Anyone here met Joe?? Id say one of if not the smartest men Ive met. He knows what he is saying and every word is chosen for a reason. To get fools up and down the country wound up. We call it taking the hand.....im sure you all do it on a fri-sat night in the pub. What happened to the irish being a bit of craic :)

DoireCityFC (Derry) - Posts: 1580 - 02/04/2015 10:34:38    1709711

Richieq
County: Meath
Posts: 1999

1709613 fabio8
County: USA
Posts: 1650

1709596
ritchie what pundits said kerry and mayo last year wasnt anything but a brilliant match?..you sound like the ultimate football snob to me who is still stuck in the pub talking to people about meaths glories in the 80s and 90s hoofing it in aimlessly to the full forward line.....it shows you have lack of understanding for football more than anything..the tyrone sides of the 00s played football on a level that meath could only dream about...kerry did the same

Eh well if you read my postings correctly you will see that I highlighted Kerry v Mayo and Donegal v Dublin as the only quality matches last year, and I think quite a few share that view. No I don't spend my time speaking of past glories in fact your more likely to hear me bemoaning present inadequacies within my county, but recently given the poor fare on offer I often reminiss about some great matches of the past like Meath/Kildare in '97, Galway/Kildare in '98, Galway/Kerry in '00 and '08 etc, games that showed the skills of the game at there best. Your being very biased in your opinions of Meath's style of play, you should really look up some DVD's of that time so you can correct yourself. Perhaps you forget that we beat Tyrone in 2007 so we were capable of doing more than dreaming of their style of play, we actually bettered it. Your the second person to refer to me as a snob, well if being a snob is wanting to see to skills of Gaelic football properly utilised and if being a snob is wanting to go to a match or watch one on TV and actually enjoy it then fine, I'll gladly accept the title of snob, my understanding of football is fine as is my memory however I dkmt think we can say the same about yours

Oh Gawd, not only are you a football snob you are one of those dreaded "purists" as well. Those people who decry and bemoan the lack of "skill" in our games. Is there any group in any sport so up themselves as those in The GAA who talk about "skill"? I thought it was mainly the hurling folk who preoccupied themselves with "skill" but it seems we have plenty in football too. Last years Kerry Galway game was the most open, free flowing game of football in the All Ireland series. Yet it was also the lest intense. It was a very entertaining game from the point of view of the skills but the element of the contest was absent for long periods. The essence of sport is the contest. If you don't have a contest then you have nothing and in all the other games bar one of the All Ireland series last year that was present in spades. That is why we had such an outstanding series of games last year. Contest, quality and entertainment were present in abundance. There you go and not one mention made of Meath's slightly physical approach in the late eighties. But give them their due they were involved in some magnificent contests especially the replay in '88.

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6031 - 02/04/2015 10:45:56    1709714

fabio8
County: USA
Posts: 1657


well said donegalman...what does brolly actually know about the game?..


The man was a highly rated and talented player - A potent forward on a great team

Won every major prize - Ulster, National League, All Ireland title

Playing a significant part in landing Derry it's only AI title

I reckon he's well versed and knows quite a bit about the game actually...

In fact a damn sight more than you or I will ever know



Well said JimBod..... Brolly insight into the game is very good IMO, he knows the game better than most apart from a few Meath posters on here who seem to know everything about football, and still living of the 90's when they were winning......... But I know yos will make a burst this year, probably this confidence will arrive in the next few weeks after you wallop some of the big hitters in Leinster, some chance

ben1977 (Donegal) - Posts: 364 - 02/04/2015 10:51:38    1709718

joncarter
County: Galway
Posts: 1723

1709700
Thats rubbish fabio8.
Brolly is very tactically aware. he is an annoying so and so, no doubt, but he is a superb analyst of the game.
the black card is not nonsense. the only reason its not having the desired effect is because refs dont have the courage to apply the rule consistently.
mickey hartes Tyrone have played some beautiful football, but they have behaved awfully at times too. The diving and feigning injury, the incessant trash talking,the pulling and dragging.
Youre saying that Brolly has no right to question Harte because of what harte has done? well ill bet Brolly has achieved more in the game than you, so by your logic you have no right to question him.


