Tyrone v Kildare 14/04/13 Croke Park

[Club Rossa]

Very interesting and honest interview with Brian.He says what he thinks,much like big Frank.It mightn't be to everyone's liking but it's refreshing to see instead of the usual bland stuff players come out with.

[Fuzzman]

Cany anyone copy and past McGuigans interview in as work has this website blocked?

For some reason the link isn't working now BB88
I'll have a look again later.

[omagh_gael]

Cany anyone copy and past McGuigans interview in as work has this website blocked?

Here you are (apologies for lack of paragraphs, posting from my phone)

In the glory days he was so glorious that Frank became better known as Brian McGuigan’s dad. These days Brian McGuigan sees himself mostly as little Cara and Jack McGuigan’s father. Everything in his and Jennifer’s life revolves around them. When you’d initially arranged to meet, he had to cancel: sorry, have to mind the kids. When Mickey Harte told him in November he’d have to train six times a week if he were to play for Tyrone in 2013, he had to say no – too much time away from the kids. Back in the day when they were carefree and single, Kevin ‘Hub’ Hughes and himself would hit the town together and paint it red. Now when they meet up with their wives it’s for a meal and while they still talk a bit about football they find themselves talking even more about their kids. There’s more to him than being just a father and husband of course. He’s a publican. And he remains a club player, still lacing them up for Ardboe. Just last weekend they won the Ulster club league, beating Ballinderry in the final in Carrickmore, his wee brother Shay firing over the points, and Brian typically providing the ammunition. Later that evening they all convened to Forbes, the bar he helps run, where they held a night at the races to raise funds for the team. He’s deliberately taken a step back in the dressing room this last year or two, let some of the other lads be the ones to speak up, but when there’s a score to be carved out or taken or a bob or two to be raised, he’d like to think he’ll still be the one to roll up the sleeves and get it for the club. For the most part it’s a quiet and contented life he lives now but at times he shakes his head and wonders. Often it’s with a smile. He recalls the first time he met this journalist, 10 years ago, when I went up to Ardboe to interview his dad. Back then Brian was too shy to go on the record then which was fine because Frank had enough to say for both of them in a hugely personal, revealing interview, but Brian did agree to stand in for the photograph, in the background, in his father’s shadow, because in the public consciousness that’s exactly where he stood in the McGuigan household. Now when he looks back at that photo of his 23-year-old self shyly, almost furtively, smiling, he’s struck by how slim he was. “Just where did those 10 years ago?” he smiles again. “They just flew! I thought we’d play forever.” Sometimes though he looks back with a frown because he’s just about able to look at anything at all. To this day his eyesight is still impaired after that shocking, cowardly hit he was subjected to in a club game back in 2007. For days he was blind, his eye having been effectively squashed. For weeks he could not lift his head. Instead he had to lie face down towards the floor and peer through a face-hole on his bed to watch the flat-screen TV his family had positioned on the ground; if he lifted his head at all, to even go the toilet, he was told he could lose his sight for good. A year later he would be back winning another All-Ireland. It’s probably the most cherished of the lot. 2003 was for Tyrone, 2005 was for Cormac, 2008 was for himself and Mickey Harte and the faith they had that he could come back. But he was probably only half the player he was because he could see only half of what he once could. And that still eats a bit of him. “I’d still have a lot of anger about that to this day. I’m more or less working off one eye. I have to wear this special lens but I still have no peripheral vision on my left side. I feel I’ve lost out a lot on life. To lose so much of your sight through playing football is hard to take.” Regrets so, he has a few. Like not having studied more and got a few more qualifications to his name. “It’s only when you’re finished playing inter-county that you see how much your whole life was centred around it. I’ve been doing some work with the GPA this year, talking to students, about how to make sure they don’t neglect their studies and their (professional) career. Darren Fay told them the same thing. He won an All-Ireland when he was just a young fella and got offered a job, won another All-Ireland and someone gave him a better job but when the bust came and that job went he had no qualification to fall back on. “I did a higher national diploma in sports studies after school and went over to Bradford to study some more but after six weeks I dropped out because between the U21s and the club football was going well. I went working on the sites and was making so much from it I didn’t want to go back to college and forgot all about it. Now I’m working in the bar and it’s going ok but it’s getting tougher all the time. I’ve nothing to fall back on so I told those young lads not to make the same mistake I did.”So in the scheme of things Killarney’s not that big a deal. Yeah, it’s another regret. Not so much what he wrote about it but rather what he did down there, that he was even down there at all. ” But,” as he says, “you take chances in life and you have to accept sometimes they don’t work.” This time last year he was not playing with the county either and wasn’t missing it a bit. But then Tyrone had a bit of an injury crisis and Mickey Harte and Stephen O’Neill both came calling. “Stevie came down to my house before training one night and said that the team could really do with me back. Mickey had already been on to me a few times through the year so when he called again two weeks before the championship I found it very hard to turn him down. He’d done so much for my career and been through so many hard times I felt I owed it to the man.” McGuigan didn’t want to go back in before the opening round against Armagh lest it would distract and even demotivate some teammates, so he and Harte agreed he’d watch that game in the Athletic Grounds like an ordinary supporter before returning to training the following Tuesday night. Teammates welcomed back with open arms and then when Harte brought him on in the closing minutes of the Ulster semi-final against Donegal, he sparked a late if ultimately failed revival. His cameo a month later against Kerry though had no upside. In his eyes, Tyrone were doomed from the moment the draw was made. Normally they’d relish the challenge of Kerry. This time, deep down, they feared it. Too many of the veterans like Sean Cavanagh were out injured. Too many of the young fellas didn’t have the mindset or belief or application to win major honours. “Going down I was thinking to myself it was probably the game we didn’t want and it was the game Kerry did want. We might have had a chance if it was in Omagh but not down there. They still had most of their players that had played us in the glory years and they were definitely hurting and we knew that the crowd was going to be really behind them. A tide was coming at us and on the day we just couldn’t stop it.” McGuigan couldn’t stop his