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Biyernes, Agosto 5, 2011
Few can live with Kerry in full flow
SLUGGISH Cork surrender their All-Ireland crown to sparkling Mayo, while Kevin Cassidy’s point from distance means Donegal are still in the championship following an extra-time defeat of Kildare. Some big fish are still swimming out there, though, with Tyrone recovering from a disappointing first half to eventually see off Roscommon and Kerry showing a clinical approach to put Limerick to the sword..
This weekend's All-Ireland Football Championship winners and losers are spread throughout the four provinces.
WINNERS
Mayo
THE men of the west are the talk of the town and no wonder: James Horan’s Mayo knocked out reigning All-Ireland and National League title holders Cork 1-13 to 2-6 and it was no fluke, no twist arising from a last-minute goal.
Mayo strangled the Cork attack which had put 2-20 on Down, holding the red and white to a single point in the second half.
Boss James Horan deserves huge credit, given his side’s first championship game was an extra-time win over London. Mayo steadily improved and his masterstroke, putting man of the match Andy Moran on Michael Shields was the key move of Sunday’s game.
Donegal
JIM MCGUINNESS and Donegal are having the last laugh these days. They needed extra-time to see off a dogged Kildare last Saturday evening and they’re now in an All-Ireland semi-final, but it was the gutsy way they rallied to outscore Kieran McGeeney's side in the closing stages of extra time which have endorsed the Ulster Champions’ credentials as All-Ireland contenders.
True, the suffocating style employed by McGuinness has provoked plenty of criticism but it was Kildare who fell back while Donegal stormed forward in the closing stages of the quarter-final. The Ulster champs face the winners of Dublin versus Tyrone next weekend; on current form they’ll fear neither in the last four of the competition.
Kerry
MAYO will hog the headlines but the well-oiled Kerry machine looks as ominous as ever. Manager Jack O'Connor commented after the 1-20 to 0-10 victory that his side needed a decent run out after nearly a month's rest since winning the Munster title, and decent just about covers it. O'Connor will be delighted Paul Galvin and Tomás O Sé got a full game under their belts, and that the likes of Darran O'Sullivan and Bryan Sheehan accounted for the bulk of the scoring.
There are few sides that can live with Kerry when they hit top gear and as July turns to August the Kingdom haven’t put in a full 70 minutes. Yet they’re still just one match away from an All-Ireland final appearance; no wonder they’re favourites to lift this year's Sam Maguire.
Darran O'Sullivan
A PALTRY crowd at the Aviva Stadium witnessed a moment of magic after 46 minutes of the Dublin Super Cup encounter between Manchester City and Inter Milan on Sunday afternoon. David Silva executed a terrific reverse pass that flummoxed the Italian defence and allowed Edwin Dzeko to stride through and score. The exquisite pass from the Spanish international brought the Aviva to its feet and drew instant applause.
Across the city at Croke Park Kerry's Darran O'Sullivan flicked a back-heeled shot with his right in-step (while in mid-air) into the bottom corner of the Limerick net. The stadium rose as one to acknowledge a brilliant individual goal from an amateur intercounty player. The most beautiful aspect of O'Sullivan's strike was not its execution but the fact thousands of children will attempt a repeat on their local GAA pitches throughout the remainder of the summer.
Kieran McGeeney
EVEN in defeat on Saturday night the Kildare manager cut a dignified figure in his after-match media interviews, thoug for the second year running the Lily Whites have been on the receiving end of a debatable refereeing decision which eventually swung the game their opponents’ way. Last year Down’s Benny Coulter’s goal could have been ruled out in Kildare’s semi-final defeat for a square ball, while on Saturday night Tomás O'Connor had a perfectly good effort ruled out for Kildare. For a square ball, yet. Will they ever catch a break?
Roscommon
THE Rossies can cheer up. They were more than a match for Tyrone for much of Saturday night's encounter, and any side that boasts the talents of Karol Mannion and Donal Shine has a bright future to look forward to. See? It’s not all about Ming Flanagan up there.
LOSERS
Cork
CORK ended up with 110 handpasses in last Sunday’s defeat to Mayo, an indictment of their approach when it came to feeding a dangerous full-forward line. With the game slipping away they failed to play in quick ball and a forward line already lacking three key forwards couldn’t find an answer. Cork managed a point in the second half and left with a whimper, not a bang.
