nowhere near a Leinster or All Ireland title.

They could win a Lenister with or without Johnston. A  so called push in the back cost them a Lenister title last year.
Johnston will get the transfer because he now playing it by the book which he wasnt doing earlier. So there no reason for it not to go through now.
McGeeney will use him as an impact sub this year and Johnston can be dangerous  played that way as he showed with the Gaels last year.

Jesus you hear enough of this béal bocht crap from some Kildare fans without people from outside the county latching onto it. What cost us any chance was a combination of injuries and questionable team selection. Everyone bangs on about Kildare's lack of forwards yet we have one of the best scoring forwards in the country (twice the leading scorer in the championship) and we play him 70 yards from the opposition goal.

[Hardy]

Agreed. Since it's impossible to enforce the spirit as well as the letter of the rule, you either have to accept technical compliance with the rule or tighten the rule. The rule as it stands allows people to move house to play for another entity, rather than facilitating playing for a new entity in the event of having to move house. You could toughen the qualification criteria - e.g. a minimum period of residence required, but I wouldn't be for that unless mercenary moving became widespread.

But you have to draw the line at lads taking the proverbial and pretending to live where they don't and for now we seem to be doing OK at that. (Though that Carlow lad who didn't know his address in Wicklow gave the rule the slip a few years ago. But you can live with the odd one.)