Kerry GAA Discussion Thread Mod Warning Post #4167

DDC1990

http://action81.com/blog/?p=7404

Interesting... don't agree with a lot of it, especially the fact that he thinks that Cooper will struggle, with players who are not at his level of speed. I think the space in Fitzgerald Stadium is ideal for guys like O'Donaghue and DO'S(x2). The mistake is thinking that Galvin and D.Walsh will be on the ball too much. I think their job will be to act as sweepers and get the ball to Cooper ASAP. Then Cooper will use his kickpassing into the space and let the boys inside use their pace.

if Cork drop guys back and try to crowd the quick lads out, guys like Galvin, Buckley and Gooch will put over points from outside.

If they try putting pressure on higher up the field, Gooch should use the space in Fitzgerald Stadium to get the 3 quick lads inside on the ball.

This is all dependent on the middle battle. Johnny Buckley and Anthony Maher handled Aidan Walsh, Alan O'Connor and Pierce O'Neill with ease in Tralee in the league. Doing it on Munster Final Sunday is a different prospect, but on home turf i'm hoping Buckley shines. If Kerry break even at midfield I think our forward line has more mismatches then theirs does.

Really looking forward to the possiblity of Hurley and Griffin going toe to toe. Could be a battle for the next 10 years if both lads fulfill their potential. One thing i've noticed about Griffin is his bulk. His upper body is huge, much bigger then most of the Kerry lads. He's built like an old style full-back. Hope he rises to the occasion.

DDC1990

Also, here is my take on the game:

http://www.livegaelic.com/news/munster-football-championship-preview-kerry-vs-cork/

ciarriaithuaidh

DDC1990 wrote: »

Also, here is my take on the game:

http://www.livegaelic.com/news/munster-football-championship-preview-kerry-vs-cork/

Decent piece DDC, but slightly confusing where you mention Crowley "possibly marking Kerrigan" then later talk about him at half back? I can guarantee you Shane Enright will pick up Kerrigan..its half the reason he was rested for the previous games. Crowley will have to be on his toes, mentally as much as anything else..he will most likely have to pick up Goold or Sheehan, both capable of causing headaches for him, Sheehan especially cannot be given a shot from anywhere within the 45m mark as that is within his range. Added to that, we don't want a situation where Cork are able to counterattack into a void where our halfback line should be either so he can't get caught up the field when possession breaks down. Young is not the archetypal "stopper" type centre back either so I hope both midfielders and half forwards are in tune with what is going to happen.

The Yang to that Yin is that I can see at least 2 of our inside line doing damage given any sort of decent ball. Cadogan is a decent defender, but will have been preparing himself for Donaghy, not Darran and as we saw in a few games last year, he has a still unrefined tackling technique which refs usually take a dim view of. He must have conceeded 5 frees or thereabouts (inside 30 yards) in the Donegal game. Cahalane has great potential, but he is not related to a corner back. If Kissane is played there, the same principle applies, not a corner back...and in these situations Cork will be relying heavily on cover from the blanket defence which may or may not work.

Could write pages on this fascinating battle, but suffice to say Sunday can't come soon enough!

keane2097

I think Sheehan is actually a pretty good match up for Crowley. Would be more worried about Young marking Paddy Kelly.

D'Agger

keane2097 wrote: »

I think Sheehan is actually a pretty good match up for Crowley. Would be more worried about Young marking Paddy Kelly.

Sheehan vs. Crowley should be interesting alright - both are very fast and strong athletic players who have the ability to roam and are strong runners on and off the ball. Looking forward to seeing it happen, which, hopefully, it will

DDC1990

ciarriaithuaidh wrote: »

Decent piece DDC, but slightly confusing where you mention Crowley "possibly marking Kerrigan" then later talk about him at half back? I can guarantee you Shane Enright will pick up Kerrigan..its half the reason he was rested for the previous games.

I would be 90% certain that Kerrigan will be on the wing and not in the corner. Forget about the number on his back. He is a very dangerous WF but hr doesn't have the finesse to be a decent CF. That's why I think Crowley will mark him. If he's in the Corner its great news for Kerry. The closer to the end line he is the less effective he is IMO.

ciarriaithuaidh

DDC1990 wrote: »

I would be 90% certain that Kerrigan will be on the wing and not in the corner. Forget about the number on his back. He is a very dangerous WF but hr doesn't have the finesse to be a decent CF. That's why I think Crowley will mark him. If he's in the Corner its great news for Kerry. The closer to the end line he is the less effective he is IMO.

