Lads,im just after reading a piece about Bernard Flynn,attending 3 days of Donegals training camp in Mullingar a few weeks back.Apparently this was only 1 of a minimum 4 such camps theyve had so far this year.Currently they are on another weeks training camp in Fermanagh.Am i missing something here?For styarters,how do the players get so much time off work?This is professional in all but name.As training seems to be constantly evolving,with more sessions and camps needed every year,to get to the top,where will it all end?How far can it go,without players having to be paid to play?

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 12/09/2014 17:00:45    1651413

Kerry may well loose the final but nothing that extraordinary about reaching the final really.
Mayo put up a bit of resistance alright but other than that Kerry weren't tested at all. Donegal will have their homework done and I'd say they will frustrate Kerry and win by about 3 or 4 points.

BallBearing (USA) - Posts: 72 - 12/09/2014 17:10:17    1651421

2/09/2014 15:40:07
Donegalman
County: All
Posts: 1597

Galvins last good year was in 2011, before he started to fade. So he was not the core kerry team since then imo. Likewise, Eoin Brosnan retired in 2009, and came back into the fold in 2011, so he would hardly be classed as a core player under this circumstance. Tomas O Se for sure, he was core and key. So With the exception of Gooch and Tomas OSe, you have a situation where players who were past their best or came back from retirement to play again, and then retired at the end of last year.

Donegal will genuinely be in transition for the next couple of years, there will be several big retirements after the final. Yes McGlynn, Lacey, Gallagher, Kavanagh, McFadden, Durkan, Walsh etc would all be massive losses if they go and we would be in transition. If most of them stay on we will not be in transition.

Every team sheds a couple of players every year, it is when a glut of players leave then you are in a serious transition. And it should last 2 years. After that, then it is laboring the point.

Kerry have been shedding more than a couple without players in a position to replace them. Had we not lost Tommy Walsh to Australia and David Moran through two cruciates, we probably could have avoided this unwanted period of transition. Just when we have a team going along nicely this year, we're looking at some more retirements. The team of '04 to '09 could not stay intact forever. Brosnan being coaxed out of retirement ahead of the '11 championship says it all. O'Sé obviously a huge loss and the Galvin. We're speaking of a hugely inexperienced team. We're in a situation then where Kerry have not being going well in the underage grades. We're in a minor final now for the first time since '06 and have not won a minor since '94.

People often forget that nothing was expected of Kerry in 2011 and across the country Kerry were seen as a team in transition. Cork were expected to win the Munster title. Once Kerry negotiated that challenge they were immediately seen as a threat and installed as favourites. What Kerry have done alright in recent year's is remaining competitive while being in transition. It's a fair point to make that people were not bothered by Kerry being in transition throughout the league and earlier in the championship. Now having made the final, it's something which seems to bother a few people. Only they at the end of the day can answer why?

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7868 - 12/09/2014 17:50:33    1651435

Tut tut tut! Mucky you really need to pay attention! i actually replied to your post last week on the dublin v donegal thread (page 33) and i repeat i haven't gone anywhere!

DUBJOHN (Dublin) - Posts: 932 - 12/09/2014 18:26:00    1651450

We like certainty. We were spoilt between 75 and 86. We paid for that with 11 yrs in the Wilderness. Now, it is hard to know what to make of this final. Fitz has conjured up performances out of nowhere, using players of which we know little enough. They can be erratic. Mistakes are made. The understanding between them will improve. BUT. They play as hard and as bravely as any Kerry team. May the best team win on the day!

plike (Kerry) - Posts: 569 - 12/09/2014 21:46:20    1651506

Can the final be brought forward to tomorrow?! Yet another whole week to wait! Ciarraí abú! :D

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7868 - 13/09/2014 09:28:57    1651527

People often forget that nothing was expected of Kerry in 2011 and across the country Kerry were seen as a team in transition. Cork were expected to win the Munster title. Once Kerry negotiated that challenge they were immediately seen as a threat and installed as favourites. What Kerry have done alright in recent year's is remaining competitive while being in transition. It's a fair point to make that people were not bothered by Kerry being in transition throughout the league and earlier in the championship. Now having made the final, it's something which seems to bother a few people. Only they at the end of the day can answer why?

