Kildare GAA General Discussion Thread

As a Mayo man I would have to agree with all of the above. I was quite stunned to see how there was no effort to push up on the kickouts and your midfield were on top in the first half, certainly. Your own kickouts were well managed in terms of the high percentage of possession ye got off it (I don't recall ye losing one of your own). I think ye were very unfortunate to go down as a draw between Dublin and Monaghan would have kept ye up, but were also a bit unlucky not to get at least a point from your games outside of Newbridge. I think your backs need work and I was quite surprised at how ye allowed our runners to come through. Case in point was Padraig O'Hora's score in the second half which he was allowed a lot of space to shoot with very little by way of challenge before that on his run. Also I think a lot of your players just ran out of steam after Mayo's second goal, so there's a bit of fitness to work on there.

On the positives - Some of your forwards are outstanding - they were putting on an exhibition of long range shooting in the first half the last day with some fantastic scores. McCormack, Woodgate and Hyland are handy forwards that would trouble any defense. Your Keeper looks to be very good on the kickouts. I don't think he could have done much on either goal to be fair to him.

Aside from that - I think Glenn Ryan showed great patience with the RTE Radio interview after the game. The line of questions were clearly asked with no thought on the context of the result. I think he was quite restrained in his responses to what were incredibly stupid questions to have been asked.

Wishing ye the best of luck in the Championship, unless ye meet ourselves of course.

I was going to mention how ye hit the post twice in the second half and there was another shot one of your lads took before those I think - can't remember who - but it looked like he hurried it and it went well to the right of the posts and wide. I think they were just gassed at that stage. I was impressed with the number of Kildare fans at the game too. Some other counties could learn a thing or 2 from ye about travelling to support their teams.

I think ye are in prime position to have a right good crack at Leinster, realistically it's between yourselves and the Dubs and if by any sort of a miracle ye managed to get them to Newbridge (and for the record ye were 100% right on the insistence of playing us there in 2018) that would really give ye the advantage. I reckon it would be closer to 50/50 in Croke Park.

I'd love for your sneaking suspicion about to be right but we seem to be plagued with injuries. If we had a fully fit team I'd be more optimistic, but we appear to be dealing with a lot injuries to lads that would be first fifteen (2 O'Connors, Durcan, Hennelly) if they were available with a few either unlikely to return or are 100% out for the season (Harrison and Conroy). We do seem to have more depth in the panel this year than before and Horan to his credit has played over 30 lads this year and give a few their first games so I'll be going with hope rather than expectation.

That said - it does look like it will be a reasonably open season, but I'd still have Kerry and Tyrone as favourites.

i was expecting a proper battle. it was a bit of an anti climax as Louth were so poor.

It was grim but the result is probably all that matters to be fair. Some of the shot choices and execution was shocking. Should have been out of sight with 20 mins to go. We will need a much improved performance in the final but I think this group have it in them.

What were the other choices for venues though? Cavan? Don't think Navan was available. Croker on Saturday as a standalone would have been dreadful. I can't see a time slot available in croker on the Sunday either before the first game or after the last game as being suitable. It is what it is and hopefully the squad have parked it now. Tyrone are in the same boat too.

Yeh it's always an option but I think you'd have been looking at it a little earlier maybe. It was @ 13:15 in 2018 I think. With replays really being a thing of the past now it's possible the game may have had to start @ 11:30. Very early to expect Tyrone fans to get down. With the lights in Croker though the other games could have been pushed out a little. Although a 6pm throw in on a Sunday for Dublin v Meath probably would be ideal. If the Kildare v Westmeath game went all the way to extra time and pens it would delay it even further.

I think to be fair to everyone involved this was the fairest location and time.

Well done to hurlers yestetday. Its rare we win all ireland titles at senior level but this group keep delivering. No reason why they cant make their mark in the McDonagh next year.

It was certainly the strength and conditioning element and the goalkeeper selection which cost us at the end of the day. Feely and D.Flynn looked absolutely gassed at the 55 minute mark. Dan's decision making was dreadful during that period.

Felt for Aaron in goal. Absolutely zero sense did it make starting him for his championship debut in that game. What you want is a bit of stability. Glenn and management have to take the heat for that one. A crazy decision in my view.

Thought the ref was ok. The free again McCormack for picking up off the ground was marginal to be fair so I wouldn't be to put out by it.

Our shooting was appalling at times and missing 20 meter frees isn't good enough. We could have had Mayo put to the word with 25-30mins remaining. Should have been 8 points up with all of the missed chances. But that's the differ I suppose.

I think in managements head it was tactical. They obviously felt Arron would give them something Donnellan wouldn't. All in all I think it had a huge bearing on the result. Mayo pushed up and Aaron pumped his kickout way to long which in essence bypassed our fielders like Feely and O'Callaghan. He kicked a short one that was never on and kicked another over the line near the end. I think if the game had of gone to extra time they might have put Donnellan on. O'Neills head was fried at that stage.

Our fitness was dreadful in the last 15 minutes or so and management need to take the heat for that also.

I think both factors impacted the result. The second goal didn't matter at all. AAron came out to offer and extra body and that's what has to be done. No blame there at all.

Thats dreadful. Didnt see any of that myself now. I know he got criticism but thats different than abuse. He'll come back stronger anyway.

well done today , the win kildare badly needed , regardless how ugly it was , daniel , neil flynn and kevin fealy are top class first time all 3 played this year today

johnny doyle doing a serious job on the line , ben mccormack and young robbinson need to improve though

Robinson didnt even play.... Ben was prob one of Kildares best players yday