Tír Eoghain vs Áth Cliath '08

[rrhf]

Read above again

[Zapatista]

No one is irreplacable. Not SON not Canavan and not Mickey Harte.

[rrhf]

self delusionary head in the sand Bullshit, Zap, Tyrone dont have the single forward good enough to win an all Ireland with in or outside that panel-  outside the 2 guys O Neill and Mc Ginn.  This year not only did we lose Canavan replacement but we lost his replacement as well.  We cant let these men go and expect to compete with the Kerrys etc of this world.   There might not be as good a forward for the next generation coming through.   

[orangeman]

Owen Mulligan is hoping to play a greater part in Tyrone's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final against Dublin on Saturday week after coming off the bench in the wins over Westmeath and Mayo.

After getting 25 minutes against Westmeath, the Cookstown clubman only entered the fray with five minutes to go in last Saturday's one-point win over Mayo. However, Mulligan, who has battled his way back to full fitness after a long-term hamstring injury, is prepared to bide his time on the bench and has backed Mickey Harte's leadership.

"You'll not get a better manager than Mickey Harte. People talk about our performances last year and this year, but there's no better man. He covers everything," he said.
"I'm not good at watching games from the bench, but hopefully I'll get a run the next day," he added. "I'm going well in training and it was good to get a run-out against Mayo. The lads are battling hard and it's difficult to get back on the team, but credit to the players, they're playing well and keeping me out of the side. That's what you need in any squad - a bit of competition


Vote of confidence from Mulligan !

[Zapatista]

self delusionary head in the sand Bullshit, Zap,

Talking about replacements and ifs, whats, and buts is the only bull i see. Canavan is one of the best of all time. The is no point in talking about replacements. He was a bonus to the team as he would be to any team. His ability might never be matched but his position will be filled and he has been filled. If we are to replace Canavan with someone like him then there is nothing speacial about the the guy. He would be another guy on the field. Now we can either play the hand we have been dealt or we can complain that we don't have that ace anymore and feel hard done by. When the deal is done you get 5 new cards, thats how it works.

[rrhf]

or you can play the hand that you are dealt poorly, but you only get so many cards, you have to make the best of them. 

[easytiger]

When I saw the draw on Sunday, I felt conflicted. Logic dictates that Dublin should win this game – however, Tyrone are a team that routinely defy logic. But if you look a little bit closer at their 2005 achievements, they hold out hope for Dublin.

Tyrone, if I remember correctly, (and I'm sure I'll be pulled up if I don't) trekked through that marathon season without a settled full back or half back line. I think it was the only time in living memory that there was genuine confusion about what defence would take the filed and in what positions they would play. Yet from the quarter finals onwards, the horses for courses policy reaped dividends – stymieing Dublin, out-muscling a muscle-bound Armagh and containing a Kerry forward line of all the talents.

Their midfield was routinely cleaned by their opponents – the debates raged all year about Cavanagh's best position. But by finding a different way to play the position, he rendered the debate irrelevant – he pushed the issue to the wings and half forward line, conceding primary possession, relying on tigerish half backs to compete the breaks and profiting further up the pitch. Cavanagh was the mid fielder of 2005 – he didn't catch as much as O'Se or Whelan but he was more effective than both.

Tyrone also had a set of forwards who had yet to prove themselves  (or had yet to receive the credit they deserved for 2003). Canavan's ankle woes and substitution in 2003 created a perception of a team still over-reliant on his waning talents – but Mulligan, O'Neill and McGuigan all stepped to the mark in the All Ireland series. O'Neill especially used the final three games of the season to burnish his reputation – he is a huge loss to Tyrone 08.

So where are the parallels for Dublin? Well, we can't honestly say who will be our starting six defenders – yet we know that amongst the hopefuls are some really top quality man markers, such as David Henry and Paul Griffin and some brilliant ball players – step forward Barry Cahill and Bryan Cullen. Can we emulate Tyrone 05 in relying on our men to be as flexible in their decision making as they must be unflinching in their tackling? The jury remains out – but please consider the following. Despite the high profile losses, the Dublin defence remains, statistically, one of the meanest in the country over the past three years. So is it a case of lies, damned lies and statistics? I hope not.

In midfield, we have the very model of a traditional high fielder in Ciaran Whelan – bit it is Shane Ryan's redefinition of the role that is now key for the Dubs. He is a truly awesome athlete. I firmly believe that no-one in the country can stay with him for power and pace when he advances. But can he transform this into an effective point-scoring and match winning performance against top quality players? Make no mistake – McGinley's career marks him out as versatile, brave and decisive in the key moments – witness 2003. He is not a natural midfielder – but neither is Ryan and whoever comes out on top will have contributed much to a winning performance.

And in the forwards, we have a group of talented young men – some long due to mature properly, being led by a warrior of immense experience. I'm not trying to compare Sherlock to Canavan – the fair comparison is perhaps to Brian McGuigan, and then in natural talent, I still think the Tyrone man wins out. But Sherlock has marked himself as one of the all-time great competitors. Whenever there has been a weak point in his game he has worked on it and improved – point-scoring, strength, tactical awareness – and this constant reinvention is the sign of a ferocious ambition. He also remembers what it takes to win the biggest prize, which may be invaluable.

