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Sports. I'm so sad. It took me a minute.

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It actually took me a minute

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to realize what just happened.

0:10

Subscribe to the feed in the

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OTB Sports app now. OTB

0:17

AM. The sports breakfast show

0:19

from off the ball.

0:33

All right, very welcome along. It's Monday morning after

0:35

the All-Ireland football final. Dublin are the All-Ireland

0:37

champions. We'll be back and forth to the team hotel this morning

0:39

in the hope, the forlorn hope, that maybe

0:41

some of them are available for

0:44

comment before half-past nine. In

0:46

the meantime we're gonna sift through the wreckage of Kerry's season.

0:48

What happened? Were they the better

0:50

team on the day? I don't know. Were Dublin the better

0:52

team? I'm not sure. YouTube.com forward

0:54

slash off the ball. We've got a full house for you. Shane, good

0:56

morning to you. Good morning, how are things? Good. Nathan,

0:58

how are you? Good morning. Oh, you're

1:00

not very enthusiastic with this at all, are you? I am,

1:03

yeah. Do you hate the Dubs as

1:05

a Mayo man? No. Do you hate the Dubs as a

1:07

Kildare man? I know you've, I

1:09

know you like to nearly see yourself as one of them now, but...

1:12

Oh, look at this, look at this. Ouch. That's

1:15

the worst thing you can say to someone, isn't it? Someone who moves to

1:17

the capital and then you're accused of

1:19

turning into one of those people. Kerry were Mayo-esque

1:22

yesterday, weren't they? In that the game was right

1:24

there for them. They could have won it and they kick some

1:27

uncharacteristic wides in the final few minutes when

1:29

it's right there for them. No?

1:31

Yeah, it was. I think if you look at that spell, even

1:34

not accounting for the David Clifford misses, there

1:37

was that spell around 55, 60 minutes

1:39

where there was two or three really bad wides,

1:42

a couple of just wild, reckless

1:44

shots and maybe that's down to strong

1:46

Dublin defending and the pressure Dublin are starting to exert

1:48

at that stage, but it did feel as though

1:50

there was a little

1:52

bit of panic, a little lack of confidence

1:54

in Kerry at crucial stages of the game and I think

1:56

overall Dublin deserved to win it.

2:00

Look at 74 minutes on the clock. There's not a player

2:02

in the history of the game you want in that position

2:04

than David Clifford to just knock it over the bar

2:06

with his left foot. And it doesn't have from.

2:09

And the winning and losing of the game is that David Clifford

2:12

doesn't get anywhere near the standards we

2:14

generally associate with him in that second

2:16

half. You know, he kicked two brilliant points in play. The

2:19

ball for the goal is a wonderful. But you

2:21

would have expected every other day that David Clifford

2:23

kicks three more points and they

2:26

lose by two. Yeah, you know,

2:28

it's,

2:30

how much of the credit for that goes to Michael Furtz-Einmans?

2:33

A lot, you would have to say. But some of it,

2:36

so Michael Furtz-Einmans played well and David

2:38

Clifford played badly.

2:39

These two things are not in opposition to each other. And

2:42

I don't think it's causing the effect either 100%. I

2:45

think Furtz-Einmans played

2:47

well as well as he could do.

2:49

And I still think that some of the stuff that

2:51

happened to Clifford was unconnected with how well

2:53

Furtz-Einmans was playing, if that makes sense. Is there spoiling a performance

2:56

ranking? Okay, okay, okay. I'm sorry, it's spoiling the next.

2:58

Here's what's coming up between now and 10 o'clock

3:00

for you this morning. The performance rankings are imminent.

3:03

After that, Anthony Moyles is gonna give us his thoughts. We'll

3:05

preview the final game of Ireland

3:07

at the World Cup with Kathleen and Linda Gorman.

3:11

After that, we have Paul Caffrey. We'll be back at the

3:13

hotel. And we'll bring you some highlights from yesterday's

3:15

pay-per-view,

3:17

where they were talking about the impact of the All-Ireland

3:19

final kind of disappearing into the ether a little

3:21

bit on a national level. And some post-match

3:23

reaction from Colin Boyd as well. So

3:26

at 7.33,

3:27

nine time All-Ireland champions, three

3:30

of the dubs, let's get going with the performance

3:32

rankings. You know, that wasn't an All-Ireland

3:34

winning performance. Probably should have won the game based

3:36

on the second half performance. Is it a perception where

3:38

I'd say it was the performance so far of the World

3:40

Cup? Namely not. OTBAS performance

3:43

rankings. I'm scotch, mate. The performances

3:45

with just like that intensity.

3:49

Boom. Right, I

3:51

think we'll start with the green. We'll start with the green. We

3:53

should start with the green, then. We should start with Dublin this week.

3:56

We'll be seeing Molly Malone by the end of this show. That's

3:58

how into this we are. Yep.

3:59

115 to 113. Not

4:03

going to go down as a classic, but in the

4:05

conditions, it was tight, it was tense,

4:08

the sides were level in 70 minutes, it was kind of everything

4:10

you wanted in terms of the closeness of

4:12

the game. And it felt

4:15

looking at the reaction of the Dublin players and

4:17

listening to them afterwards that this meant a hell of

4:20

a lot. That despite the six in a row,

4:22

that they took the criticism that

4:24

they've received even just up to a few weeks ago.

4:26

I think even after that Ross Common performance, we're still

4:28

getting it in the neck that the stick they took over the

4:31

last couple of years, they took rather

4:33

personally, but they got the band back together.

4:35

Desi Farre I think deserves enormous credit for Avengers

4:38

Assembled, got every bit

4:40

of expertise they possibly could involved

4:42

through absolutely everything at this. And they needed

4:45

it because it was probably

4:45

the introduction of Jack

4:48

McCaffrey, the brilliance of their bench

4:50

that just got them over the line at the very end.

4:53

And I think overall, they did

4:55

deserve to win that game, their game plan,

4:57

it was very defensive for large parts, but

5:00

brilliant on the counter attack sort of knew exactly what

5:02

they were about. Their defence was far stronger

5:04

than Kerry's throughout the game.

5:07

And then their forwards didn't know if they kicked the points when

5:09

they mattered in the final stages of the game. So, you

5:12

know, for a lot of these players like for Cluckson

5:14

to come back to win a ninth all out

5:17

for Mick Fitzhires to have arguably should have

5:19

been a man of the match display to win his ninth

5:21

all Ireland for James McCarthy to be in the running for

5:23

football of the year as he wins his ninth all Ireland like this is

5:25

stuff we're never going to see again. Yeah, until next year

5:27

when four more to win their ninth all Ireland.

5:29

And we'll we'll lay though. I

5:32

definitely felt like this was last dance territory

5:34

for a lot of them. Speaking to multiple

5:38

people who are well connected within

5:40

the Dublin GA community. There was a

5:42

sense that

5:46

this is the end for many of them. Like,

5:49

so Desi said, it's

5:51

not even the I can't I can't remember

5:53

the exact quote, but it's basically like, it's not just the outlets

5:55

who were thinking about retiring here. There are loads of people

5:57

with a lot of miles on the clock who you might not

5:59

anticipate a lot of medals are thinking of going

6:02

yeah and I was like what does

6:04

that mean but again talking to people last night they

6:06

were mentioning very unexpected names who have just

6:08

had enough that like the daily

6:10

grind of getting up and doing everything you possibly

6:13

can all year long to try and win all island

6:15

when you've won as many as they have it's

6:17

not as

6:18

alluring anymore somebody said to me somebody

6:20

said to me last night with a straight face they won't even

6:22

win Leinster next year this

6:25

is like they won't win it by the one of my five or six

6:27

points all right they won't win it at all I was like

6:29

well I mean that was great it would

6:31

be great but I think do you does the

6:34

does the lure ever drop off I

6:36

don't know like the Dean Rock seemed

6:38

to indicate that he was probably done

6:41

and you can understand he's not starting games he's

6:43

coming on for the final few minutes listen he's kicking the

6:45

point that the final point of the game and it's

6:47

an important point maybe Kerry have a chance to go up if he

6:50

doesn't kick it but he kicks it as he always

6:52

does but even for James McCarthy

6:54

but you're not you're not a bit power player not getting a few

6:56

minutes here and there if James McCarthy comes back

6:59

James McCarthy starting all three of those players in one nine

7:01

if they come back are probably starting next year

7:03

the Kieran Cook any Brian Fenton yet I

7:05

got a lot of lot of yards there done

7:08

but

7:08

now is not the time you step away not when you're making

7:11

and having the types of performances that

7:13

they're having step away for a year perhaps look

7:15

at what it did for manion look at what it did for McCaffrey but

7:18

I don't I think Brian Fenton should be football over

7:20

the year again this year I thought he was exceptional at big

7:22

moments in the game yesterday is Michael

7:26

for time is not a part of the year I

7:29

there's an argument I think

7:31

he should have been man of the match yesterday I think Clifford

7:33

is the winning and losing of that game we all know

7:35

beforehand and I would

7:37

give Fitzhires far more credit maybe

7:40

than you are there for like the first

7:42

half I think the way they stop the ball but

7:45

I still think Clifford played badly as well and

7:47

I don't think it was just cause and effect but it

7:49

is a smothering pressure just I think

7:51

that like because Clifford missed some

7:54

fairly open opportunities and was going for goal

7:57

instead of taking points that can be done if it's a means

7:59

though because you got

9:43

Ireland.

10:01

Pat Gilroy is the manager. Pat Gilroy is on the

10:03

sideline yesterday as the waterboy. Brian

10:05

Cullen's the captain. Brian Cullen's there on the

10:08

sideline yesterday. Kev MacManaman scores

10:10

the goal. Kev MacManaman's there on the sideline

10:12

yesterday.