100% spot on

"What does he know about the game" - stupid comment of the year award goes to...

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20600 - 02/04/2015 10:58:57    1709723

Donegalman

Making the point re meath's successes being reliant on dirt rather than pure football is a good way of giving similar perspective to a team who may or may not have won sam without using it

Looking at it as objectively as a biased fan can I disagree, listen just first off we in Meath are well used to people calling our All-Ireland winning teams dirty, most of us don't take offence to this now, a lot of us never did and some of us (myself included) used to actually enjoy being called dirty, we just saw it as sour grapes.

As for us actually being dirty, I don't know, I think it was blown out of all proportions by the media and some opposition fans of teams we'd beaten. The game itself was dirtier back then and we were certainly no angels but I don't think we were markedly worse than what was out there, however some people would have you believe we were like foxes in a hen house.

Anyway finally, I think if you look at our AI winning teams there was enough talent there to do the job without being dirty, but hey maybe that's the green and gold glasses talking.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 02/04/2015 11:10:36    1709730

I dont know DoirecityFC.
He loves the limelight,he loves winding people up, no doubt, and as I said, in my opinion he's an annoying bugger, but are you honestly suggesting that Brolly doesn't really believe the stuff he's saying? For example do you believe that he secretly enjoys defensive football?
I think that these days things are so sterile and politically correct that most people confuse speaking your mind with winding people up. Theres a difference.

joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 02/04/2015 11:22:31    1709735

Anyone here met Joe?? Id say one of if not the smartest men Ive met. He knows what he is saying and every word is chosen for a reason. To get fools up and down the country wound up. We call it taking the hand.....im sure you all do it on a fri-sat night in the pub. What happened to the irish being a bit of craic :)
______________________________
Big difference is I'd do it to the face of the person 'in the pub', just for the craic, not hiding behind the keyboard!

brendtheredhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 10897 - 02/04/2015 11:32:56    1709743

There has been a serious overreaction on the back of this Dublin Derry game. YES it was a terrible game, YES the conditions didn't help and YES both teams played very defensively to contribute to the dullness. But people have a seriously short memory sometimes. The semi finals last year were very good and in some cases epic encounters. There were some other entertaining qualifier games which added to an, in general, decent standard of football last championship season. People should be more worried about the hockeying that goes on in the early rounds of the provincials. Every sport has its fair share of good, bad and average games. Its not half the problem its made out to be.

breakingball22 (Louth) - Posts: 419 - 02/04/2015 11:35:09    1709745

First thing I will say is Tyrone are just outside the top teams in the country in that they lack the consistency to preform week after week, however on Their day they could beat most.

With this, I sympathize with Mickey Harte. I'm sure he doesn't know himself which team is going to go out and play at the minute, the Tyrone against mayo or the Tyrone against Donegal.

I can understand Mickey saying that he is not in the business of entertainment, as he is in a results business. As a supporter it is desperate to watch, however if Tyrone won the all ireland beating every team by 5 points to 4 on the way then 99% of Tyrone supporters would have him as the messiah.

If Tyrone go out and throw caution to the wind and lose their games by 25 points to 24 then people will be calling for his head, that he has ran out of ideas and a new face needed etc.

Results keep you in a job, not plaudits.

Joe can say as he wishes as that is what he is paid to do, a bit personalized yes, but the same message he had been delivering for several years now. I can't say I agree with what he said but it is hard to watch. However I will still go and pay into Healy park to watch Tyrone even knowing what I'm most likely going to get.