He will line up in the 15 position, but like you say will roam..but Enright WILL be marking him, wherever he goes. Look at the last few times Kerry and Cork have played..Kerrigan has been the in the 15 position (nominally at least) and has alternated between there and moving out the field. In 2010 Marc O'Sé picked him up and had a hard time. In 2011, Enright picked him up and was doing well until he tore his hamstring in the second half. Last year Counihan experimented with the big man at full forward initially so Kerrigan got named at half forward, but I think Counihan has realised that the donkey work a modern half forward needs to do is not Kerrigans forte so is trying to use him as a link man between the midfield area and the inside line. In any case like I said, Enright will be on him and I'd put the house on that.

DDC1990

ciarriaithuaidh wrote: »

He will line up in the 15 position, but like you say will roam..but Enright WILL be marking him, wherever he goes. Look at the last few times Kerry and Cork have played..Kerrigan has been the in the 15 position (nominally at least) and has alternated between there and moving out the field. In 2010 Marc O'Sé picked him up and had a hard time. In 2011, Enright picked him up and was doing well until he tore his hamstring in the second half. Last year Counihan experimented with the big man at full forward initially so Kerrigan got named at half forward, but I think Counihan has realised that the donkey work a modern half forward needs to do is not Kerrigans forte so is trying to use him as a link man between the midfield area and the inside line. In any case like I said, Enright will be on him and I'd put the house on that.

Fair enough. With Enright being less flexible then Crowley i'd prefer to see Crowley on him, but we'll see. With Counihans love of Dummy teams, he mightn't start at all!

DDC1990

Game day. In Junction 14 on the way down. The fabulous weather is hiding, drizzling here. Poor enough crowds on the road,

Best of luck to the lads today. Not been this excited about a Munster Final in about 2 years.

D'Agger

A strange 35 minutes it's fair to say and certainly not what I was expecting

Kerry have been much the better team and completely dominated facets of the game midfield being the obvious one but the ease at which we've gained posession up front has veen even more startling - Cork aren't at the races back there.

Cooper has been a joy to watch giving quality ball in and the runs off the full forward line have been well timed - even the way Darran O Sullivan has made his runs - it's been more about timing than taking off at 100mph

For a while Cork were sticking close to us which was worrying given how much we'd been on top, their forwards need more ball as they can cause trouble and you get the feeling they have goals in them. The only way to do that is to make it harder for Kerry to win ball ib the middle - whip Canty off he's been anonymous and put in somebody who'll break ball and at least give the wing forwards and backs a chance to gain possession.

Even if Cork do that they'll still need to hope Kerrys forwards don't put their shooting boots on at half time - we've missed some kickable chances - which is the only real criticism you could have of that 1st half performance

Poor_old_gill

Good double today!

Seniors went as expected- built up a good lead, Cork finished stronger but we hung on.

Excellent win for the minors aswell- I just didn't see it coming

rebel girl 15

Kerry should have been out of sight at half time, fully deserved the win. Cork were shocking, I'd love someone like Fitzmaurice over Cork, would make a huge difference to the group of players.

Cooper pulled all the strings, great decision to play him at CF

Thinkstoomuch

Congrats...Better team won!!

dd972

Should have been a far more comfortable win, given our 1st half dominance and missed wides.

One thing I hate about Kerry is our tendency to switch off and do things the hard way, it's cost us on many an occasion particularly the 2002 Final.

DDC1990

Just on my phone so just a quick word for ciarraithuaidh. You were 100% correct on the Kerrigan issue. Enright marked him all day and had an excellent game.

Delighted with the win but no All Ireland for either team I think.

keane2097

Game wasn't played at Championship pitch at all. Both teams hoping to peak for one big day in the semi-final and hope for the best after that I think.

Kerry's by now customary second half snooze is very worrying.

D'Agger

keane2097 wrote: »

Game wasn't played at Championship pitch at all. Both teams hoping to peak for one big day in the semi-final and hope for the best after that I think.

