Dublin GAA Discussion Thread MOD WARNING POST #2944

TouchingVirus

Could it get much worse? A basketball wouldn't bounce on it the last day

KevIRL

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Could it get much worse? A basketball wouldn't bounce on it the last day

Challenge accepted!

Flukey

KevIRL wrote: »

Waterford win toss and game on at 3.30 Sunday in walsh park

Very bad fixture making, but no surprise there. Given that their recent meeting was in Walsh Park, they should be meeting in Parnell Park. Better still, it could be played in a neutral ground and fixed as a double header with the Dublin v Mayo football match on Saturday night in Croke Park, with a 5pm throw-in. That would be a perfectly common sense thing to do, which is why they haven't done it.

KevIRL

Flukey wrote: »

Very bad fixture making, but no surprise there. Given that their recent meeting was in Walsh Park, they should be meeting in Parnell Park. Better still, it could be played in a neutral ground and fixed as a double header with the Dublin v Mayo football match on Saturday night in Croke Park, with a 5pm throw-in. That would be a perfectly common sense thing to do, which is why they haven't done it.

Not bad fixture making, just the GAA sticking to their own rules

keane2097

I hesitate to take seriously complaints about common sense from someone trying the auld tulip of Croke Park being a neutral ground when Dublin are playing.

keane2097

keane2097 wrote: »

I hesitate to take seriously complaints about common sense from someone trying the auld tulip of Croke Park being a neutral ground when Dublin are playing.

Waterford might have jumped at the chance given they may not see Croker for quite a while.

KevIRL

Deleted User wrote: »

Waterford might have jumped at the chance given they may not see Croker for quite a while.

Incorrect. We are all heading up to Garth brooks in the summer

KevIRL

KevIRL wrote: »

Incorrect. We are all heading up to Garth brooks in the summer

I stand corrected.

ProudDUB

Flukey wrote: »

Very bad fixture making, but no surprise there. Given that their recent meeting was in Walsh Park, they should be meeting in Parnell Park. Better still, it could be played in a neutral ground and fixed as a double header with the Dublin v Mayo football match on Saturday night in Croke Park, with a 5pm throw-in. That would be a perfectly common sense thing to do, which is why they haven't done it.

They can't use PP. It is out of commission due to a new pitch and new floodlights being installed.

ThunbergsAreGo

Johnny Cooper stand up, great all league

TouchingVirus

O'Gara and Dublin show flashes of brilliance to force a draw

CurryFlavoured

Some very good things and some very bad things.

Great heart shown with 14 men. The forwards really clicked and Brogan + Connolly in particular were fantastic. O Gara and Kev Mac always a goal threat as well. We showed glimpses of what we're capable of in the 2nd half for the first time in the league. As mentioned already Cooper has been class. ROC and Nolan a bit rusty but they will improve with game time.

Now the bad news. McAuley's form has been woeful all league and its worrying. Today in particular he was shocking, ran down blind alleys and gave the ball away stupidly all game. The midfield in general was poor. The FB line is still leaking several goal chances, we conceded 2 today but it couldve been 5+. We weren't helped by Cluxton and Currie trying their hardest to lose us the game. Another big worry is Flynn and Bernard who are in dire need to game time before championship. 5 games in and Brogan still hasn't played, Flynn only has 10 mins. 2 of our most important players and we can't afford to have them playing catch up come championship.

Moneymaker

I think i'd be playing Connolly in the middle of the field. It's worth a shot at least. We are really, really struggling in there.

Yes I know it's a lower standard but Connolly showed some great distribution in the club final and he is a natural athlete. He covered every blade of grass.

I don't know if it'd work but something needs to be changed in centre field.

Miccoli

Will Bastick be back for championship ?

Gael85

Miccoli wrote: »

Will Bastick be back for championship ?

Bastic and Rock probably wont be available for rest of league.Both should be back for championship

TouchingVirus

Dublin not firing all cylinders again down in Waterford.

TouchingVirus

Dublin lead 2-6 to 1-8 but they, much like the footballers, aren't fully at the races. The backs are jittery, as are the half forwards with the full forwards not getting enough ball.

Absoluvely

Looks like Dublin are staying up! Things are going better in the second half.

Half-time score:  Waterford  1- 8 (11)   Dublin  2- 6 (12) 
Current score:    Waterford  1-13 (16)   Dublin  4-12 (24)

TouchingVirus

Dublin put Waterford down with a very strong second half display, cutting open the defence oseveral times in quick succession. Were was that stuff in the first half or for the entirety of the Tipp or previous outing in Walsh Park? Delighted to stay up in 1A!

Absoluvely

I'd say that Waterford's red card after 25 minutes had something to do with it.

I haven't seen the match though. I'm just deducing that from the Waterford GAA thread here.