I would love some day for Joe to put his money where his mouth is and go into management, although I'd say that ship has sailed along time ago. Would the purist brolly send his team to the slaughter against Kerry or Dublin in search of the beautiful game? Or would he be more pragmatic and play a system that he hopes would get a result? I guess we shall never know!

beelzebub (Tyrone) - Posts: 19 - 02/04/2015 12:05:50    1709762

I dont think Meath were dirty in the 80s & 90s.Tough,hard men that took no nonsense and were rarely foubd wanting in the physical stakes.The type of men ud want in the trenches with you.And from Robbie O Malley all the way to Bernard Flynn they were all competent,skillfull footballers.They broke my heart numerous times and back then i did hate them,but as ive got older and,ahem...wiser i have nothing but respect for what they achieved.Funnily enough i did support them in their All Irelands v Cork.The hatred never went so far as to shout for the rebels.And that remains the same today(:

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 02/04/2015 12:13:21    1709766

Ah lads, would ye ever f*$k off :D

realdub (Dublin) - Posts: 8592 - 02/04/2015 12:31:25    1709782

cuederocket

Well thank you cuederocket, those games we had against Dublin and Cork in 80s and early 90s were often brilliant and often brutal affairs but I can't recall many players from those 3 counties ever complaining about the physicality, they just got on with it.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 02/04/2015 12:41:44    1709790

Now go home and get yere f#@ck"n shinebox.You feelin fresh?Dont get nervous!Come on Come on!

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 02/04/2015 12:46:41    1709793

realdub
County: Dublin
Posts: 4593

1709782
Ah lads, would ye ever f*$k off :D

__________

Ha-ha.. actually very true.

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20600 - 02/04/2015 12:48:42    1709794

I've had it with former players whinging about the 'crisis'. The sub-text for all of them is that they were 'better'.

Someone mentioned O'Rourke's opinions. This was the man that said Brian Dooher, one of the best players Tyrone ever produced, was a 'very bad player'. O'Rourke was a fine footballer but I'd take his opinions with a large pinch of salt at times. As a Tyrone fan, I'm happy to say that Donegal have some mighty players, and always have done. In the past, Donegal were hard to predict. Some days they didn't turn up. Other days they'd beat you easily, playing some super football. The talent was always there; all they lacked previously was consistency and motivation. Donegal played some great football against Tyrone last weekend - good defending and great switching into high speed massed attacking. They dealt with Tyrone far more easily than so-called 'better' team like Dublin did. It was more than exciting to watch and even as we were being cut open, I had to admit 'that's great attacking play'. The weaker teams set up mainly to be defensive; the good team combine both good defending and good attacking. I agree with slating the former, but to whinge about teams who both attack and defend is silly. Good defending, good attacking and fast transition from defence to attack - what's not to like? If it was good enough for Ajax in the 70s …

I agree that the one-side 'defend only' Derry approach is hopeless, but a defence only 'strategy' will never dominate our sport simply because it doesn't work. Derry, let's not forget, lost.

As for Joe's 'entertainment' comments, the sub-text is that loose defending and high scores are essential for entertainment. Each to his own, but I suggest you maybe try basketball if you want big scores above all else. It's like how Americans I've met can't stand soccer 'because there aren't enough scores'. Their problem is that they don't know enough about soccer to appreciate the outfield skills of someone like e.g. Pirlo. You can have a dull match with plenty of scores and a compelling 0-0 match full of great skill.

What I look for in a team is good defending and good attacking. What I look for in a game is closeness and unpredictability of outcome. The number of scores on the board is not the main event. Tyrone and Down played out a high-scoring draw in an Ulster final a few years back; and while lots of people raved about the 'great game', I remember feeling the game lacked intensity, scores were cheap and the defending, especially by Tyrone was annoyingly poor.

