Photo: Prism Cycles (@prismcycles)
I know you should never be wishing time away, but is there any way the clock could tick a bit faster from now until Sunday? Sweet Mother of Jesus, it’s only Thursday yet and so there’s plenty more waiting round and building up and all that to be done before we finally get to Sunday. Are we there yet?
I’ve almost had my fill with build-up stuff at this stage as well. It’s oozing out from everywhere now and there’s no peace to be had at all at all. No point fighting it, I guess – it is All-Ireland week after all.
A quick gallop through the nationals, then, starting once more with the Irish Examiner where there’s a piece with former Mayo coach Cian O’Neill who says he’ll be rooting for us on Sunday, a piece by Terry Reilly on Robbie Hennelly and another piece by Terry about the county’s 1936 trainer Dick Hearns (there’s a companion audio piece to this from the RTÉ Archives where Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh interviews 1936 captain Seamus O’Malley about the amount of training that was done for the 1936 campaign). Terry also has a piece on team selection in which he says we’re set to name an unchanged team for Sunday. That announcement is expected at some point this evening.
The Irish Times has Darragh Ó Sé’s column, which, to be honest, I found to be a bit lazy-minded and hackneyed. You can put up with the almost obligatory stage-Kerryman bit on All-Ireland week but an analysis that focuses mainly on (a) our supposed deficiencies in the forwards and (b) their superdooperdooper bench leaves me a bit underwhelmed. Judge for yourselves.
The same paper has pieces on James Horan and Dublin selector Declan Darcy. It also has those gobby quotes from Liam McHale that have already been discussed in the comments – which The Score has too – and which I’d agree aren’t exactly helpful. There are times when former players need to keep their big traps shut and this was one of those times.
The Irish Independent doesn’t seem to have anything about us today (not the online version anyway) so I think we can skirt over that one today.
Elsewhere, Emmet Ryan of Action81.com has finished his three-part preview of the final – here’s the final piece in this triptych. An Spailpín Fánach has also penned his final review and he also has a great piece on Dublin and Dubliners. Mike Kelly also has a final preview.
Tired of words? Then this rather nice and information-bursting infographic (for that’s what it’s called) on the final might of interest. Thanks to Brian for pointing me in the direction of this.
Want some video? Here’s an official GAA one on both managers.
Audio, was it? You’re well served here, with both the Mayo News podcast and the GAA Scores podcast.
Don’t want words, pictures, videos or audio? Time, then, to get out on the bike or walk the dog or something like that. Are we there yet?
darraghs column used to be unmissable , now he has jumped the shark
Some of the journalism in general this week has been lazy and due to the sheer amount of all-ireland media this week we are entering the territory of just repeating everything ad naseum.
Getting a bit of flack online for my ratings but I genuinely believe Robbie Hennelly can be every bit as good as Cluxton on the day, expect a big performance from Andy and believe Ger Caff is the best full back in the country. On the Dublin side Brennan is an obvious weak link, while Kilkenny,Mannion and Andrews are hugely overrated
WJ, I think Darragh O’Sé’s piece is absolutely brilliant. Love the first few paragraphs where he tells the story about Paidi and the tickets.
After that I don’t think he said anything untrue. You’d have to tip Dublin given what we’ve seen of both teams so far, and they do have that extra little bit on the bench when it comes to the forwards. That doesn’t mean they will win but the analysis is fair, if not incredibly insightful.
Agree with seanod87, thats the type of writing i want to see in the build up, a bit of fodder for the dressing room, no matter what anyone says, the contents of articles such as O’Se’s ARE mentioned before games. To be fair Varley and Coen are’nt going to come on and win you an AI in Coens case hes young and may be a major star in years to come. His analysis is correct on Dillon and Moran, they will start this game and comments like his only bode well for us, as it may fire them up that extra per cent which could be the winning of the game.
I was listening to db interview on newstalk , he was telling us all about the 3 hours of frees that coc practiced at the weekend. Somebody should tell these fellas to stop talking so much. How much have we heard about the inner workings of dublins team?
Loose lips sink ships and that sort of thing…..
Let’s call it straight here fellas – Brady is a clown. He played like a man when he played for Mayo, no doubt about it. But since TV3/Newstalk let him get his foot in the door, it’s been one gaffe after another.
Perhaps some people think this makes him ‘colourful’ or a ‘character’. I think it makes him look like a cringeworthy eejit, and it doesn’t reflect well on our county.
Ease up there, Davy – this particular gaffe wasn’t Brady’s, it was McHale’s!
Was responding to David’s post re. ‘db interview on Newstalk’ WJ – if McHale was the guilty party, I humbly apologise!
That’s fine, Davy – it should be me apologising, I hadn’t seen David’s comment about DB blabbing. Someone really needs to tell himself and McHale to button it – all this big talk might be good for their egos but it’s not exactly helping the cause. You wouldn’t find any former Kerry players spouting off about what they’re doing in training a few days out from a final: they’re all on active service then and behave accordingly. I wish our lads would do the same.
I have to agree with you WJ in relation to O’Se’s piece in the Times. The last few weeks of his column have been full of the typical ‘before a sure in Kerry all this is common place for us’. I couldn’t care less how many tickets the family got for the final in 2006.
Not the first time Liam McHale has come out with crap like that, I seem to remember him doing something similar before another All-Ireland. Some serious issues there me thinks, bitter?
Thanks for the share of the podcast MGB!
Agree entirely about the sharing of information leading up to the final. People getting a bit too excited I think!