No Stopping Dubs In 2016

Manage the hype, manage the media, manage the crowd expectation, manage the players, and Jim Gavin’s Dublin will be crowned All Ireland champions for 2016.
The only hurdle I can see is, who will manage Jim Gavin ? Gavin comes across as a very measured, very level headed individual, who will not panic under pressure. The one problem for Gavin is not the opposition he will face next year, but in keeping all his very talented panel of players happy and content.

Serial winning managers make the tough calls, who to pick, who to drop, who to risk and how to win. The big call next year might be who to risk.

Eoghan O’Gara, Paul Mannion, Cormac Costello, John Small, Conor McHugh,are all available next season to make an impact and to give more selection headaches to Jim Gavin.

The physical O’Gara back from injury, the very talented Mannion back from his travels, Costello another year older, McHugh from the U-21s, and Small ready to make the step up this year, will all be keen to catch the managers eye next year.

Gavin had a big problem last year towards the latter end of the championship, a misfiring Dean Rock and Stephen Cluxton from placed balls. Rocks overall play was poor and seemed to lose confidence, while Cluxton has been shaky all season, whether underlying injuries have effected his striking of the ball, something certainly has effected his kicking of frees.

Do the management team now have to make a decision on sticking with Rock, for his free taking, or go for the more robust O’Gara? Is John Small too good a defender to keep on the bench, or would it be unwise to dislodge Cian O’Sullivan from his centre back berth and move him elsewhere?

The big question for every successful team is how to improve on the previous season. Does this mean sticking with the same team that bought you success, a bit of tweaking, or sweeping changes ?

For Gavin the only sweeping change being done is by their main rivals, as they try to figure out how to beat the All Ireland champions.

Mayo have gone back to the drawing board again with a players revolt and insistance on a new management team.

Kerry’s experience is slowly but surely retiring, with the likes of Aidan O’Mahony, Paul Galvin, Marc O’Shea, Kieran Donaghy and even the ‘Gooch’ retiring or contemplating retirement in the near future. How good the likes of Paul Geany and Stephen O’Brien really are when they are asked to stand up only time will tell.

Donegal will be dangerous on any one off game, but the mileage is showing on fellas like Karl Lacey and Neil Gallagher. Next next would surely be the last trip to the well.

Tyrone for me are the most interesting team next year. A good mixture of youth and experience. The conveyor belt of underage talented players has started to crank up again. They looked like a team to me last year that bought in to Mickey Hartes defensive system and counter at pace. Players like Mattie Donnelly who has taken over the Sean Kavanagh role of play me anywhere and I’ll give you everything. Sean Kavanagh is still a vital cog for Tyrone,and where to play him next year could be Mickey Hartes nugget.

I also feel that Jim Gavin knows that these are his main rivals and the rest of the pack will be brushed aside. He will learn more from the National League in March than the Leinster Championship in June. Testing players like John Small, Conor McHugh and introducing Paul Mannion and Eoghan O’Gara back within the competitive environment could be worth more than the two points on offer for a league victory.

To his credit, Jim Gavin has history here. How many of us heard of Brian Fenton last year ? Not only did he win the man of the match award on All Ireland final day, but he kept Dublins best midfielfer of the last few years Michael Dara McAuley on the bench.

Who will be his Brian Fenton next year ? This is the motivation he can give to his younger squad players next year. Show me what you can do in training, practice games, national league matches, and I will pick you.

For the older players, the likes of Bernard Brogan, Stephen Cluxton, Diarmuid Connelly and Paul Flynn, these players have nothing to prove. They have their All Ireland medals, and All Stars. The driving force for them is to go down as all time great Dublin players. To be mentioned in the same breath as Jimmy Keavenny, Brenard Brogan Snr, and Brian Mullins is now only more more All Ireland away. They also know such lofty notions would be immediately flattened by Gavin,where you earn your place on his Dublin team, and unlike before no superstars need apply.

With all the talent at his disposal,Gavin still knows that an injury to a few of his key players would be detrimental. Cluxton, O’Carroll,McMahon, O’Sullivan, McAuley,Flynn and Bernard Brogan are the spine and engine of his team. These players have been to the forefront of Dublins success story,but Gavin will be ruthless in assessing the hunger and freshness of these players come All Ireland quarter final time.

