Kerry GT News

You're a gas man....

Boxtyeater wrote:You're a gas man....

Only trotting after you .....

Paidi has some cheek here methinks. Its amazing what a large ego does to you ....
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Kerry paid heavy price for the lack of a human touch
Management shares the blame for a final they should have won, writes Páidí ó Sé

By Paidi O Se
Sunday September 25 2011

One thing that I learned from my playing experience is how to man-manage players.
That human touch is probably my forté from a management point of view and I believe it can only come from someone who has travelled that road before. I used this skill to great effect when I managed Westmeath and I got a great response from the players. I've experienced everything as a player from bad games to good games, wins and losses, and I learned something from every one of my appearances in a Kerry jersey.

I firmly believe that if a player is going badly in training, the last thing he needs to hear is that he is playing badly. Instead, I'd tell him that he looks tired or stiff or give him a night off and when he comes back I'd tell him that he is improving and maybe even tell him that he had turned a corner. And I'd do all that in an effort to rebuild the player's confidence.

The element of human touch is not a club that Jack O'Connor has in his bag and that was evident this year on more than one occasion.

It was particularly obvious when it came to Kieran Donaghy. If a player like Star isn't playing well - no matter how hard he tries - and is hearing about it from the Kerry fans, then there should be some compassion shown from the management. He should be taken aside after training and reassured that he was still a vital cog in the team or else a visit should be made to his home to make sure he is not being affected by the negativity and that he still feels part of the team.

When Tomás ó Sé got suspended against Tipperary, he didn't hear from the Kerry management until he was back in the fold for Kerry again. That was almost two months of a break without contact and it simply beggars belief that a player of Tomás's calibre and importance should be left waiting in the wings. These are only simple things but so important in the grand scheme of management.

Now I'm wearing my former Kerry manager's cap and I'm not going to find fault in every aspect of the Kerry management or put the blame for losing on the line. Every manager does their best and goes out with a game plan that they think can get them over the line. Having said that, I never had any problem facing up to constructive criticism and acknowledging mistakes. I made plenty of them in my time and I always tried to rectify them even if towards the end, when I was making mistakes, I wasn't left around long to correct them.

Kerry played a full league campaign in which the midfield was not convincing. They struggled to get any consistency out there. In fact, going into the Munster final, Kerry were very unsure about midfield but as it turned out they were the key factor in beating Cork that day in Killarney.

After that Munster final I made the point in this column that the next call that Jack O'Connor needed to make was to Tommy Walsh in Australia. From Kerry's point of view, it was vital that Walsh came back and Tadhg Kennelly too. That didn't materialise even though Walsh is back now to play football for his club. If that man can play for his club today, there was no reason why he couldn't have played for his county last Sunday.

In the aftermath of the game, there was an awful lot of chat in Kerry that this All-Ireland was thrown away but I'd like to point out that Down were totally in control of last year's All-Ireland final up until the last seven or eight minutes when Cork were allowed come back into the game courtesy of two invaluable Donncha O'Connor points. It's nothing new for a team to come from behind in the latter stages of a game; unfortunately it's happened to Kerry once or twice too often.

The pattern of football that surfaced last Sunday was the type of football that Kerry were playing prior to them winning back their All-Ireland in 2004.

The key thing was that Kerry were playing the ball over and back across the field because they had no particular player in the inside line to target.

When they eventually found Donaghy and put him on the edge of the square, everything else was history. For the last number of years Donaghy has dictated the style of Kerry football by getting the players around him involved and also giving the players outside him the opportunity to kick in speculative balls. He has a great aerial advantage from his basketball background and has a good eye for what is happening around him.

However, last Sunday he was pulled and dragged around the field from midfield to wing-forward to full-forward. All that movement has an unsettling effect and would make a player feel uncertain.

Daniel Bohan was brought in the last day to help steady the ship like he has done so often in the past. But it didn't work out that way and he was nowhere to be seen when Kevin McManamon went through for the goal. I spoke to a former Kerry player after the game and he told me in no uncertain terms that McManamon should have been taken out in some way, shape or form.

The main jobs of a defender are to mark his man, keep his man scoreless and try to stop the opposition from scoring. The question has to be asked by Kerry: who was marking who during those vital closing stages last Sunday?

A few Kerry players shied away when duty called and I thought that one in particular had to think twice before he went in for the crunching tackle. You might get away with that in a league match but you won't get away with it in Croke Park.

