Well folks, making my first ever trip to EP, and my first ever festival this year, line up was too good not to go.....staying in a podpad, anyone been before and if so any suggestions??
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#2
General discussion / What to have with a cuppa
May 27, 2009, 12:46:50 PM
Now I like a nice cuppa tea, and I usually like either the rich tea butter sandwiches, or a pink snack - savage. But I'm back training after injury, and have changed my diet pretty well, but just can't stop having something sweet with the tae.
Any suggestions on a heathly alternative?
Any suggestions on a heathly alternative?
#3
GAA Discussion / Footballer of the decade?
December 23, 2008, 10:35:46 AM
Maybe a year early...!
Nine seasons gone, one remaining. So, who's in pole position for the honour of being recognised as the Footballer of the Decade? Martin Breheny and Colm Keys start the debate by going head-to-head with their personal choices. Breheny argues for Kerry midfielder Darragh O Se, while Keys makes the case for Tyrone's utility man Sean Cavanagh. What do you think? Is it O Se or Cavanagh or are there others who have genuine cases? Email us at sportmail@independent.ie
Sean Cavanagh
In advancing the reasons why Sean Cavanagh would be his international rules captain for the test series against Australia in October, Sean Boylan was repeatedly drawn back to this year's All-Ireland final against Kerry and that epic second half.
For Boylan there was one stand-out feature, one reason why Tyrone were able to elevate themselves to the plateau above Kerry for the third time this decade. And that 'reason' was manifesting itself into captaincy of the international team.
"It was the way he demanded the ball in that second half," chimed Boylan with admiration.
Demanding
"The way he said to his colleagues 'give it to me and I'll take care of it'."
That's the thing about Sean Cavanagh -- he never stops demanding the ball. He would finish the All-Ireland with five points, but it's the chronology of three of those points in the second half which really set him apart.
When Kerry took the lead on 55 minutes, it was Cavanagh who provided the swift response for parity and then sent them ahead again for a lead they wouldn't subsequently relinquish. It was leadership at its best, the kind that Cavanagh had showed all year, both on the field in his re-adjusted full-forward position and off it in the way he led the calls to rally around Mickey Harte in the wake of their Ulster championship exit to Down.
The All-Ireland final was Cavanagh's tour de force, the pinnacle of a career that has blossomed steadily over the seven years since he was first pressed into action in a Tyrone shirt as a 19-year-old in 2002, not long out of minor ranks.
He ended this season, not surprisingly, with every possible individual gong, underlining why he is now at the peak of his craft.
The most skilful footballer of the 2000s, he is not. Indeed, there are times when he looks a little ungainly in his movement. But for impact, influence, dynamism, athleticism and sheer enthusiasm for what he does, Cavanagh makes a compelling case. With a year of the decade left he has positioned himself perfectly for any nominal award that might arise at the end of the next 12 months.
True, he has very strong rivals. Colm Cooper is the game's most aesthetically perfect player of his time; in the traditional sense, Darragh O Se has no peers as a midfielder, Seamus Moynihan and Brian Dooher comfortably make the final cut, but Cavanagh is the man who has taken his game to another level with his energy, ball-carrying power and ability to kick a score on the run, arguably the most difficult skill in the game.
At the age of 25 he already has four All Stars, albeit one less than Cooper and perhaps not always the perfect illustration of how great a career has been. But it provides a decent rule of thumb, nonetheless, and with three from the first four years of his inter-county career, the argument that he has only 'arrived' with the season he has had does not stack up.
From the very moment that he pulled on a Tyrone jersey in a senior dressing-room he has been making an impact.
From 2003 to 2007, when he played virtually all his football as a midfielder, with brief forays as a half-forward, his scoring returns were quite remarkable, collating 3-41 across five campaigns.
In 32 games he played in that period, he failed to score in just five, quite an impressive record of consistency for a midfielder, albeit a very attack-minded one. If a replica style could be drawn from the Premier League, Steven Gerrard would be most accurate.
But there is much more to his game than just finishing and, over the years, he has worked hard at improving the weakest part of his game, his fielding, to the point where he is now, more than competitive.
His ball-carrying stands apart and a defensive vaccine against that familiar 'feint to the left and then surge to the right' of his has still to be discovered. It's bought every time.
If gaelic football produced statistics that measured ball-carrying yardage, Cavanagh would be out on his own. And he rarely, if ever, hits cul de sacs.
