WAS YESTERDAY A sign that two Leinster football counties are starting to turn a corner?
There’s been so much discussion about Dublin’s dominance of the province and the absence of challengers.
We’ve seen Kildare and Meath both slip back over the last few years but yesterday was a good day for football in both counties.
When you look at them both they’re at a similar stage of development. There’s a bunch of young players coming through on either side and two managers starting out trying to put a stamp on things, -albeit Cian O’Neill has an extra year done over Andy McEntee.
They’ve set up a semi-final on 17 June that could be a cracker. It’s funny, as a player I always loved to be in Croke Park but now as a spectator I prefer going to provincial grounds for games.
It does so much for the atmosphere playing a game in a place like Tullamore. The town was buzzing yesterday before the Kildare-Laois match. It’ll be the same on Saturday. You’ll get a big crowd, both teams and sets of supporters sensing there’s a huge opportunity.
It could well be a bit of a shootout judging on yesterday’s games. Both Kildare and Meath like go out to have a cut, and given they hit 1-21 and 0-27, the two sets of forwards should be flying high on confidence.
I was a bit nervous heading to O’Connor Park yesterday about Kildare’s chances. Laois had a game under their belt and I felt that would have got rid of any rustiness for them. They’d a few big physical men in the spine in their team who were capable of giving a Kildare tough time of it.
What we saw was very different, Kildare were just on a different level from start to finish. Donie Kingston’s goal got Laois off to a great start but that was much as they had to offer.
From a Kildare viewpoint, there was very little to be negative about after the game. We’ve been critical of Kildare at times when looking at how far they are behind Dublin but yesterday showed how there’s a big gap again to other counties and that’s very disappointing for Laois.
Hitting 1-21 with 13 different scorers was really impressive by Kildare and that’s without Ben McCormack and Neil Flynn, two leading contenders to be corner-forwards. Cathal McNally came in there and was very impressive and David Slattery worked so hard.
A big plus was the form of Daniel Flynn. He hasn’t played a championship game for Kildare since 2013, struggling with injuries and form over the last while since he came back from Australia. We got glimpses yesterday though of what he can do.
He showed what serious pace he possesses, I’ve always thought he could rival Jack McCaffrey in that way. Some criticism came his way during the league about his end product but yesterday Daniel was excellent. His pointin the first-half was phenomenal when he sprinted across, shouldered a Laois player to cause him to drop the ball and then with the outside of his left boot, hit over the point.
There was a lot of honesty to Kildare’s play as well. We hear so much about blanket defences and it’s really important to get the balance right between defence and attack. Kildare had that against Laois, Fergal Conway was immense with his work-rate for example at half-forward even though he didn’t score. That’s very encouraging for them.
Meath will be happy themselves heading into the semi-final. They put up a really big score and got a huge performance out of Graham Reilly. You could never doubt his ability but he was immense against Louth, producing some top-drawer scores. He always wanted to be involved, always wanted to get on the ball.
I was struck by their play around the middle third. Cillian O’Sullivan and Eamonn Wallace in the half-forward line, along with the midfield of Menton and Jones brought a lot of pace and power. That’s a great launchpad for Meath and something they’ll look to build on.
We got the result we expected on Saturday night in Portlaoise but Dublin will be distracted by something else after the match. I think if 90% of players did what Diarmuid Connolly did, nothing would be said about it.
But he’s a guy who’s always in the spotlight. He’s such a fantastic player but plays a little bit on the edge and that gets him into these situations. The biggest question for me is how did he get so irate over a line ball?
Those 50-50 decisions always happen during games. It seemed strange to see him visibly angry about an incident like that in a game that they were completely in control of.
I’ve sympathy for Connolly in that I’m sure every time he goes out, there’s always likely to be plenty verbals aimed in his direction. That’s hard going to be on the receiving end of that sort of stuff. He’s only human and it’s natural to get fed up at times.
But he didn’t need to aggressively react like he did. Dublin could have done without that talking point from a routine win. By the letter of the law it was minor interference, you can’t put a hand on officials. Dublin will be worried about the possibility of further punishment for Connolly.
Victory never looked in doubt for them but Carlow deserve a lot of credit. It can be a case of damned if you and damned if you don’t with how teams set up against Dublin. But ultimately going out against this Dublin team without a defensive plan is ludicrous.
Turlough O’Brien is a shrewd football man. He’s been around a long time. Certain quarters may criticise him for how Carlow set up but I thought it was the right thing for them to do. They competed very well until Brendan Murphy was sent-off, the loss of their talisman rippled through their team as he was a big loss.
Their other midfielder Sean Murphy was just immense, you’d have paid in to look at him alone with the way he took the fight to Dublin and drove at their defence. I thought the fitness levels Dublin have built up told in the last quarter and they ran out easy winners in the end.
But it’s not being patronising to Carlow to commend them on how well they did. They can be very happy with how their championship has gone so far and there’s a lot to build on for the qualifiers.
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Comply was clearly targeted by the two Carlow players on the sideline and got angry when the linesman ignored it completely. Jonny is right that if it was any other player no big deal would be made of it
@joseph cooley: He was holding the ball, hardly being targeted. Anyway, all top players in the country get targeted, Conor McManus has at least 2 players manhandling him at all times, yet you don’t see them throwing digs, getting black cards and threatening linesmen. With his reputation you can see why there’s a deal being made about it
I hear Connolly is doing a Balotelli and getting the “why always me” t-shirts printed up as we speak
@joseph cooley: He’s playing on the best team in the country who are favourites to retain the championship and its not like he doesnt know what to expect. He has escaped as many infringements as he has been tasked on and he really should have a bit more about him in my opinion. I dont know the man so it would be unfair to suggest a lack of intelligence but if I was his team mate I wouldnt be too impressed.
@joseph cooley: no he wasn’t. It was a line ball to carlow and connolly wouldn’t give the ball back. They were clearly trying to get the ball back but he disagreed with the decision.
It’s great to see teams improving, it’s just a shame they have to play each other, if they both got a crack at d dubs who knows way would happen, football championship is looking good!
@David Lavin: Dublin would win again silly comment
@David: ur obviously a new dublin supporter, do u not remember wen Meath were dominant in leinster; wen kildare were d best footballing team in ireland? Dublin are good now but it won’t last forever
@David Lavin: the best footballing team in the country? Whats that supposed to mean ? Thats just your opinion and its not supported by the facts.By the way i think most people would class this dublin team as a bit better than ‘good’.Good is what kildare were in 2000.
You can’t let Connolly off with what he did. There has to be zero tolerance when it comes to match officials, can’t be having grey areas.
Must be frustrating for Dub fans though, he is a great talent but never learned to control his temperament.
@Dark Knight: 100%. Incredible footballer but incredible short fuse too.
@Summer Bay Devil: There is not one half decent footballer playing that garbage of a game. A sport invented by bog men and played by bog men.
@Leonard Barry: Then why comment on an article about a sport you hate so much? What exactly are “bogmen?” Didn’t realise Dublin is lush with bogs. Are you from a shantytown?
@Leonard Barry: insightful
@Dark Knight: Sure all that will happen is Connolly gets to sit out the Leinster Championship, and gets some rest before the real work starts :-)