Corcaigh v Cill Dara

[Dinny Breen]

Tompkins came to Cork for work end of story. If you think the CCB paid him a penny or the Castlehaven crew had money to be throwing around you are deluded. Kildare cb wouldnt pay for a flight home from America at the timeand threated him like dirt. Fahy was stationed in Cork City playing with Nemo Rangers. Cork have more than enough firepower to beat Kildare. Wether they play up to there ability is a completely different matter as they are hopelessly inconsisent.

Delusional me, everyone knows Larry Tompkins didn't go to Cork for the work, that would be funny it wasn't so sad 

Sorry that was a typo I know Shay was stationed in Cork I wouldn't begrudge Shay, as for Tompkins the less said the better.

daneil goulding,james masters,fintan gould and donncha o connor may beg to differ. cork won the u21 all -ireland recently with some very good forwards

Masters and Goold might not even start but Masters is a natural forward if lacking pace somewhat and Goold has scored 1 point in 2 championship games. Goulding has scored 1-3 points from play in 2 games not bad but hardly a Brogan or a Cooper and likewise O'Connor has scored 2 points from play. I'm sure the Kildare backs are quaking in fear 

What Cork do have is an excellent defence and a solid ball winning midfield and are a very big physical side. They will win plenty of posession, they are not a top four side imho and while they should beat Kildare it won't be a classic I'm afraid, it will be another dour game with plenty of wides.

And Indiana, while I can never take your negative ramblings seriously it might help if you got the Kildare's players names right, it's Alan Smith not Andrew and eh Kerry won the recent U/21 All-Ireland, beat Kildare actually, funny that....

[The Real Laoislad]

As my Gran is a proud Kildare woman i hope the flour bags can come through this
Despite their obvious hatred of everything Laois,us folk in Laois wouldn't really have that much animosity towards Kildare people..
Kildare by 2

[INDIANA]

i think you'll find cork beat laois in the u21 final last year, dinny. probably escaped your attention. and i think you'll find your backline won't be able to keep them below ten points because i can't see where your scores are coming from. doyle is a brilliant player but canty,lynch etc will be able to limit him. i think your backs will have their hands full.

[Dinny Breen]

Despite their obvious hatred of everything Laois,us folk in Laois wouldn't really have that much animosity towards Kildare people..

It's called envy Laoislad, we're good at that, hope your prediction is right, can't see it mind...

think you'll find cork beat laois in the u21 final last year, dinny. probably escaped your attention. and i think you'll find your backline won't be able to keep them below ten points because i can't see where your scores are coming from. doyle is a brilliant player but canty,lynch etc will be able to limit him. i think your backs will have their hands full.

I know I was been a pendant and also drawing your attention to Kildare's u21s who have a match off Dublins in the last 5 years. Anyhow I think you're spot on, we won't score more than Cork in a low scoring game...

[INDIANA]

look dinny i've never said dublin's u21 record recently was good anywhere. kildare have reached the last 8 against all the odds and fair play. but this is a slightly different level. Goulding is better than good he's  a class act as he will prove in the coming years. its a pity kildare didn't have doyle in 98 because they would have won the all-ireland. but he's some footballer.

[Dinny Breen]

Mind games from Cork?

If not big big bonus for Kildare....

Murphy set to miss Kildare showdown

By Brendan Larkin
NICHOLAS MURPHY is set to miss Sunday's All-Ireland football quarter-final clash with Kildare because of a hamstring injury, paving the way for Michael Cussen to start.


There are also serious concerns in the Cork camp over the fitness of Graham Canty and Cork manager Conor Counihan may wait until the very last minute before deciding to risk his captain, who is recovering from a medial ligament strain.

Although Cork named an unchanged team on Tuesday night, it is believed that the team was named only for 'programme' purposes, and the starting XV will be revealed to the players when they meet for training tonight.


Coach Conor Counihan is reluctant to rule both players out of Sunday's clash with the Lilywhites.

"We'll give both players up to the last minute to prove their fitness but right now it's touch and go", said Counihan.

"Our bench may be strong but if both the lads were to miss out, it will be tested to the full. With some much at stake I'm expecting Sunday's game to be a real dog fight, and Cork will need every player at his very best."

Meanwhile former Kildare star Séamus 'Sos' Dowling has insisted that the Lilywhites have nothing to fear against the Rebels.