Kerry's by now customary second half snooze is very worrying.

Agree with this - played a club league match during the week that was strangely like this game in terms of one team dominating and then switching off in the second half - you'd think at this level, when Cork hit a purple patch, that Kerry would have it in them to turn the tide somewhat and stunt the momentum that Cork were building.

I know fitness was a factor given the heat out there yesterday but I thought Fionn Fitzgerald was very impressive when he came on yesterday, broke out of defence to great effect on a number of occasions and took the heat off our defence - if we had our shooting boots then we would have capped off some very good counter play.

keane2097

D'Agger wrote: »

Agree with this - played a club league match during the week that was strangely like this game in terms of one team dominating and then switching off in the second half - you'd think at this level, when Cork hit a purple patch, that Kerry would have it in them to turn the tide somewhat and stunt the momentum that Cork were building.

I know fitness was a factor given the heat out there yesterday but I thought Fionn Fitzgerald was very impressive when he came on yesterday, broke out of defence to great effect on a number of occasions and took the heat off our defence - if we had our shooting boots then we would have capped off some very good counter play.

He was very good yeah. He went in for a couple of dirty ones that he could have been windy about and came out on the right side of them.

keane2097

Report on the minor game from the same guy who did that preview as well if anyone wants to read over it:

http://www.livegaelic.com/news/munster-minor-football-final-report-kerry-vs-tipperary/

Delighted to hear my club man Jack Savage played so well.

D'Agger

keane2097 wrote: »

He was very good yeah. He went in for a couple of dirty ones that he could have been windy about and came out on the right side of them.

Absolutely - his first involvement was to throw himself into the path of a ball that looked 60/40 for the Cork player to win, took a knock getting it but showed courage - he's a tough nut in fairness!

keane2097 wrote: »

Report on the minor game from the same guy who did that preview as well if anyone wants to read over it:

http://www.livegaelic.com/news/munster-minor-football-final-report-kerry-vs-tipperary/

Delighted to hear my club man Jack Savage played so well.

That's massive scoring in fairness. Tipp had a 15 year old corner forward - considering how strong they've been at this level over the past few years that's impressive - he must be a serious prospect for them.

homerjay2005

job done, our collapse at midfield is worrying as Cork (despite what their fans say) will learn from yesterday and will be stronger next time out.

still though, for 50 minutes we were sensational and this bodes well for the summer and the prospect of a semi with Dublin is now on the horizon, assuming we get over the 1/4 final ok.

all in all, a great win, plenty to work on and scoring 1.16 just shows how many chances we created, considering we missed about 16 more.

wonga77

To be fair, Kerry started at a serious pace and considering the heat, that pace was never going to be maintained. I would think (hope) that in the next few weeks that shooting is the number one priority in training. Cork conceded lots of chances yesterday that the likes of Donegal wont so we need to be far more clinical in front of goal to have any serious aspirations of a day out in September.

keane2097

I don't think it was a collapse at midfield in the sense that our lads just stopped playing well. It was just that Pearse O'Neill and Alan O'Connor in particular were too physical for Buckley and Maher when they came on. That's fair enough, O'Connor is one of the best midfielders in the country IMO and if he's too big for Buckley he's too big for him. Horses for courses and all that. It's the sideline I hope learn from that because it was apparent five minutes into the second half that we were going to blown away in that sector. Sheehan and Brosnan should have come on rapid at that stage to give us more muscle.

I meant to say earlier, I thought Donnacha Walsh was absolutely outstanding yesterday. He gets plenty of flak but boy oh boy he was good yesterday.

D'Agger

keane2097 wrote: »

I don't think it was a collapse at midfield in the sense that our lads just stopped playing well. It was just that Pearse O'Neill and Alan O'Connor in particular were too physical for Buckley and Maher when they came on. That's fair enough, O'Connor is one of the best midfielders in the country IMO and if he's too big for Buckley he's too big for him. Horses for courses and all that. It's the sideline I hope learn from that because it was apparent five minutes into the second half that we were going to blown away in that sector. Sheehan and Brosnan should have come on rapid at that stage to give us more muscle.

True - Buckley also expended a massive amount of energy in the first half so he was always going to have difficulty maintaining that - O'Connor off the bench and fresh meant that he was on the back foot immediately I think.