10:13

Steven Clarkson's in goal. Steven Clarkson's still playing. James McCarthy's

10:15

still playing. They've kept this massive

10:17

level of expertise and everything

10:20

they've gained over the years, and they're still all there involved

10:22

in different ways. Look, Desi has to take

10:25

credit for allowing Pat Gilroy back.

10:27

It may seem like an obvious thing

10:29

to do, but you have to be quite humble to go. I don't

10:31

think it was obvious at all. I think everybody was very surprised

10:34

that it happened, and

10:36

that he's as high

10:38

profile and involved. It

10:40

wasn't a quiet thing in the back room at all. Literally

10:43

in the parade, he's the one giving them

10:45

their drinks. I think Desi

10:48

gets all the credit here and finally gets out from under the shadow

10:50

of the previous managers. Again,

10:53

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if this is the

10:55

end of Desi Farrell's time as

10:57

manager of Dublin. Yeah, for sure. I was taking that yesterday

10:59

as well. Why would

11:01

you go again? To

11:04

the point about how they'll keep going, because

11:06

they all keep going, I

11:08

don't know.

11:09

I think there's a good chance that several of them decide to take

11:11

a year break and that Dublin will

11:13

look completely different next year. McCarthy

11:15

didn't sound like somebody who was gearing up to go

11:18

after 10, did he?

11:19

Did he not sound like somebody who ... No,

11:21

it was definitely a ... We'll see over the next few

11:23

months, but ... I wanted to go out in an

11:25

All Ireland, and I have it now, so maybe I'm

11:28

done. Look, I

11:30

think, Jared, there's a mixed

11:34

analysis of your post All Ireland final

11:37

gossip.

11:37

I think last year you restrained yourself. You'd

11:40

heard the shame watch was going to Kilmacood, and you never said

11:42

it. You had the good gossip that time.

11:45

Maybe we need to put a bit more trust in

11:48

what you're hearing. Okay, so my ...

11:50

Don't give your source away. My

11:52

informed speculation.

11:55

Who's going to take the Dublin job? It's

11:57

obviously very difficult, so it'll have to be somebody ...

11:59

Pack your oil. To your point, I don't know.

12:02

I suggested that. I was told

12:04

that's unlikely. But maybe not. You

12:08

don't know until you ask. Stephen Cluckston. Well,

12:11

certainly, if you were going to be setting

12:13

a backroom team together, you'd be asking a bunch

12:15

of those people. Like you'd be, I

12:18

think Brian Cullen's full time with the

12:20

dubs anyway, right? That

12:23

is a day job, right? Am I right

12:25

about that? Would Declan

12:27

Darcy be

12:28

interested in the job? He might be.

12:30

And that would be a continuity candidate.

12:33

Would J.O. be involved?

12:35

He's obviously, the

12:38

impact that J.O. had on Westmead the

12:40

longer the season went on seemed to be quite

12:42

pronounced.

12:44

Mick Bolin? Maybe, yeah. There's

12:46

definitely loads of

12:48

available candidates. It would be a dub anyway, all of us. Performing

12:50

at a very high level. Maybe

12:53

if Banti was available, it might be be interested. You're going

12:55

to put your mate in Maliki, are you? Well.

12:57

I think Maliki might be the man to take them to another level. And

13:00

he can only be stupid not to have him. There's obviously a change at the

13:02

top of Dublin as well. Jon Costello

13:04

is finishing up, I think maybe

13:06

this was his final week in the gig.

13:09

So

13:10

they've generally got their big decisions

13:12

right over the last few years. But again, I think

13:14

you go back to the way they've kept people

13:16

involved. And you just imagine

13:18

it's not going to be one guy who's just at the helm. Whoever

13:21

the manager is, Cullen, you don't expect will stay. Kevin

13:23

McMenamon will stay. These performance coaches

13:26

that they have around the place will make sure that the standards

13:28

are there. Jack McCaffrey could not

13:30

have been more bullish

13:32

last night about what's coming next. When

13:35

I got back in that dressing room, I knew within a week we were

13:37

going to win the All Island. You know what? We're going

13:39

to win lots more All Island when I look around that dressing room. Did

13:41

he say that? Yeah. OK. Well,

13:43

so that was suggested he's sticking around.

13:46

It didn't. I didn't get sense at all from Jack McCaffrey.

13:48

This was a one and done. Just coming back to save

13:50

things. I'm coming back because, as Jack McCaffrey is, it's

13:53

better for my life to be here. And I like doing this. Well,

13:55

let's wait and see. They're

13:58

going to have about eight players left away here at top.

13:59

What was Mannion saying? I got

14:02

the sense for Mannion the same as Jack. Right, okay. Look,

14:05

this is from the interview I was in the hotel

14:07

last night, but certainly got the sense that Mannion

14:09

was going to keep going.

14:12

But then you don't know, these lads, obviously

14:14

last night they were going to give nothing away, but Dean Rock

14:16

and James McCarthy's language was very much out

14:19

the gap like. That's

14:22

certainly the sense you'd get, and obviously after the game they're

14:24

all getting photographs, looks at all the lads. But

14:27

McCarthy could easily go again, to

14:29

your point. Oh yeah, he's only 33. Yeah, exactly.

14:33

So the

14:35

greatest ranked footballer is in terms

14:37

of the number of All-Arlands that they've won ever.

14:40

Yeah. Like, as you said, it's history and

14:42

it's never going to be beaten unless somebody

14:44

from their team, their squad does it. But

14:47

they're in the GPA box next year and Henry Schefflin's

14:49

sitting there and going, show me your 10 All-Arlands lads.

14:52

Yeah. 10 signs

14:54

of nature. Is that the position you want to be in for the rest

14:56

of your life? 10's much better. And

14:59

is there a bit now where Kerry, where they've

15:01

beaten Kerry and Kerry, like they're in Kerry's heads now?

15:04

Like, is it easier for them to beat Kerry next year? Or

15:06

did Kerry come roaring back

15:08

angry? Like so, there's not much between

15:10

them. The gossip in Kerry is that

15:14

Mark O'Connor's coming back from Australia.

15:16

Same.

15:18

Down in the Kingdom last year, or last week

15:21

I was here on the 7th, it's not just the Ty Canelli one

15:23

and done. It's back for good. Back

15:25

for good. Yeah.

15:27

So they'll be stronger, fitter,

15:29

leaner. I thought Kerry were brilliant yesterday. Just

15:31

a couple of mistakes. Well,

15:34

can they hold on to Paddy Talley?

15:36

Like, he's been a key cog. And

15:38

again, the word I was hearing last week was that in that

15:40

semifinal against Derry, generally speaking

15:42

at halftime, Paddy Talley will do a lot of the talking and

15:44

kind of have the plan and the team

15:46

talk. And apparently, apparently,

15:49

of

15:49

course, I don't know this for a fact, Jack O'Connor, who

15:52

will hold rank at halftime with that all-round semifinal and

15:55

said, no, game plan's out the window. We're

15:57

pushing on them. And they

15:59

went and obviously... basically destroyed

16:01

during that second half as a

16:03

rare thing for jack gonna to do it imagine have time of

16:05

much but yeah i think they should hold

16:07

a hundred party tally of the guy i don't think gary need

16:09

to panic like when decide to level

16:12

and seventy minutes as a tix in injury time

16:14

who

16:14

your real idiot of into when yes

16:17

the dopes yeah yeah yeah totally

16:19

oil yesterday and yesterday's game what yeah

16:22

yeah for sure greatest thing of all time you've won like ice

16:25

into i still talk clifford was going to step up it's

16:27

up to win the game or take when i am its insides

16:29

are level yeah no there's not there's not

16:31

them between them at that stage i thought it was more likely that

16:33

we're going to have extra time the ah negative identity i thought they'd

16:35

find a way that we would we would get extra time and and

16:37

a replay out of this but there's a

16:39

look good stuff we hindsight in you

16:41

look at the dogs over the last couple years like last

16:44

year she only of shows cause the point semifinal

16:46

for carry to beat them they're not that far away

16:48

the year before which is

16:50

a pays me to say there's an element of freakish and is and

16:52

how mail comeback like their toying with mail

16:55

for most of that game and they switch

16:57

off a male take advantage and they come back and

16:59

the item now has been a lot of bad stuff in there as

17:01

well the relegation for division one the general sense

17:03

of flatness around the place even

17:05

a large parts of this year but

17:08

on the beach amateur games like the

17:11

unfortunate thing for this group and as much as people

17:13

have spoken about how great it is for the logical

17:15

nine i think it must be very special for

17:17

the likes of the gannon the

17:19

combat scale the guys that sit there and basically

17:21

listen for the last two years of out

17:25

like door and these ads are nowhere near

17:27

as com i have four or five on as though nothing

17:29

to scoff her are like gloves and as but not

17:31

enough games i'm from think i'm not enough that like

17:33

be a second half you know steps up scores a couple

17:35

of berlin points obviously the match winner against may on the

17:38

qualifier probably going to be an all

17:40

star the or it could

17:41

have an how to have time and

17:42

nobody would have said okay that was bad decision but

17:44

actually a second half

17:47

ends up being a match winner in some many respects

17:49

you know it's his interceptions in this yeah

17:51

yeah yeah negotiate like lock

17:53

ten sounds good close to the seventeen last

17:55

titans would you like to get the twenty yeah i'm sure he will

17:58

to as run to other a was even that

17:59

He was an anti-climax at the end, I don't know what it felt like in the stadium, but

18:02

because the Dublin go 2 up

18:04

and I'm thinking, oh, Kerry, we're going to get a chance to push up for a goal

18:06

here, but then as soon as the 6 minutes is up,

18:09

Gough blows the whistle, and it's like, I wanted

18:11

one more, I wanted Kerry to push for Gough once. You could talk about the referee

18:13

and I was, like, the whistle is blown in 75

18:15

minutes and 4 seconds

18:18

for free kick. Yeah.

