Derry v Dublin All Ireland Quarter Final

[Oraisteach]

What is this?  The calm before the storm?  How did this thread slide on to page 2?

Should be a cracker of a game.  Up Derry.

[mc_grens]

Good stuff outta Big A on The Sunday Game tonight.

"I think it may be a step too far for Derry".

He's sticking with the plan well, eh Lynchbhoy?

Can't wait for the Dublin vs Kerry Semi, should be a cracker.

Doire Abu!

[darbyo]

Is it possible to still get tickets for this game?

[burn the hurl]

Is it possible to still get tickets for this game?

Yeah - theres tonnes on ebay if your prepared to pay for them!! 
I'd say Derry will be returning a fair amount of tickets but there will be a huge demand for them if they are re-sold in Dublin!!
Ebay might acutally be your best bet!!

[Loup Bandit]

So with just 5 days left, can we expect any changes on the Dublin team?
No injury concerns?
I dont anticipate any changes for derry apart from Kevin McGuckin coming into the defence.

In Joe Diver and Eoin Bradley, Derry have a couple of great options on the bench to bring on.

Im gonna call it, Derry by 2 points. 

[orangeman]

Now that Tyrone are out, good luck to Derry and Monaghan this weekend - I hope Derry silence the hill early on and turn them over. Good luck to Monaghan as well.

[ziggysego]

Come on Doire!

[screenexile]

Come on Doire!

Cheers Zig... I know it must be hard... it certainly was for me going to watch youse a couple of years ago!

[burn the hurl]

So with just 5 days left, can we expect any changes on the Dublin team?
No injury concerns?
I dont anticipate any changes for derry apart from Kevin McGuckin coming into the defence.

In Joe Diver and Eoin Bradley, Derry have a couple of great options on the bench to bring on.

Im gonna call it, Derry by 2 points. 

What way do you think Derry will line out Loup. McGuckin in at Center half, Geard to wing half and Himphy to the bench?

Any latests on Murphy/McCloy fitness.

I'm going to go for a Draw - Derry to win the reply by a point!!  

[fer fox ache]

Was toul by a panel member yesterday that McCloy will be grand, Murphy's touch and go getting loads of physio and keeeping the knee almost permanently iced

[ziggysego]

Come on Doire!

Cheers Zig... I know it must be hard... it certainly was for me going to watch youse a couple of years ago!

Difficult to say, but we are Ulster people. I'll be backing Derry and Monaghan now for Sam.

[Loup Bandit]

For what it's worth going by radio repaorts (probably not a pile) but Derry report a clean bill of health for saturday, all players available for selection. Im expecting team selection to be something like;

Gillis

McGoldrick
McCloy
Lockhart

O'Kane
McGuckin
McEldowney

Doherty
Conway

Lynch
Murphy
Muldoon

Devlin
Bradley
Gilligan

Hoping big Enda can continue to revel in his free role out the pitch and make a few telling plucks like he did against laois. If things were not going well, plan B could be to throw him in at full-forward in the closing stages where he caused a lot of trouble for full-back McConnell in the challenge game played a couple of months ago.
We have good man markers in defence so should be a few great match up's. Id rate Keaney as Dublin's best forward so probably like to see Lockhart on him.

A lot could depend on the benches and who springs who at the vital stages. As i previously said Diver and Eoin Bradley could have a big impact.

[tbrick18]

bbc sports site says Murphy, and the 2 mcgoldircks have recoverd and are taking part in full training.
No injuries what so ever in the derry camp. How true that is I dont know.

[burn the hurl]

For what it's worth going by radio repaorts (probably not a pile) but Derry report a clean bill of health for saturday, all players available for selection. Im expecting team selection to be something like;

Gillis

McGoldrick
McCloy
Lockhart

O'Kane
McGuckin
McEldowney

Doherty
Conway

Lynch
Murphy
Muldoon

Devlin
Bradley
Gilligan

I would expect derry to line out as follows:

Gillis

McGoldrick        McCloy          Lockhart

O'Kane           McGuckin        McEldowney

Docherty

Conway

Lynch              Murphy         Gilligan

Devlin              Bradley         Muldoon

This is very much depending on McGuckin being 100% fit to start - if he is 100% fit then he's gotta start - too influential to leave on the bench!
Muldoon will be on his roaming role between Mid field and Full forward
I'd also expect Diver to be sprung before half time if things aren't going to plan and Eoin Bradley early in the 2nd half to give the attack a bit more of an edge

[jodyb]

From Laim Hayes in yesterday's tribune
'Croke Park 'monster' to conquer' 
"Dublin, however, in my estimation, are the most dangerous team left and while they might not win this All-Ireland they will most assuredly go almighty close to it. And, in addition, I'm expecting one all-powerful, all-convincing performance from The Dubs in Croker any day now, which will only further increase the team's momentum in September's direction. The Leinster final victory over Laois was very good indeed, or 80 per cent of it was in that category.

One 100 per cent performance is still building up within Dublin, and this Derry team appears to be tailor-made to allow such a phenomenon to occur next Saturday.

