Thank You Paul Caffrey

Dear Paul,

I have supped soup in Parnell Park and Clones, I have smeared suncream on my face on Hill 16. I have stood in Omagh in the rain and driven to Longford to stand with hundreds to follow the Dublin team you have managed these past four years. I am writing this letter to say thank you.

Dublin have had problems over these barren years without an All-Ireland title. The team was guilty of so many of the sins which were, and are, levelled at it regularly. You purged this team of so much of that. There may be glory days ahead. A Dublin captain may soon lift the Sam Maguire Trophy and, if he does, it will be built, in part, on the legacy which you have left this Dublin team with. Skill, speed and strength have left us dominant in Leinster. Soon yet we may expand that strength to the biggest stage. When we do, many of us standing in Croke Park that day will know you were a large part of the victory.

Good luck in all that you do, and thank you for all you have done. Now you return to being one of us, a Dub, and a proud one.

Keith.

Flukey

Thanks indeed. We've had good years under him. He'll still be seen in Croke Park, on Garda duty, and he'll get a lot of support when seen there.

hunter164

Deleted User wrote: »

Dear Paul,

I have supped soup in Parnell Park and Clones, I have smeared suncream on my face on Hill 16. I have stood in Omagh in the rain and driven to Longford to stand with hundreds to follow the Dublin team you have managed these past four years. I am writing this letter to say thank you.

Dublin have had problems over these barren years without an All-Ireland title. The team was guilty of so many of the sins which were, and are, levelled at it regularly. You purged this team of so much of that. There may be glory days ahead. A Dublin captain may soon lift the Sam Maguire Trophy and, if he does, it will be built, in part, on the legacy which you have left this Dublin team with. Skill, speed and strength have left us dominant in Leinster. Soon yet we may expand that strength to the biggest stage. When we do, many of us standing in Croke Park that day will know you were a large part of the victory.

Good luck in all that you do, and thank you for all you have done. Now you return to being one of us, a Dub, and a proud one.

Keith.

Are you some sort of ARSEHOLE?
Paul Caffrey has done nothing with this Dublin team whatsoever. Never have I read such bollocks.All he's done is won what we expect every year.He has not brought them onto bigger and greater things like he should have with th squad.

You can shove that letter up your arse. You brown nose prick.

SantryRed

Thank you for what?

I could manage the Dubs to Leinster and I know SFA about tactics and the likes in GAA.

He's done nothing.

K-9

I've not been his greatest fan but one thing stood out, he took yesterday like a man, indeed a gentleman! No moaning about refs, swarm defence, the rain etc.

If some of the knockers can name the 4/5 players that should have been on that team yesterday and would have won it, put in your name for the race!

flahavaj

Typical ignorance from classless so called Dub fans that I would expect in this thread.

Truth is, no matter who the manager, Dublin are lacking the forwards with the skill or mentality to bring Sam home. No manager can magically spring that out of thin air.

hunter164

flahavaj wrote: »

Typical ignorance from classless so called Dub fans that I would expect in this thread.

Truth is, no matter who the manager, Dublin are lacking the forwards with the skill or mentality to bring Sam home. No manager can magically spring that out of thin air.

Hold on a second here.I'm just voicing my opinion.And before you start to say that I don't know what I'm talking about I play gaelic and hurling.I also play hurling at intercounty so don't tell me I don't know anything.

Frankie Lee

He should never have let that documentary be filmed a few years ago,
however he did put a good system in place, he will go down in history as a far better manager than Tommy Lyons or Carr.

Yavvy

hunter is banned for a month for personal abuse. Read the charter...

Pillar was a good manager, he is a gentleman and a man of honour. things didnt work out this year, but every year he has been in change we had a chance a real chance and if it wasnt for a couple missed shots who knows ?

No we didnt get to the AI final, and thats why he had to go... I for one dont think many could have done better. And as the origional poster says he as put down foundations for the future.

thanks Pillar.

Golferx

Alany wrote: »

............
Pillar was a good manager,
...................

His record would indicate otherwise.