As a Kerryman, I congratulate Dublin on their win. It's a success which was both overdue and merited. But, also as a Kerryman, I hate to lose All-Ireland finals and what hurt last week was that this was one we didn't have to lose.

Some cheek Paidi you are making my blood boil. Man management? Ask Maurice during your term,Regards Kieran Donaghy's form your own nephew Darragh was publicly questioning Kieran's bad displays and has joined (surprise!) in slagging Jack. I detect the rump that was so active in summer 2006 is active again in undermining the management. Jack,Ger and Diarmuid ignore them and like 2006 come back and silently give the fingers to them.

Real Kerry Fan wrote:Some cheek Paidi you are making my blood boil. Man management? Ask Maurice during your term,Regards Kieran Donaghy's form your own nephew Darragh was publicly questioning Kieran's bad displays and has joined (surprise!) in slagging Jack. I detect the rump that was so active in summer 2006 is active again in undermining the management. Jack,Ger and Diarmuid ignore them and like 2006 come back and silently give the fingers to them.

Exactly what I thought. Man management would have been the last quality I would associate with Paidi. Didn't rate him as a manager at all tbh.

And Darragh too in his Middle Third column manages to name check both brothers as having fine games ... And like some of the other Kerry experts he questions why they took Donaghy out of midfield. Yes he was winning lots of ball but do they realise that Kerry had scored just 1-1 after 32 minutes?

Yes Jayo. Notice since Jack became manager every top game Paidi has sided with the opposition. I could write a book about Paidi's days of 'management'. It would be a comical bestseller. Paidi go away and Darragh remember you are having a go at your neighbour and not too long ago teamate Diarmuid Murphy also.At least Marc and Tomas show decency.

Kerry's heads rule the heart; Winning at all costs is a bigger part of the Kingdom's DNA than the beautiful game
DENIS WALSH

25 September 2011
The Sunday Times

IN AN interview on Radio Kerry on Monday Jack O'Connor cut straight to the heart of elite sport and Kerry football's self-image. He was reflecting on Dublin's late goal and Kevin McManamon's unmolested passage through the Kerry defence. "If we were a cynical team," he said, "someone would have pulled your man down on the way through for the goal but that's not in our DNA."

Set aside for a moment the incident earlier in the second half when Bryan Sheehan managed to short circuit his Kerry DNA to bring down Michael Dara Macauley as he bore down on the Kerry goal and look at the bigger picture.

For generations there are two things which Kerry have done more prodigiously than any other county: produce beautiful footballers and produce winning teams.

What they have always known, too, is that these processes do not necessarily follow in sequence. Winning is not the inevitable outcome of developing the best players: it is a more complex and murkier process.

O'Connor's comments brought to mind a story told by the late journalist and broadcaster Breandán Ó hEithir in his brilliant memoir of a GAA life, Over The Bar. In 1946 Antrim brought a lively and skilful young team to Croke Park for an All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry; Antrim favoured a running game and, by all means, Kerry stopped them dead in their tracks. "This game was one of the disgraces of the forties," wrote Ó hEithir.

As the frees mounted the booing got louder; in his radio commentary Michael O'Hehir expressed his bewilderment but in a magazine article later that year he called it with more clarity: "The crowd did not like much of the Kerry defence methods, the pulling down of the players and the like," wrote O'Hehir.

This was nearly 60 years before Kerry were the screaming victims of "puke football" and Tyrone's blanket defence.

That Kerry have always known what it takes to win is a self-evident truth. In an interview last year Jimmy Barry-Murphy recalled playing against Kerry in the 1970s when they would have regarded his threat as a code red: "Football was very cynical back then," he said. "There's a great myth about Kerry — Billy Morgan often said that. I've no grudge to bear, I'm long gone beyond all that, but they were a very cynical team when they needed to be. You don't win 36 All-Irelands by being nice guys, as we learned to our cost in Cork."

The concept of "strategic fouling" wasn't coined in those days but Kerry acquired that facility too as the need arose. After a painful hiatus they emerged with a mediocre team in the mid-90s. When they won their first All-Ireland in 11 years under Páidí Ó Sé in 1997 one key pattern of their play was fouling as far away from their own goal as possible: strategically, cynically. This policy continued under Ó Sé's management to the extent that in 2002 the Kerry defence conceded fewer frees, on average, than any other back line in the championship and the Kerry forwards conceded, on average, more frees than anybody else. Kerry had some beautiful forwards in 2002 but looking pretty wasn't their only function.

