Club football championship

[GOOFY]

clara to one point in second half and clara by far the second best team in the county,offaly football gone for a long time

And ye held them to 1 - 05 in the first half, dont forget that.

[classof81]

clara to one point in second half and clara by far the second best team in the county,offaly football gone for a long time

And ye held them to 1 - 05 in the first half, dont forget that.

a forward line like clara holding them to 1,6 in an hour a\int to bad

[True Red]

Troll alert.......

[townman]

good win for Rhode, i think this could be there year in leinster, theres a nice few young players that could bring them over
the line this years.

ST.Pats of louth first away that will be hard, if they come out of that two home games again kildare winners i can see Rhode getting
to the final and some year it will happen for them could be this year, look at Coolderrys win last year who would have said that after losing
to westmeaths Raharney the year before.

[summerindublin]

ST.Pats of louth first away that will be hard, if they come out of that two home games again kildare winners i.

Rhode are at home in O'Connor Park against the Louth Champs St. Patricks and if they win are at home again against Carbury/Sarsfields.

[Lone Shark]

Okay, I got this one spectacularly wrong. In the approach to this game I stepped away from it and came back to it several times and I always came to the same conclusion - Clara should win midfield, Niall McNamee was on form but Clara would surely know not to leave anyone one on one against him, and up front Clara had a range of good scoring forwards and they'd hardly all have bad days. Crucially, I thought that Clara had the fitness and the depth to match Rhode's workrate and to counteract their support play.

In the first half Clara did win the midfield battle and Scott Brady was on course to win the man of the match award by a mile - he was dictating the breaks, turning over ball in the tackle, and checking Rhode runners. However he was also having to do a lot more donkey work than a senior player like him should do - Ross was relatively quiet beside him, while they were getting nothing from their wing guys at 5, 7, 10 and 12.

Niall Mac played well and Joe Quinn did reasonably well on him, with John Ledwith clearly under instruction to support wherever he could. Niall kicked two points from play - both fantastic scores - but I'd say if you offered that to any Clara supporter before the start of the game, they'd have been delighted to keep Niall to just two.

However in the other two aspects, I was spectacularly wrong. John Reynolds and John O'Hara were way out of the game, Thomas Deehan took his goal well and kicked some nice frees, but generally Brian Darby marked him out of the game, and Graham Guilfoyle was utterly ineffective when he came on. He did his usual thing now of taking on ball at midfield, running out along the sideline and getting to within forty yards of goals, usually under the stand or terrace, before coughing it up or recycling backwards. I'm very worried for Graham now - when young lads burst on to the scene with incredible pace, they often struggle to compete in the senior game when they can't just sprint past everyone. He needs to learn how to drive straight at goals, how to win frees and how to take opposition players out of the game. I'd say if you analysed the video of any of his recent performances and counted how many players are between ball and goals when he gets it and how many players are between ball and goals when he plays it to someone else or loses it, the number of defenders increases every time. That makes no sense.

Above all and most disappointingly from the perspective of getting a good game, I felt that Clara were hammered for workrate. Stephen Deehan emptied the tank and as BnaM man alluded to, Luke Kelly seemed willing to take the game to Rhode - but generally speaking Clara had no answer to guys like Padraig Sullivan, Conor McNamee, Anton, all of whom seemed to be on the ball constantly, always available to support, always working hard to get tackles in and to offer themselves as outlets. I'm not sure that Rhode can continue to afford the luxury of playing both Paschal and Alan McNamee in the long run, since both of those guys seem to be there as playmakers to spray long balls around the place, but neither of them have the legs to put in the kind of workrate that is needed. Neither are they good sources of primary possession. When you have a guy like Stephen Hannon available, I'd be inclined to give him a run. Still, that's a nice problem to have - to be worrying about how best to set up your team for a Leinster campaign.

[townman]

ST.Pats of louth first away that will be hard, if they come out of that two home games again kildare winners i.

Rhode are at home in O'Connor Park against the Louth Champs St. Patricks and if they win are at home again against Carbury/Sarsfields.

even better again so, is the Dublin winners on that side of the draw, Garrycastle, and Portlaoise should come out of their counties
it has the making for some championship if all the big guns come out of their counties.

[Bord na Mona man]

...and Graham Guilfoyle was utterly ineffective when he came on. He did his usual thing now of taking on ball at midfield, running out along the sideline and getting to within forty yards of goals, usually under the stand or terrace, before coughing it up or recycling backwards. I'm very worried for Graham now - when young lads burst on to the scene with incredible pace, they often struggle to compete in the senior game when they can't just sprint past everyone. He needs to learn how to drive straight at goals, how to win frees and how to take opposition players out of the game. I'd say if you analysed the video of any of his recent performances and counted how many players are between ball and goals when he gets it and how many players are between ball and goals when he plays it to someone else or loses it, the number of defenders increases every time. That makes no sense.

The elements of his game that are lacking - vision, distribution and decision-making are hard skills to acquire.
I wouldn't like suggesting they are things you either have, or don't have, but I can think of lots of players who at the age of 29 are making the exact same mistakes as they did at 19.

There are times when mazy solo runs are effective and there are times when they simply slow down attacks, compress the play and make it easy for the opposition to defend against. Knowing when to go on a solo voyage and when to move it will hopefully come with age.

If I were coaching him I might actually try and get him to work off a pre-determined run:pass:kick ratio, just to add a bit of variation. Maybe even give him a spell at wing back, where he'd need to distribute it more often than running with it. Some lads just need to relax and not feel that every ball they get needs to burrowed to the edge of the D.

[High School Musical]

Any chance of chipping in to buy some proper socks for Ken, lads?

[Plain of the Herbs]

What exactly is Ken trying to do in that photo in HSM's post above That pose

[llkj]

I think he saw the photo been taken and was saying "Wait, wait, I'll go back to the dressing room and get a proper pair of socks. They'll be this long, I swear, just don't snap me with these yokes on".

[bracknaghboy]

A right disgrace not to be wearing your club colours on county final day.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Brilliant

I think he saw the photo been taken and was saying "Wait, wait, I'll go back to the dressing room and get a proper pair of socks. They'll be this long, I swear, just don't snap me with these yokes on".