DARRAN O’SULLIVAN SUSPECTS that the All-Ireland semi-final between Armagh and Kerry will be an “awkward occasion” for Kieran Donaghy.
The 2006 Footballer of the Year is a former star forward for Kerry but has been part of Kieran McGeeney’s coaching unit for the last three seasons. O’Sullivan, who was a teammate of Donaghy’s during his Kerry career, says the final four clash between the counties will be a challenging event for the Austin Stacks man.
“Going into this game we will see a quieter Kieran Donaghy, he might just sit down in the stands and not try to wind us Kerry people up. I think it will be an awkward enough occasion for him. He is going up there, he has a job to do, he is fully committed to Armagh.
“He will be going up to try to get a win, he has probably brought his personality into Armagh. From a players point of view, having him there has definitely been a positive. I think McGeeney has a good backroom team with him, they all add a bit of something.”
Donaghy has also enjoyed coaching stints with the Galway hurlers while also serving as joint-manager of IT Tralee alongside Liam Brosnan. O’Sullivan says each of those appointments was another stepping stone in Donaghy’s coaching career with a view to one day potentially taking over as Kerry manager.
“I imagine his plan involves taking over Kerry at some stage. Whether that’s a long way down the line or not, I do think that all the coaching jobs he’s gone into since he finished playing have been with the intention of gaining as much experience as he could get.
“Whether it’s coming straight after Jack, it might be too early. Personally, I think Éamonn Fitzmaurice will be the next guy in line. But I could be a million miles off with that as well. I do think his goal has been to gain experience with different types of coaching to further himself that he can be in the best position to take over Kerry at some stage.”
Kerry’s quarter-final victory over Derry was an attritional game featuring plenty of lateral play, while top forwards David Clifford and Shane McGuigan to just three points between them from play.
O’Sullivan says this must be a difficult period for forwards to play football, as their skills are negated by the defensive game plans employed by teams.
“I’d say he’s feeling pretty bored. He’s probably a bit frustrated. He’s getting a lot of treatment off the ball. I can’t imagine it’s an enjoyable game for a forward to play in at the moment.
“You’re playing with your back to goal, there’s multiple players around you with no space to express yourself. I can imagine it’s quite frustrating for any of the top forwards in the country.
“Any time you get the ball, there’s four or five players swinging off you. And when the ball’s not there, you’ve fellas pulling and dragging and whatever else they’re doing off the ball.”
Darran O’Sullivan was speaking at the AIB launch of the Volunteer VIP competition giving GAA club volunteers across Ireland a chance to win an exclusive match day experience on the morning of the All-Ireland SFC final on July 28.
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Ulster were the better side but URC officiating let the game slip away. URC need better training and follow up after each game to improve officiating. I understand that this is the process but evidently it’s not working as the quality of officiating across the URC is not good. Nika Amashukeli should be the benchmark as he’s one of the best in the world.
@Con Cussed: Yes, he’s very good and Piardi is decent. Sam Grove-White is on the whistle for the warm up interpro (with Mighty Mike as TMO) and brace yourself for Brace at the main event in Galway.
@Con Cussed: They may have been the better team but not by much. Sloppiness by Munster helped. The ease with which Munster scored most of their tries imo showed a lack of concentration by Ulster. Naturally it’s hard to stay fully focused for 80+ minutes but once you’ve let in 2 easy tries collectively a team has to say no more.
@Con Cussed: Cooney was absolutely shocking, so slow from the base of the ruck, making poor decisions. With Doak they absolutely win that game
@Con Cussed: Not as I saw it. Ulster were hammering the Munster defence line and just could not get through. At least not until Hodnett, Wycherley and Ryan were called ashore. Last season Ulster were prolific from the maul not on Friday night. The Munster defence was teak tough. Referee gave 17 penalties against Munster Munster’s academy substitutes committed several technical infringements. Hopefully lessons learned. Munster were warned twice for repeated infringements – once in the first quarter, once in the final quarter, Munster player binned for repeated penalties. You obviously feel that the ref “let the game slip away”. Are you saying the ref was at fault for not ensuring Ulster won?
@Con Cussed: can anyone lose a rugby match these days without it been the refs fault?
@Cormac McCarthy: The yellow card would have been a yellow anyway and Whitehouse’s failure to follow up on his warnings was extremely poor officiating.
@Justin Robinson: Ref blew for a tackle off the ball. As per his mic. Not a yellow card offence.
@TL55: You also have to take into account that Ulster only had 14 players for most of the game. It’s a bit like a house of cards, once one falls the rest come with it. So the first of those tries was really the cards falling down, up until then Ulster were competing well and scoring. I still think the last try from Munster should have been disallowed due to the previous high tackle on Werner Kok, which should have been a penalty at least for Ulster.
@chris mcdonnell: This one was a bit more blatant than others. You expect to get an equal treatment for both teams, this wasn’t the case for Ulster.
@Cormac McCarthy: Not at all. The referee is to be neutral, just he made a lot of mistakes, including that last tackle on Kok which should have been a penalty to Ulster, if not a yellow card.
@Cormac McCarthy: Interesting. I’d not watched the game back but I can now see you’re right. It’s not clear JP would even have tried to offload to Morgan, although he did very well to then pop it up to Cooney. Is it possible for two different players to be carded following the same passage of play?
@Con Cussed: I went back to review the incident. Could not see anything in it. Nash hit him hard around the body with a clean wrap. If there was head contact it was secondary motion and from my viewing impossible to identify. Incidents like this happen throughout the game for example tackle on Scannell on 74 minutes. As others have said once the ref is consistent there can be no complaints. Munster’s lines of running and off loading in the tackle (sometimes off the ground) was very impressive.