Kerry v Tyrone

[ONeill]

I see Brolly questioning this Kerry team's balls, especially Gooch's, in today's Gaelic Life. The kingdom are getting plenty of fodder.

Mc Guigan's is a great read.

The jury's out I think. I thought the need to go public in the week after the Donegal game about individual banter was a bit....liking using your new-found status to get someone back in public.

There's a refreshing honesty - today he stated we're not heavyweights any more. Also, he revealed what Mickey said in the changing room at HT on Sat. Refreshing or revealing too much?

[heffo]

I see Brolly questioning this Kerry team's balls, especially Gooch's, in today's Gaelic Life. The kingdom are getting plenty of fodder.

Mc Guigan's is a great read.

The jury's out I think. I thought the need to go public in the week after the Donegal game about individual banter was a bit....liking using your new-found status to get someone back in public.

There's a refreshing honesty - today he stated we're not heavyweights any more. Also, he revealed what Mickey said in the changing room at HT on Sat. Refreshing or revealing too much?

Link??

[ONeill]

Killian Young moved back into the half back line. O'Connor learning. That's a tighter Kerry team.

Kerry (SF v Tyrone): B Kealy; M O Se, A O'Mahony, S Enright; T O Se, E Brosnan, K Young; A Maher, B Sheehan; P Galvin, Declan O'Sullivan, D Walsh; J O'Donoghue, C Cooper (captain), K Donaghy.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

I see Brolly questioning this Kerry team's balls, especially Gooch's, in today's Gaelic Life. The kingdom are getting plenty of fodder.

Mc Guigan's is a great read.

The jury's out I think. I thought the need to go public in the week after the Donegal game about individual banter was a bit....liking using your new-found status to get someone back in public.

There's a refreshing honesty - today he stated we're not heavyweights any more. Also, he revealed what Mickey said in the changing room at HT on Sat. Refreshing or revealing too much?

Yeah, but no, but yeah, but no, but... See your point, posterity will tell us.

[Fuzzman]

I also think Brolly is a bollix in recent times and I used to like him but now he just writes articles and makes statements to constantly stir it up and be controversial to feed the ever hungry Brolly ego. Compare that to Dara O'Shea and dare I say it Brian McGuigan in the Gaelic life, who seem to be a lot more upfront and honest in their opinions.

However, saying that I couldn't help but agree to some extent re Cooper
I know I'm just tempting fate now and loads of my colleagues will say STOP but he has struggled when he's been well marked and not left one on one. If you left a lot of forwards like say Paddy or Eoin Bradley one on one you'd get roasted.

To me Gooch is a good fielder, has great vision, is deadly accurate and unlike Canavan gets a lot of goals but in my biased eyes he does did tend to struggle (like a lot of players do) when he's doubled teamed or has a swarm defence around him.
He looked like he was gonna cos havoc at the start of 2008 but then it all went quiet, though in fairness to him the ball into him was often stopped.

As expected the Thur night excitement of teams named, has let us down again and we're still guessing who will ACTUALLY line out. Wonder how Marc O'Se would do against a 19 year old speed merchant?

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Link??