18:20

Hell yeah. So, you

18:22

give the other minute. I think, yeah, I think I

18:24

did, that would be the only tiny

18:26

criticism I would have of an otherwise

18:29

brilliant refereeing performance I thought at

18:31

the game. Yeah. Anywho, let's

18:33

keep going. Also in the

18:35

green, that's also going to be a Dublin-Kerry Ladies

18:37

Football Final on Sunday week. Dublin

18:41

beat Cork 2-19 to 13 points, so

18:43

comfortable enough when they started quickly, they played with

18:45

the wind, they built up a big score. Hannah

18:47

Tyrrell scored nearly goal. I

18:49

think it probably should

18:50

have been ruled out for a square ball, just kind of played a

18:52

quick one too, and she was back inside the square

18:54

by the time the ball came back, but Dublin were

18:56

convincing winners. It's going to be the first time ever Dublin

18:59

and Kerry have met in the Ladies Football Final.

19:02

30 years since Kerry last won

19:04

the All Ireland, they beat Mayo 1-16 to 1-11. They

19:08

lost their captain, Chief Rochet, she picked up a Cruciate

19:10

Injury in training last week. That's

19:12

obviously going to miss the final as well,

19:14

but they were keen to point out as to what a big influence she

19:17

was, and text came in straight away saying,

19:19

not about me this week, let's concentrate. Louisa

19:21

Meirharti,

19:22

best player in the country right now? 1-10. 1-10.

19:27

So, these are the two teams who were beaten

19:29

by Mead in the final over the last

19:31

two years. Mead have obviously had a change, had a

19:33

dip, so it will be

19:35

once again Dublin and Kerry. So that

19:38

is Sunday week in the Ladies Football

19:40

Final.

19:42

Yeah, like Omar Hardik's performance was scandalous.

19:44

Or sorry, Niebore Hardik, I should say. Unbelievable,

19:48

like

19:48

brilliant goal, just scoring points from all over the

19:51

place. So I think Kerry came up

19:53

to the team to beat, even though a 9 point

19:55

win for the Doves Over Cork is hardly to be sniffed at in

19:57

the semi-final. Cork have obviously been there,

19:59

done that over the last two years.

19:59

number of years but yeah it just feels

20:02

like Kerry are maybe on another level so that's gonna

20:04

be a crack and final I think in

20:06

that one definitely for sure and not a novel pairing

20:08

Dublin and Kerry yeah if there'd been a replay it would have

20:11

been a Dublin Kerry weekend the Saturday and

20:13

Sunday the men's would have been

20:15

Saturday evening and the women's would have been Sunday afternoon

20:17

that would have been a cool weekend yeah that would have been pretty nice, fast

20:20

to the football yeah

20:22

we're going to the Amber yeah let's do it

20:24

Vera Powell is in the Amber

20:27

hard to believe considering

20:29

the months of build-up we had to the World Cup that it's

20:31

all coming to an end today for the Republic of Ireland and maybe

20:35

and in all likelihood it feels this is going to be Vera

20:37

Powell's last game as Republic of Ireland

20:39

manager and there was a very tense and

20:41

touchy press conference yet again down in Brisbane

20:43

ahead of the game where Vera Powell

20:45

has been asked as to you know have you heard anything

20:48

no have you heard anything no would

20:50

you like to hear something well obviously yes I would like to hear something

20:52

from the FAI but there's

20:55

been complete silence from Jonathan Hill he told all the journalists

20:57

who were over there he would talk to them while he was in Australia

20:59

and have a bit of a briefing he hasn't

21:01

said anything and there's been no support at all

21:04

from the players there were four players up for

21:06

media

21:07

on Saturday Meghan Connolly was up yesterday

21:09

all asked the same question do you want to stay on and they all sort

21:12

of came up with the exact same stock answer

21:14

of just focusing on the next game this

21:16

the World Cup this is what we're all about so

21:19

it feels that all

21:21

of the things that have gone on off the pitch have

21:26

come together at a very bad time for Vera Powell

21:28

and that she doesn't really have the

21:30

backing of the dressing room and that it

21:32

probably is going to come to an end which

21:35

I think if you were to look at it from purely footballing

21:38

point of view it's very hard to make a case that

21:40

Vera Powell doesn't deserve to stay on considering

21:43

what she has achieved in getting Ireland to the World Cup and

21:45

I think performing really well in their first

21:47

two games and are gonna be getting

21:49

better in these big games but

21:52

it's the other stuff it is the

21:54

accusations that have been made against her I think

21:56

it's the timing in particular of the

21:58

accusations in the athletic piece

21:59

just before the World Cup, like that press conference

22:03

with Katie McCabe the day before the France game,

22:05

that felt like a line in the sand. Again, Katie

22:07

McCabe had an opportunity

22:09

to back Vera Powell. Everyone

22:11

will have seen a really sarcastic response

22:13

at the end of the press conference, and thanks for all the questions about the World

22:15

Cup. Like this overshadowed Ireland's

22:17

build up to the World Cup. Do you think it had an impact in terms

22:19

of our early exit? No,

22:22

I think Ireland played really well. Like, again, they're

22:24

playing two of the best teams in the competition

22:26

to the strongest teams, and

22:29

you can get in, and we will get into the tactical

22:31

analysis of how she got the best out of Katie McCabe,

22:33

how she got the best out of Denise O'Sullivan. But

22:36

Ireland haven't been that far

22:38

away from a position of where they have been

22:40

in recent years. She has brought them on

22:43

massively. But I

22:46

remember being out in Abastan the day of the initial

22:49

accusations, and Vera Powell couldn't have been

22:51

stronger more of him than her denials of everything

22:53

that was said. But she was also incredibly strong

22:55

on that that's not me. I am not

22:58

that coach. I'm not this aggressive coach. I

23:00

am a very soft figure around these players.

23:02

I'm a very supportive figure. And at that stage,

23:04

that didn't stack up to... It

23:08

felt like there was almost having to be two extremes

23:10

here where actually, you know, Vera Powell is... And

23:13

I mean this in the best possible way. She's very Dutch. She's very to the

23:15

point. She's very straight with her answers,

23:17

and she pushes the players. And like Katie McCabe's

23:20

response then in the press conference port of France game where it's like, you

23:22

know, we go at each other. We challenge

23:24

each other. But we're professional, and we put it behind us, and

23:26

we get on with life. And again, that's probably

23:29

most dressing rooms. But you

23:31

definitely got the sense from Katie McCabe that day

23:33

that the players were pissed off that this was coming

23:36

the night... day before their big send-off.

23:38

And that Vera Powell had approached

23:40

the Atlantic. Now, I know Vera Powell says that they had come to her

23:42

with a survey, and she had gone back saying, well, why didn't

23:44

you talk about what players

23:47

do to coaches instead of the other way around? And then

23:49

they went and spoke to the players over in Houston again,

23:51

and it all escalated from

23:53

there. But like this...

23:55

This has felt since then that this is Katie McCabe's

23:57

team, more than Vera Powell's team, and the Katie

23:59

McCabe team. Cave as the driving force behind this team.

24:02

But I think the

24:04

silence from the FAI says it

24:07

all. Oh, Vera was clearly pissed off the FAI in

24:09

that press conference yesterday or the day before. Like she

24:11

was asked, you know, has this had an impact? You know, the,

24:13

I guess the

24:15

weight, the contract weight and her answer was just yes.

24:18

And

24:19

stony yes to Tony O'Donohue's question.

24:22

See, the problem for the FAI is, so

24:25

they have backed VeraPowd to the hilt. They

24:28

came out that first day and they said, you know,

24:30

we believe in our manager. So

24:33

why then are they not

24:35

offering a new contract? If that's the case, now

24:37

they could argue things have changed. The players attitudes

24:40

have changed. The players are very frustrated. Maybe

24:42

there's a sense it's an end of the road. VeraPowd

24:45

was interesting talking about the natural cycle is

24:47

six years for a manager. I think six years is when players

24:49

and managers get fed up with each other, which would bring her

24:51

on to 2025. Maybe the end of this cycle

24:54

is now if there is that real intensity for

24:56

management style, these players have been together

24:58

a long time now, you know, they've had since they

25:00

qualified, they've had two lengthy training camps, they've

25:02

had about six weeks together. Since

25:05

the squad came together for the World Cup, it's a lot of

25:07

time in each other's company. And maybe

25:09

there's a natural break. But from a purely

25:12

footballing point of view,

25:14

it would make you nervous, I think about what

25:16

comes next, who comes next and how Ireland

25:19

kick on as they you know, the next game after this is at the

25:21

Aviva Stadium against Northern Ireland.

25:23

Yeah, which is supposed to be like a massive

25:26

celebration and

25:27

something close to a

25:29

full house. So there's a

25:31

watching brief here. And obviously, there's a big game that

25:34

we should be talking about, really.

25:35

Yeah, absolutely. 11 o'clock kickoff

25:38

in Brisbane. I don't

25:40

think and I don't think VeraPowd should

25:42

be thinking about rotation massively.