We all know how difficult it is to win back to back All Irelands, even Dublin have experienced this. However, with the sheer depth and competition for places in this current team, along with game changers in numerous positions, I cannot see any team competing with the Dubs come 2016.

The competition are evolving while the All Ireland champions move up to another level. A level where every position is covered with like for like players. Tactically, they can run at you, play it long, play it wide, and if that doesn’t work why not bring on one or two All Stars from the bench who are looking to prove a point.

Sport always throws up surprises, drama and unforeseen circumstances, that’s why we love it so much. However, the football championship is getting more predictable each year. The cream usually rises to the top, unless a wounded Kerry, a rejuvenated Mayo, a one last fling Donegal, or a coming of age Tyrone can come with a plan to counter the Dublin onslaught, I can only see one winner of our Football championship next year, All Ireland Football Champions 2016, Dublin.

“Success is no accident, it is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”

Pele
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Save Our G.A.A. Souls

When I thought it couldn’t get much worse, well it has, our national sport is in disarray.

Having previously discussed the state of our club fixtures, this weekend was the final straw and hopefully a call to arms to club players nationwide. Enough is enough, the top brass in Croke Park must take drastic actions to save our club players and separate them from their inter county colleagues.

The fiasco of what went on in both Kerry and Waterford this weekend was shameful and disrespectful to every G.A.A. paid member of our organisation across the globe.

Kerry Legion will now represent Kerry in the Munster championship next week and will play their county final the next week. So we could end up with Legion as All Ireland Champions on St. Patrick’s day, although the were beaten in their county final in November. Make sense of that Croke Park !

The Kerry debacle is making the headlines, however the minnows are being treated like struggling counties have been over the last few years, disgracefully.

In Waterford, Stradbally won their county final last Friday night and their reward was to represent their county the following night against Cork champions Nemo Rangers. The result, Nemo by a canter.

Similar incidents have also happened in both Laois and Tipperary over the last number of weeks and I’m sure if in every county in Ireland.

As a nation we have been strangled of late by health and safety procedures implemented by E.U. regulations. Laws that protect our citizens in the workplace and beyond.

What about the welfare of our G.A.A. club players ?

Would Croke Park allow for a drawn inter county game be played the following day ?

It is a scandal that at present Croke Park are looking at player burn by looking to change the structures of our minor and u-21 inter county competitions.

This is the equivalent of roofing a house while the foundations are crumbling beneath.

What if a Stradbally player last Saturday, having played 2 matches in 24 hrs was seriously injured and was unable to work for the foreseeable future.

What health & safety law would cover him, and would he be entitled to take his case to a European court of law on health & safety grounds ?

It’s degrading some Sunday’s to watch GAA Beo on TG4, and watch our club players in the wind and rain try in vain to put some pride in their parish and beat both the opposition and the elements.

Usually you find the game is never won on skill or invention, but whoever plays with the gale force wind in the second half. It brings you back to the days of playing u12s, and whoever played down the hill in the second half invariably won.

This is what our club scene is reduced to…a circus.

However, nothing will be done this month as the Blazers have a meaningless Compromise rules game v Australia to plan for.

It is so hypocritical of our administrators to parade out in Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day for our club finals, a day when club teams should be playing first round matches instead of club finals.

Our administrators say they are listening but they’re not. All they can hear is the roar of 80,000 people in Croke Park.

This is why I feel it is up to our club players to unite and make Croke Park listen.

The G.A.A. need to realise that you build from the foundations up.

Managing A Winners Mindset

31 August 2014; Jim McGuinness, Donegal, reacts to Rory Kavanagh during the second half of the game. GAA Football All Ireland Senior Championship, Semi-Final, Dublin v Donegal, Croke Park, Dublin. Picture credit: David Maher / SPORTSFILE

Marc O’Shea (All Stars 3), Kieran Donaghy (All Stars 3, Footballer of the year, former captain), Darren O’Sullivan (All Stars 1, former captain), Alan Brogan (All Stars 3, former captain), Kevin McManaman (All Irelands 3),Bryan Sheehan (All Stars 1, former captain), Paul Galvin (All Stars 3, Footballer of the year, former captain), Michael Dara McAuley (All Stars 2, former footballer of the year), Paul Murphy (All Star 1, Man of the match in last years All Ireland)…what do they all have in common? All on the subs bench for the All Ireland final. Players that have won it all on the biggest stage. Footballers of the year, multiple all stars, man of the match awards in All Irelands, the accolades are endless, but that is in the past, the present holds different challenges for the modern day GAA player.