I cant remember anyone else in the Dublin goal in the last fifteen years other than Cluxton. Can any Dublin fans tell me who has been his deputies? Just on the topic of the mistake the sub goalie made i cant help feeling its the inexperienced coupled with been thrown in at the deep end in Croke park might have given him jitters?

ProudDUB

Other than Currie, Shane Supple has been his most recent deputy. Last year, he got a few starts in the O'Byrne Cup and the league. He played in our league loss to Tyrone methinks.

Am surprised that Cluxton has started every single league game so far. I would have thought that the matches against the likes of Westmeath and Kildare would have been good opportunities to give someone else some game time, without worrying about his confidence being dented by a marquee forward possibly going to town on him.

sgarvan

Savage from St Vincents has played aswell

DoctaDee

Well done to the hurlers big win yesterday and immensely important I think in the overall context of their ambitions both this year and next.

Dunno where to start on Saturdays match - but it ended up with a great feeling of pride in a team that to the mainpart were a disjointed unit (even before Cluxtons red), that somehow managed to drag a result from a game that really wasn't there for the taking. I suppose the rhetorical question would be how Mayo (assumed to be Dublins closest rivals) would've fared 4 points and a man down @ HT - I'm guessing the outcome would not be the same.

The great goalkeeper debate - you can't have your cake and eat it. Cluxton is without doubt the best distributor of the ball in the modern game - when he doesn't play that element of the game suffers. The expectancy that any goalkeeper can step up to that mark - let alone a lad that's only a recent addition to the squad is a bit foolhardy. I'm guessing that a lot of the training exercises in camp are devoted to Cluxton and the pattern of running that he's gotten to recognise to target the kickout. This element of the game was very apparent a couple of years back when Mick Savage got a run in goals and came up short with his distribution.

More recently last year Shane Supple got a run out against Kildare - a goalkeeper every bit as capable and in some respects better than Cluxton (better shot stopper imo). He unfortunately was responsible for Kildares 1st goal as happens with goalie mistakes they're more closely scrutinised - the post match narrative outside of the comprehensive win was focused on the fact that Cluxton wouldn't have conceded the goal. That match was also memorable for the standard of Cluxton's other great attribute - the 45. In his absence Diarmuid Connolly gave a dire demonstration of place ball kicking - only matched by Joe Sheridan against us a few years ago. In a tighter game our dearth of dead ball kickers would've focused more closely on Connolly's profligacy.

This post has run longer than expected - match thoughts will follow

TouchingVirus

Michael Savage was also a feature in previous years, in fact that's who I thought would be sent on. I admit that I don't tend to look at who the sub keeper is on the day if I know Cluxton's playing; very rare that he gets into trouble. Currie had a bit of a nightmare, but you could well attribute that to being under the big lights in Croke Park with a 14-man Dublin team struggling to put passages of play together against a Mayo side determined to right last September's loss. He definitely needs more game time which is why I too thought it strange that none of the other keepers were given days out in Parnell Park for the O'Byrne Cup or earlier league matches.

Moving on to the rest of the team the full backs did their job admirably, it's good to have Johnny Cooper slot back in so easily and Rory O'Carroll wasn't half bad for his first day back. James McCarthy and Nolan were atypically anonymous and Tomas Brady didn't get a good enough run (subbed for Sean Currie). The midfield didn't perform like they should with Cian O'Sullivan being subbed at half-time for Jack McCaffrey and MDMA was definitely off the boil; his bursting runs looked more like putting Dublin into trouble than Mayo. For the half-forwards It was great to see Flynn back but does anybody know why he was replaced by Jason Whelan after 25-odd minutes? Conolly wasn't in the same form he was when last seen in action for Vincents on St Patrick's Day but still got 2 points (1 free) and played some good ball in to the forwards and I'm pleased to see Alan Brogan's back on form - I thought he had a cracking game.

KevMc is consistently our most damaging forward, he's lasted the full 70 in several league matches and finally looks to have shaken off that super-sub status. I'd be looking to fit Bernard back in for Paddy Andrews before taking Kev off tbh, Andrews has only been lukewarm all league and Saturday was no different. Cormac Costello needs more game time, he's still looking sharp. I suppose I can get to Eoghan O'Gara and I have to take my hat off to him - on the night and for the 13 minutes he was on the pitch he was exactly what we needed - strong enough to not get bullied by Mayo's defence, determined enough to get the win and had the skills to exploit the Mayo defence; that run for the second goal was sublime. He might not have done much in other games (e.g. Derry and Cork) but he came good for us on Saturday. There are still some issues though - the team aren't playing like a team; there was zonal marking and not man-marking for a large part of the game and players playing out of position. The warning signs are there, unlike last year which left a bit like a mission this is more a bambi's first walk start to the season and I'm not convinced we'll get August out of it at this stage.