As Tohill said last Sunday night, Dublin have just won three provincial titles in-arow, and Derry have not got within touching distance of one in this same period of time.

What Tohill did not reveal . . . because quite possibly he doesn't believe it . . . is that Dublin have created a team of definite, if not totally complete, character. Derry, on the other hand are flawed, and slightly flaky in the 'singleminded department'. This game is set up in Dublin's favour even more than that, as it happens. In fact this quarter-final could not be teed up any more impressively in favour of Paul Caffrey's team.

Derry, y'see, are coming into Croker with three 'big' victories in their sails, and even though they barely know the way from the dressing-room to the playing field, they think they are now heading for Ireland's very own theatre of dreams, where anything can happen. Derry are strong. They're able, and if they're in the mood they can play football which might even be termed attractive.

After beating Armagh, Mayo and Laois, this Derry team might be foolish enough to think that they have the right to go toe-to-toe with the Dubs in a classic heavyweight contest in front of 80,000 fans. Do that, or even think that for too long, and Derry are doomed.

It's unlikely Derry will freeze. They've been here before, and the team has enough years under its belt, so they will hardly be caught in the headlights of Hill 16. However, Derry do look especially vulnerable to Dublin's fast, fluent passing of the ball up the field. Dublin get the ball from A to Z twice as fast as most of the teams Derry have played in their neck of the woods.

All things told, Derry would have been better off getting Kerry in the 'quarters' . . . Kerry would have gone at them a little more slowly, and Kerry would have shown them greater respect. Derry would have been better off if they had been called down to Croker for Sunday afternoon rather than Saturday afternoon.

Dublin don't do 'respect'. The Dublin team can't do 'respect'. Dublin, if they sit and watch their opponents, turn into couch potatoes.

Dublin, instead, do the 'jugular' . . . they do that better than 'respect' by a long distance.

Taking most of the self-belief, if not the life, from this Derry team might be as straightforward as A, B, C.

'A' being Kevin McCloy, 'B' being Fergal Doherty, and 'C' being Paddy Bradley. After that, you've got individuals on the Derry team with big names who have not put in the really big performances in recent years. Sean Marty Lockhart, for instance, is a favourite on the lips of all media commentators, more because of what he did in the first half of his excellent career than the second-half. Enda Muldoon, too, has had a career of two halves!

For all Muldoon's brilliant instinct and magical touch he already seems to be looking forward to a long retirement. This sounds awful negative about Derry, and I'm genuinely sorry about that . . . some of my best friends are Derrymen and women. It's just that this game is heaven-sent for Dublin to give the massive performance they need before beginning the 'charge home' against Kerry or Monaghan in the semi-final.

Back to Derry's A, B, and C, briefly.

McCloy at full-back is strong and he's also made of good stuff, and the footballing bloodline of Doherty is the middle of the field is pure quality. And Paddy Braldey? He's a certified genius, no doubt, but only if he's getting good, fast, crisp ball.

However, Dublin have so many options to cover A, B, and also C . . . beginning with Keaney who can be asked to get into an oldfashioned bruiser, and he'd certainly do enough in that role to stop the Derry No 3 from being anything like the inspirational presence Derry need. Or Caffrey can get Keaney to take McCloy away from the edge of the square. If McCloy doesn't go? He's going to have Jayo or young Bernard Brogan to deal with, and either is nimble and quickwitted enough to seriously pressure McCloy, and test his reaction times and powers of recovery . . . after being turned inside out half a dozen times.

Alan Brogan, too, would have the strength and extra two yards of pace, as well as the 'twistability' to seriously get on top of things at the edge of the square. Advantage Dublin.

In the middle of the field, if Ciaran Whelan and Shane Ryan are confident of totally establishing themselves as the greatest midfield pairing in the country, then they must look upon Doherty as a welcome opponent. Whelan and Ryan are the best, and Doherty is the sort of opponent who will give Ryan the opportunity of classic, and effective, manmarking job. Advantage Dublin.

And Paddy Bradley? Advantage Dublin, if Paul Caffrey is extremely sensible, and that means never, ever leaving Ross McConnell all alone on Bradley, even if Dublin appear to be walking away with the game. Caffrey and his team simply must double-team Bradley, just to be sure, to be sure. Paddy Bradley can be hot, and he can go very, very cold . . . and when Derry are struggling throughout the field and Bradley is left to think about life, his instinct turns selfish, extremely selfish (as, indeed, is the case with most true geniuses I've known in Gaelic football).

Dublin have Griffin and Henry, as well as the tightest marker in Dublin club football, Stephen O'Shaughnessy (even though he's getting so few chances anymore that you've got to wonder if they are even giving him a shirt to wear beneath his tracksuit) who can work with McConnell. Bradley must be defused, and it's the safe thing to make that a two-man job.

After that, I expect Dublin will have . . . surprise of surprises . . . Monaghan all to themselves in the semi-final".

So that's it then? Big Liam has spoken. We might as well not bother turning up