Gone are the days where teams name their strongest 15 for every match, the corner forward gets taken off with 10 mins to go and maybe another sub is introduced for an injured player. Slowly but surely our national games are evolving, which is all down to young, forward thinking, modern day managers who have taken nuggets from other (professional) sports and applied them with ruthless effect in GAA.

We have seen elements of the drift defence made famous in rugby union/league applied firstly by Jim McGuinness and now by every coach in the country and rechristened as the blanket defence. The concept of zonal defence and marking space instead of the traditional man to man marker was key to McGuinness and his team.

James Horan during his successful tenure as Mayo manager looked at the tackle area where discipline in the tackle, slowing up the ball carrier, and the positioning of the body in the tackle are all traits of American football of which he is a keen follower.

Since the new year Jim Gavin’s Dublin have been training with top basketball coach Mark Ingle to focus on movement, zonal marking, deft hand passing and footwork drills. Releasing the ball in the tackle is a key component in basketball and very much a vital weapon of Dublins effective running game.

Kerry’s Eamonn Fitzmaurice has been criticised unfairly by his own supporters by the defensive style of play which he implemented when beating Donegal in last years All Ireland final. Fitzmaurice is a student of the game and having watched Donegal and in particular McGuinness’s masterplan, outwitting the traditional Kerry style in the 2012 All Ireland semi final, realised Kerry had to fight fire with fire. Between this and Tyrone’s manslaughter of the Kerry team in 2003, which Fitzmaurice played in, ensured that Fitzmaurice knew that the mindset and set up of his team had to change. Even for Kerry, tradition is in the past, the game has evolved. The days of catch and kick is no more, possession and structure are King.

However challenging it was for these managers to push their beliefs to the limit, the real challenge was to convince their panel of players that the game as they know it and played since the were juveniles has changed, and if they wanted to be part of the journey, they also had to change.

Of course it’s easier when your team is winning, and the formula for winning means that no players position on the team is safe. It is now a game of panels, impact subs, where each game is different and individual players roles might be surplus to requirements, depending on the opposition and how they set up.

This is how the top teams play, ruthless managers win at all costs. With ambitious panels, these managers have ensured that training sessions are incredibly competitive, where it is instilled in the players that if you show a desire in training you will be picked, and if your levels drop, no matter who you are, no matter what you have won, you will be dropped.

Whether this can be replicated by the other counties is highly unlikely. The top tier have drifted away, the top managers have done their homework. The bar has been raised and its up to every other county, county board, manager and player to change their mindset. The game is now professional in application. The new manager’s have rubber stamped a new era in the GAA.

Whatever way we see the game going, I feel it is now time to reflect and rejoice in the application of our top teams. The top managers forensic analysis and preparation of their players, the top players conditioning and willingness to sacrifice everything for the team, even their starting positions is the new mindset.

Whatever happens in the future, we will all look back at this period of our games as a time where a special group of people changed the mentality of a nation, a modern mentality for a modern game in a professional era.

“Aim For The Sky, And You’ll Reach The Ceiling,

Aim For The Ceiling, And You’ll Stay On The Floor”

(Bill Shankly, legendary Liverpool manager)

Cork Footballers Need A Helping Hand !

It’s with a heavy heart I say this, call it a knee jerk reaction hours after an embarrassing defeat to Kildare, but Cork footballers need help from outside of the county. Even during the last two years of Conor Counihans reign football had moved on and had left Cork behind to play catchup.

Credit Conor Counihan, when he took over he devised a plan of recruiting big, strong, athletic, ball winners, who could wear teams down. This worked for a few years and deservedly won them an All Ireland in 2010, even though they were a better team when they lost the final in 2009.

