Dublin vs Kerry - Sunday September 1st

[Syferus]

Nothing for you here Nally, all your heroes are long gone. Even Gerry's mighty wee men didn't make the cut.

Republic of Ireland Championship etc.

[Jinxy]

Poor defending?
This is what happens when ONE defender marks ONE attacker as opposed to the keystone cops nonsense nordies seem to love.

[screenexile]

'Tis a pity they best game we've seen in a long time has descended into a "thank god we've seen an end to Nordie football"

Spoke to a mate who was at it and he said he hadn't seen a game like it since Derry Dublin in 1993. I wasn't at the game but the Tyrone Dublin game of 2005 would have been a hard one to match for atmosphere and quality.

Both teams going into the final have plenty of weaknesses so it'll be interesting to see how that pans out. I think with the loss of O'Connor Dublin definitely have the better forwards but then Mayo have a better defence and midfield. It will be intriguing.

Jim Gavin is a breath of fresh air and it's good to see his team playing this way rather than the dross Gilroy served up. For all the talk about Dublin saving football from Donegal they were pretty negative themselves 2 years ago and all around this is a much better team!

[Nally Stand]

Nothing for you here Nally, all your heroes are long gone. Even Gerry's mighty wee men didn't make the cut.

Republic of Ireland Championship etc.

What are you on about?

[OakleafCounty]

I was asked a while back to explain "auld northern shite"

I would have thought it was quite obvious to most on here....

Negative tactics
Blanket defence
Sledging

etc etc

Negative tactics - I take it you never seen footage of Dublin in the 70's/80's or Meath in the 90's.

Blanket Defence - Armagh in 2002 may have been the first team to turn that system into a match winner but it existed before that. Kildare under Mick O'Dwyer in 1998 used it. I have a video of John O'Mahony commenting on Kildares blanket defense prior to the final that year.

Sledging - Sorry but your just talking balls with that one.

[Fuzzman]

This was a great match yesterday and whilst I don't know where it rates with past big games, I have to say I really really enjoyed watching it and suppose if I'm to be honest that is partially because of the outcome.

Whilst a lot of ye are focusing on the negative side of things like comparing this type of game to say Tyrone & Donegal's style over the last few years I will try to look at the more positive side of the same story.
Lots of people are saying how great Gooch was yesterday and how it's a joy to watch a player (even if lots of us don't like him or Kerry) of his immense ability have the room to play such delightful passes and shots. Whether you think its naive of a manager or team to not double mark him or have two or three extra men back there to crowd him out, you have to admit that it makes for a much more enjoyable spectacle if we can see the most skilful players in our games be allowed to play. We saw Stephen O'Neill kick some amazing scores from crazy angles earlier this year and in other years but then more often than not he got double marked and we didn't see much of him during the rest of the year.

Dublin could easily have lost this match yesterday and of course the negative minded begrudger could have said, sure why didn't they play more defensively. Surely they should have known ye don't win anything now with all out attack football. Yes they did bring men back the odd time but not in the way a lot of teams have been doing so obviously where they only end up with 2 forwards inside their own half.

For me the game has changed a lot over the last 10 years. I think Armagh, Tyrone and lately Donegal have had a huge impact on tactics and how the game is now played. However, in my eyes there seems to have been a change of heart this year from teams like Mayo, Dublin and a few others. Gavin knew he was close to losing yesterday and I think he changed his tactics a bit to provide some cover for his defence.

I for one look forward to the mayhem the black cards will bring next year and I hope Mickey Harte and others will leave behind the more defensive mindset and try to promote attacking football over having 10 defenders. Watching our minors throw of the shackles yesterday and go out and kick some wonderful scores was great to watch. I hope lots of young kids got to see Gooch yesterday and dream of playing like that in Croke park some day.

Otherwise we might as well start playing tennis or something.

[Nally Stand]

Poor defending?
This is what happens when ONE defender marks ONE attacker as opposed to the keystone cops nonsense nordies seem to love.

But sure at least there was no cynicism eh?

[Syferus]

 

[highorlow]

Good a game as I've seen in a while, but not quite as good as Dubkin v Mayo in '06. Now that was drama until the last kick of the ball!

Glad a non-Mayo said that as I was of the same opinion but would have got slated here for saying so. It was a better game in '06 for numerous reasons, 1 - because the scoring on that day was far and away more spectacular and 2 - we were such underdogs and 3 - a comeback from 7 down was regarded as amazing at the time (not so now).

[Donnellys Hollow]

Negative tactics - I take it you never seen footage of Dublin in the 70's/80's or Meath in the 90's.

Blanket Defence - Armagh in 2002 may have been the first team to turn that system into a match winner but it existed before that. Kildare under Mick O'Dwyer in 1998 used it. I have a video of John O'Mahony commenting on Kildares blanket defense prior to the final that year.

Sledging - Sorry but your just talking balls with that one.

[Rossfan]

Poor defending?
This is what happens when ONE defender marks ONE attacker as opposed to the keystone cops nonsense nordies seem to love.

But sure at least there was no cynicism eh?

Good ones Nally. Why do people think Kerry were only able to score 6 points in the last 45 minutes?
Hint - maybe Dublin tightened up their defence
We had 4-13 in the first 25 mins, 0-15 in the next 43 minutes and then 2-1 in the last few minutes.
Also did the Sunday Game ignore the Cooper on Cooper incident which should have been a second yellow??

[Fuzzman]

I think we have this outpouring of relief that a so called non defensive minded team have made it to the final and that's why so many are now overstating how good this game was.
The fact there was so many scores, especially goals and loads of incidents from start to finish is a breath of fresh air to many neutrals.

If you look at Donegal for example and I am just picking them as they are a recent example of what I mean. Pre-McGuinness Donegal did play a nice brand of open attacking football and many people liked to see them do well. Their fans would get the odd day out in Croke park but usually lacked that bit of quality and know how to get over the line against the bigger guns.
McGuinness changed that mindset and played to a strict defensive based system. They had 2 great forwards(now 3) and showed what can be achieved if everyone buys into such a system. Their fans (quite similar to my own county) soon saw the benefits of this and they too stood behind the new system. The Tyrone v Donegal games over the past 3 years have been total wars of attrition and in most people's eyes NOT a very nice spectacle. Yes it's interesting to see the tactical battles but we rarely see good passes or great scores. Yet the fans know it can work and so we all defend it to the hilt. Tyrone played most of their games this year with only 2 or 3 forwards and focused mainly on turnovers and then running the ball up the pitch. Slow and very laborious attacks. It proved quite successful as it got it to the AI semifinal but pretty it is not. With the exception of some great runs and scores from Sean Cavanagh, we didn't have much to cheer about all year.

This is why I think there is such an over reaction to the game yesterday as most fans are fed up watching these intense defensive games over the past number of years and want to see football return to being much more open and off the cuff. Even Dublin's win in 2011 wasn't great football but it had been a long time since they won it and Gilroy had to fight fire with fire to get them over the line.

[Rossfan]

Look ladeens - Donegal were more than worthy Champions last year and whoever wins with whatever style this year will also be worthy Champions.

[Wildweasel74]

that last photo looks like a sure suspension for me, hard to say it looks accidental even though ross is not looking at him

[Whishtup]

Always great to see Kerry bate.  Killarney still haunts me...On a scale of hatefulness, the Dubs are only mildly hateful compared to them Kerry ones.