Kerry have been perceived to be in transition since 2009. I remember Pat Spillane commenting on this the year that you won the all ireland, against the odds. This is the 6th season of transition now. Is it a 10 year transition?

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 13/09/2014 10:14:02    1651533

The Irish are a strange crew. When Kerry walloped Dublin a few years back. I went to watch it in Camden fearing a hiding. I went out of respect for a great team. One Dub professional left in the firsthalf on that working day. In his shoes, I would have stuck it out.

plike (Kerry) - Posts: 569 - 13/09/2014 11:26:40    1651546

Donegalman
Will it make ye'r victory against us any less sweeter if ye beat a Kerry team in transisition ? Because that's what we are , it's gas, before we got to the final nobody had a problem with us being a team in transition but now that we're in the final it seems to bother people, maybe it's people's insecurity that a Kerry team in transisition can get to a final when other more settled teams seem to struggle , but that's not our problem , ye can say what ye want about us Kerry folk, that we're cute hoors and this and that or what ever , but there is one thing you can be sure of and that is that we know our football.

KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 13/09/2014 11:45:38    1651550

3/09/2014 10:14:02
Donegalman
County: All

Kerry have been perceived to be in transition since 2009. I remember Pat Spillane commenting on this the year that you won the all ireland, against the odds. This is the 6th season of transition now. Is it a 10 year transition?

It was against the odds but it was not a period of transition. When we turned up to Croke Park to take on the Dublin Region on the Bank Holiday Monday of the year 2009, everyone was saying that it was to be the end of a great Kerry team and that we would be like a funeral cortege heading back to the Kingdom that evening. Our football that day was magical and we were immediately installed as favourites after the game. Tyrone would lose out to Cork in the semi-finals and thus ensure they would not match our 4 All-Irelands of the decade at the time before we claimed our 5th of the decade in the final of 2009.

Our defeat to Down on the same weekend the following year marked the beginning of a rebuilding job in Kerry. Jack O'Connor as I've said before agreed a 3 year deal, very much aware of the work involved. After two of those years, Jack O'Connor stepped aside and Fitz came in well aware of the job that lay ahead following Donegal's impressive All-Ireland win in 2012. Even if we pull off a shock tomorrow week, we're still possibly looking at a possible year of transition. My preference is that there are no retirements over the winter. If it's just just one or two it's grand. More than that though, for an inexperienced group, it's a lot to ask.

Someone made reference to the ideal starting XV for the final. If the Gooch was fit and in the starting XV, it looks like an XV that would cause Donegal some problems and give us a 50-50 chance. Without the Gooch, the starting XV doesn't have the same edge about it. There are too many unknowns for us going into the final. Donegal are in a great place and a position to be envious of.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7868 - 13/09/2014 11:51:58    1651554

Most Kerry people did not expect us to be in a final, I didn't agree with that assessment as I felt Kerry, despite injuries, retirements etc, had always maintained enough talent to be a top 3 team. I felt that with a little luck there was no reason why we shouldn't reach a final although it was though arguing that with people after Cork league match last April.

As a Kerryman, I would never consider reaching a final an over-achievement, it is the bare minimum standard that we should set every year. But, people must be concious of the fact that this Kerry side has done remarkably well. Fitzmaurice has overseen a complete rebuiling of his side and to get within 70 minutes of a title while doing so is incredible. For all the praise heaped on McGuinness this year, Fitzmaurice's achievement is the more impressive in my view.

This is not the greatest Kerry side to every play in a final, though they certainly have huge potential. That is what other Kerry posters are pointing at. Kerry 2014 is not the Kerry of 2009. In that sense it has been a slow transit over the last couple of years to reinvent this team. We are only being realistic in saying that they might not quite have an All Ireland in them. However, I personally believe we do and any Kingdom side good enough to reach a final is good enough to win it, no matter county they are facing.