In 2004 alone, when he won his second All Star, he amassed 1-12, only failing to score in the All-Ireland quarter-final when Mayo successfully paid him all their attention.
Business
A year later he delivered some of his most telling plays at the business end of the 2005 championship, first against Dublin in two games and then, most significantly, against Armagh in the closing stages of that enthralling All-Ireland semi-final, for many the game of the decade.
Armagh were poised to win when they edged two points clear, but it was Cavanagh's driving run and great finish through the middle that turned this game back in Tyrone's favour before Peter Canavan's coup de grace. It has become the mark of the man.
In the last two years Cavanagh has continued to develop his game at different levels. In the 2007 Ulster final against Monaghan two of his four points were kicked effortlessly off his left foot, adding another frightening dimension to his arsenal. His subsequent goal in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Meath, when he rushed 60 yards before unleashing an unstoppable shot, is just another snapshot of a great career.
This year reflected the great versatility that his talent allows him to have. Others may have baulked at a potentially restrictive move to full-forward, Cavanagh embraced it. Inevitably, however, he was drawn to where he knows he operates best and from the wide open prairies of midfield and the half-forward line he had the instinct, as he has always had, to go and demand the ball.
By the end of the season he had chalked up 2-24 bringing his championship total in the Mickey Harte years to 5-65.
All measurements of Cavanagh's achievement against anyone else in this decade should be qualified by the provincial mire he and his colleagues must wade through on an annual basis. Their route to glory is stacked with more barriers than that of anyone else. But in Croke Park they have the capacity to thrive, and none more so than Cavanagh. In the big games that matter Cavanagh has scarcely been found wanting. The Ulster quarter-final replay win against Derry in 2003 that got Harte's championship career at senior level under way, the 2005 All-Ireland semi-final against Armagh and this year's All-Ireland final stand out.
Tyrone have dominated their biggest rivals of the decade so far by virtue of victories over Kerry that have subsequently yielded All-Ireland titles. They have achieved it with a particular style, predicated on energy, athleticism and comfort in possession.
Sean Cavanagh embodies that style and that time, more than anyone.
Darragh O Se
Sporting greatness is about performance and presence, not perception. It's about seizing power and exerting influence.
Most of all it's about combining technical excellence with instinct, will and intelligence on a consistent basis over a long period of time.
Presence. Performance. Influence. Excellence. Will. Intelligence. Consistency. A 'magnificent seven' words which define Darragh O Se's career to such an extent that to limit the debate to whether he's the footballer of the decade doesn't accurately reflect his true stature.
He has long since moved onto another level where he's challenging for wider recognition as one of the truly great players of all time. The scale of what he has achieved must be viewed in a context that's reserved for very few players, even if his awards haul doesn't reflect that.
A total of 15 successive seasons as a midfielder in the modern game is quite remarkable; all the more so when they have been punctuated by such a high degree of reliability, which is one of the main differences between O Se and his rivals.
There are lots of players who enjoy long careers, often reaching peaks, but only a very elite band who succeed in maintaining excellence at close to optimum power virtually all the time.
O Se is among them and that's what makes his case to be regarded as the player of the decade so compelling.
Who else has been as dependable as O Se each and every year since 2000? He was the essence of consistency over previous seasons too, but the debate here concentrates on this decade only.
Contributed
However, O Se had established such a solid base by 2000 that he was able to hit the decade at full throttle which he duly did that season when he contributed so much to Kerry's All-Ireland success.
It won him the first of his four Vodafone All Star awards, a modest return for his endeavours.
He was exceptionally unlucky to lose out this year, a view supported by the GPA 'Team of the Year' which had him as midfield partner to Enda McGinley instead of Shane Ryan.
A far greater sin of omission is that O Se never won a 'Footballer of the Year' award. How a man who has influenced so much should fail to be recognised as the outstanding individual in any year says more about the selection methods and priorities than about him.
The 2006 season is the most blatant case in point. Kieran Donaghy won the award after making a huge impact when switched to full-forward as Kerry re-launched their All-Ireland bid.
At a superficial level, Donaghy's selection was justified, but if you analyse that year in its totality, O Se was a more deserving winner.
Donaghy ended up as the bright light that illuminated the second half of the championship, but O Se was the powerful generator which made it possible for his full-forward to shine so brightly in the run-in to All-Ireland glory.
What's more, O Se had done it much earlier in the year too. His second-half performance against Galway in the League final was truly awesome, but as is the nature of these things, counted for nothing later on.
