Messages

You're quite correct Ciarrai_thuaidh - I believe that every decent footballer in a county should have a chance to win a senior championship medal. Also from a county perspective since Kerry have won 30+ all-irelands there must be something in how they structure themselves internally which has made it happen. In truth kerry is isolated within an essentially hurling province. If having few competitors within a province was all that was required then Antrim & Galway would be sitting on 20 All-Ireland hurling championships each.

I've got to say that I wish Tyrone would bring this in. The major problem that most counties have is that if a player for a non-senior club is not spotted by the time they are minors than they rarely get a chance to play for the county. A late developer has some chance if he's playing senior football because he can be seen in the Senior championship but a player in junior or intermediate football won't be seen. If you have divisional sides in the senior chanpionship then they can be spotted.  If you look at kerry they have Paul Galvin, Declan O'Sullivan and Bryan Sheehan from non-senior clubs. In fact if you look at the 41 players listed on the senior panel - 22 are from senior clubs, 11 from intermediate and 8 from junior. People wonder why Kerry are strong but are not winning many underage titles. I believe that much of it has to do with the way the senior championship is structured. They find the best footballers in the county no matter what club they are playing for

As a 15 year old I was brought to the 1981 Mayo-Kerry semi final and I remember a few auld ones next to me saying that the game was nothing but basketball now - that it wasn't proper football anymore. Just had a look at the highlights of the same game on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yZ0vbvguD4 - and it definitely wasn't basketball. The main change I've seen in my time is that the game of my youth was a ball propulsion game (get the ball into the danger area and see what happens) to a ball retention game. I don't believe that there's any dimunition in the skills required to play the game - it's just that the skills required have changed

yeah i got the same email and they rang me yesterday to confirm which card i wanted to be charged as i have two on my account

Hmmm, bit worried that I haven't received the email then.

If the ticket isn't there when I get home tonight I'll have to give them a bell.

My ticket has just come through the door - more power to the post office -  boos to the Ulster Council for waiting until Wed to give the goahead to send the tickets.

Just rang the ticket office and they don't know for sure what is happening yet - the lady I was talking to thinks that they are going to post out tickets but they won't know for sure until this afternoon. Hopefully it will be scanning the season ticket since I'm coming in from Manchester and there's no guarantee that the ticket will get to me on time

This venue debate really annoys me - it should be in stone from the start of the championship.

Difficult to do when you don't know who's playing.

Not really when it comes to the early stages of the championship - it's either going to be
tyrone vs derry
tyrone vs monaghan
armagh v derry/monaghan - you could state the grounds that these matches are going to be in e.g.
tyrone/armagh v derry is casement
tyrone/armagh v monaghan is clones

This venue debate really annoys me - it should be in stone from the start of the championship. I'm waiting to book flights to go to the match and I don't know where the game is - if it's Casement then I can probably get a flight home in the evening. I watched the BBC coverage of the Armagh Tyrone match on the iplayer yesterday and Austin O'Callaghan stated that the semi was going to be on the Saturday but I can't find that being mentioned anywhere else. I try to get over for most Tyrone matchs but it's an absolute pain when the venues/dates are movable feasts.

I was in row D in EO - it looks like all the season ticket holders where put into the lowest rows - if you're going to be uncovered then you'd be better off in the McGrane stand with a better view. I've a feeling that they dumped all the season ticket holders into these seats so that the Gerry Arthurs stand would look full for the tv cameras

I was at the game in Armagh in 84 - I'd love to see what the team line out was. I remember thinking that they'd got the biggest hallions from Ulster playing that day. There was no messing from the Aussies. I remember a man mountain from Donegal playing - I think it was Des Newton but I might be wrong

Here's a link to some Irish League attendances - looking at it the average attendance seems to be about 700

http://foot.ie/forums/showthread.php?s=e77fcd1b14bb753bd02133c8d2725fe6&t=104320

Folks,
   Would anybody know who sings the song 'Tyrone Folk' - it was just on the Gerry Anderson show straight after the 11 a.m. news. He doesn't know who sings it but it's about going down to Croker to watch Tyrone playing. I'd love to get a copy of it.

[Tyrone have won three All Irelands with a mixture of some very good and some very ordinary players. Their success does not rest with brilliant individual talent. At least five of the side that beat Kerry on September 21 would struggle to make the Tralee John Mitchels' side of the 1960s. Kerry have far better quality, but it is not paying off.]

Took this from The Kerryman :
Kerry management made serious errors of judgement
Wednesday October 01 2008

THE fallout from losing a third All Ireland final to Tyrone in six years hit home last week as Kerry supporters surveyed the wreckage of a damaging defeat in which the reigning champions were outsmarted and outmanoeuvred both on and of the field.

So many things went wrong that it is difficult to pinpoint why Pat O'Shea's men, with so much at stake, contrived to play what was arguably their poorest football of the whole year (excluding the league final against Derry and the Munster final defeat by Cork). Three defeats in major finals in one year is bad enough, but when the most calamitous failure comes on the biggest day of all before a sellout crowd in Croke Park there is justifiable bewilderment.

With so many top players under-achieving it was, perhaps, understandable that supporters would find it hard to deal with a situation that was so untypical of Kerry in an All Ireland final. Being beaten so comprehensively in the end hasn't been the only shock.

There were also some poor decisions by management that have compounded the overall disappointment. All of this is perfectly understandable. Kerry supporters demand high standards and they are entitled to expect only the very best on a day when everything is on the line. They didn't get that nor anything remotely near it.

