Tyrone v Kerry All Ireland Final 2008

[ziggysego]

That's great Frank, but didn't KM say earlier that Kerry would never disclose how Kerry players are performing in training before an All-Ireland Final... especially one that is returning after a prolonged absent?

Who says we are? Mind you there's over a thousand witnesses to keep quiet.

You just said it a moment ago. Honestly Frank, getting worried about you in your old age.

[Frank Casey]

Smoking and rearing to get to the big smoke to make some red hands redder. In fact all our panel are smoking.


Now if we could keep the divils off the fags till the twenty second and away from the drink until half time

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Now if we could keep the divils off the fags till the twenty second and away from the drink until half time

There's always hope Frank, where's your ticket for?

[ONeill]

The clergy down there need to take a good look at themselves, blessing a boy like thon.

[tyssam5]

One thing can be absolutely gauranteed in this match, particularly given the Referee, it will not end 15 a side. I fear that the ref. could spoil this game with his ponderous, pedantic, over fussy style. A very bad appointment to take charge of a potential classic game between two superb highly competitive teams. A lot of common sense will be required and our Maurice is short on that commodity

I thought he was grand in the Kerry Monaghan game, must take another look at it.

[tyssam5]

Why all the recent talk from Tyrone of how much O'Neill is flying in training, if it was the case they would be keeping it quite, there is a smoke screen going here me thinks. Surely the best place to ambush and surprise the Kerrymen with a flying O'Neill would be in Croker on Sunday week without every media interview hinting at the same. Maybe the Tyrone people are really nice and like to tell us all their plans.

However you won't hear anyone in the Kerry camp saying "well the Gooch is flying in training" , "he turned me inside out an left me on my ass then put the ball over the bar to boot!"  If he or everyonme else wasn't fecking doing this in training a week before an All Ireland final I'd be very worried indeed.

Hopefully if O'Neill is fit we will see him at some stage in the final , a player of his natural ability is a joy to watch even if we have suffered by him twice.

KM seems like this Killarney publican is losing it, giving far too much away!

"I never saw anything like it in my time, and I'm around a long time," said Jimmy. "He has brought a new dimension again. He's flying".
--------------------------------------

He'll have to start!
Seriously I think he will.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

One thing can be absolutely gauranteed in this match, particularly given the Referee, it will not end 15 a side. I fear that the ref. could spoil this game with his ponderous, pedantic, over fussy style. A very bad appointment to take charge of a potential classic game between two superb highly competitive teams. A lot of common sense will be required and our Maurice is short on that commodity

Don't agree necessarily Pangurban. Have you an example where he destroyed an otherwise (potentially) attactive game? Not trying to be smart, but I really don't think you're on the money here -- I know he's something of a disciplinarian, but so do the players, usually.

[tyrone86]

Didn't Deegan ref Tyrone and Down on that rotten wet day in Healy Park in 05?

[snappiered]

Anyone hear any of the new Tyrone songs? If so which is best. I also notice alot of chat shows coming up over the next week. We have one ourselves on Monday night with a special apperance from Mickey Harte.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Interesting article in the Sindo from the 7th:

Tiring Kerry look vulnerable
Already this final has the feel of a cliffhanger about it, writes Tommy Conlon

We wonder if the GAA thought carefully enough about the probable temperature of the All-Ireland football final before making their decision as to who would referee it.

This game is likely to be volatile: Kerry and Tyrone have mutual history, neither side will back down, there are combustible characters on both sides. There may well be flashpoints and controversies.

And given, in particular, Kerry's recent form, if Maurice Deegan doesn't referee it, then Declan O'Sullivan will, or Kieran Donaghy or Colm Cooper or take your pick. Last Sunday we had the sight of Jimmy White being screamed at into his face by O'Sullivan and Donaghy while three other players also surrounded him. There was pushing and shoving and general belligerence. It was a gang, trying to intimidate the match referee. It was Andy D'Urso at Old Trafford getting coursed by Roy Keane and his gang. It was ugly and inexcusable.

But the most revealing part of this incident was its timing: the champions were six points up. It was a comfortable lead but, obviously, they didn't feel comfortable. Five minutes earlier they'd been nine in front. But despite this commanding lead -- or perhaps because of it -- they started panicking. And irony of ironies, they ended up doing an Armagh on it. They packed the defence, invited Cork onto them and conceded three points in almost as many minutes.

Then came the attack on White. It wasn't anger over a bad decision -- it was paranoia.

Ten minutes later their lead was gone. Cork had hauled them in. For the third time this summer they had surrendered a big lead to the same opponents. It had become a self-fulfilling prophecy: when they started to pull bodies back early in the second half, it was a public manifestation of their private insecurity. An admission of the vulnerability that has become increasingly apparent as they close in on the three-in-a-row.