O Se was also the best footballer in the country in 2002, but lost out to Kieran McGeeney for the award. One of the great nonsense factors of individual and team awards is that the All-Ireland winners start with so many advantages that they're virtually uncatchable.
Take 2002. O Se was well clear of the field in the race for the 'Footballer of the year' award at half-time in the All-Ireland final against Armagh. Kerry eventually lost by a single point and suddenly O Se was gone.
After making the All-Ireland breakthrough for the first time, an Armagh player was always going to take the gong, irrespective of what O Se or anybody else had done in the course of the season.
Ironically, O Se's younger brothers, Tomas and Marc, have both won 'Footballer of the Year' awards -- deservedly so, as it happens, but that still doesn't excuse Darragh's omission over such an extended period.
Darragh has always been very much his own man and a believer in being self-sufficient as a footballer too.
Jack O'Connor recalled in his book how O Se never bought into psychology, nor had he much time for complicated tactical detail.
"I'd be on about tactics at team meetings and Darragh would say: "Why can't we just kick out the ball and fight for own ball," wrote O'Connor. That evoked memories of the advice offered to Gareth Edwards by the legendary Barry John when he was first selected as scrum-half for Wales.
Edwards' query as to how John wanted to receive the ball was met with a quick retort: "You throw it, I'll catch it."
O Se has been catching it for Kerry seniors since 1994, and while there were times during O'Connor's first reign in Kerry when the pair didn't always agree, the manager knew his midfielder's value.
Undroppable
"A player like Darragh is undroppable. He's a competitive hoor.
"Put it up to him and he'll give it back. Some players are handy men to have when you're five points up.
"There are others, when you're two points down, you want to see them attacking the game and taking it by the scruff of the neck. Darragh is one of those. A man for the trenches."
He raced from the trenches to engage enemy fire so often over the last 15 seasons that he has long since come to be taken for granted in Kerry. Judging by the failure to ever select him as 'Footballer of the Year', it seems the same applied outside too, resulting in his consistency being repeatedly overlooked in favour of flashier performers.
It doesn't alter the fact that he is the 'Player of the Decade.'
Nine seasons gone, one remaining. So, who's in pole position for the honour of being recognised as the Footballer of the Decade? Martin Breheny and Colm Keys start the debate by going head-to-head with their personal choices. Breheny argues for Kerry midfielder Darragh O Se, while Keys makes the case for Tyrone's utility man Sean Cavanagh. What do you think? Is it O Se or Cavanagh or are there others who have genuine cases? Email us at sportmail@independent.ie
Sean Cavanagh
In advancing the reasons why Sean Cavanagh would be his international rules captain for the test series against Australia in October, Sean Boylan was repeatedly drawn back to this year's All-Ireland final against Kerry and that epic second half.
For Boylan there was one stand-out feature, one reason why Tyrone were able to elevate themselves to the plateau above Kerry for the third time this decade. And that 'reason' was manifesting itself into captaincy of the international team.
"It was the way he demanded the ball in that second half," chimed Boylan with admiration.
Demanding
"The way he said to his colleagues 'give it to me and I'll take care of it'."
That's the thing about Sean Cavanagh -- he never stops demanding the ball. He would finish the All-Ireland with five points, but it's the chronology of three of those points in the second half which really set him apart.
When Kerry took the lead on 55 minutes, it was Cavanagh who provided the swift response for parity and then sent them ahead again for a lead they wouldn't subsequently relinquish. It was leadership at its best, the kind that Cavanagh had showed all year, both on the field in his re-adjusted full-forward position and off it in the way he led the calls to rally around Mickey Harte in the wake of their Ulster championship exit to Down.
The All-Ireland final was Cavanagh's tour de force, the pinnacle of a career that has blossomed steadily over the seven years since he was first pressed into action in a Tyrone shirt as a 19-year-old in 2002, not long out of minor ranks.
He ended this season, not surprisingly, with every possible individual gong, underlining why he is now at the peak of his craft.
The most skilful footballer of the 2000s, he is not. Indeed, there are times when he looks a little ungainly in his movement. But for impact, influence, dynamism, athleticism and sheer enthusiasm for what he does, Cavanagh makes a compelling case. With a year of the decade left he has positioned himself perfectly for any nominal award that might arise at the end of the next 12 months.
True, he has very strong rivals. Colm Cooper is the game's most aesthetically perfect player of his time; in the traditional sense, Darragh O Se has no peers as a midfielder, Seamus Moynihan and Brian Dooher comfortably make the final cut, but Cavanagh is the man who has taken his game to another level with his energy, ball-carrying power and ability to kick a score on the run, arguably the most difficult skill in the game.