Blanket defence? In his address to the Kerry convention at the end of 2004, Kerry chairman Sean Walsh celebrated the manner in which Kerry had won their latest All-Ireland. "We are delighted that it took a Kerry team to restore the pride in Gaelic football," he said. "The return to a free-flowing game from a packed defence type game is welcomed by the thousands of supporters who travel to our games."

What kind of game do Kerry play now? Scroll back to the 2009 All-Ireland final against Cork and compare the endgame to last Sunday. Two years ago, when Cork put on a surge in the middle of the second half, Kerry funnelled bodies behind the ball. When Graham Canty forced a free with 16 minutes left to put just a point between the teams Kerry had 11 players inside their own 45.

Kerry failed to score in the last 12 minutes but they were never in trouble because choking the life from a game was well within their compass. By all means.

Last Sunday? When Kerry hit the front midway through the second half they put up a line of six players between the two 65s, a security cordon of green and gold. Much later, when Kevin Nolan kicked Dublin's equaliser, there were 12 Kerry players inside the Kerry 45. In the lead-up to the final O'Connor said that Kerry supporters would never accept the kind of tactics that Donegal employed this summer, and he's right. But we were also told years ago that Kerry were sworn enemies of "blanket defence". What has happened to that noble crusade? To keep on winning Kerry parked those high-minded reservations.

The issue for the hard-headed cognoscenti of Kerry football would not have been the vulgar sight of so many players behind the ball in the closing minutes last Sunday but the sin of allowing the attack to develop into a shooting chance. Kerry football is the subject of much romanticism — a lot of it generated by outsiders — but they couldn't be such serial winners if they weren't arch pragmatists.

To win, you do what you must do. Last Sunday, the Kerry players didn't meet that overriding imperative.

Style matters to Kerry football people but would they have been ashamed of their 37th All-Ireland title if McManamon had been brought down? That is not the nature of elite sport and that is not the nature of Kerry football. Spare us the bleeding heart piety.'' YOU DON'T WIN 36 ALL-IRELANDS BY BEING NICE GUYS

Just to be brief and not get into an argument. No team ever won an All Ireland by being completely nice. Every county had and still have the hard men. What dissappointed me was that kerry were 4 points up with just over 6 minutes to go and decided to play backwards and hold ball whereas blasting it into Kieran Donaghy would have played out time in their end line and with the disruption kieran was causing could have resulted in more scores. The negative attitude cost us the game. Cynical? Kildare v Donegal! It is a different gamre nowadays. Dublin,Donegal,Kildare etc are playing a defensive game and so have Kerry. So lesss of the slagging off of Kerry but concentrate on how the game is going nowadays. Cant think of any team at present who are not negative.

Real Kerry Fan wrote:Just to be brief and not get into an argument. No team ever won an All Ireland by being completely nice. Every county had and still have the hard men. What dissappointed me was that kerry were 4 points up with just over 6 minutes to go and decided to play backwards and hold ball whereas blasting it into Kieran Donaghy would have played out time in their end line and with the disruption kieran was causing could have resulted in more scores. The negative attitude cost us the game. Cynical? Kildare v Donegal! It is a different gamre nowadays. Dublin,Donegal,Kildare etc are playing a defensive game and so have Kerry. So lesss of the slagging off of Kerry but concentrate on how the game is going nowadays. Cant think of any team at present who are not negative.

Kerry are cynical

ollie wrote:Kerry are cynical

Beats Pathetic.....

Real Kerry Fan wrote:Just to be brief and not get into an argument. No team ever won an All Ireland by being completely nice. Every county had and still have the hard men. What dissappointed me was that kerry were 4 points up with just over 6 minutes to go and decided to play backwards and hold ball whereas blasting it into Kieran Donaghy would have played out time in their end line and with the disruption kieran was causing could have resulted in more scores. The negative attitude cost us the game. Cynical? Kildare v Donegal! It is a different gamre nowadays. Dublin,Donegal,Kildare etc are playing a defensive game and so have Kerry. So lesss of the slagging off of Kerry but concentrate on how the game is going nowadays. Cant think of any team at present who are not negative.

You obviously didn't see the 12 Dublin defenders in between Donaghy and the Kerry player in possession.

It was a game where possession retention was vital and for the most part, both teams held the ball well.

But occasionally it was turned over and many of the turnovers resulted in scores.