However to stay on top tactics need to change, players need competition and young blood needed to be brought through, especially with so much u-21 success. This was never done and the top teams evolved into blanket defences, competitive panels, and a modern ethos of football tactics never seen before.

The new modern manager was born, the deep thinking coach who gets inspiration from various sports around the globe. The new generation are looking at rugby drift defenses, quarterback plays in american football, and even arguably the best team in Ireland at present, Dublin have a basketball coach as part of their backroom staff. Times they are a changing and every county went with the flow.

When the Counihan era ended Cork needed to modernise, a different way. John Cleary was the obvious choice by  most punters given his successful tender as u-21 manager, however the county board had other ideas, and the job was given to Brain Cuthbert. This appointment was seen by most in the county as a surprise, even though he guided the minors to an All Ireland final in 2010. Why the county board chose the more experienced Cuthbert over Cleary, we’ll never know. Cuthbert was appointed and a new era in Cork football began.

Cuthbert came out fighting to the media at the start of his reign, promising a new way for Cork football. He talked about playing a new brand of football where the objective was to get the ball in to our talented forwards as quickly as possible. The style of play depended on the players available and this was his first baptism of fire in to senior  inter county management, as one by one the majority of Counihans lieutenants retired.

Alan Quirke, Paudie Kissane, Graham Canty, Noel O’Leary,Pearse O’Neill, and Alan O’Connor retired, along with Ciaran Sheehan signing a professional Aussie rules contract, and of course Aidan Walsh and Damien Cahalane deciding to commit to the dual player role.  A huge upheaval for any coach to contend with, what for one so inexperienced!

Counihan always trusted his lieutenants and never took a punt on youth unless they were exceptional talents like Aidan Walsh, Ciaran Sheehan, and Colm O’Neill. Now Cuthbert had no choice but to go with the youngsters and implement a free flowing all out attacking game plan that he felt was the way forward. 

The start to his career was promising, a few early victories in the league, the match against Dublin in Croke Park being the highlight, although Dublin were missing a lot of their big hitters. Then Armageddon hit in the league semi final against the same opposition and it feels as if the whole management structure has been in a spin since. After a great first half against the Dubs, enough was enough, Dublin brought on the big guns in the second half to put these Cork rebels back in their box.

The hangover continued in to the championship. After a very lucky escape against Tipp, Kerry again gave us a footballing lesson and now players and managers were floored to the canvas. What to do now for the management team, do we commit to our footballing philosophy of free flowing football or come up with a new plan ? They chose the latter.

The blanket defence was introduced to Cork football and we still don’ t know what it’s all about. Counihan tried it during the last year of his tenour without any attacking plan, Cuthbert introduced it in a state of panic midway through a championship campaign. Even though we finished 2014 with a spirited performance against Mayo, Cuthbert was up against it even more at the start of 2015 by losing more players in Aidan Walsh and Damien Cahalane, who both committed to the hurlers after realising that dual commitments is no longer a runner.

To be fair to Cuthbert he totally revamped the squad by bringing in players such as Brian O’Driscoll, Conor Dorman, and Stephen Cronin who all have huge futures in the red jersey, in particular O’Driscoll who I feel is a future Cork captain and All Star. However, after further body blows received again by Dublin and Kerry this year, and then the defeat to Kildare, enough is enough. Yes the performance in Killarney the first day was very good, but when the game was there to be won, should more have been done to secure to holy grail. This may be harsh on Cuthbert and his management team, however it’s a results game, and boy did the Cork footballers need that win !

A damming inditement also is the midfield area, where Cuthbert had to bring a player back from retirement to secure a ball winning midfielder. The amount of kick outs that went to our corner backs against Dublin in the league final and the way we were wiped out in this area against Kildare, where the management also picked Eoin Cadagon in this position for both matches also leaves a lot to be desired.

Are players to blame, for sure. Are the management to blame for everything, absolutely not……but something has to change between both, a compromise. An outside manager with new ideas, an experienced modern manager who has won against the top counties playing a modern style of football, and bringing out the best in our squad of players. To me one candidate stands out in James Horan. He did an incredible job with Mayo, so near but yet so far to winning the All Ireland, he brought the best out of his players.