At the age of 25 he already has four All Stars, albeit one less than Cooper and perhaps not always the perfect illustration of how great a career has been. But it provides a decent rule of thumb, nonetheless, and with three from the first four years of his inter-county career, the argument that he has only 'arrived' with the season he has had does not stack up.
From the very moment that he pulled on a Tyrone jersey in a senior dressing-room he has been making an impact.
From 2003 to 2007, when he played virtually all his football as a midfielder, with brief forays as a half-forward, his scoring returns were quite remarkable, collating 3-41 across five campaigns.
In 32 games he played in that period, he failed to score in just five, quite an impressive record of consistency for a midfielder, albeit a very attack-minded one. If a replica style could be drawn from the Premier League, Steven Gerrard would be most accurate.
But there is much more to his game than just finishing and, over the years, he has worked hard at improving the weakest part of his game, his fielding, to the point where he is now, more than competitive.
His ball-carrying stands apart and a defensive vaccine against that familiar 'feint to the left and then surge to the right' of his has still to be discovered. It's bought every time.
If gaelic football produced statistics that measured ball-carrying yardage, Cavanagh would be out on his own. And he rarely, if ever, hits cul de sacs.
In 2004 alone, when he won his second All Star, he amassed 1-12, only failing to score in the All-Ireland quarter-final when Mayo successfully paid him all their attention.
Business
A year later he delivered some of his most telling plays at the business end of the 2005 championship, first against Dublin in two games and then, most significantly, against Armagh in the closing stages of that enthralling All-Ireland semi-final, for many the game of the decade.
Armagh were poised to win when they edged two points clear, but it was Cavanagh's driving run and great finish through the middle that turned this game back in Tyrone's favour before Peter Canavan's coup de grace. It has become the mark of the man.
In the last two years Cavanagh has continued to develop his game at different levels. In the 2007 Ulster final against Monaghan two of his four points were kicked effortlessly off his left foot, adding another frightening dimension to his arsenal. His subsequent goal in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Meath, when he rushed 60 yards before unleashing an unstoppable shot, is just another snapshot of a great career.
This year reflected the great versatility that his talent allows him to have. Others may have baulked at a potentially restrictive move to full-forward, Cavanagh embraced it. Inevitably, however, he was drawn to where he knows he operates best and from the wide open prairies of midfield and the half-forward line he had the instinct, as he has always had, to go and demand the ball.
By the end of the season he had chalked up 2-24 bringing his championship total in the Mickey Harte years to 5-65.
All measurements of Cavanagh's achievement against anyone else in this decade should be qualified by the provincial mire he and his colleagues must wade through on an annual basis. Their route to glory is stacked with more barriers than that of anyone else. But in Croke Park they have the capacity to thrive, and none more so than Cavanagh. In the big games that matter Cavanagh has scarcely been found wanting. The Ulster quarter-final replay win against Derry in 2003 that got Harte's championship career at senior level under way, the 2005 All-Ireland semi-final against Armagh and this year's All-Ireland final stand out.
Tyrone have dominated their biggest rivals of the decade so far by virtue of victories over Kerry that have subsequently yielded All-Ireland titles. They have achieved it with a particular style, predicated on energy, athleticism and comfort in possession.
Sean Cavanagh embodies that style and that time, more than anyone.
Darragh O Se
Sporting greatness is about performance and presence, not perception. It's about seizing power and exerting influence.
Most of all it's about combining technical excellence with instinct, will and intelligence on a consistent basis over a long period of time.
Presence. Performance. Influence. Excellence. Will. Intelligence. Consistency. A 'magnificent seven' words which define Darragh O Se's career to such an extent that to limit the debate to whether he's the footballer of the decade doesn't accurately reflect his true stature.
He has long since moved onto another level where he's challenging for wider recognition as one of the truly great players of all time. The scale of what he has achieved must be viewed in a context that's reserved for very few players, even if his awards haul doesn't reflect that.
A total of 15 successive seasons as a midfielder in the modern game is quite remarkable; all the more so when they have been punctuated by such a high degree of reliability, which is one of the main differences between O Se and his rivals.
There are lots of players who enjoy long careers, often reaching peaks, but only a very elite band who succeed in maintaining excellence at close to optimum power virtually all the time.