frustration from showing either. Only minutes after he was brought on and with Kerry in complete control he was cynically fouled by Declan O’Sullivan in a game littered with cynical fouls from both teams. When O’Sullivan protested his innocence to the referee, a furious McGuigan charged from behind to elbow the Kerryman in the midriff. O’Sullivan went down, David Coldrick’s red card went up. And with that both the contest and Brian McGuigan’s inter-county career was over. “It was pure stupidity on my part. There was a lot worse that went on in that game but it had got to the point someone had to go and for pure stupidity alone I deserved it. I got away with a few things like that over the years but that day I didn’t and it was only right I didn’t. It had no bearing on the result, Kerry were going to win well anyway, but the way they were able to hold on to the ball with the extra man, it was embarrassing. After we came in to the dressing room I apologised to Mickey and when he called us into a huddle I asked him if he could let me speak to the boys so he did. I apologised to the boys but be honest I couldn’t look them in the eye. I kept looking at the floor.” The career might have finished there but not the controversy. A few days later McGuigan wrote his weekly column for Gaelic Life in which he had some withering observations about a couple of Kerrymen, including Colm Cooper and especially Declan O’Sullivan, accusing them of standoffish and unsporting behaviour through the years. “The one thing that is going to stick with me is the sight of Declan O’Sullivan smiling and sniggering when he got me sent off,” wrote McGuigan at the time. “People might turn around and say I got (Down’s) Gregory McCartan sent off in an Ulster final (2003), but as I’ve said before, I never wanted to get him sent off. I regretted that he was. O’Sullivan, however, I felt was more than happy to have got me the line.” McGuigan also outlined they had a bit of previous. Two years earlier when Tyrone beat Kerry in a league game in Omagh thanks to a scrambled injury-time goal from Colm Cavanagh, McGuigan sought out O’Sullivan to shake his hand but claims he was rebutted. Such an unflattering portrayal of one of Kerry’s stars did not go down well in the Kingdom. McGuigan is loath to reheat the flames of that article, as much as he has no regrets about writing it. “It’s how I felt at the time and when I write a column I don’t tell any lies. If I do I’m only cheating the people who buy that paper.” What he does find rather unfortunate is that some of the more complimentary remarks he had to make about Kerry players and personalities went largely unreported in all the rehashes and summaries there was of his column. They didn’t mention that he’d mentioned that Paul Galvin had sent him a signed jersey during those lonely, anguished months in 2007 when he feared he might never see or play again; that gesture was sincerely appreciated by McGuigan. Likewise the get-well-card he received from Jack O’Connor around the same time; that he’d found Tomás Ó Sé a “gentleman” and the pair of them had got on “like a house on fire” on All Star trips. If he had gone on he could have said the same about Eoin Brosnan from their time playing for Ireland in the 2004 International Rules series. There’s a fuller picture involving his relationship with Kerry but it would be a falsehood that fuller picture didn’t involve uglier elements. “Maybe I have the wrong perception but it’s my perception that there were a few Kerrymen that never accepted Tyrone as force that beat them,” he says now. “If a different team like a Dublin had beaten them they could have accepted it better.” At the heart of it all was Tyrone’s yearning to be respected by Kerry. When respect wasn’t shown on one side, the other took umbrage. But that respect was there, mutually, if begrudgingly. They might not have gone on, O’Sullivan might have rubbed him up the wrong way, but McGuigan can’t deny O’Sullivan was the other great centre half forward of the noughties. “Look, Declan O’Sullivan and Colm Cooper are two of the best footballers of our generation. The only man I’ve seen mark O’Sullivan out of a game was Cormac McAnallen (in the 2003 All Ireland semi-final) – and back then Declan would have been only 19 and playing at full forward. He’s so skilful and direct; the only way you can really stop him is by fouling him. “It just annoyed me that after that game in Omagh he wouldn’t shake my hand, that he just walked off. But maybe that’s a sign of how much he just hated being beat. Maybe he’s a bit like me that way because I always hated losing too. The next time we meet it could be awkward because of what I wrote but it’s what I thought and felt at the time. I can’t take away from the man’s football. ” McGuigan also took some more heat for a recent column which painted an unflattering picture of the future state of Kerry football but again he believes they need to be viewed in their proper context. “Look, I have the greatest respect for Kerry football. With the players they have, I’d put them right up with Dublin as favourites for this year’s All-Ireland. But what I said in that article was they haven’t got the same standard of players coming through. That’s just a fact. If there had been structures in place they might have but the reality is they don’t have that same quality of player coming through. But then who has?” Looking back, Kerry made him. While his career finished in defeat by Kerry, the moment that defined his Tyrone team and their incredible emergence was a victory against Kerry – August, 1997. With the last kick of an All-Ireland minor semi-final Mark Harte equalised in Croke Park, then scored 12 points in an epic replay in Parnell Park. Mark’s father though was the real catalyst for it all. “What made our team different to any other Tyrone team was Mickey Harte created this mindset that when we’d go down to Dublin we didn’t care who we were playing. I think that came back from his own minor days when the rest of the team were maybe happy to win Ulster and give a decent showing in Croke Park and that would be it but Mickey wasn’t the same as the other boys he played with. We could easily have lost to Kerry in ’97 and it would have been the same old story but once we beat them our team felt it didn’t matter who were playing, we were going to win.” Now he finds Tyrone supporters expect their team to win every time; that in a way Harte has created a monster that sometimes threatens to devour him. McGuigan believes they need to be patient but only for so long – unlike this past year or two, this Tyrone team will seriously threaten for honours – if Sean Cavanagh and Stephen O’Neill remain fit. McGuigan’s old clubmate Gavin Devlin has injected some fresh enthusiasm into the management team. Unlike last year, the players are totally committed. Harte is insisting on nothing less. With that meant saying farewell to McGuigan, or McGuigan saying farewell to him. It was without acrimony; together they won six All Irelands through the grades and years. Come next month and the lead up to the Donegal game he might wish he was out there but that moment will pass. He’s happy enough where he is, in the stands, knowing that while he no longer can see it all, he did it all, down on that field. His wins over Kerry, not his war of words with them, are what will endure.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Doyle in right frame of mind for Tyrone challenge