John Cleary is probably the bookies favourite now to succeed Cuthbert if he stands down. A great footballing man, but Cork needs something radical, a footballing revolution, an outsider who can educate our talented young players in to a system where the likes of O’Neill and Hurley can get on to more ball in the right areas of the pitch. A manager like Horan who focuses on the tackle area and turnover stats that seems to be missing from our footballers.

For the good of Cork footballers it’s about getting the right appointment now, wherever his from. It’s time for this proud county to admit that we need help and appoint an outside manager to bring back the pride and passion in Cork football. Remember we won back to back All Ireland’s with more than a helping hand from two Kildare men in Shay Fahy and Larry Tompkins. I could say we already had an outside manager in Tompkins, but he is one of our own at this stage.

McGuinness, Horan, Gavin, and Fitzmaurice have now brought football to a different level in tactical nuance and preparation. It’s now up to Cork who are about 5 years behind the top teams in their preparation to either step up or float back in to the pack where the once mighty power houses of Galway, Meath and Down now find themselves. Over to the county board to decide, I know what route I would like to go.

Dual Dilemma

Is it now time for our young aspiring dual inter county players to choose one code over the other, even at club level ?  With our games gone so professional, and the pressures on our young players to play for every team while still trying to compete against the best is an impossible task.

The hurlers of Kilkenny and Tipperary, plus the footballers of Dublin,Mayo, Donegal and Kerry have dominated the GAA landscape over the last number of years. All proud GAA counties but with one thing in common, very few if any have dual players in their ranks.

We have romantic notions of the next Teddy McCarthy winning All Ireland’s in both codes. Players such as Aidan Walsh have heroically tried in vain to compete at the highest level but something had to give. Inter county has now gone so professional in preparation and skill that to even try to compete with the cream of the crop, players now can only serve one master.

Dublin were first to deal with this issue, where star under age dual players Ciaran Kilkenny, Cormac Costello and Eric Lowndes threw their lot in with the county footballers, where the lure of the hill and the romanticism of Heffos Army still has a stranglehold on even the youngest of Dublin players. Whether this was a player or county board decision, who knows ? Decision made .

How can a multiple dual player play for club, college and county compete with a Richie Hogan or a Bubbles O’Dwyer at senior hurling level, and also play in a junior football club championship match the previous weekend ? For many young dual players this is their schedule:

Football                                 Hurling

1. U21 Club                            2. U21 Club

3. Junior/Intr/Snr Club     4. Junior/Intr/Snr Club

5. U21 Divisional               6. U21 Divisional

7. Senior Divisional         8. Senior Divisional

9. Freshers College      10. Freshers College

11. Senior College         12. Senior College

13. U21 County              14. U21 County

15. Senior County         16. Senior County

What about the burn out factor and the knee ligament injuries that have hampered our games and still remain a major problem. What percentage are young dual players pushing their aching muscles to the max. Does the above schedule have anything to do with this ?

Even to this day our young dual star is being criticised by his club peers for not being present enough at training sessions or not being available for the juvenile awards night. “He’s got big headed, he’s all about inter county”, can be heard from the locals as our young hero pumps iron in a gym session or is in a pool for a recovery session. Maybe he is cramming in a bit of study (yes they do go to college to study!), or maybe the young lad just wants a bloody night off !

Is it time for our underage players once they start being selected for county development squads, be advised by their peers to pick one code ? Excel at one and enjoy your rest days, instead of being pulled and dragged to play for every team.

The dual player issue has been hotly debated in inter county circles over the last number of years, but we need to dig deeper and accept that in order to protect our young  talented players, the argument must include the possibility of playing either football or hurling for club also.

The games are getting faster, the hits bigger, the injuries more career threatening. Sounds familiar ? Well that’s how professional rugby is at present as we look on at the World Cup. However, I am talking about juvenile amateur players playing GAA in every parish in Ireland.

Results on the pitch are now showing how the county with non dual participation are winning All Irelands,  the same can be said for the All Ireland club championship.

The pressure especially in today’s society is immense, add to this the physical and mental strains on our talented youth to be successful on our playing fields, extreme.