25:44

I think the physical mental toilet

25:47

the first against means probably a bit of a natural

25:49

couple of changes in there. But you know,

25:52

there's a lot at stake for Nigeria here. And if

25:55

Ireland were to switch off and think, well, let's just

25:57

give everybody a game and have a good time, you

25:59

could end up at the end of a

25:59

a bit of a beating which would leave a very sour taste

26:02

again at the end of a World Cup where they've they've

26:04

acquitted themselves very very well. In

26:07

saying that you do look at the couple of players who

26:09

haven't played so far and you know if

26:11

you leave the keepers out of it unfortunately the life of the subkeeper

26:13

is you know maybe you just don't get that chance but you

26:16

know Diane Caldwell 96 caps

26:18

I think better debut in 2006 played

26:21

the night over in Scotland

26:23

surely deserves a bit of run out of the World Cup

26:25

Chloe Mustache stories one of the best stories in Irish

26:28

sport

26:29

deserves a run out of the World Cup Kira

26:31

Grant has been there came back into the squad

26:34

haven't retired again does she

26:36

deserve a bit of time Clara Reardon is probably next in line

26:38

defensively so those four outfield players

26:40

maybe she gets an opportunity to give them some game time but

26:43

I think

26:44

as much as is possible and as fit as

26:46

players are you go out full strength and you try

26:48

and get something from this game. Okay on

26:51

to the red. In the

26:53

red Jer we're

26:55

gonna go booing the ref

26:57

go booing the ref first Shane

26:59

was passionate about this one I

27:01

was was

27:04

it like was it loud in the stadium it was very loud in the

27:06

stadium but was it is

27:09

it something that normally happens that the referee is

27:11

so Larry McCarthy tanked

27:13

David Goff and his officials yeah and

27:16

his officials and David Goff's picture went up at the big screen

27:19

and there was a loud boo from the hill

27:21

and Goff was laughing and then Larry McCarthy says no no

27:26

like an old-school principal I think

27:29

David Goff was able to laugh because even

27:32

David Goff I'm sure knew at that stage there

27:34

was no big incident here okay

27:37

after every game both sides are going to feel a little

27:39

bit aggrieved maybe there should have been

27:41

a minute extra at the end give Kerry the chance

27:43

to get that goal that we're you know we have a shame of starving

27:46

for the next 100 years and

27:49

it's one of the greatest moments we've ever seen maybe

27:52

Kerry or not about the James McCarthy hit like

27:54

it was very very high

27:57

a real speed you know

27:59

could that have been a record

27:59

card possibly he'd

28:01

had a few in the first half. This is in

28:03

the second half.

28:06

Who's it on? It was one of the

28:08

Kerry halfbacks. Who stays down injured for

28:10

quite a while. Sort of

28:12

clotheslined. Muynehan

28:14

went off that stage. So he clotheslined

28:16

him. But it was probably almost,

28:19

it was too close to the face. In

28:21

real time it was one of those, in Gaelic

28:23

football it's almost all, it was a yellow card. When you watch it

28:25

back on the replay, maybe it could have been

28:27

a little bit more. There were probably a few other incidents.

28:30

The Clifford one that was overturned. Now

28:32

when you look at the replay of Clifford and the Simons

28:34

where they both get yellow carded and originally the free kick had been

28:36

awarded to Kerry, probably the

28:39

two of them are at it. And maybe it's good refereeing

28:41

again that you go, you talk to your umpire and say...

28:43

Is that not like

28:44

the best example of excellent

28:46

refereeing where he gets his ego out of the way,

28:48

admits he made a mistake. I wouldn't

28:50

have booked them both. I

28:52

agree. I think your dead right didn't

28:55

let his ego get in the way. But then probably did almost overcompensate

28:58

by going, well, there was two of them are

29:00

at it so I'm going to book the ball to you to show that there was a bit

29:02

more going on here. It did stop them from doing any

29:04

of that stuff afterwards. Yeah. Well, and

29:06

that might have been a thinking of, listen, I'm not going to have the next 15 minutes

29:09

of E2 pulling lumps out of each other,

29:11

book the two of them and that will put a stop to it. You

29:14

were asking this morning before the show, like, was it

29:16

a good game? But for David Goff, it

29:19

would have been so much worse. I think he

29:21

basically, it was like a Kalkani-Hirling training

29:23

session for the first 25 minutes where

29:25

he saw it. Exactly. I think we were 11 or 12

29:28

minutes in. Clifford scored a free.

29:31

But other than that, that was the first

29:33

free given was an obvious one. And it was about 10 minutes

29:35

in. Yeah. And before that, there were loads

29:38

like the Fuzzy referees early in the

29:40

championship were like, oh, there's been about five

29:42

fouls

29:43

in that that you could blow for. He's

29:45

like, no, let's go.

29:47

And maybe

29:49

because the conditions were the way

29:51

they were, but people were literally taking the ball off each other in

29:53

a way that generally is like, oh, you can't do that. That's a foul.

29:55

But actually, I thought he was excellent.

29:58

Yeah.

29:59

write down pitch side. So much

30:02

so I'm bringing out a book on Jack O'Connor and Mike Quirk's

30:04

conversations during the entire

30:06

game. I was that, but you could hear them in

30:08

the first half because it was so flat and it was as the

30:11

nervy sort of tense game. Now there was nothing overly

30:13

exciting in what they were saying

30:16

to each other, but you've got a real sense

30:18

of the tackling and the quality of the tackling

30:20

and the ability to turn the ball over.

30:23

And

30:23

again, if it wasn't with the boos at the end, I don't think we'd be talking

30:26

about David Goff in any way. Like he did a really

30:28

solid job and there seemed

30:31

to be a sense that it was the dubs booing him. Surely it's

30:33

Kerry fans still stuck in the hill. The

30:35

dubs were pissed off that he

30:37

gave Clifford... So Clifford has a shot that

30:39

goes wide and then gets called back for it. Like the tiniest

30:42

little... On the replay, you can see that

30:44

he pulled the jersey, that Fitzheim is a pulled the

30:46

jersey. And I don't

30:48

think he needed to because Clifford was shooting

30:51

wildly and was missing, but then he kicks

30:53

that point and the dubs are like, oh, that was

30:55

ridiculous. What? Yeah. Haven't

30:57

called it all games. Like, yeah, well, he saw it though.

30:59

It's a foul. So I don't know

31:02

if you're on the hill, let us know. The sense was that,

31:04

well, obviously, the Kerry fans got out of there as quickly as they

31:06

possibly could. Yeah. So why would they be booing? They

31:08

wouldn't have been on the hill. But actually, I think there

31:10

was still a huge amount of Kerry fans on the hill and

31:13

surely the dubs aren't booing the ref. I don't know. Maybe

31:15

everyone just boos the referee. If you put the referee in the big

31:17

screen in any game, everyone's going to boo him.

31:18

Kenny the dad wants to know, can we give an honourable mention

31:20

to the bizarre lineup of pitch-side commentators the BBC

31:23

had? It did seem as if the BBC had ordered us.

31:25

So Darrowbreen, Patrick Keelty,

31:28

Paul Meskal, and Adrian

31:30

Dunbar. Adrian Dunbar, yeah, from playing the duty. Was

31:33

Seamus Coleman on with them as well? Yeah, as

31:35

soon as he was photographed, Ashling O'Reilly was talking

31:37

to him before the game and obviously Seamus is Desi

31:39

Farrell's first cousin. But he

31:42

was photographed with Patrick Keelty

31:44

and Adrian

31:47

Dunbar outside. I didn't see him pop up. But

31:49

again, it feeds

31:52

into that bigger conversation of All Ireland Final Day,

31:54

All Ireland weekend, what it can be,

31:56

what your coverage should be, how early

31:58

the coverage should start.

31:59

like a parade

32:02

of celebrities and in fact everyone you didn't look

32:04

at any of those four sitting there and go that's

32:06

a bit cheesy actually no it's all his

32:09

four guys are coming along we're going to enjoy the game all

32:11

of a little bit to add and

32:13

you know bit of razzmatazz there's no harm in it exactly

32:16

yeah

32:17

I think the BBC have one more press box seat than the

32:19

OTE if I'm right and saying someone

32:21

told me that last week and so that

32:23

obviously press box seats but yeah

32:26

but yeah it's funny to see them using them in that way like it's

32:29

but they were open no they were open their

32:31

box okay right right oh

32:33

they they have a broadcast

32:36

box right side where RTE's broadcast box they took

32:38

the old sky broadcast box I think it is so

32:40

they had the four of them sort of squashed in there that's

32:42

gonna do I grow the game D on Dublin the likes of those lads

32:45

throw them in it was live on on

32:47

BBC two was it so Richard

32:49

Cole's tweeting about it during the week it was strange because last week

32:51

the hurling final as far as I'm aware was only on BBC two

32:54

Northern Ireland yeah where yes

32:56

this match was on BBC two for

32:58

everybody in the UK to watch mainstream UK

33:01

not ready yet for hurling but Damien Damien

33:03

message this morning on YouTube got to watch my first allowed in

33:05

final shown on BBC two in England great watch sorry

33:09

hurling all the hurling was it what it's

33:11

so what it's not the first time it was on terrestrial

33:14

TV in England yeah that's

33:17

steps for step forward well just go coverage

33:19

a little bit of like oh we're thinking about this in a way

33:21

that other people aren't thinking about it oh oh you

33:24

can have these people well I mean is it

33:26

too much for us it is we can't no

33:28

sorry sorry

33:30

too busy being boring three minutes

33:32

pass a is that it we have one more with carry

33:34

in the red chair I carry in the

33:36

red

33:38

yeah you losing all Ireland you

33:41

end up in the red it's simple as that

33:43

what did they do wrong I think if you were it

33:45

was hard we could have a good debate I'd say about

33:48

who the man at the match was from a Dublin side you know

33:50

I think like Cluckston hundred percent from his

33:52

kickouts was at 44% of their

33:54

score started with close and they worked them all the

33:56

way up to the page I

33:59

thought all the way to

33:59

through that team like from Fitzsimons is obviously contender.