Alany wrote: »

...

he is a gentleman and a man of honour. .........

Apart from his behaviour against Mayo and John Morrisson?

He should have been severely censured for that, but got away scott free.

Alany wrote: »

........ things didnt work out this year, ..............

Things didn't work out ANY year he was in charge.


Given the resources and player pool at his disposal, Caffrey was a failure, an unmitigated failure. No attempt to dress it up will change that.

What is it about the Dubs they have such blinkered vision?

Alany wrote: »

...

........... if it wasnt for a couple missed shots who knows ?..

Every team could say that.

Yavvy

Cop on Golferx, hes not a failure.

His Record would not indicate otherwise, The most sucessful manager since '95. Discribing that as a failure or or anything other than good/very good is wrong. much better than Carr or lyons.

He is a gentleman and I would not have anything else said about him. He is a passionate dublin man. and justified in his actions... however ill advised they may have been.

4 enjoyable years watching his teams, The goal of every major football county is to win the AI but just because he didnt doesnt mean he is a failure. Certainly not an unmitigated failure. Dublins Senior football resources are no better than all the other big football counties..less infact. There are a lot of players from outside Dublin playing in key positions in our senior clubs. No one is dressing anything up.

Caffery is nto a failure, underachived... maybe but so many great managers are in the exact same boat.

I know a lot of teams can say "if only we got the free kick.." and so can dublin
as Pillar says "thats sport" .

kevmy

Caffery had an awful lot of faults and I've never been his biggest fan.

He either encouraged or ignored a poor attitude in the Dubs.
He stuck with this rotation of the forwards sh1te which always came against them in big games.
He never seemed to instil a cast iron strong mentality in his team which is what they were most missing.
He was not brilliant tactically and seemed incapable of turning big games from the sideline.


Having said all that he did some good.

He brought an air of optimism around Dubs football again. This is more important in Dublin than most other countties.
He won 4 Leinsters and could not be faulted for poor opposition in the province which held his team back on big days late on in the Championship.
He can't manufacture players out of thin air. Dubs are missing some vital players in vital positions.


Overall you look at a managers reign and you have to say did he get the best out of the resources available to him. For Caffery I don't think you can say he did. There was at least an AI appearance in this team, if not 2. I won't go as far as to say they would have won an AI because I don't think they are good enough. However in 06 they should have got to a final, and you could have argued they should have got there last year. They definitely shouldn't have finished as badly as they did this weekend.

Critical repeating errors year after year cost them. That is not the sign of a good manager. Better than 4 years ago, not as good as they were one or two years ago. Definitely time for some one new

Golferx

Alany wrote: »

Cop on Golferx, hes not a failure.

His Record would not indicate otherwise,............. .

He was a failure. His brief was to win an All Ireland.

Alany wrote: »

......................... He is a passionate dublin man. and justified in his actions... however ill advised they may have been.
....................

I can't wait to hear the justification for his behaviour against Mayo.


Having failed less than others does not make him a success.

Yavvy

I didnt call him a Success, but hes not a failure.
Yes the brief was to Win an All Ireland ( for the last 2 years anyway) and he didnt achive it. but to flat out call him an unmittagated failure is just unfair.

he has had some success and some failure. He was a good manager that couldnt get the holy grail... some his fault, some not. Sport, team sport...life in general is not so black and white.

is the OP says...Thanks Pillar

SantryRed

Alany wrote: »

The most sucessful manager since '95. .

There all failures since 1995?

Yavvy

SantryRed wrote: »

There all failures since 1995?

FFS just because a guy doesnt win an All Ireland doesnt make him a failure. Pillar is the best manager we have had since Pat ONeill.... he is not a failure. He didnt achive all his goals. he didnt achive the most important goal. But he did a lot... a lot more than people posting on here give him credit for.

Kinetic^

Alany wrote: »

FFS just because a guy doesnt win an All Ireland doesnt make him a failure. Pillar is the best manager we have had since Pat ONeill.... he is not a failure. He didnt achive all his goals. he didnt achive the most important goal. But he did a lot... a lot more than people posting on here give him credit for.