No link, but just for you 

Hello again, our dear friends

So we're all off to Kerry for a wet weekend in Killarney, and the chance to catch up with a few old friends.
I've only ever played one league match down there, and that was way back in 2003. It was a really hot day, a perfect Sunday afternoon. Cormac McAnallen, God rest him, played a fantastic game, and we won by a point or two. We'd come off the back of a defeat to Roscommon in the first round, so it was a massive result for us, and I suppose was a small indica- tion of what was to follow later in the year. The game is getting plenty of at- tention because it's Tyrone v Kerry, but they're not the heavyweights they were four or five years ago.
Kerry are a dangerous animal when everyone is writing them off. Everyone is saying that it's a good draw for Tyrone, but it's a class draw for Kerry because they need a big team to get them going. Not only did they get the big game, but they got the bonus of the home tie as well, meaning it's all very much stacked against Tyrone.
The travelling makes it a difficult draw. You're talking the best part of six hours on a bus, plus traffic on a Friday evening. You couldn't possi- bly do it on the day of the game.
I'd say we'll go most of the way down on Friday night, then travel the last hour or so late on Saturday morning, because you don't want to be spending all day down there wait- ing for a match either. Going to the beach or driving the Ring of Kerry isn't exactly an option!
I've had quite a few clashes with Kerry since that one back in 2003, and the two Kerry players who would stand out are Tomas O Se and Aidan O'Mahoney. One of those two would have marked me any time we played.
They're two tough competitors,but they're tough and fair. There's no dirt with them, but they're always tight on your backside every time they mark you. But that's the sort of battles you want in the champi- onship, nothing less.
Kerry have to go into the match as favourites because of the forward line they have. We know heading down there that we have our work cut out for us.
It's the first occasion this year that one of the big guns is going to fall out of the championship race.
Kerry have had to live with the stick that they've taken for not being able to beat Tyrone in the championship, and they'll see this as the best chance they've ever had.
A lot of Tyrone's established play- ers are away, while Kerry still have theirs. But we can look at it the oth- er way, that our young players who have nothing to fear are fresh and might have the legs on the older Kerry players.
I'd love another run out on Satur- day, having been lucky to feature against both Donegal and Roscom- mon, but it looks like I have even more competition to contend with in the form of young Darren McCurry who made such an impact on his de- but last weekend.
A lot of people might not have been aware of him, but he's a class act.
He came in to play the same in- house game as I did before the Ar- magh game, and he played so well that night that he earned himself a
call up. He scored 1-3 from play and Mickey couldn't ignore him.
He's only been there a few weeks but he's playing and operating like he's been there for four or five years. He's confident and he's cocky, in a good way, the way the likes of Owen Mulligan is.
Those young boys like McCurry and Conor Clarke have shown that even though they're young, you could throw them into any champi- onship game and they wouldn't be fazed, and that's crucial when you go somewhere like Killarney.
You have to feel sorry for my dear clubmate and fellow county panelist Kyle Coney, who it seems couldn't manage to buy himself a bit of good luck at the minute.
Despite being ruled out for the season through injury, Kyle is still very much part of the Tyrone squad and was with the team in Roscom-
mon last weekend. In an attempt to help guide him
through these important years both in football and in life, Kyle has been paired to room with me as I try to pass on some of my experience, wis- dom and life skills on to the talented youngster.
Unfortunately, last weekend I also had to take on the roles of nurse and cleaner as poor Kyle got struck down with some sort of a bug which meant it was coming out of him at both ends.
There must have been something in the Roscommon water, as the poor lad was up and down to the bathroom like a yo-yo which made for a sleepless night for the two of us. As a precaution, I'm going to slip a few bottles of Rocwell water into the kit bag for the trip to Kerry, and hopefully that should leave my young protégé in much better shape this time around!

[ONeill]

Wonder how Marc O'Se would do against a 19 year old speed merchant?

Do we have one? I know nothing about McCurry. Is he a speed merchant?

[omagh_gael]

Pretty sure we'll see that 15 line out, baring injuries.

[Tyrone Dreamer]

Wonder how Marc O'Se would do against a 19 year old speed merchant?

Do we have one? I know nothing about McCurry. Is he a speed merchant?

From what I have seen he's sharp more than very quick if that makes any sense. Seems to be quick of the mark and a great turn. Also extremely accurate. The question mark at this stage is whether he can win his own ball in a tight championship match. I think we will see him at some stage on Saturday so may have a better idea after that. Could help solve part of the free taking issue in the coming years. Confidence doesn't seem to be an issue.

[Aaron Boone]

McCurry will surely spice things up, can see him in the mix.

[God14]

He's defo a speed merchant in my opinion, certainly when compared to the full forward line which is starting, he offers something very different.
Serious prospect no question, but probably a year too early in my humble opinion. Still as fuzz says, it'll be an interesting dual with Marc O'Se. O'Se has all the craft and experience in the world but if he was to be isOlated 1v1, there could be joy to be had there...

[ONeill]

Faster than Penrose?

[trileacman]

Wonder how Marc O'Se would do against a 19 year old speed merchant?

Do we have one? I know nothing about McCurry. Is he a speed merchant?

From what I have seen he's sharp more than very quick if that makes any sense. Seems to be quick of the mark and a great turn. Also extremely accurate. The question mark at this stage is whether he can win his own ball in a tight championship match. I think we will see him at some stage on Saturday so may have a better idea after that. Could help solve part of the free taking issue in the coming years. Confidence doesn't seem to be an issue.

Bit soon to be heaping all this pressure on him? I mean it was a twenty minute cameo against Roscommon, before that if anyone of us was asked about him we'd talk about a take-out in Draperstown. I don't want to see a situation develop were he comes out the next day and has a poor match or an average match. Then all the chat will be the "what happened McCurry/ never delivered on his potential" shite that Colm Cavanagh, Raymond Mulgrew, BJ Keane, Aidan O'Shea and countless others have to put up with.

One good performance and your a f**king superstar, one bad performance and Joe Brolly is writing your Prima-dona obituary. As the ould boys say don't count your chickens.

[ONeill]

FoSB - any chance of Brolly's article? I'll buy you a shandy.

[Fuzzman]

Tell him to buy his own bloody paper & help a good cause. Speaking of which when is the 32-32-32 crew in Kerry? I hope they get a nice welcome.