34:04

Brian Fenton, we were probably debating

34:06

before and I thought Fenton at the big moments in the game

34:09

was again the one who just

34:10

scored two great points. Did score two great

34:12

points. Calmed it down. I thought Jack Fenton was great though.

34:14

I thought, was your point here who

34:17

in Kerry would you say? So I think for Kerry

34:20

you were looking going with Paul Ganey scored the goal

34:22

and there was a sense of geez, we

34:25

thought Ganey was gone but he actually comes back and he has this big

34:27

moment and he was very solid. I think

34:29

Potty O'Shea was brilliant. Potty

34:31

O'Shea, Potty Clifford was brilliant. Potty

34:34

O'Shea things might have been different. Potty Clifford

34:36

was brilliant and

34:39

aside from that, they just...

34:41

I thought their defence was excellent. Costolo

34:44

was going to be an all-star up until the

34:47

final and Tom Sullivan maxed out of the game. Tom

34:49

Sullivan, maybe you would have scored

34:52

a different day in a different day a couple of points. Ran

34:54

out of steam at the end. He was gone for those

34:57

last couple of Dublin scores. Sean O'Shea

34:59

started very, very well. His accuracy was good

35:01

and then the Gavin White moment was

35:04

the turning point wasn't it? I thought Kerry's half

35:06

back line struggled.

35:07

That's the bit where

35:10

there was too much space at times for

35:12

Dublin to kick those points. The couple of Fenton

35:14

points he just strolled through. Yeah, but that's... I

35:17

don't

35:18

know. The half back line are actually marking

35:20

and that's where Potty Tally's

35:22

defence system broke down. Dublin

35:25

were carrying the ball straight to the centre of the

35:28

Kerry defence and no one quite knew what

35:30

to do. Although it didn't cost them as much as it might

35:33

have done with a few goal chances if

35:35

they managed to get turnover. So look, I

35:37

actually thought the Kerry defence was excellent and

35:41

they did their bit. Keep Dublin to 115.

35:43

Dublin are not going to score 20, 22 points,

35:45

but they didn't.

35:48

Wasn't that... In the conditions, I don't think it was ever,

35:50

ever that type of a game. I think Dublin defensively

35:54

set up so well, they forced them down

35:56

the wings, they forced them down the channels in that first

35:59

half and Clifford was getting the ball. He was getting the miles

36:01

out in the sideline. Yeah for the goal It didn't matter

36:03

because he was still able to create something but

36:05

then Dublin just burst on the counter

36:08

I think con con didn't score. Is that right?

36:10

Conditence core you said that before the game. He'd

36:12

be like dubs not winning this game cost slow Taken

36:15

off like I thought the carry defense section Anyway, can't

36:17

it's the crossbar course is that unbelievable shot like it's the crossbar

36:20

So somebody was giving that about him taking a mark

36:23

in the semi-finals And

36:25

one of the bits that we've done was like oh, I'd say it's only

36:27

without a word of them You go and you next

36:29

time don't take the mark actually we've taken the mark in the first

36:31

half

36:32

and just taking his point He might have got into it, but

36:35

he catches the ball brilliant catch It's on Morley

36:38

and and the ball spins off the outside

36:40

of his boots and it's a wide was like wow

36:43

and then there's a Do you want to

36:45

hear off the line as well? Early the

36:47

first half Paul Ganey heads. Oh So

36:50

Ganey had the very early chance was actually going wide Right,

36:54

okay. It was going right. Okay. All right six minutes

36:56

past eight Auntie maud's

36:58

gonna join us in just a second

37:00

First here is a clip from the pay-per-view yesterday

37:02

Philip Lanyon in the mail and former double footballer

37:04

and CEO of to know Make up Keith joined

37:06

Joe to go through the Sunday papers here talking about

37:08

where the all-n-final. They should be a national holiday

37:11

OTB AS performance rankings.

37:13

I

37:15

Think there's an issue with all-n-finals

37:17

weekends, and I think I would argue

37:20

and I know you slightly disagree with this It needs

37:22

to go out a little bit and go into

37:24

August and push into the second and third

37:26

weeks in August for loads of reasons Promotional

37:28

reasons and also like surely

37:31

our all-island weekends should be like Super

37:33

Bowl weekend, right? That's we should try and do so

37:35

there was a time where the sevens was a big occasion That's

37:38

kind of kind of happens and you

37:40

don't even know what's on Sevens was part of the

37:42

weekend fellas will come up for weekends of

37:44

all Ireland I saw the fella in the office today

37:46

from Kerry and he's 30 or 40 mates coming

37:49

up So many of them coming up for saying the night one

37:51

I think it's day in the night and they're all coming up the morning

37:53

down and down the morning It's not the sense

37:55

of there should be a festival on

37:57

in Dublin on a on an all-n-weekend It

38:00

should be at a time where you're given a couple of weeks

38:02

to plan it. There should be music, there should

38:04

be a pre-match on before, whether

38:06

it's a Kamoagi match for the hurling or an underage

38:09

game or a developmental, something on to get people

38:11

in a better area. A sense of crow parks alive for the day. Fan

38:13

zones, all that stuff should be there. And part

38:16

of that should be a celebration of people

38:18

from 25 years ago. Like, I'd

38:20

love to have seen that awfully to you. And I'd love to see a little

38:22

mini documentary because they're all great characters.

38:26

I think it's a go-way. It's a go-way. It's a 98 go-way.

38:28

What a team. What a team. And

38:31

that was one of the best displays

38:33

in the All-Iron Final ever. I'd love to see a re-runner

38:35

of that game. There should be a dinner and a banquet for them

38:37

the night before. Get them out in the pitch and

38:40

let people kind of recognise them.

38:43

So I think in this sense, maybe

38:45

it's the same to the fact that you can put things

38:47

down to this post-COVID. We haven't really found a rhythm

38:50

yet and stuff. The date's kind of still,

38:52

I personally don't like it. And I think, I haven't

38:54

gone to my holidays yet and the All-Iron Finals are over. Same. So

38:58

I just feel

38:59

it's a bigger conversation around.

39:02

The final should be a weekend of celebration

39:04

in the capital. You make the point very well. So

39:07

the weekend feels a bit bare at the

39:09

moment. And I'd say there'd be a great

39:11

appetite. Anything you put on, I think people would

39:13

love to go to.

39:16

OTV AM.

39:19

The Sports Breakfast Show from Off

39:21

The Ball. Anthony Moyes is with us. Anthony, good morning

39:23

to you. How are you?

39:25

Morning, gents. How are you doing? Yeah, so explain

39:28

what happened yesterday to us. OK,

39:32

where do you want me to start here? Well, why

39:35

did Kerry lose? Why

39:38

did Kerry lose? OK,

39:41

a couple of things. Well,

39:44

they had an off day up front. OK,

39:46

that's pretty obvious. And the

39:48

man who was being

39:51

hailed coming into the game as the greatest ever had

39:54

an off day. And, you know, he

39:56

had I

39:58

think a lot of that is to do. it with

40:00

the way Dublin set up against him and a

40:02

lot of that was to do then with his own frustration

40:05

and his own maybe weight of expectation

40:08

on his shoulders and due to that

40:10

he started to, which a lot of people

40:12

do and he's only human and lots of sports

40:14

people do it, he started to snatch at things

40:17

and he started to go for things that probably

40:20

he probably should not have gone for. There was at least

40:23

probably two or three shots that he took on

40:25

where you'd kind of go, wow, if you're

40:27

really going well and you're slotting

40:29

everything over that goes over but when you're trying

40:32

to find your rhythm and you're frustrated

40:34

as you could see when he was kind of pulling his hair

40:36

and clenching his fist after one

40:38

or two easier mistakes those

40:41

scores don't go over and the defender knows

40:43

they don't go over and all the defenders around

40:45

you know they're not going to go over and they give you plenty of

40:47

stick for it. So I think that was a big outcome

40:49

on a chair. We said last week that

40:52

Mick Fitzsimons

40:53

kept him to probably seven or

40:55

eight, he would be doing a serious job

40:58

and he kept him to what, three? Three,

41:00

yeah.

41:01

So you know I was kind

41:03

of having an argument a little bit on Twitter last night with

41:05

people or I wouldn't call it an argument let's

41:07

say a discussion. Not like you.

41:10

No, well I tell

41:12

Fitzsimons did an unbelievable job because again

41:14

like stuff we mentioned

41:16

over the last few weeks people don't notice

41:19

the stuff that defenders do where they're covering

41:21

off you know six balls in a row

41:23

and they've managed to cut them out and then the

41:25

forward gets that one ball. Like

41:27

Fitzsimons was doing an unbelievable

41:30

job on him and a lot

41:32

of times when fellows are giving man market jobs

41:34

they just stick to the man and

41:36

they kind of turn their back on the rest of the play

41:39

and what happens is other fellows get on the ball and get easy

41:41

scores but if you watch him even on the very

41:43

very last one in the 72nd or 73rd minutes

41:46

he actually, Clifford

41:49

passes the ball and he actually goes to someone else

41:52

and the ball gets switches back to Clifford

41:54

but you could see his desire to try

41:56

to help his defenders. Now Clifford

41:58

ends up you know clipping a

41:59

wide and you probably

42:02

as a manager would say, Jesus, why didn't you stay on him?

42:04

But I thought his display was fantastic.