Dowling was scathing in his criticism of Kildare following their Leinster championship defeat against Wicklow but he has been impressed by the nature of three successive qualifier victories since which propelled Kieran McGeeney's charges into the last eight of the championship.

Dowling, a member of Kildare's 1998 All-Ireland final team, admitted: "If you told me after the Wicklow game that we would reach the All-Ireland quarter-final I would have laughed.

"Kildare are getting there but it's taken Kieran (McGeeney) six or seven months to get it right. He was trying to play some players in different positions, Earley at full forward for example, but he now has a more settled, balanced team and lads that weren't fit earlier in the season are a lot fitter now.

"We can't get carried away either because we're only building but it's important that we give a good account of ourselves against Cork - and I think we will."

[lynchbhoy]

Its just another game for kildare, as Dinny says - the pressure is off.

Although I believe cork are one of the three left that should win SAM (Kerry and Dubs the other two).
The rebels imo have enough firepower , midfield and def talent to win the whole lot. They will be rusty and that could suit Cil dara, but the tiredness of so many games week after week could catch up on them (like Fermanagh and monaghan exp).

Will be interesting, a fit athletic Kildare side who will be full of confidence, and a rusty cork team who will have a mayo-esque pressure of being underachievers with croke park failures in the back of their minds.

I still think if cork can break out of the shackles early on, they will win it by a few.

Kildare need to find someone more than Johnny doyle

[AZOffaly]

I posted this in the Kildare Fermanagh thread, but I suppose it's more relevant for this weekend really. Sorry for the duplication.

*****
In a fit, last night, I sat through the Kildare - Fermanagh first half last night to see what went on again. As I sometimes like to do, I decided to diagram where the teams were taking shots from, and missing, to see if I could see a pattern. As I went through it, a clear pattern actually emerged, especially in relation to Fermanagh, and I think a lot of it comes down to Kildares' defence, and Fermanagh's lack of a Barry Owens. Taking my geekiness to new levels, I plotted the shots onto a map of a pitch, and I've posted it below. As you can see Kildare forced Fermanagh (or the lack of a target man forced them) to take shots from angles. Not one of Fermanagh's shots could be termed as in front of the posts. If Kildare can do that again to Cork, especially if Michael Cussen can be neutralised, they will take beating again. I was impressed with Kildare's defence on second viewing, at times it was like the Mighty Duck's Flying V formation, forcing Fermanagh down the channels, away from the front of the goal.

The diagram below shows red circles where kicks from play were wide (the players number is in the circle), greens are scores from play, blues are wides from frees. I think it's quite startling to see where Fermanagh were kicking from. From Kildare's perspective, it was much more spread out across the field.

PS. Before ye start, yes I am aware this is fairly nerdy

[D4S]

  You've too much time on your hands AZ but fair play!  Good analysis, here's hoping the standard of football this weekend will be better than last weekend!

[AZOffaly]

Sad thing is I don't. Got home from work at 7.30, played with kid for an hour, put him to bed. Sat down, nothing on TV ergo some nerdy analysis

[Uladh]

The wing back kelly wasted a fair few shooting opportunities looking at that. there are quite a few ways to increase the regularity of shooting opportunities occurring centrally but carrying the ball down the flanks isn't one of them

[AZOffaly]

Exactly Uladh. Number 5, 7 and 8 account for 6 wides between them, all from the wing. I do think that Kildare forced them down those alleyways, looking at it again last night. Michael Cussen as a target man will pose a problem if they plan to do the same against Cork, but if they can neutralise him, it would be interesting to see if they make Cork take shots from the same place, or have the same personnel (wing backs and midfielders) taking shots..

One note about the 'wide' from number 4, from outside the 45, is that he was actually kicking the ball in, but it went harmlessly wide, rather than trying for a score.

[Uladh]

You touched on a very important point az - one entirely missed by the like of McHugh, Brolly, etc. and that is that quality defending will result in forcing opponents to take shots from wide areas under pressure, therefore minimising the accuracy. most decent county teams should have a policy of forcing the opposition wide and then concentrating of maximum pressure until the shot is away. pressure being preferable to the block.

of course McHugh etc reckon it's just bad shooting!