We are Kerry and this is our stage!

TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 13/09/2014 11:58:28    1651557

Only one player who started against mayo in the drawn game started against cork in 2009, ONE, so I don't know what definition ye have in Donegal for it but down south it's fair to say we are in transition and given that Aidan, marc and possibly Declan will be retiring next year, well than it's fair to say our transition is continuing. Kerry have as much chance of winning this all Ireland as much as Donegal and will relish being underdogs, if we are not good enough well that will be down to a very good Donegal team but we are very proud of this team and management, very proud, never under estimate a Kerry team, it should be an intriguing game but it will be a monumental achievement if Kerry do win, remember 1955, remember 1975, CIARRAI ABU.

mlcollins (Kerry) - Posts: 440 - 13/09/2014 11:58:33    1651558

13/09/2014 10:14:02
Donegalman
County: All

Kerry have been perceived to be in transition since 2009. I remember Pat Spillane commenting on this the year that you won the all ireland, against the odds. This is the 6th season of transition now. Is it a 10 year transition?

There was no transition in '09 at all. What we had was Kerry were not expected to win by everyone outside of Kerry. The '09 quarter-final versus the capital was to be the end of the great Kerry team. Rebuilding work has begun since our 2010 championship exit. As so eloquently pointed out, only ONE player starting the replay against Mayo had started the '09 final.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7868 - 13/09/2014 13:27:43    1651575

Ok, Kerry lads, have it your way, your team is rubbish, you must have only got this far by fluke or cheating, and if you win the final it will be in the same way. All your players are junior b and you never expected to get past tipp or( Waterford,whatever) in munster. Now, do yiz feel better?

flack (Dublin) - Posts: 1054 - 13/09/2014 15:41:32    1651609

Sorry flack but imo Donegal are big favourites for this one. I just dont see how the Kerry forwards will penetrate the Donegal defence, and as for the Donaghy tactic, McGuinness will think of something to stop that.
I think that Kerry or Dublin will win the all Ireland next year, but for now, its Donegal all the way for me.

joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 13/09/2014 16:19:58    1651616

Donegal will beat Kerry handy enough I think. Kerry havn't done anything special this year so far. No real tests and when it did come against Mayo they struggled and got the benefit of anything that was going.

BallBearing (USA) - Posts: 72 - 13/09/2014 16:45:50    1651626

Yeah, joncarter, ur expect Donegal to win by 2 or 3, doesn't mean Kerry lads have to spend all their spare time getting their excuses in. If they do win, fair play, but it wouldn't be much different than the other 36 they have

flack (Dublin) - Posts: 1054 - 13/09/2014 16:52:33    1651632

Well said flack......... Totally agree

letterkennyGuy (Donegal) - Posts: 153 - 13/09/2014 17:36:08    1651640

KingdomBoy1
County: Kerry
Posts: 2403

1651550
Donegalman
Will it make ye'r victory against us any less sweeter if ye beat a Kerry team in transisition ? Because that's what we are , it's gas, before we got to the final nobody had a problem with us being a team in transition but now that we're in the final it seems to bother people, maybe it's people's insecurity that a Kerry team in transisition can get to a final when other more settled teams seem to struggle , but that's not our problem , ye can say what ye want about us Kerry folk, that we're cute hoors and this and that or what ever , but there is one thing you can be sure of and that is that we know our football.

im not counting any chickens on the result it's too close. U can Play down your chances if u like, I think that the reality is that both teams are in rude health and winning will depend on the small breaks on the day.

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 13/09/2014 19:13:25    1651678

Kerry may as well stay home according to some of ye. One chap says Kerry have not been tested, who are Mayo & Cork? Please name the top teams in the country I ask? Stop slagging Kerry is my advice. There are so many that despise this footballing county. Why??? Is it yer own lack of abilities & success?

lostintime (USA) - Posts: 533 - 13/09/2014 20:01:04    1651700