42:07

I thought Fitzsimons was, you know, for me

42:09

with the pressure he was under coming into that

42:11

game and you know, psychologically,

42:15

you know, going in as I talked last week about going

42:17

to bed on Saturday night, what he was thinking

42:19

of that daunting task of taking Clifford. No,

42:22

he had help, but at the same

42:25

time, he was plenty of times left one on one with

42:27

him. I thought he did a fantastic job

42:29

and you know, fellas

42:29

were saying, oh, loads of times he was on the ground

42:32

and was just down to Clifford's bad shooting. Yeah,

42:34

but Clifford would have only still in my reckoning got,

42:36

you know, six. And as I

42:39

said, even if he got eight, I would have taken eight if

42:41

I was marking him. I'd say, Jesus, I'd give him eight

42:43

all day long and then try to see can we restrict

42:45

the rest of them to kind of five or six and

42:48

we get out the gap. So

42:50

I think that was one of the reasons, sure. Is it

42:52

overstating to say like it's a generational

42:55

conversation change or his performance yesterday?

42:58

If Clifford goes and scores the eight points, we're

43:00

sort of saying, like, big Fitzsimons, these lads

43:03

are probably past it, you know, they probably stayed on

43:05

a couple of years too long, whereas now actually we're celebrating

43:06

nine all-Arlands for him,

43:09

for McCarthy, for Cluckston and actually

43:11

wondering why the hell would they leave now? Yeah,

43:15

you're probably right. And that's the tin

43:18

edge of sports, you know, and

43:20

anything can can can, you know, and the narratives

43:23

are written after and all those different things. But,

43:26

you know, I think the younger lads,

43:28

I think, I think like Baskal,

43:31

Baskal was a major difference in that game

43:34

in the second half. We

43:36

spoke last week about putting them out to 11 and

43:38

I think when he moved out to that half forward line on

43:40

Ryan at the Kerry defence, that caused

43:42

them absolutely untieing problems,

43:45

like major issues and manion

43:47

the same when he moved out, you know, manion

43:49

was having a good game overall, but Baskal's difference

43:52

in that second half, I tell it was fantastic. McCaffrey's

43:55

introduction was unbelievable. I

43:57

still think, Nathan, it feels like.

43:59

You know the last dance for a

44:01

number of them and I think you know you hear

44:03

the interviews Arthur was with Dean Rock and a

44:06

Few of them. I think there's I think there's definitely a Sense

44:09

that this was the one they wanted. You

44:11

know, I got a text message off of a double fella

44:14

I know and he knows Clucks

44:18

them fairly well and Cluckson's father Well, and he was

44:20

just saying that Cluckson's father was saying that this was

44:22

the one and this is the one that

44:24

is taste Tasted the best of all of

44:26

them

44:27

So like I mean that's an amazing thing that

44:29

this is the one that they've regarded as

44:31

being the most above all the rest Which

44:34

is pretty which is pretty phenomenal So you can

44:36

just see the desire they had to

44:38

actually win this and I'm a

44:40

card you reference that they all references and

44:43

that sense of hunger like That

44:47

that cannot go, you know question

44:49

that that is an unbelievable thing because

44:51

that's just not a thing You just switch on, you know, you don't just

44:53

wake up one morning go. Okay, we're gonna go into y'all

44:55

Ireland Let's let's just go and we go and do

44:58

that That is a massive amount of like

45:00

me in prep training stuff away

45:02

from the team sacrifice all the rest of

45:04

the stuff to get to that point and

45:07

There's a very very again. There's small

45:09

margins in that like I saw James McCarthy

45:11

this year

45:13

in a gym I attend and like

45:15

the fella was broken up, you know, he was he

45:17

was basically on one leg, you know He was

45:19

kind of saying to me. Oh, yeah, I hope the season goes well

45:21

Then you know, he but he looked

45:23

like a fella who was a beaten docket, you

45:26

know, he looked like an older guy He

45:28

was hardly able to walk nearly and

45:31

he was doing a lot of rehab and prehab so

45:33

to see where he went to in kind of

45:35

February and March and see where he

45:37

is now is phenomenal and You

45:40

know I think they all referenced that and I think

45:42

it I think it

45:43

was born out in those last few minutes and in

45:45

small Moments in that game. I think Cluckston

45:47

doing a lap around the stadium

45:50

Was you know more a bullion? Celebrations

45:53

and we've ever seen from him not with

45:55

Stan. It's fact. He wasn't on the telly last night But like it

45:57

did feel like that was the end for him

45:59

and

45:59

you're certainly, I was hearing that loads

46:02

of them are thinking about taking, if not

46:05

a retirement, but certainly time

46:07

out. Now that could be four months, that could

46:09

be six months, that could be a year for a couple of them. And

46:12

we know several of them have gone travelling before. So like,

46:14

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if there's a new

46:16

manager and a totally new looking team next year.

46:20

I wouldn't be. And I don't know if you

46:22

watched, but McCaffrey, I just caught

46:24

a little bit of an interview

46:26

with him and Desi. And he was mentioning the fact

46:28

that they were basically handing the baton over.

46:31

And he was saying that, you know, this year was as

46:33

much about standard setting as

46:35

anything else. And that's really, you

46:38

know, he was talking about mentoring and, you know,

46:40

having a teacher mentor kind of relationship

46:42

with players. Like, that's enormous,

46:45

you know. And I will say one thing about

46:47

Dublin over the last 10 or 15 years, and this

46:49

is what a lot of counties

46:50

have to realise, is that they embrace

46:52

that. You know, they embrace the former

46:54

players, they embrace fellows that have been

46:56

there 10, 15, 20 years ago. They

46:59

invite them back in. There's no jealousy.

47:01

There's no kind of saying, oh, that fellow

47:03

was hard to deal with, or this fellow was this. They

47:06

continue to say, well,

47:08

you know, if these guys have got there for us

47:10

in the past, and they've shown the commitment to wear

47:12

the jersey, let's bring them in and let's gather

47:16

up knowledge and use them as

47:18

a font. And

47:20

it's amazing. It really is. And I have to say, like,

47:24

for them to even just discuss that, Ger,

47:26

and mention that and say, you know, we're leaving

47:28

this Dublin football now in

47:31

as good a stead as we possibly can be.

47:34

And we have shown the level of commitments where you

47:36

need to get to. And these guys are going to take

47:38

that on

47:38

and push it on. That's a bit of a warning shot

47:40

to the rest of the country, to be honest.

47:43

Can we talk about Tezi for

47:45

a moment? Because James Ricciardi is,

47:47

like, praising them afterwards, saying

47:50

it was ridiculous, some of the stuff that was shot

47:52

at Tezi over the years. And, like,

47:55

I do think Tezi

47:57

finally emerges from the shadow of his previous-

47:59

predecessors here, this

48:01

All Ireland, getting all those players

48:03

back, masterminding

48:06

the defeat of a Kerry

48:08

team who were reigning All Ireland champions, who've got

48:10

their own band back together with Jack

48:12

O'Connor and who do have the greatest

48:14

footballer of all time in their

48:17

midst.

48:17

It's a fairly sensational achievement from Desi's perspective.

48:21

Yeah, for a guy that people

48:23

would just say is monotone and

48:26

kind of a pull drives

48:28

the thing down. I mean, how far from the truth

48:30

can you be? I think

48:33

that he has done a remarkable job. I was chatting

48:35

to Adrian on the show on Wednesday. We were

48:37

just referencing the whole thing that he has done since

48:40

the whole Covid affair.

48:42

So if you remember that, you know, that

48:44

could have very easily been the player saying we

48:46

want to train

48:48

and him saying, I look like we can't, you

48:50

know, we're on a prayer and then say, no, no, we need to train,

48:52

we need to train, let's let's train in small pods.

48:54

But he took the flag for all of that. You

48:57

know, the Cluckston thing, the Cluckston thing,

48:59

no one knows what happened there, whether it was him,

49:01

whether it was Cluckston, whether it was someone else. But

49:03

he again took the situation and he and

49:06

he constantly did things

49:09

to earn the trust of the players. And I don't

49:11

really feel, Jer, and maybe

49:13

this is just me from the outside looking in.

49:16

But to follow in the footsteps of Gavin,

49:18

right, you know, you've got guys there who

49:20

sold with him. Gavin has made

49:22

them legends, right? And they

49:24

have an umpteen amount of medals to

49:27

then follow that in and to go, listen, I

49:29

can also do that for you. But I can do it in

49:31

a different way. You know, because if you remember,

49:34

and I questioned it, we all questioned the style of football

49:36

that they were playing maybe in the league at the start

49:38

of the year and last year where the likes

49:40

of John Small or these fellows were coming up from

49:42

the back and taking shots and people saying, oh, that's

49:44

not that's not the way they did it under

49:46

Jim Gavin. You know, they wouldn't do

49:48

that. But Desi was trying to instill

49:50

this probably new style of

49:53

which he had to he can't he couldn't go

49:55

back in and just say, okay, well, what he did, I'm just going

49:57

to repeat it because it would have been totally boring.

49:59

And also the players

50:02

would have found chinks in it and

50:04

they definitely would have said, you know what,

50:06

this guy has

50:09

flaws. So

50:11

what he did was he put his own imprint on it. And

50:14

you know what, he took all the pressure off

50:16

them. James McCarthy

50:18

referenced yesterday about the flack and

50:21

that's stuff that players remember. Players

50:23

remember the small things. When you're winning, it's

50:26

fine. But when you're losing and

50:28

the pressure that comes on at that stage,

50:29

if you don't have a manager that backs you

50:32

and you don't have a manager that you can respect and

50:34

trust, that's the time where managers

50:37

earn their spurs. And that's the stuff what players

50:39

remember when it comes to those critical

50:41

moments in big, big matches. And they say, I'm

50:43

going to do it for him as well as everything

50:45

else.