I didn't expect Maher to have such a difficult time of it though.

I meant to say earlier, I thought Donnacha Walsh was absolutely outstanding yesterday. He gets plenty of flak but boy oh boy he was good yesterday.

You hate D.Walsh :pac:

I have to say - I need to see him playing live rather than on TV, as yesterday I was keeping an eye out for the wing forwards and the work they were doing - it's hard to do with TV as you can't see the off the ball runs they're making, however Walsh always seemed to be either in space, or in a position just ahead or behind the man in possession to offer an outlet - his positioning is brilliant from what I can see

keane2097

D'Agger wrote: »

True - Buckley also expended a massive amount of energy in the first half so he was always going to have difficulty maintaining that - O'Connor off the bench and fresh meant that he was on the back foot immediately I think.

I didn't expect Maher to have such a difficult time of it though.



You hate D.Walsh :pac:

I have to say - I need to see him playing live rather than on TV, as yesterday I was keeping an eye out for the wing forwards and the work they were doing - it's hard to do with TV as you can't see the off the ball runs they're making, however Walsh always seemed to be either in space, or in a position just ahead or behind the man in possession to offer an outlet - his positioning is brilliant from what I can see

I was only watching on TV yesterday but how could anyone disagree - he was everywhere. RTE showed a montage of Kerry's missed chances at half time at Walsh started or was heavily involved in all of them. His link play when he's on form is top class.

He gets plenty of stick, it's only fair that he gets his dues when he plays well too.

D'Agger

keane2097 wrote: »

I was only watching on TV yesterday but how could anyone disagree - he was everywhere. RTE showed a montage of Kerry's missed chances at half time at Walsh started or was heavily involved in all of them. His link play when he's on form is top class.

He gets plenty of stick, it's only fair that he gets his dues when he plays well too.

Had it in my head you were gone down for the match, weird because I was thinking of heading up to Dublin and left it off - prob better off anyway!

He does get loads of stick but not as much lately I don't think. Some people tend to equate scoring to playing well, he may not be our top scorer but the work he does is invaluable - he's like a box to box midfielder in Soccer, some engine

Kerrydude1981

D'Agger wrote: »

Had it in my head you were gone down for the match, weird because I was thinking of heading up to Dublin and left it off - prob better off anyway!

He does get loads of stick but not as much lately I don't think. Some people tend to equate scoring to playing well, he may not be our top scorer but the work he does is invaluable - he's like a box to box midfielder in Soccer, some engine

Great player an all fairness to him,very honest and will give everything to the cause,went through a pile of work yesterday again.

Fionn Fitzgerald was very impressive yesterday and could be pushing for a starting place for the quarter final.

Davin Stand

keane2097 wrote: »

Report on the minor game from the same guy who did that preview as well if anyone wants to read over it:

http://www.livegaelic.com/news/munster-minor-football-final-report-kerry-vs-tipperary/

Nice to read the report's comment on Tipp's "amazing courage" in playing so well in the entire second half with 14 men in such very warm conditions. I think his comments on the referee were on the ball as well. No problem with the sending off, but Kerry certainly got a few very handy frees. Well done to Kerry and congrats to Tipp on a brave bid for 3 in a row in Munster.

68Murph68

D'Agger wrote: »

True - Buckley also expended a massive amount of energy in the first half so he was always going to have difficulty maintaining that - O'Connor off the bench and fresh meant that he was on the back foot immediately I think.

I didn't expect Maher to have such a difficult time of it though.

I think there was definitely an element of this to the game. O'Connor had been sitting in the shade for the first half whereas Buckley and Maher had been getting through a serious amount of work in sweltering heat.

I thought Eamonn could definitely have made his subs earlier - Cork had 3 subs on at the start of the 2nd half and had their 4th made by the time Kerry made their first one.

When the conditions were as hot as yesterday it's no wonder that Cork came back into the game.

Result a positive but plenty to work on before we land in Croker.

DDC1990

Agree on the Subs issue.

Killian was outmuscled by Aidan Walsh in the 2nd half and Brosnan should have come on much quicker.

Buckley was also shagged 5mins into the 2nd half and needed to come off even before Donaghy came on. Made one great field between that time and the time that he came off but he was still struggling.