And then, just as they did when Darragh ó Sé was sent off the previous Sunday, they clicked again. They forgot about their fears and just played ball. The way they engineered the winning goal was superb: claiming the kick-out in midfield, then passing and probing, and passing and probing again until they had the overlap and Cooper had the ball in the back of the net. Bingo!

It is one of the true indicators of a genuine champion, in any sport: this ability, when the situation is desperate, to think clearly; to produce a play of the utmost clarity, and to clinically execute it. Which is exactly what Kerry did in the 66th minute.

But once again they left us with this paradoxical performance: scintillating for long periods as every cog in the machine clicked into gear and the scores started piling up. And then, suddenly, the machine stalled. And soon a team that had been masterful started to unravel.

The question is why, and the answer is probably that they are running out of steam. They are bidding to make history with a hat-trick of titles but they are in the final miles of a marathon that actually began six or more years ago for most of them. And it's looking increasingly like they have hit the wall.

What's keeping them going, among other things, is the eye on the prize. Kerry have been the most talented team in the country for the last three years -- they've also been the hungriest. Success hasn't bred complacency; it has bred the desire for more success. They have reached their fifth All-Ireland final in a row. And they have done it in arguably the most competitive era in the history of the game.

It is this all-powerful drive for more titles that has kept them on the road for so long. And when things have started to unravel this summer, that same drive has started to show its ugly side. Those players would not have turned on White last Sunday if they didn't want to win so badly. But, their will to win notwithstanding, they still wouldn't have turned on White if they were happy with their form. But a team that is six points up and behaving like this is clearly far from happy with its form.

Perhaps they don't admit it to themselves but we would venture that, deep down, they know that fatigue has set in; that they are starting to tread water; that the sand is draining fast from the hour-glass.

They haven't cruised into this final. Tyrone are the team with momentum. The question is: having led from the front for so long, will a tiring Kerry team be overtaken by an accelerating Tyrone team just yards from the finish line?

The other feature that has kept Kerry at the top for so much of this decade is a lot easier to quantify than their desire: it is the exceptional quality of their attack. When Tyrone toppled them in the final three years ago, it was with a full-forward line the equal of any ever assembled. The combination of Canavan, Mulligan and O'Neill would take some beating. But Kerry come into this final with Cooper, Donaghy and Walsh and as a unit they are equally as devastating.

Basically this trio bailed Kerry out last Sunday. And with a defence that has leaked a total of 19 points three times this summer, and facing a team that scored 23 against Dublin and 23 against Wexford, it's looking like they will have to bail them out again in the final. The worry for Tyrone is that they will have to be strong in defence for 73 or more minutes; the hope for Kerry is that Cooper et al can strike for goals in a matter of seconds.

That's the football; there's also the psychology. Having shocked the whole of Kerry with the ferocity of their play in that famous (or infamous) 2003 semi-final, the widespread expectation was that Kerry would exact full revenge in the final two years later. Once again the same assumption is surfacing: Kerry will want revenge for 2005.

But it's a flawed assumption and more than a little bit convenient. Firstly, it's three years since that final and a lot of things have changed. Kerry have won the two All-Irelands since then and it would be unsafe to assume that they can reach back behind those victories to find some hurt lingering from the defeat of '05.

Secondly, and maybe more to the point, Canavan is gone, Mulligan is on the bench and O'Neill was gone until last Thursday. Tyrone have found their scoring boots but it's been late in the day and, anyway, it's still not the same. They are weaker in midfield and possibly more erratic in defence too.

Overall, Kerry are stronger in terms of personnel. But mentally and physically they are a tired team. Which might just about even it up. This one has the feel of a cliffhanger about it. With two weeks to go, it is much too early to call. But it will be a fast, fascinating and probably tempestuous affair.

[filthylittlebeast]

theres one called Tyrone ABU by Eugene Dunphy and its on You Tube at the minute and theres one by a Country and Western Girl Group called Rodeo 21 but I can't find the words for either online !

[EC Unique]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hFNeHc7i78

Tyrone ABU

[Main Street]

One thing can be absolutely gauranteed in this match, particularly given the Referee, it will not end 15 a side. I fear that the ref. could spoil this game with his ponderous, pedantic, over fussy style. A very bad appointment to take charge of a potential classic game between two superb highly competitive teams. A lot of common sense will be required and our Maurice is short on that commodity

I thought he was grand in the Kerry Monaghan game, must take another look at it.

It's hard work keeping up with the championship pace and girth of this thread.

I thought the ref did well in that game. Talked to players, treated them as adults and kept a firm lid on a scrappy competitive game.
I don't know how he would be with spotting when to let the game flow.

[Over the Bar]

theres one by a Country and Western Girl Group called Rodeo 21

I think some of the girls in this group are WAGS of the tyrone players

[EC Unique]

theres one by a Country and Western Girl Group called Rodeo 21

I think some of the girls in this group are WAGS of the tyrone players

Oh FFS get me a bucket