50:47

A lot of the focus is obviously going to be on David Clipper's

50:49

performance from a carry side. But when Jack O'Connor

50:51

and his management team are analyzing

50:53

this over the next few days, what are they going to be

50:55

looking at that they got wrong, that they could

50:57

have done better?

50:59

You know, it was a messy game, Nathan. Like,

51:04

you know, people will want real crow park

51:06

has a weird kind of a surface

51:08

in the sense of when it rains, you

51:11

know, a lot of times on a pitch, you know,

51:13

it kind of you get it, you get a bout of rain and that

51:15

kind of misty, showery rain and

51:18

it kind of soaks it in where crow park it literally

51:20

stays on the top of the surface. And

51:22

it makes the ball and makes the surface

51:25

unbelievably slippy. Like, you can't overemphasize

51:28

that it's very, very difficult to keep your footing, whether

51:30

you're twisting or turning, or, you know, necessarily

51:33

bouncing the ball and the amount of turnovers was

51:35

unbelievable. Like if you watch the first six or

51:37

seven minutes of the second half, you

51:39

kind of go, geez, this is pretty poor standard,

51:42

because it was balls out over the end line. There

51:44

was lads dropping balls, it was ham passes to

51:47

lads feet, it was ham passes over fella's heads,

51:49

there was all sorts of stuff. Now, you can talk

51:51

about it intensity and the tackle and all of that stuff.

51:53

And there was plenty of that. But some of the execution

51:56

was a little bit off, was that nerves?

51:58

Was it the intensity of the game?

51:59

of the conditions. I think it was all of that.

52:02

I think where Kerry faltered

52:05

was

52:06

we worried a little bit all

52:09

year about their midfield. We

52:11

worried a little bit about their half back line,

52:14

their half forward line, 10 and 12.

52:18

And I think inevitably what

52:20

happened was they just didn't have enough fellas

52:22

who could put the ball over the bar. Now, I think Ganey

52:25

really showed up, fair to him.

52:28

And I also think Sean Yoshae blew hot

52:30

and cold. But outside

52:32

of that, Potti was the standout

52:35

forward for me. Potti absolutely took

52:37

the mantle on when needed. And

52:40

he really drove at Dublin and he did

52:42

what he needed to do in that purple patch they got in

52:45

the second half. But inevitably

52:48

he kind of tired and then they didn't

52:50

have the bench to come on.

52:53

I know Spillane came on and kicked an absolutely brilliant

52:55

score right away. But apart from

52:57

that, they didn't really have anyone, a

53:00

la Jack McCaffrey, who could cause absolute

53:02

mayhem when they got the ball.

53:04

I thought their defence was excellent. I thought Foley was

53:07

unbelievable. Thomas

53:09

Sullivan and Costolo had an unbelievable

53:11

battle basically just chasing each other up and down the pitch,

53:14

nullifying each other because Thomas Sullivan is usually

53:16

good for two scores. Costolo is obviously

53:18

a marquee forward who was held. I don't

53:21

know if he was held scoreless. He got a few freeze, but

53:23

he didn't have a great game. I just thought that was

53:25

probably

53:26

where they

53:30

did it. They got all their kickouts away because

53:33

Dublin were obviously dropping back. But

53:36

if you were looking at it from a really analytical

53:39

point of view, I think the problem was

53:41

with them, they were a little bit open.

53:44

Dublin did well in the sense of they put a man up

53:46

and pushed up on Morley and they made

53:48

Morley mark. That

53:51

was a positive. Once Dublin

53:53

ran at them down the middle and

53:55

came at them with pace, real

53:58

pace, and fellas off the shoulder.

53:59

that caused issues for them. But

54:02

I think ultimately when they sit back and they analyze

54:05

the year, they say, well, if

54:08

the greatest player who has ever played the game

54:10

is slightly off, have we

54:12

got enough around us to really

54:15

pick it up? And inevitably

54:17

the answer was no.

54:18

Yeah, I think there's midfield

54:21

reinforcements coming

54:23

next season as well. So like there

54:25

is something for them to cling on to in terms of what

54:28

will happen next year that there could be enough of

54:30

a change.

54:31

Having said that,

54:33

you would still expect the half backs and half hours to be

54:35

largely the same unless maybe

54:39

the Spillans end up starting

54:41

and reaching a point where they're consistent enough. So

54:44

it's going to be bleak enough from Kerry's perspective

54:47

in that they will feel that this is one

54:49

that they were the main reason they lost. I

54:53

think they will, Jer. It is a

54:57

hard one for them. They're going to have to sit down.

55:03

I think the easy thing will be and the easy excuse

55:05

and the easy narrative will be, ah, David had

55:07

an off day. And because

55:09

he had an off day, if he had the shooting boots on,

55:12

should we would have won by five or six. I

55:15

don't think that's not really 100%

55:18

accurate because if you watch a lot of the times,

55:20

now

55:22

I counted probably two. Do you remember

55:25

the one where he kind of sliced inside and

55:27

he did a beautiful little slal and two Dublin players

55:29

on his right foot and he kicked it wide in the left. That was an easy

55:31

score. He should have kicked that.

55:33

There was another one then where he came in from

55:35

the left hand side and he clipped it wide.

55:37

That was another, as I said, he probably had

55:40

another three to four where you'd say, yeah,

55:42

he should get those. So that brings him up to seven or eight. And

55:44

as I said, that's an okay return

55:46

for him. If he's getting one, nine,

55:48

one, 10. But that's the kind of expectations.

55:51

For him, which is unbelievable. That

55:54

is how good he is. So

55:57

I think they also need to go back

55:59

a little bit say right,

56:01

as you said, where are we from that midfield

56:03

point of view? Where are we from our half

56:05

forwards, our 10 and 12? Have we

56:07

enough that like I thought Stephen

56:10

O'Brien would have been much more effective coming onto the

56:12

pitch. I thought he had an off day. He ran into trouble

56:14

a lot. He didn't really affect the game. You

56:16

know, when you come to Waller in the final day, you

56:19

need to be playing at 8, 9, 10 out

56:22

of 10. That's where your levels have to be to

56:25

really go and do it. And if you're having a five

56:27

or a six out of 10, and you're not really,

56:30

you're getting on the ball, but you're not really

56:31

doing a whole pile with it. And you're not really

56:33

massively, as I say, affecting the game

56:35

and causing threats.

56:37

You know, and I thought I taught a number

56:39

of that carry forward line were in were in that camp.

56:42

And, and indeed, they're half backline.

56:44

So they've got a little bit of work to do. But

56:48

I'm sure that they'll unearth some players down there. And

56:50

you know, they'll come again, like, I mean, look, the spine is unbelievably

56:53

strong. And I think they will look

56:55

back again and say, yes, we

56:57

had opportunities. But I,

56:59

you know, on the flip side, the goal they got

57:02

was was was a great goal to come at

57:04

a really brilliant time for them. But I think they

57:06

could have been two or three more behind at that

57:08

stage, like Khan had an easy mark,

57:11

which he should have taken and tipped it over the bar and

57:13

it would have been seven three. You know,

57:15

yeah, somebody definitely the build up have been like, Oh, they'll

57:17

have been have a word with him because he took a mark in

57:20

was it the semi final, where the

57:22

sense was he showed taking his man on. He

57:25

does take his man on. It's like it skews

57:27

the ball wide. So Khan

57:29

didn't

57:29

look like Khan all year, even though he

57:32

was supposed to be the difference between the team this year

57:34

and last year. It was he didn't quite

57:36

hit the standards, did

57:38

he? No, I don't think he probably did. That

57:41

we expect of him. I mean,

57:42

Yeah, I've just expected him. I think I

57:45

think he probably suffered

57:47

a little bit of an identity situation

57:49

in the sense of like, like I love

57:51

the fact that when he wins a mark, he just he just thinks

57:53

of okay, I'm taking you on right. That's that

57:56

that is the way it should be.

57:58

And but again, I think

57:59

little bit like Clifford, right?

58:03

Sometimes you have to do less, you

58:05

know, kind of to let others be more, right?

58:08

And I think even in that situation

58:10

where he cracks it off the crossbar, if you look, Baskal

58:12

is making a run off his left hand side. And

58:15

if he slips him to hand pass, because

58:17

at that stage Foley was done, you know, he

58:19

got inside him, he'd now he'd probably taken a few

58:22

extra steps. But if he had slipped

58:24

him a hand pass, there was two of them coming

58:26

in, there was a defender goal, but I think they would have they

58:28

would have got an easier goal. And

58:31

the one at the first half where he marks

58:33

us,

58:33

just get yourself into the game, you know, get

58:35

an easy score. He kind of seems

58:37

to be a fellow who again, is feeling

58:39

that pressure and is trying too

58:41

much to kind of do things. And

58:44

but look, he was still he worked. Look, you

58:46

know what,

58:47

people will go on, they give out and we're trying to analyze

58:49

the game, like the level of intensity,

58:52

the fitness levels, the

58:54

tackling, the ferocity,

58:56

all of that and the skill levels for

58:59

large parts of the time in a very, very difficult

59:01

decisions with brilliant yesterday. You know, it

59:03

really, really was some of the scores that were taken.

59:06

And I'm delighted for Baskal. I

59:08

think he has had an awful lot of

59:10

critics. I was I was, you know, questioning

59:13

him at the start of the year, because I just felt that

59:16

he wasn't doing what he did yesterday. He

59:18

was dishing the ball off a lot. And he wasn't really

59:21

like he for me was

59:23

instrumental in that second half period for Dublin

59:25

in turning the game

59:26

around him and McAfee.