Kildare defender sees bigger picture beyond National League semi-final

The first thing Kildare need to get right going into Sunday's Allianz Football League semi-final against Tyrone is their frame of mind, according to defender Eoin Doyle, and the rest should take of itself.

Defeat to Down in the last round hasn't helped, and Kildare also lost out to Sunday's opponents in the round before that, when Tyrone came to Newbridge and beat them handily, by six points. "That is something we will want to put right at the weekend," says Doyle. "But I don't think the games in the past are going to make an awful lot of difference to what is going to happen on Sunday. It's a new game, new players on the pitch, all that."

For such a young man, just turned 22, Doyle has a deceiving maturity, and a deceptively strong physique to go with it: he was one of the finds for Kildare last year, and underlined it with his league form this year, and looks to the bigger picture, beyond Sunday's showdown at Croke Park.

Indeed Kildare beat them to claim the Division Two title this time last year, although Doyle they are among the in-form teams. "Luckily enough we got the win against them in the Division Two final but then this year they came up to Newbridge and gave an exhibition of football.

"They are serious opposition, you have to play them to actually realise how good they are. The two Cavanaghs (Seán and Colm) are doing very well in the middle of the field, Stephen O'Neill at full forward is a very good target man. But again they could have a totally different team out at the weekend so you have to take every game on its merit and prepare for it."

Kildare Under-21s
So too could Kildare, especially if manager Kieran McGeeney was to call on more of his under-21 players. But with their place booked in the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway on Saturday week, McGeeney will be keeping them fresh – although their absence, and perhaps distraction, is no excuse for Kildare's heavy defeat last Sunday, when Down won 3-13 to 1-12 (but were still relegated).

"Maybe Down were that bit hungrier on the day, they were fighting for survival. We went up to win the game, but we'll look at it, because if we don't improve we'll find ourselves on the wrong end of the result in the semi-final.