Agreed. Thanks for your time Mr. Caffrey.

Golferx

Alany wrote: »

FFS just because a guy doesnt win an All Ireland doesnt make him a failure. ........

Actually, at this level (Dublin Senior Football), it does.

smashey

Enough of the nit-picking already. This thread is a thank you to Paul Caffrey, not a discussion on whether or not he was a failure.

Het-Field

flahavaj wrote: »

Typical ignorance from classless so called Dub fans that I would expect in this thread.

Truth is, no matter who the manager, Dublin are lacking the forwards with the skill or mentality to bring Sam home. No manager can magically spring that out of thin air.

Whatever about the mentality, the forwards certainly had the skill. Save the 9 score shocker on saturday, the dubs have always been racking up 15+ scores per came. Last year they got 16 against Kerry, 18 against Derry, 16 against Laois, 17 against Meath. In 2006 they hit 19 against Offaly 20 against Laois, 15 against Mayo and 15 aganist Westmeath. Dublin have some of the best forward in the country in terms of skill. In terms of mentality it is questionably, and this is something which Caffery needed to answer for. Save the Kerry forward line, there has been no better set of forwards over the past 3 years

Golferx

smashey wrote: »

Enough of the nit-picking already. This thread is a thank you to Paul Caffrey, not a discussion on whether or not he was a failure.

Actually it's both.

smashey

Golferx wrote: »

Actually it's both.

What is the title of this thread?

Waylander

Golferx wrote: »

Actually it's both.

.

Stop being an idiot. He improved us from being also rans in Leinster to the Leinster title being pretty much a gimme. That is why he was a success in my eyes. You are entitled to your opinon, and have made it more than clear. The thread title suggests it is not an analysis of his reign, but a Thank you for his hard work and dedication.

Golferx

smashey wrote: »

What is the title of this thread?

It's the first post that defines the thread, not the title.

Golferx

Waylander wrote: »

.

Stop being an idiot. ................


................

Waylander wrote: »

.

................ You are entitled to your opinon, and have made it more than clear. ................

Slight contradiction, methinks.

So, a debate on the subject (Paul Caffrey love-in) is not welcomed?

Pity. There are many opinions on the job he's done, it appears anything criticising him is not welcome.

smashey

Golferx wrote: »

It's the first post that defines the thread, not the title.

Oh really? Well then, let me give you a little lesson in the art of boards.

Firstly, the first post doesn't mention anything about him being a failure.

Secondly, when a mod of a forum gives instructions/advice regarding a thread, you should pay attention. boards.ie has site wide rules about following a mods instructions.

Thirdly, anymore smart remarks or any further nit-picking will result in your access to this forum being removed. In simple terms, that means you will be banned.

copeyhagen

being related to Paul i can assure you he gave it 100% over the last few years and is distruaght with the way his term has ended.

to call him a failure is a joke, we got destroyed on the day. The better team won.

as he said to my dad before, "at the end of the day, theres only so much i can do for the lads, i cant phyiscally go out there and play for them"

the team was muck on the day and clearly Tyrone wanted it more.

Golferx

smashey wrote: »

Oh really? Well then, let me give you a little lesson in the art of boards.

Firstly, the first post doesn't mention anything about him being a failure.

Secondly, when a mod of a forum gives instructions/advice regarding a thread, you should pay attention. boards.ie has site wide rules about following a mods instructions.

Thirdly, anymore smart remarks or any further nit-picking will result in your access to this forum being removed. In simple terms, that means you will be banned.

Thanks

muletide

As a culchie - I am amazed that anyone can look upon his time in charge as anything but a failure.

Maybe after years of under achieving Dubs have lowered their standards . But surely without an All Ireland he has failed.

I honestly thought the OP was being sarcastic when i first read his post

Yavvy

I would say you havent read this full thread so benifit of the doubt to you muletide...Smashy has already made it very clear... the subject of this thread is to THANK Pillar.

muletide

Alany wrote: »

I would say you havent read this full thread so benifit of the doubt to you muletide...Smashy has already made it very clear... the subject of this thread is to THANK Pillar.

i have indeed read the entire thread, two pages was not too much for me.