We need to build on it and beat Tyrone next Sunday. If Mayo beat Derry in Castlebar and Dublin don't beat Tyrone the league is over for us. If Dublin & Mayo both lose and Kerry win it's over for us. So we really need the win which'll be no easy task considering how Tyrone have been playing so far.

I'll come back for the hurlers later when I've had some more thoughts on them - much like the footballers they've not had the best start to the year

Jake Rugby Walrus666

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Andrews has only been lukewarm all league

Isn't that his second game since injury?

DoctaDee

Flynner went off with concussion TV, I'm guessing it was the coming together down the Hogan side when he was 2nd fav to the ball and sorta ran into a shoulder.

COS was 2nd best all 1st half - was giving his man 2-3 yards everytime - his subbing @ HT, coupled with him reverting to HB line may indicate that he was carrying a knock or certainly he wasn't at 100%.

ROC did quite well for his 1st game back, the long punt into Freeman was his bread and butter. Cooper was immense in his defending 1st half and he was driving on in the last 10 mins of the game from in around the HB line - Dublins MOTM. Buttsy Daly is growing nicely into his defensive role and has a fair degree of adaptablity which will serve him well.

MDM did what he usually does this time of year - (remember Killarney), he looks to confrontation - in fairness he put in a decent shift towards the end of the game. Tomas Brady isn't a midfielder would be my best take on his restricted performance. Nolan & McCarthy were distinctly average and fumbled their way thru a lot of the game - handling was very poor at times.

Alan Brogan had a great start to the game and his little dink into O'Gara for the equalising goal was sublime - there was just a few occasions when I felt he was a lot like Bernard and thought it was The Alan Show wasting opportunities to better placed players in pursuit of his own bit of glory.

I thought Costello had a fine game, ploughing the lone furrow at times - he probably stayed on the field a little longer than Gavin/Dessie Farrell would've liked with the U21 this Wednesday.

I think Kev Mc's goal was a great validation of his goal against Kerry last year, takes a lot of skill to recognise the goalkeeper 3-4 off his line - in slow-mo on TG4 yesterday you could see the topspin he put on the ball .. anyone for tennis..

Do we really need a league semi final .. I'm thinkin yes, if only to see the reintroduction of Bernard and the chance to iron out a lot of the shortcomings on Saturday. There were times it looked like the lads had met for the 1st time a few hours before the game

TouchingVirus

Jake Rugby Walrus666 wrote: »

Isn't that his second game since injury?

Yeah, my bad; got a bit confused there in the heat of it I think He's such a regular now it's hard to think this was only his second match post groin injury. I'll reserve judgement on him for now, but we're into the business end of the league and next stop is the championship - a return to his 2013 form would be much appreciated

Cheers DoctaDee, I completely missed the knock to Flynner but me missing things in games isn't unusual - I completely missed the Waterford red card at the hurling yesterday and didn't notice until I counted up about 10 minutes after the second half began. Stuff like that makes I wonder am I just physically at matches and my mind is elsewhere :rolleyes:

Some well put together thoughts on the game too. Interesting to note greed on Alan's part while not considering MDMA being a bit greedy on the runs. I'm not harping on Michael, he's a great player on his day and is usually consistently good even on off days but Saturday just wasn't his day. I think that he had a sub-par COS and then a Jack McCaffrey playing out of position didn't help matters.

I think a lot of Dublin's issues are to do with the lack of cohension. Neither MDMA nor Alan had a lot of options running off their shoulders for about 55 minutes of the match, it was only in the last 15 minutes that Dublin started to show signs of life and form. Runs up the wings, skinning lads is all well and good but the idea is to suck players in towards you and leave a man free for an opportunity to punish, if that man isn't there you're wasting energy. The number of times we ran into trouble simply because there were no other options is worrying. It happened against Cork, Derry, Mayo and dare I say even in Westmeath there were signs this was a problem.

The way I feel about it now is we need as much game time as we can get, and while the losses are tough to take we better get used to it if we keep playing as we do. I like to forget about the return of Bernard; Kerry don't lie down without Gooch, Tyrone don't lie down without Kavanagh. We need to be better than relying on one player and besides, adding somebody the quality of Brogan into a team where 10 others are underperforming (perhaps a bit harsh...) won't mean we suddenly turn the corner. Onwards & upwards Dublin, here's hoping they find that magic that has me hooked like a crack addict sooner rather than later or it could all end in a different kind of tears this year.

Dublinproud

Does anyone know if a call to Savage is a possibility?

I heard Supple walked off the panel on his own free will so i guess that rules him out.

Gael85

Dublinproud wrote: »

Does anyone know if a call to Savage is a possibility?

I heard Supple walked off the panel on his own free will so i guess that rules him out.

From what I heard Supple left on good terms with Gavin.Would like to see Lorcan Molloy from St Annes brought into panel