"But they (Kildare's under-21s) are a very good outfit, are a very ambitious group of players. they are also very talented and are hungry to win and that's what you want. They have had an impact on our team which is what the management have been looking for. It's extremely good and they have an All-Ireland semi-final, that they are more than capable of winning."

Kildare still appear capable of winning this league title, and could do with it – the only one of Sunday's four semi-finalists never to win it. (Dublin last won in 1993, Mayo in 2001, and Tyrone in 2003.)

"Every competition you enter you want to win," says Doyle, perfectly diplomatically. "But I don't think our overall ambition was to win the league. It was to win our first match and we went from there and it took us to the league semi-final. We'll learn from the matches we have lost and try and improve on that against Tyrone because if we don't improve we'll be on the wrong side of the result.

"At the start of the league, we took each game on its merit. We didn't look past any other game and we'll go into the semi-final against Tyrone and look to win that. We won't be looking at any league final. If we come out of the right side of it then we'll think about winning the final but there's no point thinking about the final if you're not in it. So it's all guns blazing for the weekend.

"But it's the number of games, the quality of the opposition you are playing, that's been the difference for me. We're happy to be playing in Division One and happy to be staying here for next year. Hopefully we can win our semi-final and that will put us in good stead for Offaly in the summer."

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/doyle-in-right-frame-of-mind-for-tyrone-challenge-1.1357133

[tyrone exile]

is the game on tv?

[Fuzzman]

Yeah its on TG4 and Premier sports

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

I'll have a spare ticket for this one (Lower Cusack), should anyone be looking for one -- just PM me (first come first served). 

Edit: it's free (cost me nothing).

[seafoid]

Jusr read there that mcgeeney has been in charge for 5 seasons and d2 is all he has won.

[tyroneman]

Jusr read there that mcgeeney has been in charge for 5 seasons and d2 is all he has won.

Yip. Who would have thought out of McGeeney and McGuinness taking managerial jobs it would be Jimmy siting with 2 provincials and Sam. All in less than half the time too.

[Redhand Santa]

Comórtas: Sraith Náisiúnta Peil
Cluiche: Tír Eoghain  v  Cill Dara
Ionad: Páirc an Chrócaigh
Dáta: 14-04-13 @ 2.00pm
1 Niall Morgan Éadan na dTorc
2 PJ Quinn Baile na Móna
3 Conor Clarke An Omaigh
4 Cathal McCarron An Droim Mór
5 Dermot Carlin Coill an Chlochair
6 Matthew Donnelly Trí Leac
7 Conor Gormley An Charraig Mhór
8 Colm Cavanagh An Mhaigh
9 Sean Cavanagh An Mhaigh
10 Joe McMahon An Omaigh
11 Peter Harte Aireagal Chiaráin
12 Mark Donnelly An Charraig Mhór
13 Martin Penrose An Charraig Mhór
14 Stephen O'Neill Clann na nGael
15 Darren McCurry Éadan na dTorc
16 Pascal McConnell An Baile Nua
17 Aidan Cassidy Eochar
18 Conan Grugan An Omaigh
19 Plunkett Kane Oileán a'Ghuail
20 Connor McAliskey Cluain Eo
21 Aidan McCrory Aireagal Chiaráin
22 Ciaran McGinley Aireagal Chiaráin
23 Ryan McKenna Eaglais
24 Ronan McNamee Achadh Uí Aráin
25 Patrick McNiece Oileán a'Ghuail
26 Sean Warnock An Caisleán Glas

[Redhand Santa]

Don't think anyone would have guessed that team!! Big chance starting PJ and Carlin after being injured all year but guessing Harte feels they need game time at this level ahead of the championship. Justy must be injured again which is disappointing. Interesting that he's actually name Mattie at centre half back. He's effectively played that role a few times anyway this year. At least it will stop people complaining about him not scoring because he's named in forwards.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Wow, PJQ back in the corner, Dermy Carlin back in the half-backs, and Matty Donnelly CHB!

Interesting.

[Fuzzman]

Fair play Mickey. Keep them all guessing. Block at wing back.

[ONeill]

Great to see those changes. Niggling thoughts about the defence so unsettled before the Championship but something had to be changed.

[omagh_gael]

Had a feeling that is the team Mickey was going to name

Very interesting selection which could either be a master stroke or a disaster. We are crying out for a couple of tenacious sticky defenders and PJ and Carlin tick all those boxes. Their lack of game time is a worry but they've been around for a long time and know what it takes to cut the mustard. Disconcerting that there is such a significant change to the defence this close to May, however, as O'Neill points out something needed to be done.
Let's hope the intensity levels match the 2nd 35 minutes at the weekend and we increase our efficiency in front of goal. A run out in the division 1 final would be a real bonus and something of a novelty for us Tyrone fans.