But surely my comment was not off topic - I fail to see how you could be so grateful (to a certain extent is fine) too someone who has not delivered what his ultimate task was.

I disagree with the OP and am partaking in a discussion/debate - surely that is the function of a discussion board - if everyone just held the one view it would soon become a very boring place

I started this thread because, for all the disappointments and almost moments of his reign as manager he has given me days of unmitigated joy. Bernard Brogan's goal in the Leinster final last year was genuinely one of the best moments I've ever had following a sports team.

I am aware Pillar had faults. It is for these faults that he has resigned and he did so without pressure and in full acknowledgement that he had not given Dublin fans what they desire more than anything. He took Dublin to total dominance in Leinster and has left strong foundations for the next management team to build on.

Can I not thank a man for his work despite his faults? Pillar worked as hard as any man could in that job and being grateful for that is what this thread is about. Why must we attack a man for doing his best? He is no villain. He is a true Dub who gave us his all. For that I say again, thank you.

As for Hunter...get a life man.

Tristram

2004 September 26 Croke Park Kerry 1-20 Mayo 2-9
2005 September 25 Croke Park Tyrone 1-16 Kerry 2-10
2006 September 17 Croke Park Kerry 4-15 Mayo 3-5
2007 September 16 Croke Park Kerry 3-13 Cork 1-9

Only been three successful football managers in Ireland last four years I guess: Jack O'Connor, Mickey Harte, Pat O'Shea. A whole lot of failures traipsing the streets of Ireland in that case. Muppets. People should cop on. Dublin were in dire straits before Caffrey took over winning just one Leinster title 2002 since 1995. Caffrey made Dublin competitive again. With the players at his disposal he has done a good job. Mistakes were made but the simple fact remains that Dublin have not been good enough to win an All-Ireland. Tommy Lyons is a muppet but he made a good point on the Sunday Game last night, under-age football, minor and under-21, Dublin dont feature. Cant magically produce quality footballers there needs to be a production line á la Kerry and Tyrone.

Under 21 Roll of Honour:
Year Winner Opponent
2008 Kerry Kildare
2007 Cork Laois
2006 Mayo Cork
2005 Galway Down
2004 Armagh Mayo
2003 Dublin Tyrone
2002 Galway Dublin
2001 Tyrone Mayo
2000 Tyrone Limerick
1999 Westmeath Kerry
1998 Kerry Laois
1997 Derry Meath
1996 Kerry Cavan
1995 Kerry Mayo
1994 Cork Mayo
1993 Meath Kerry
1992 Tyrone Galway
1991 Tyrone Kerry
1990 Kerry Tyrone

Minor Roll of Honour:
2007 Galway Derry
2006 Roscommon Kerry
2005 Down Mayo
2004 Tyrone Kerry
2003 Laois Dublin
2002 Derry Meath
2001 Tyrone Dublin
2000 Cork Mayo
1999 Down Mayo
1998 Tyrone Laois
1997 Laois Tyrone
1996 Laois Tyrone
1995 Westmeath Derry
1994 Kerry Galway
1993 Cork Meath
1992 Meath Armagh
1991 Cork Mayo
1990 Meath Kerry

Golferx

Tristram wrote: »

...............

Only been three successful football managers in Ireland last four years I guess: Jack O'Connor, Mickey Harte, Pat O'Shea. A whole lot of failures traipsing the streets of Ireland in that case. ..............

It all depends on what the targets were. If an All Ireland title was what was requested, then that's what determines "success".

Other managers have been successful without winning the All Ireland, by achieving the target set out for them.

If some Dubs supporters are happy with what Caffrey "achieved" over his reign, then so be it. Define it as you will.

Waylander

Golferx wrote: »

Slight contradiction, methinks.

So, a debate on the subject (Paul Caffrey love-in) is not welcomed?

Pity. There are many opinions on the job he's done, it appears anything criticising him is not welcome.