We now have a players association, the GPA ,who are rightly there to protect our top players and be a voice. But  who is the voice for our teenagers, the selfish club coach, the pushy parent  ?

There needs to be a discussion on youth burn out and the ridiculous schedule that our young players have to endure.

I feel it is time to set up a new GPA Youth scheme, giving young players a body where they are given the proper advice and are represented in a way where stressful decisions like playing schedules are taken from them.

A template can then made where these players only play one code, can only play for x amount of teams and x amount of games throughout the year.

The decision is taken out of the young players hands, and GPA Youth act like agents who dictate to the clubs how many matches of the one code their player can play.

Gone are the days of the heroic GAA player who plays a club county football final with a debilitating injury a week after playing for his county in a bruising hurling encounter. Enough is enough, a level playing field please.

Time to end the madness, time to respect our players and an end to their dual commitments !

“The Quality Of A Person’s Life Is In Direct Proportion To Their Commitment To Excellence, Regardless Of Their Chosen Field”

– Vince Lombardi

Sweeping Changes

Think back to All Ireland hurling final 2013, although it took them two attempts, Clare out thought the Cork sideline as Davy Fitzgerald and his backroom team won the tactical battle hands down. Everyone knew how effective both Podge Collins and Tony Kelly were all during that championship campaign, playing freely and roaming around the midfield and forward areas.

Naively Cork kept with tradition and played man to man where solid defenders such as Christopher Joyce were left exposed with pace and trickery from the nifty Clare forwards. JBM has always believed in playing the right way, the traditional way where his mantra is, if my team can win the majority of their individual battles through a high level of skill and belief, then we should win the match. Noble and all that this may be, unfortunately the game has moved on.

JBM has joked in the past with reference to his traditional ways compared to ‘the modern’ game. I do have some sympathy for him however in that the teams and JBMs evolution took a major blow with the departure of Ger Cunningham as coach. The void was never properly filled until this year with the introduction of Mark Landers to the set up. However, what transpired against Waterford in both league final and championship encounters showed either a stubbornness to change or else more tactical naivety. Something had to change and change quick.

Whether this came from JBM himself or a combination of coaching staff along with manager, Cork have been transformed into a team that have worked on tactics, have thought through the whole mechanics of what style they are trying to play and each players function in the team.

What we see now is a sweeper in Mark Ellis protecting the full back line, Bill Cooper playing the same role between half back line and midfield working his socks off. Two rampaging half backs in Cormac Murphy & Aidan Walsh (massive 2nd half display v Clare), and Pa Cronin hovering between half forward line and midfield.

We now come to where I feel the biggest improvement has been made to the team, the forward line. In Horgan, Lehane and Harnedy, Cork possess the three most effective forwards in the country, however up to recently they have been starved of possession. The movement and industry within the forward line now is exceptional, with the likes of Cadagon, Lawton and Cronin putting in a shift to win the ‘dirty ball’ for the three free scoring amigos.

Overall we have to give credit where credit is due to JBM. No Joyce, O’Neill, McLoughlin,Egan,Conor O’Sullivan and not forgetting Darren Sweetman, JBM has swallowed his pride and knew he had to evolve to modern day hurling and create a system that the players would buy in to. Getting the best out of a group of admittedly not the greatest Cork team ever has been a frustration for JBM.

He must now learn that the system dictates what players to pick and not the other way around. Hard lessons have been learned but hard calls have been made. The Rebels are now on a roll, form has been found and a system implemented. A teak tough defence that hold the mantra of ‘thou shall not concede a goal’, an unbelievable work ethic and of course our go to players getting their supply of quality ball.

Leaders have stood up, particularly on the sideline. Now a quarter final beckons against Galway, we owe them one from the semi final loss in 2012. Can Brian Murphy and Mark Ellis deal with the Joe Canning threat ? Can we produce another disciplined performance back to back ? Will O’Neill and McLoughlin come back in to the reckoning ? Have we found form at the right time ?

So many questions still to be answered, but at least pride has been restored and the Jersey has been honoured with a hunger and purpose. A lot done more to do, let’s get behind the team and JBM.

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