I've been going to matches for over 40 years and not once have I gone to be 'entertained'. Football is far more important than that. I once was in a corporate box in an AI Final (it was the only ticket I could get). Some of the people there were US tourists. They clapped both teams, ate their food, said they were enjoying the 'entertainment' and, perhaps thinking I was about to have a heart attack, asked me 'are you enjoying the game'. I remember thinking 'what a stupid question'; something that only some passer-by with no interest in the outcome of the game would ask. Meantime, I was roaring at the ref, unable to touch the fancy food on offer and generally being wound up with tension for the entire game. I'd call the experience of being a fan at a match lots of things, all of them compelling, but it's not about f***ing 'entertainment'. I am driven by a tribal desire to see my team win and I'm on edge until they do win and annoyed if they lose. If Joe really thinks that I go along merely to be 'entertained', as if a GAA match was like going to riverdance or a bingo session, it shows you how little Joe knows about what motivates traditional GAA fans. All that middle-class living has gone to his head.

essmac (Tyrone) - Posts: 1141 - 02/04/2015 12:58:37    1709801

fabio8
County: USA
Posts: 1657

1709653 you beat tyrone in 2007?..well done but what relevance has that?..when it mattered in the 00s tyrone blew teams away and won 3 all irelands..what had meath to show for it?..its fanboy type behaviour.....its funny how the days you speak of largely have to do with a period in which your own county was going well..biased much?...look at the success of recent years and explain to me how meath have supposedly bettered tyrone?...all meath seem to be doing these days is moaning about the dubs and all the advantages they have yet meath enjoy the same advantages over the smaller counties in leinster....be a bit objective next time..there are plenty of good games on show...stop focusing on the negative all the time..donegal were excellent to watch in 2012 and donegal v dublin last year was a superb game...kerry mayo last year was as good a game as you will ever see

So you reckon 2007 didnt matter to Tyrone?? An interesting viewpoint, we played Tyrone once in championship in the 2000's, a period you highlighted, in 2007 and we beat them, they won an All Ireland 12 months later so maybe they learnt something from us again, as for speaking about a period when Meath were going well, lets see ok we won two All Irelands in '96 and '99 which we enjoyed but we were beaten in the first round of Leinster in '92 by Laois, Leinster semi final by Dublin in '93, beaten in Leinster Finals by Dublin in '94 and '95 (which was a trouncing) and beaten in Leinster Finals by Offaly in '97 and Kildare in '98 so we werent team of the decade, I didnt realise we were the only ones who questionned Dublin's financial strenght and advantage with Croke Park, and Im not sure what advatages we have over other Leinster counties at present seeing as plenty of them have beaten us in recent times at all age levels. Im not the only one with these opinions on modern day football so you have plenty of other targets you can take aim at

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 02/04/2015 13:37:15    1709812

essmac

But are those range of emotions we all go through not all part of the entertainment? I mean the opposite of being entertained is being bored, people don't go to games to be bored, if the games were boring nobody would go. The range of emotions you can go through supporting your county such as delight, despair, unbearable tension, relief etc etc are some of the strongest you'll ever feel, what could be more entertaining than that?

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 02/04/2015 13:40:34    1709815

fabio8
County: USA
Posts: 1657

1709659 so your not allowed to use tactics richie?...what did meath do v tyrone in 96?..what was that about?...its like you want every team to play the exact same way..sure where is the excitement in that?..its completely boring and incredibly naive

You tell me what did Meath do v Tyrone in '96, outplay them?? Yes, Outmuscle them?? Yes, Exploit their weaknesses? Yes. Anything else??

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 02/04/2015 13:45:32    1709818

essmac,

Nail on the head.

Nuff said, end of conversation!!

MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 02/04/2015 13:51:14    1709821

Htaem
County: Meath
Posts: 6193

1709815
essmac

But are those range of emotions we all go through not all part of the entertainment? I mean the opposite of being entertained is being bored, people don't go to games to be bored, if the games were boring nobody would go. The range of emotions you can go through supporting your county such as delight, despair, unbearable tension, relief etc etc are some of the strongest you'll ever feel, what could be more entertaining than that?


I agree, we need a bit of drama in the game no doubt about this whatsoever.

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 02/04/2015 13:53:39    1709824