Not contradictory at all, I would not begrudge you your opinion, and I understand where you are coming from even though I dont quite agree with it.

I just felt you were being overly aggressive in putting your opinion across.

Waylander

Golferx wrote: »

It all depends on what the targets were. If an All Ireland title was what was requested, then that's what determines "success".

Other managers have been successful without winning the All Ireland, by achieving the target set out for them.

If some Dubs supporters are happy with what Caffrey "achieved" over his reign, then so be it. Define it as you will.

So if the next Leitrim manager is given a brief of winning the all ireland, he will be a failure if he succeeds? Of course not, that would be ridiculous, you have to factor in the players at his disposal, and Kerry have been a better team every year of Pillars reign. Mayo should have been beaten in 2006, that is where Pillar could have done better to my mind. Otherwise I do not have too many issues with him, and he gave me allot more good days out that Tommies Lyons or Carr.

So I think you are being harsh on him classing him as a failure.

Het-Field

In fairness if the yardstick is winning Sam then there are far greater failures than Pillar Caffery. Cork have been fooling everybody with easy draws over the past few years. They had no business in last years All Ireland Final, and we dismantled.

If the mentality is put together then Dublin are seriuos contenders. One game does not make a bad team. How many times have we seen the Dubs been hit by 10+ points ?

I do recall Kerry gettign hit by 12 by Meath in 2001

Killme00

Nice sentiments Keith. Pillar has brought some good times. To me though, i will only remember him as the man who bottled it when the stakes got higher. This was epitomised by the setup of the team on Saturday.

PS Where the fkc did you get soup in Parnell Park?

Tom

Deleted User wrote: »

Dear Paul,

I have supped soup in Parnell Park and Clones, I have smeared suncream on my face on Hill 16. I have stood in Omagh in the rain and driven to Longford to stand with hundreds to follow the Dublin team you have managed these past four years. I am writing this letter to say thank you.

Dublin have had problems over these barren years without an All-Ireland title. The team was guilty of so many of the sins which were, and are, levelled at it regularly. You purged this team of so much of that. There may be glory days ahead. A Dublin captain may soon lift the Sam Maguire Trophy and, if he does, it will be built, in part, on the legacy which you have left this Dublin team with. Skill, speed and strength have left us dominant in Leinster. Soon yet we may expand that strength to the biggest stage. When we do, many of us standing in Croke Park that day will know you were a large part of the victory.

Good luck in all that you do, and thank you for all you have done. Now you return to being one of us, a Dub, and a proud one.

Keith.

blackbelt

Pillar will always be a successful manager in my eyes.Like him and thousands and thousands of Dublin fans,we've gone through years without even winning a Leinster Title and they were the years that hurt most as a Dublin fan.

He may also be viewed as a "nearly man" or a bottler in which case both are true.Personally,I think if we had not won Leinster this year the way we did,we'd have had a better performance on Saturday and I firmly believe that had we lost to Wexford,we'd be in their shoes now in a emi-final.

I think that it is somewhat typical that the manager is the fallout guy.Some proportion of blame has to be levied on the players who did not show up to play on Saturday.One thing about Pillar is that had he called it a day after the Kerry match,we'd be looking at him in a better light.

His time is up and he did his best.He made mistakes and unfortunatley did not correct them ie impact subs in semi finals.If we can get a manager with the same level of charisma,the Dubs will be back big time.

Right now,we need a more tactically focused manager as opposed to a manager who plays the team on form and ability.That wil only bring limited success but thank you Paul Caffrey for 4 years of dedication and hard work.

Golferx

Waylander wrote: »

So if the next Leitrim manager is given a brief of winning the all ireland, ................

That's not going to happen.
w.r.t. Leitrim? A Leitrim manager has to win a League title or a Connaught title to succeed. Anything less and he will have failed.

Billy Morgan's recent term was a failure. A couple of Munster titles was not enough, he failed to land the big one.

Donal Keogan's term in Cavan was a failure. (He blamed the players) They won nothing.