Conor Counihan
THE Cork manager faces a tough inquest following his side's surrendering of their All-Ireland title after such an insipid showing at Croke Park on Sunday. Counihan was slow to make changes from the sideline as Mayo gained momentum during the second half, while the removal of Noel O’Leary, yellow card or not, looked rash. The decision to leave full-back Michael Shields on the influential Andy Moran was also surprising.
Follow Ger McCarthy on Twitter: @offcentrecircle
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/Ow8QbDCkTE8/post.aspx
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Straight shooting Henriquez calls it for Cats
Diarmuid O’Flynn
FOR a couple of decades now Barry Henriquez has been calling it as it is on local radio in Kilkenny, a broadcaster so colourful he is now almost as well known in his adopted county as some of the greatest names in hurling. A former dual player himself, played minor with Laois in both hurling and football, his earliest brush with the mighty men of Kilkenny wasn’t very positive.
“We got to a Leinster final in 1958, lost to a Kilkenny team that had the likes of Eddie Keher, Martin Coogan and all those lads.” Hurled Eddie off the pitch I suppose? “The man wasn’t born who did that, even when he was only a minor!”
In 1973 he moved to the Marble City: “Left Aer Lingus in London, married a Kilkenny woman, one of the famous Lennon greyhound dynasty, and settled here.”
He’s a straight shooter, is Barry, from the hip every time, so, call the game this weekend, Kilkenny and Waterford in Croke Park in the All-Ireland semi-final?
“I think Kilkenny will beat them with plenty to spare,” he says, without hesitation.
“I’m reading the vibes at training and I see a paranoid hunger that hasn’t been there for at least two years – it’s like the original hunger we all talked about, when they devoured Cork in the All-Ireland final of 2006 to start the four in-a-row, that die-for-Kilkenny attitude we all knew so well. I think Waterford just might get a dose of that.
“I’ve not seen Henry Shefflin as lean or as mean, ever, as he is at the moment – he’s like a racing snake. He has added a new dimension to his game and we saw it against Dublin in the Leinster final, a physicality, a ferocity in the tackle we never saw before. He was always an immense hurling presence but he has now added a raw physicality to that. The other night in training Richie Power’s helmet was split in two, and all anyone said was ‘Get him another f***ing helmet!’.
“Jackie Tyrell got a ball at left-corner-back and three Kilkenny forwards met him, drove him off the pitch and wore him off the hoarding under the old stand. That has not been present in Kilkenny for quite some time.
“Eoin Larkin is flying in training — he’s better proportioned below the water-line now than he was earlier in the season! Another man hurling very well, belting lads out of his way, is Noel Hickey – he’s still coming through boned, rather than going around in a half-circle. They’re all flying. It’s a well-worn cliché now about a great team, the last-gasp effort, the last-ditch attempt, but all that was said last year.
“I don’t want to go beyond the Waterford game because something could happen there to make me look very foolish, but I can’t see that happening, whatever that is.”
But what of Waterford, surely he’s not dismissing them out of hand?
“No, they’re a coming team regardless of what happens this weekend. People are talking of John Mullane, Eoin Kelly, Tony Browne, Brick Walsh, all those guys, that maybe the graph has turned a little south, but the younger players are really good hurlers and I was very impressed with a lot of the lads on their U21 team that was beaten by Clare in the Munster final a couple of years ago.
“They are undoubtedly good hurlers but apart from one or two, those lads wouldn’t have anything like the maturity or the physicality of Kilkenny, of the likes of Jackie Tyrell, Brian Hogan, Eoin Larkin, Michael Fennelly, Michael Rice and those lads, not a one of them would have the hurling nous of a Henry Shefflin or a JJ Delaney or a Tommy Walsh, all of whom are strong men also.”
The refereeing though, reckons Barry, could have a bearing. He’s a strong proponent of the Brian Cody school of refereeing, as seen in those famous Kilkenny training sessions, but definitely not a strong admirer of the standard of refereeing inside Kilkenny.
“They’re killing our hurling. There are a few exceptions but I’d give you a list of 45 referees in this county and if you were to bate them all into a barrel, mash them up and churn them for a day, you wouldn’t get a pound of a decent inter-county referee out of them! And there’s a lot of them out there, in a lot of counties. A lot this weekend will depend on the referee, how much he lets it flow.
“I went to Kilworth in Cork last week with a Kilkenny U16 squad, Brendan Fennelly, meself, Joe Hennessy, Joe McGarry, Richie Mulrooney, two teams. I’m with the first squad along with Brendan and James, and we thought we had a nice little team, we had worked on them for a few weeks. I’m telling you now, Cork bet us into next week – they were frightening, it was like a fathers-and-sons game.