Tyrone's claustrophobic gameplan undoubtedly contributed to what unfolded. Kerry didn't play poorly just by accident; they were presssurised into making numerous mistakes. By now, Mickey Harte is an exhaustive student of Kerry football, which he knows like the back of his hand. Consequently, there is nothing that would have spooked him in terms of tactical innovation.

Harte is a top-class practitioner who would have guessed correctly that the opposition had nothing new in their armoury – which they hadn't. Any fool could have told him how important it was to eliminate the threat of Cooper, Donaghy and Walsh who had signalled their devastating potential well in advance. Equally important, he would have to ensure that pressure was exerted on outfield players in a way that allowed little quality ball being directed into this area. Some of these pressure tactics included obstructionist fouling that mostly went unpunished by the referee.

By moving the tenacious and destructive Conor Gormley to left full-back Harte was clearly intent on presenting Colm Cooper with his biggest test to date. The two McMahons, mostly unrated up to now, were handed the mammoth task of defusing two of Kerry's key players, Kieran Donaghy and Tommy Walsh. When Kerry's front line of attack wasn't functioning and with several fouls being ignored by the referee Tyrone were on their way.

By his own high standards, Kieran Donaghy had a complete off-day with little going right for him. From the start his normal animation appeared to have gone missing and he looked completely out of sorts with himself. In any event it came as a huge surprise to see him being marked out of it. Obviously, his recent injury must have been a factor. He had done little training and for whatever reason wasn't even a shadow of the great player we know him to be.

The Kerry selectors made their first blunder of the day when deciding late in the first half to bring Donaghy outfield to play as a third midfielder. This suited Tyrone down to the ground because it took the opposition's main play-maker away from his normal domain and brought him into an area where he made no impression. Secondly, it clogged up a sector where Kerry were already marginally on top. Absolutely nothing was gained from that experiment.

Tommy Walsh filled the vacant space in front of goal but was getting nothing off his marker. After an early knock the Kerins O'Rahilly's man became a peripheral figure although he did have one half-chance of scoring what would have been a vital goal.

Walsh is a midfielder by inclination and when he blasted the ball against the advancing goalkeeper he did what most outfield players in his situation would have done. Had he chosen to jink the keeper his physical strength would have given him a chance of putting the ball in the net. Alternatively, he might posssibly have been fouled for a penalty.

Colm Cooper was Kerry's lone scoring threat in attack with Declan O'Sullivan foraging deep in defence where he did some great work. He also contributed spasmodically up front and his late goal attempt (had it come off) might have saved the day. With Eoin Brosnan and Bryan Sheehan ineffective on the wings, Kerry's attacking threat was minimal throughout.

Keeping Darran O'Sullivan under wraps for the whole season was a mistake. The Glenbeigh/Glencar clubman is a forward of real quality having proved himself repeatedly when coming on as a sub over the past few years. During the league campaign earlier this year he was among the top five players on the team. The question must arise therefore: Why has he been held in reserve when he should have become a first-choice regular long before now? To deny him that opportunity is not just ill-advised, it is morally wrong and unjustifiable.

Similarly in the case of Tommy Griffin whose exclusion was mind-boggling. After performing so well in both games against Cork the Dingle publican appeared to have done everybody a big favour by sorting out the notoriously troublesome full-back position. That was the presumption, but things turned out very differently. To the absolute bafflement of supporters Griffin was dropped for the next game, the All Ireland final! Making a wrong call in the heat of a big game is an occupational hazard, but when a decision is made in the cold light of day that flies in the face of reason it is hard to acccept.

Paul Galvin's introduction on the 58th minute came far too late. If he was to play a meaningful role he should have been brought on much earlier and allow him, say 10 minutes, to adjust to the pace of the game. Admittedly, he didn't look right after coming on but, given more time, he might have made some kind of impact.

In fairness, the selectors did make some good moves during the year. The introduction of Tommy Walsh in mid-season was a master-stroke while the bold and adventurous step of trying to convert Griffin into a full-back was working until the blueprint was discarded. Micheal Quirke was a success in the replay against Cork. Similarly, the late arrival of David Moran that day reaped rich dividends. This begs the question though: Why have we seen so little of him?

Tyrone have won three All Irelands with a mixture of some very good and some very ordinary players. Their success does not rest with brilliant individual talent. At least five of the side that beat Kerry on September 21 would struggle to make the Tralee John Mitchels' side of the 1960s. Kerry have far better quality, but it is not paying off.
Why this is happening is something that must be addressed before the future can even be considered.

**Just checked on wikipedia and they won 5 championships so they must have been some team. The question is what five couldn't have made it - since it was the 'catch and kick' days who out of the tyrone team would fall down on the old mano-mano style of football

You can see in that photo what he got off his father - he is still the best man i ever saw leap for the ball. He just seemed to hang in the air. I remember being up at a national league match in Newcastle in the mid 80's. Eugene took out in the last ten minutes and caught absolutely everything. I spoke to Liam Grugan (about 6 ft 2) that night who was playing midfield for Tyrone that day and asked him about eugene. He told me that he went up for a ball from a kick out and felt a knee on his shoulder. That was McKenna! The other unbelievable thing that day was that Audie Hamilton scored 2 goals for Tyrone!

the game is on midwestradio - www.midwestirishradio.com

tyrone won 2-10 to 1-10