Fermanagh did well this year, but need to do better. Success for them will be an Ulster title. They are a work in progress.


Success is about achieving realistic targets. For Dublin, the target, and quite rightly so, is an All Ireland title. Given the resources at their disposal it's not acceptable to settle for less. A few days out for the fair-weather supporter is not enough.

At this level, failure should not be tolerated. One should not accept second best.

Waylander

Golferx wrote: »

That's not going to happen.
w.r.t. Leitrim? A Leitrim manager has to win a League title or a Connaught title to succeed. Anything less and he will have failed.

Billy Morgan's recent term was a failure. A couple of Munster titles was not enough, he failed to land the big one.

Donal Keogan's term in Cavan was a failure. (He blamed the players) They won nothing.

Fermanagh did well this year, but need to do better. Success for them will be an Ulster title. They are a work in progress.


Success is about achieving realistic targets. For Dublin, the target, and quite rightly so, is an All Ireland title. Given the resources at their disposal it's not acceptable to settle for less. A few days out for the fair-weather supporter is not enough.

At this level, failure should not be tolerated. One should not accept second best.

You have no idea if I am a fair weather supporter or not!

And you are wrong in your analysis above. Hwo can you set realistic goals without comparing to immediate predecessors? Tommy Lyons won 1 Leinster title and got to an All Ireland Semi, Tommy Carr did nothing. Pillar won 4 Leinster titles. So by those standards he is a success.

I agree that with Dublins resources and player pool they should be doing better than they are. But I do not think the quality of player is there really. If you can provide a list if players who should have featured but did not than the issue lies with Pillar. I do not believe you can do this. If not, then the issue is with the Dublin county board, whose job it is to ensure the rich resources translate into senior talent. This obviously has not been done since the 80's. I do not think you can blame Pillar for this.

mousey007

he was hardly a success!lets be honest,he never really even threatened to win an all ireland!in all his years in the job he never sorted the problems in dublins back division with players like collie moran and paul casey constantly be picked in spite of poor performances

DDC1990

Lads what ye are missing is that this is a thread for some people to thank Piller for his 4 years and the good times he brought to them... nothing about him being a success or a failure! To have 70,000+ fans at every championship match is a success in its own right! He wasn't paid (from what we know) for his time in charge and im sure he put a hell of a lot of work into the Dubs! Everyone makes mistakes but that doesnt automatically make them failures! So from a Kerryman, Thanks Piller for the excitement and good football you brought to Croke Park each and every year.

mousey007

thanks pillar for never threatning to win the all ireland!

Yavvy

Us GAA mods have been on a banning Spree these last few days. So feel free to push your luck

I want the muppetry, Arguing with Mods, Flaming and off topicness to STOP NOW.

The remaining Posts in this Thread are to thank Paul Caffery for the last 4 years as Dublin Manager... and to wish him every sucess in his future endevours.

End of story

mousey007

mousey007 wrote: »

thanks pillar for never threatning to win the all ireland!

DDC's post is bang on. Why do you need to stick your nose in here and disparage the man? This isn't meant to be a debate on his successes and failures. It is supposed to be a place where people can say thank you to a man who gave Dublin his all.

As for the soup thing Tom, I bring my own of course!

Mad Dog

Thanks for the memories Pillar. I won't just remember last
Saturday but will remember the 4 Leinsters in a row.

Good luck in the future.

Kiera

Thanks Paul for some fantastic memories.

X

mobby

Thanks for the memories Paul. good luck in the future.

Nalced_irl

Well, im gonna keep out of all the sh*t and just say thanks Pillar. Didnt quite end as we had hoped but he has brought us some good times over the last 4 years. If we do manage to win an AI over the next few years, Pillars efforts to bring Dublin back from the dead will certainly have contributed. Best of luck Paul!

Also, while i know the ban button is on overdrive, its good to see most fans of other counties, some who have had many disagreements with some of us Dubs over the past few months coming on and being respectful. Nothing worse than people kicking you when your down (which from past years here we have seen done to fans of many counties far too often) so always nice to see a bit of respect. Thanks to you guys also.