[Slapdash]

In a fit, last night, I sat through the Kildare - Fermanagh first half last night to see what went on again. As I sometimes like to do, I decided to diagram where the teams were taking shots from, and missing, to see if I could see a pattern. As I went through it, a clear pattern actually emerged, especially in relation to Fermanagh, and I think a lot of it comes down to Kildares' defence, and Fermanagh's lack of a Barry Owens. Taking my geekiness to new levels, I plotted the shots onto a map of a pitch, and I've posted it below. As you can see Kildare forced Fermanagh (or the lack of a target man forced them) to take shots from angles. Not one of Fermanagh's shots could be termed as in front of the posts. If Kildare can do that again to Cork, especially if Michael Cussen can be neutralised, they will take beating again. I was impressed with Kildare's defence on second viewing, at times it was like the Mighty Duck's Flying V formation, forcing Fermanagh down the channels, away from the front of the goal.

The diagram below shows red circles where kicks from play were wide (the players number is in the circle), greens are scores from play, blues are wides from frees. I think it's quite startling to see where Fermanagh were kicking from. From Kildare's perspective, it was much more spread out across the field.

PS. Before ye start, yes I am aware this is fairly nerdy

That is well done AZ, I fully support your nerdiness   I had thought of doing something similar earlier on in the Championship to outline how I felt Fermanagh were limiting their ability up front by their own doing.  From a Fermanagh perspective I believe I can offer some additional thoughts on the positioning of some shots.  Clearly there is the lack of a target man, which does not help as you have outlined.  Many of the shots came from players running from deep into the space and striking from distance (Marty mainly) and others came from laboured approach play.  The ball is 'recycled' back and forth and across the pitch until options are limited and eventually all options are exhausted and a player takes it upon himself to shoot out of a lack of a better idea (Kelly mainly in this instance, Eamon an extent.)  Whilst I cannot be sure, I would assume that all missed shots came from either of these two scenario's.  Conversely, our two scores came from two kick passes (from Kelly diagonally to Keenan and T McElroy to Maguire.)  Possibly the only two pieces of incisive play we had in the half, where we kicked a ball (in the opposition half) over 30 yards.  In these two instances we did not require a 'target man' but a fast release of the ball to the inside line. 
My problem is that we built the ball up from defence with a succession of short passes (backwards, forwards, sideways) which looked good and retained possession 99% of the time, but allowed the opposition to filter back and limited the space that our smaller forwards craved (and thus led to our sideways passing amongst the forwards.)  By the time we had passed the ball around in defence and we looked up, there was no space apart from on the wings.  The only two defenders who provided any forward momentum were McElroy and McDermott (Murphy's goal chance came from his initial burst through the middle.)  Little also offered this when he was deep, however he is also reluctant to kick the ball.
This is just a small point from a Fermanagh perspective, so Dinny and co do not take it as an 'excuse,'  it is a general problem I have noticed from the beginning of the year, and our style of play.  It was a contributory factory IMO, along with your good defending obviously (as AZ and Uladh pinted out.)  I know we won some good games this year, but in the championship our conversion rate was relatively poor throughout.  In Division 3 we could get away with it, but not in the championship.  Constantly it is said that we are as good 1-9 in the country (the reporter today) but I feel that if we are to increase our conversion rate, then our forwards need to be given a fair opportunity with quick released ball.  Bradley referred to Mulgrew's era in the Herald where they played a game at training, which involved the ball being moved from one end of the pitch to the other in 12 secs (open to correction.)  I doubt we crossed the half way line in under 20 secs on Sunday.  Pretend for one second that every ball that McCluskey got on Sunday, he hit it as far as he could into the forwards straight away.  If we gained half of that ball kicked I guarantee we would  have scored more than 5 miserly points.  It may not have meant a 100% ball retention rate for McCluskey, but it would have left our forwards with the potential to utilise some of the space it would create in not allowing opposition players to filter back as effectively.  A problem for next year I guess.   

[Uladh]

I believe McCluskey is a problem for Fermanagh and O'Rourke may need to push him back into the corner or play him wing forward next year. So much ball goes through his hands but he's so concerned with keeping possession he simply solos (sideways) or fist passes. this is starving the forwards of early ball in space. if he would (or maybe he can't?) kick pass the ball you'd have fermanagh forwards collecting ball closer to goal and in more space. depending on the quality of the kicking they might even collect the ball within the scoring zone as Clarke and mcdonnell do for armagh