But kicking an aimless ball into Donaghy who was surrounded by 3-4 Dublin men would have been pointless, completely pointless. I would agree it was negative but would completely disagree that it cost Kerry the game. What cost Kerry the game, was one: they didn't hold onto the ball as well as Dublin and two: Dublin are far more experienced when it comes to executing this kind of gameplan.

There's a big difference between negative and cynical (IMO).
Negative is packing your defence and taking few risks.
Cynical is "tactical fouling" and taking out darger men.

I can't think of a team who hasn't displayed some of both this year.
Our negativity has been well documented. For cynicism, I'd pick out our fouling of Sean Cavanagh in Clones and Kildares fouling of Ryan Bradly in ET.
Loads more examples of course.

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:

Real Kerry Fan wrote:Just to be brief and not get into an argument. No team ever won an All Ireland by being completely nice. Every county had and still have the hard men. What dissappointed me was that kerry were 4 points up with just over 6 minutes to go and decided to play backwards and hold ball whereas blasting it into Kieran Donaghy would have played out time in their end line and with the disruption kieran was causing could have resulted in more scores. The negative attitude cost us the game. Cynical? Kildare v Donegal! It is a different gamre nowadays. Dublin,Donegal,Kildare etc are playing a defensive game and so have Kerry. So lesss of the slagging off of Kerry but concentrate on how the game is going nowadays. Cant think of any team at present who are not negative.

You obviously didn't see the 12 Dublin defenders in between Donaghy and the Kerry player in possession.

It was a game where possession retention was vital and for the most part, both teams held the ball well.

But occasionally it was turned over and many of the turnovers resulted in scores.

But kicking an aimless ball into Donaghy who was surrounded by 3-4 Dublin men would have been pointless, completely pointless. I would agree it was negative but would completely disagree that it cost Kerry the game. What cost Kerry the game, was one: they didn't hold onto the ball as well as Dublin and two: Dublin are far more experienced when it comes to executing this kind of gameplan.

Loyal, I've had this argument with many people this year in relation to our use of Murphy. As good as Murph is, if he's being picked up by 3 men a long ball into him isn't going to yield much most of the time. If teams go with single coverage or if the sweeper has been pulled out of position then the direct route can be very effective however both of these are rare occurences. So in order to take advantage of his composure on the ball and excellent distribution he gets pulled out the field and we get lambasted for not using him in his "correct" position.

What's the answer?

Derry played a flat back three against Donegal

Donegal put Murphy inside - played the ball long - Mcfadden took about 4 scores off Murphys lay-offs - very simple.

If Kildare or Dublin had played a flat back three Murphy would have played inside also - Im sure he would have loved it- Im sure McFadden would have loved it.

But alas the game has moved on from the Derry game plan -

OMAR wrote:
But alas the game has moved on from the Derry game plan -

Someone should tell Cork, just in case Conor Counihan didn't get the message when Mayo ripped their defence apart. Cork & Derry, along with Tyrone, were the most naive 'big sides' in the country this year.

Thomas Clarke wrote:

OMAR wrote:
But alas the game has moved on from the Derry game plan -

Someone should tell Cork, just in case Conor Counihan didn't get the message when Mayo ripped their defence apart. Cork & Mayo, along with Tyrone, were the most naive 'big sides' in the country this year.

Aye and failed to make any significant adjustment during the game either.

some good posts here from the weaker counties

ollie wrote:some good posts here from the weaker counties

But some poor replies from some of the weaker posters.

RMDrive wrote:

ollie wrote:some good posts here from the weaker counties

But some poor replies from some of the weaker posters.

i agree

RMDrive wrote: So in order to take advantage of his composure on the ball and excellent distribution he gets pulled out the field and we get lambasted for not using him in his "correct" position.

Donegal are not alone with this dilemna. This is exactly the reason why John Doyle is playing midfield for Kildare, and why Marty Clarke's best games for Down have been playing behind his own midfield. Short of a side having 2-3 players at that level, there is no easy solution.

Ollie. Name a county that have not been cynical at some stage. Also RMD even on his own Donaghy had created problems with the Dublin full back line which would have resulted in space for the Gooch. Anyway its over for this year and the Dubs are champs and congrats to them. Let other counties look at themselves and not Kerry when trying to find the cause of their own under achievements.