O Se is among them and that's what makes his case to be regarded as the player of the decade so compelling.
Who else has been as dependable as O Se each and every year since 2000? He was the essence of consistency over previous seasons too, but the debate here concentrates on this decade only.
Contributed
However, O Se had established such a solid base by 2000 that he was able to hit the decade at full throttle which he duly did that season when he contributed so much to Kerry's All-Ireland success.
It won him the first of his four Vodafone All Star awards, a modest return for his endeavours.
He was exceptionally unlucky to lose out this year, a view supported by the GPA 'Team of the Year' which had him as midfield partner to Enda McGinley instead of Shane Ryan.
A far greater sin of omission is that O Se never won a 'Footballer of the Year' award. How a man who has influenced so much should fail to be recognised as the outstanding individual in any year says more about the selection methods and priorities than about him.
The 2006 season is the most blatant case in point. Kieran Donaghy won the award after making a huge impact when switched to full-forward as Kerry re-launched their All-Ireland bid.
At a superficial level, Donaghy's selection was justified, but if you analyse that year in its totality, O Se was a more deserving winner.
Donaghy ended up as the bright light that illuminated the second half of the championship, but O Se was the powerful generator which made it possible for his full-forward to shine so brightly in the run-in to All-Ireland glory.
What's more, O Se had done it much earlier in the year too. His second-half performance against Galway in the League final was truly awesome, but as is the nature of these things, counted for nothing later on.
O Se was also the best footballer in the country in 2002, but lost out to Kieran McGeeney for the award. One of the great nonsense factors of individual and team awards is that the All-Ireland winners start with so many advantages that they're virtually uncatchable.
Take 2002. O Se was well clear of the field in the race for the 'Footballer of the year' award at half-time in the All-Ireland final against Armagh. Kerry eventually lost by a single point and suddenly O Se was gone.
After making the All-Ireland breakthrough for the first time, an Armagh player was always going to take the gong, irrespective of what O Se or anybody else had done in the course of the season.
Ironically, O Se's younger brothers, Tomas and Marc, have both won 'Footballer of the Year' awards -- deservedly so, as it happens, but that still doesn't excuse Darragh's omission over such an extended period.
Darragh has always been very much his own man and a believer in being self-sufficient as a footballer too.
Jack O'Connor recalled in his book how O Se never bought into psychology, nor had he much time for complicated tactical detail.
"I'd be on about tactics at team meetings and Darragh would say: "Why can't we just kick out the ball and fight for own ball," wrote O'Connor. That evoked memories of the advice offered to Gareth Edwards by the legendary Barry John when he was first selected as scrum-half for Wales.
Edwards' query as to how John wanted to receive the ball was met with a quick retort: "You throw it, I'll catch it."
O Se has been catching it for Kerry seniors since 1994, and while there were times during O'Connor's first reign in Kerry when the pair didn't always agree, the manager knew his midfielder's value.
Undroppable
"A player like Darragh is undroppable. He's a competitive hoor.
"Put it up to him and he'll give it back. Some players are handy men to have when you're five points up.
"There are others, when you're two points down, you want to see them attacking the game and taking it by the scruff of the neck. Darragh is one of those. A man for the trenches."
He raced from the trenches to engage enemy fire so often over the last 15 seasons that he has long since come to be taken for granted in Kerry. Judging by the failure to ever select him as 'Footballer of the Year', it seems the same applied outside too, resulting in his consistency being repeatedly overlooked in favour of flashier performers.
It doesn't alter the fact that he is the 'Player of the Decade.'
#4
GAA Discussion / Skill and GAA
November 16, 2006, 11:27:24 AM
Theres a great article on football365 about the demise of the winger. When reading it I couldn't help think that he could have been talking about GAA wing forwards especially this part
Anyone agree? Is the day of the skilful wingforward beating his man inside out and sticking one over gone or at least on the way out?
QuoteSpeed is everything now. Athleticism seems to matter more than creativity. But to me, and to millions of others who grew up in watching top-notch players waltz through a defence and back-heel one in, this is to the overall detriment of the game.
Athleticism isn't as important as entertainment. All the speed of the modern game has done is to, apparently, exhaust players quicker, make them injured more often, reduce the number of flair players and dribblers in the game and replaced them with unimaginative, rather boring box-to-box grindcore footballers who play percentage football, do the job but don't excite the soul or mind
Anyone agree? Is the day of the skilful wingforward beating his man inside out and sticking one over gone or at least on the way out?
Pages1