Tyrone won an All Ireland in 2005 whilst still evolving. The Dublin team must prove they can do the same.

One more thing – slagging players good naturedly is one thing. But suggesting that a man like Shane Ryan, who has given and gives so much, is lacking something in brains, galls me as much as the lazy characterisation of certain ~Tyrone players as cheats must gall red handers on the boards. This has always been a place of certain standards – let's try and keep it clean.

Good luck to all the players involved – but at the end, UP THE DUBS!

[Uladh]

Lads, i'm not getting all this fawning over the Dubs this summer. they were very poor in the league and produced only one half of football this summer, which everyone has jumped on. i wonder how much of that leinster final second half was down to wexford. i also wonder what would happen if wexford and dublin met again. dublin have wonderful footballers but they are the same wonderful, but flawed, footballers they were last year and the year before. what is the missing ingredient for them this year?

have the Dubs been in the trenches this year yet? have they been in a white hot championship match with a point in it with 15 minutes to go? their mental frailties - which has been their undoing so many times - still lurk beneath the surface in my opinion and tyrone will expose that.

Tyrone by 4 points at least.

[supersarsfields]

A good post there easytiger. And alot of valid points. Dublin have been knocking on the door for the past three-four years and to be honest I believe they've as good a chance this year as any to win it. And if they do so in getting past Tyrone, then possibly Armagh with maybe a final meeting with Kerry ( No disrecpect to the other teams but these would be my predictions) it'll be a hard won AI and one that will put a few of the recent Dublin setbacks right.
And I'd agree with your sentiments regarding the slagging of certain players. It's not nice and to be honest I reckon most of it seems to come between yourselves and ourselves.

Anyway roll on the 16th.

[Canalman]

First blood to the Ladies Minor Footballers of Dublin. Beat Tyrone in AIF at the weekend.

Cailíní na hÁrdchathrach abú.

[orangeman]

Not to sidetrack the debate but in my opinion Canavan was one of those players that you might see every 30 years. I think it'll be a good while before we see another - so in my humble opionion is irreplaceble.

[Bensars]

They said the same about Mc Guigan, especially after the Ulster final in 84.

Fast forward 5 years then you had Canavan and Cush. 

[Hound]

Fact of the matter is that despite whatever weaknesses they may have, whoever comes out of this game will be genuine Al Ireland contenders. They'll be heading into a semi with an at least 50% chance of winning it and getting to the Final.

Be interesting to hear how any Westmeath supporter would judge the game. I think both teams struggled similarly against WM. Not a lot in it, I thought Dublin's performance was slightly better than Tyrone's, but Tyrone should have better personnel available the next day.

Team selection will be very interesting. Even from the few guesses by Tyronies here, there is a wide variety of teams Mickey can put out. The question is not only who to play but where to play them. I doubt very much if even Mickey has made his mind up fully yet, so impossible for Pillar to predict. Is it a full back, half back or midfielder who should be preparing to look after SC??? Mugsy and Mulgrew are two potential super players who should/may be available to call upon.

Dublin will have no interest in getting into a dog-fight in any shape or form. Be very interesting to see how we react to any messing from the likes of Ricey, Gormley and Dooher. The one-in-all-in scenario is a "must avoid at all costs" one. I know its not nice to look at ("sickening" even I've seen some describe it as), but the Dooher method of lying down when hit and allowing the officials to deal with it, is the one I'd recommend for the Dubs on this occassion.

Dublin will have a tough hard hitting central spine themselves, in Cullen, Ryan, Whelan and Keaney. It will be equally important for them to keep it hard and fair and not provoke.

Be great if Pillar was positive enough to not need a Bonner/Flynn in the forwards and goes with Keaney, Sherlock, Bernard, Alan, Connolly, Quinn (as an aside I'd always prefer Vaughan to Quinn,but thats highly unlikely). Keaney is big enough and tough enough to act as the deep lying forward, so I hope thats what happens.

In defence I guess it'll be Henry-Griffin-Shocko, Cahill-Cullen-Moran. That leaves us a bit small in the full back line and a potential opportunity to push Cavanagh,McMahon into 14, if not from the start, certainly at certain points. Ger Brennan is back on the panel, so may well feature from the bench.

Its been mentioned by Tyronies that Dublin have a soft underbelly. And that's certainly fair comment from previous years. Its something we'll need to show we've overcome if we start to progress, in particular we need to avoid hitting the panic-button and shooting from ridiculous angles or distances when things are tight. Of course allowing Mossy to hit 45s, when his success rate is about 30% from that distance, is ridiculous at any time, but we'll still do it.

Looking forward to it. I expect a cracker like the last two in 2005. Hopefully a different result though!

[Zapatista]

I hear ticket Master have sold out. Any truth?

[orangeman]

I hear ticket Master have sold out. Any truth?

Didn't realise they were on sale yet !