Real Kerry Fan wrote:Ollie. Name a county that have not been cynical at some stage. Also RMD even on his own Donaghy had created problems with the Dublin full back line which would have resulted in space for the Gooch. Anyway its over for this year and the Dubs are champs and congrats to them. Let other counties look at themselves and not Kerry when trying to find the cause of their own under achievements.

Kerry are OK ignore the wind up merchants

Team that was not cynical Kilkenny this year

Kerry fear for their future
By Fintan O’Toole and Terry Reilly

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

KERRY’S domination of gaelic football in this country could be brought to a shuddering halt not by Dublin, Cork or Tyrone, but by the rapid depopulation of huge rural swathes of the county, a worrying new report has warned.

The worsening trend of rural depopulation in Kerry is having considerable consequences already, GAA officials in the county have been told. A sub-committee established by the Kerry County Board to investigate the problem has revealed that 23 of the 76 clubs in the county have less than an average of eight boys per class in their local primary schools.

Eight of the 23 clubs have less than an average of 5 boys per class — with six of these clubs being in the South Kerry area, home to such Kingdom legends as Mick O’Connell, Jack O’Shea, Maurice Fitzgerald, Declan O’Sullivan and current Kerry coach Jack O’Connor. It is forecast that each of these 23 clubs will have to amalgamate with other clubs to field underage teams over the coming years.

There are also concerns over a worrying trend at minor level with less than four out of 10 (37%) clubs in the county able to field 15-a-side football teams this year. That compares to 69% of clubs fielding 15-a-side football teams in 1998.

Joseph McCrohan, who chaired the committee that examined rural depopulation in Kerry, insists that measures must be taken now to tackle the problem before it has an adverse effect on the fortunes of the county’s senior sides in recent years.

"We were asked by the Kerry County Board to look at this issue which has become more significant in the county in recent years. There is a definite problem there for small rural clubs in Kerry and this needs to be addressed. The number of young players coming through to senior teams is narrowing the whole time. The key reason for that is the lack of jobs out there and the emigration that is ensuing as a result of that.

"We have asked that job creation in rural parts of the county now become a priority for the county committee. For instance we’re suggesting that the county board, district boards and every club encourage GAA members to become members in local development organisations.

"If the situation worsens, it could have serious consequences for the Kerry senior teams down the line. If you look at Kerry All-Ireland winning teams, it has been a common occurrence for some of the county’s best footballers to have come from small rural clubs, in areas in the south and north of the county for instance. But there is the prospect that will stop happening as these clubs won’t have the players to supply to county teams. The Kerry county teams would then largely be drawn from the urban areas in the county."

Kerry GAA chiefs are set to now study the report and the findings of the sub-committee with the intention of implementing its recommendations in 2012.

The report comes amid revelations that the drain of GAA players requesting transfers to clubs in Australia is reaching record highs with almost 900 transfer applications submitted to the organisation in the first nine months of this year.

Counties losing the most footballers and hurlers include Cork (86 players), Tyrone (57 players), Tipperary (55 players), Limerick (54 players) and All Ireland football champions Dublin (49 players).

Even though the moves are a blow to rural GAA clubs struggling to make up the numbers on local teams, the fresh blood in Australia is being wholeheartedly welcomed.

Senior member of the Sydney Shamrocks Hurling Club, Mark Tobin, says its always good to see new people joining.

"This year we had about 60 members registered and we’ll be hoping to get that again when the season starts in January/February," he told the Irish Echo.

While he hasn’t noticed a dramatic increase in new players, he does say that more and more players are remaining in the club.

"It used to be just backpackers for one season, but now you’d have lads who’ve been sponsored coming back every year…that’s a good way to build up a team and get it to the standard you’d need for Championship competition."

As a result of the high number of players now permanently resident down under, it is felt by some that the GAA should now consider including an Australian team in All-Ireland Senior Championships. The changes could see a team from one of the main clubs in Sydney or Perth compete in a provincial first round qualifier, in a manner similar to the New York and London teams.

However, GAA Communications Officer Alan Milton says that while the possibility of including an Australian team may have been thought about informally, it is not something the organisation is actively pursuing.

"For practical reasons I don’t believe it is something that could or will come to pass," Mr Milton says. "In terms of geography, finance and general logistics, there is no comparing a scenario whereby a representative team from Australasia would compete the way New York and London do."

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Sorry lads I made a complete hash of copying this article in today's Irish Examiner. It's a scary report on the future of football in Kerry and other counties also.

Paul Galvin reported to be fighting with a well known RTE TV personality last night. Another headline to add to the growing list.