“We had agreed beforehand, no whistle – throw it in, blow it up for half-time, same thing for the second half, maybe blow for an odd 65 to keep the referee awake. But let them at it.
“The lads over them was from the St. Finbarr’s club, I asked him where this team had come from – ‘listen boy, we went up to Kilkenny and saw the way ye were training up there and we said, this is the way to go; to hell with all this of the lovely game, the artistry – we can do all that as well. But the element that was missing from our game was Kilkenny’s physicality, and that’s what we’ve been doing with these boys since last January.’
“Well, that spit-in-your-eye then flatten-you presence of Kilkenny is back, and we got a glimpse of it in the Leinster final, though that was a different proposition again — there was a huge element of pay-back in that one. It was the Walsh Cup final loss, the draw in the league, then the heavy defeat in the league final – the Leinster final was payback for all that, because Kilkenny people believe that even in their wildest dreams Dublin shouldn’t even be entertaining the idea of beating Kilkenny.”
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/pwVkhbgpVBI/post.aspx
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Damien McGrane moving up the rankings
Diarmuid O’Flynn,
Killarney
IT’S a serious business, this professional golf. From the time the first of the pros puts down his ball on the first tee on Thursday morning it’s all business. Game face on until the last ball is struck.
There’s big money at stake of course, everyone is aware of that, but there are also ranking points and if you’re one of those at the wrong end of the table, perhaps a Tour card to be secured.
Damien McGrane is one of those who have been struggling a little this year so for the battling Meathman the Irish Open was going to be important. A full tour member since 2003, winner of the Volvo China Open in 2008, heading south west he lay in 102nd place in the Race to Dubai.
However, he shrugged off that lowly position and after day two was in joint 11th place, six under, just four behind the leader with Peter Lawrie and amateur Paul Cutler.
The third round, moving day as it’s known, was a bit of a disaster for Damien. He moved alright but in the wrong direction. A horrendous start to his back nine left him six-over par 77 and out of the reckoning. Yesterday the smile was back on his face, six shots picked up with only a single bogey was nice way to finish what is one of the big weeks of his golfing year.
“It’s a great tournament to play, the highlight of the season for all the Irish players I’m sure and the venue makes you shoot under par, if you’re playing anyway well at all you will shoot under par,” he said.
His favourite Irish Open venue perhaps?
“Yeah, with the crowds and all that, definitely; Baltray was always well up there but Killarney is top-class this year, great enthusiasm, a well-run event. I think it’s a positive event for the European Tour and the Irish Open I think is in a healthy state.
“It might be struggling for sponsorship at the moment but I think that will definitely improve. It’s such a great advertisement for golf and for Irish golf particularly.”
So you’d like to come back to Killarney? “If you pay for me I will!”
Business it is, but as with many of the pros, the Irish Open and Killarney is a little different to many of the other events on the tour. and with so much on offer besides the golf, everything nearby and accessible, it’s a popular place to bring wife and kids.
“I had my family with me all week so I was busy every day. We went out every evening in the town, enjoyed ourselves. It’s just a great celebration of golf, a terrific week. We rented a house, myself and all my family – it’s the only we could be together, keep it simple. A lot of players would bring their wives and families to a place like Killarney, it’s family orientated, that’s what it’s about, and we did the same thing last year.”
The pity for Damien of course was that third round, and even though his Sunday performance was redemption of sorts he couldn't help but think what might have been.
“That’s golf,” he shrugged, “lived to tell the tale, thank God.”
The only blip on the weather radar all weekend was on Saturday and it precipitated (weak pun, right?) the only real blip on Damien’s card.
“When that rain came in I just threw away all my shots. All of a sudden the course became monster long, I was playing the tough run of holes, almost hitting woods into the par fours, so needless to say once you start dropping them they almost fall like confetti — I lost it all there. Just the luck of the draw, the way the game is played.
“Apart from those nine holes I had a solid week, struggled for nine holes out of 72 – unfortunate, but it gives me a bit of hope. I played reasonably well from start to finish, which is nice, I had plenty of chances. I’m happy enough.”
Might this even turn around his season? “No. I felt I’ve been getting a bit better in the last month or so and I still think that way, a bit of confidence coming my way. I played steady all this week, got a bit of good fortune, played nicely today to finish off the Irish Open for another year.”
Might this even tempt him to change his plans for next weekend, and have a go at the Irish PGA? “No. I’ve played plenty of golf, need a bit of time off.”
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/KgtywHAkEUw/post.aspx
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