59:28

And by the way, if you want to go back to, you know,

59:31

what you need from impact players and what you need

59:33

from your half backs and your half forward, you need what McAfee

59:36

did, if you just watch him every single time,

59:38

he just eyed his man up and said, right, I'm going

59:40

by you. There was none of this gone lateral. There

59:43

was none of this going back to a man. It

59:45

was just, here we go. I'm

59:47

taking you I'm taking you the inside or the outside.

59:49

I'm going to see what happens. But

59:51

I thought he was really, really good yesterday.

59:54

All right.

59:54

Was he good stuff? Thanks, a million.

59:57

No bother lads. It's a who's

59:59

your football of the year. Sorry. you let you go. Cool

1:00:02

yeah. Nice easy

1:00:05

one there Jared thanks. Yeah

1:00:09

Jesus you have me. I don't

1:00:11

know like a McCarty obviously it's McCarty

1:00:14

Waters. He was the

1:00:16

RT one yeah and he's massive odds on now

1:00:18

to win

1:00:20

it. It's a lifetime achievement award

1:00:22

he should have got it before but anyway. Yeah

1:00:25

I would absolutely. Yeah

1:00:28

I think can we hold that

1:00:30

one come back. Yeah okay okay we'll do that. Yeah

1:00:33

Phantom is definitely in the running.

1:00:35

Phantom is like I mean you know Cluckston has to

1:00:37

be in the running. Cluckston yeah I think so too.

1:00:39

But not talking enough about Cluckston like in those

1:00:42

conditions yesterday not to lose a kick out maybe

1:00:44

Cluckston and Brian Howard because again like

1:00:46

Howard going back and those short little balls

1:00:48

where one mistake carry your rain and

1:00:50

they pounced and they never made the mistake once. Yeah.

1:00:53

No and you're right by the way and I have it like I mean sorry

1:00:55

I know you last want to move on but but the Cluckston

1:00:58

was

1:00:59

because what happens is

1:01:01

Nathan you see a score going over

1:01:03

right and then to get the kick out of the way and you say

1:01:06

oh that was pretty easy but actually the pressure

1:01:08

that is being applied at that time

1:01:10

because if you don't get that kick out of the way now

1:01:12

one score becomes two and all of a sudden

1:01:15

you know Kerry are totally up they never

1:01:17

ever got a chance to build again after they got

1:01:19

a score and that was down to Cluckston and the movement outside.

1:01:22

Potentially the most important Gaelic

1:01:24

footballer ever like that's the

1:01:27

type of nonsense that we have to talk when we're talking about

1:01:29

Cluckston because there's no other way to frame

1:01:31

the impact that he's had in the game and the fact he's

1:01:33

going back at 42 like it's

1:01:36

slowly ambling up to take the free you know

1:01:38

completely sucking the life out of

1:01:40

the entire and then just nailing it you're like wow

1:01:43

this is ridiculous first score

1:01:45

to danger yeah just so on

1:01:48

the right for a right footed kicker and just goes yeah

1:01:50

yeah no problem bang straight

1:01:52

over and

1:01:54

even the one do you remember the one Clifford Sky's up in the

1:01:57

air yeah and it's green and it's hanging and

1:01:59

it's hanging and so

1:01:59

fellas would go and attack that high

1:02:02

right and he just waits waits

1:02:05

waits just thanks and the

1:02:07

carry forward comes in literally a second later

1:02:09

and he just has the time and you just as as calm

1:02:11

as you like this comes out worse like you

1:02:14

know look at the amount of shots really

1:02:16

on goal as well like I know what Kerry Kerry

1:02:19

got the goal and then

1:02:21

and

1:02:22

they had the one that was cleared off the line I

1:02:25

thought Dublin probably had a few more chances I don't know if

1:02:27

you remember the one where Kenny was going through and

1:02:29

he hand passes a ball to Pascal high they

1:02:31

end up getting a score from a from Mannion but

1:02:34

if he gives that on the chest they're running right through

1:02:36

on goal probably there was probably two or three chances

1:02:38

for Dublin but look Pluckston

1:02:41

has been without doubt and but

1:02:44

I think Dublin are served well there I think they're

1:02:46

okay I think I haven't come for them it's

1:02:48

not like there's gonna be a major deficiency but

1:02:51

of course there will be and because

1:02:53

as you say he is probably the

1:02:55

most important player of the last 15 years

1:02:57

in Gaelic football yeah all right once you get stuff

1:02:59

no

1:03:00

water cheers lads

1:03:03

it's 8 33 and Ashley

1:03:05

O'Reilly is with us now live from the Dublin team

1:03:07

hotel Ashley good morning to you

1:03:09

good morning lads how's things where are

1:03:11

you actually where is the Dublin team hotel today it's

1:03:14

in Santree the crown plaza in Santree so

1:03:16

I'm hidden in a corner here as a

1:03:18

few of the players are on the way in for breakfast so we

1:03:20

have movement

1:03:21

very good this is a bit better than the limerick lads who

1:03:23

have you seen who've you seen Ashley so

1:03:26

so far it was Desi that was up first he's

1:03:28

gone in for breakfast with his wife and then

1:03:30

Brian Howard as well and I overheard

1:03:32

him saying that he's been up I think he was up until

1:03:35

about half five last night so he's

1:03:37

doing pretty well to be up at this time

1:03:39

fair play to him

1:03:41

if you get Stephen Pluckston this morning Ashley yeah

1:03:44

yeah you can retire

1:03:46

this is your no pressure thanks David

1:03:48

yeah I'll go up and find out what room he

1:03:50

is knocking the door yeah what he what he doing

1:03:53

yesterday was just incredible wasn't it just

1:03:56

it felt like reading in the years

1:03:58

moments like I said it to Desi afterwards

1:03:59

And it was all a bit surreal to see

1:04:02

him stepping up to that first 45

1:04:04

after four minutes and just putting it over the bar I

1:04:06

just looked at Patty Andrews beside me

1:04:08

and the boat was just looked at each other and he just started

1:04:11

laughing like this is Wild that he

1:04:13

is still doing

1:04:13

this at this age Yeah, it was one

1:04:15

of the things I did notice sitting right behind Jack Connor

1:04:18

Mike quirk They were gone mad for clocks and two

1:04:20

scores with the officials He's

1:04:23

just strolling up. He's just strolling up.

1:04:25

Yeah, he is. He's literally gonna do this at his own

1:04:27

pace

1:04:28

And does he said that as well in the press

1:04:30

conference? He said, you know, it takes them a bit longer now

1:04:33

to get up to the ball and it takes them a good while to get

1:04:35

back

1:04:36

The Zimmer frame that was that the implication?

1:04:39

and so our presume is just

1:04:42

an overwhelming sense of Joy

1:04:45

and relief that there's definitely ash

1:04:48

Sense that this is last dance for a lot of these

1:04:50

that the retirement is gonna start seeping

1:04:52

out over the next few days

1:04:54

Yeah, I think so like

1:04:56

nobody gave anything away yesterday obviously We spoke

1:04:58

to James McCarthy in the press conference

1:05:01

afterwards and you know, he was asked,

1:05:03

you know Was this the band getting back together and is

1:05:05

this the band breaking up again and he

1:05:07

said well It's it's not a bad

1:05:09

way to go out He sort of paused and then said that

1:05:11

and then he just said look I'm not making any decisions

1:05:13

yet I'm gonna enjoy this and it was the

1:05:16

same for Dean Rock as well when I spoke to him

1:05:18

So you do get the sense that this

1:05:20

is probably if for a lot of them And

1:05:23

but what a way to go out I think this one meant

1:05:25

more than maybe the rest, you know You could

1:05:27

see the elation and even Dean Rock

1:05:30

said when you're winning maybe five

1:05:32

in a row like it gets maybe

1:05:34

the norm And so

1:05:36

he said this one just meant that bit more. So

1:05:39

yeah, it was unbelievable to see

1:05:41

the scenes afterwards Even at the bus, you know

1:05:43

You're sort of waiting around hoping to get an interview with

1:05:45

someone and they were all still in their

1:05:47

jerseys in their shorts with points In their hands

1:05:50

just very loose like something

1:05:52

I haven't seen from the Dublin players That's for sure

1:05:54

and but they're really enjoying it all.

1:05:56

So yeah, it definitely means a lot to them.

1:05:58

Alright Ash, hopefully they

1:05:59

finished their breakfast soon, we'll get to talk

1:06:02

to some of them before we go off here in about an hour or so.

1:06:04

But in the meantime, thanks very much.

1:06:06

Thanks lads. I see Riley from the Crown

1:06:08

Plaza in Sanjure this morning. I think Anthony

1:06:10

Mullen has made a great point on Desi Farrell.

1:06:13

We don't see inside these camps. We don't know what players

1:06:16

are looking for from a manager. What we want

1:06:18

is Desi Farrell, who

1:06:20

is the life and soul of the party, who comes out and entertains

1:06:22

us in his press conferences and gives us something every single

1:06:24

week, and that's not him.

1:06:27

But he obviously has his back. And I

1:06:29

think back to talking to Shane Carthy, the former

1:06:31

Dublin footballer who has spoken

1:06:34

so eloquently and honestly about

1:06:36

his battle with depression and the

1:06:38

way he talks about Desi Farrell in

1:06:40

his book and Farrell's influence, and

1:06:44

being able to go and talk to Desi Farrell when he was

1:06:46

at his lowest point, that he was the one he opened up to.

1:06:48

And Desi Farrell obviously has a background as a psychiatric

1:06:51

nurse, has had his own mental health

1:06:53

issues as well that he's been quite open about,

1:06:55

but that Desi Farrell was someone he knew would

1:06:58

have his back at his toughest, toughest moment.

1:07:01

And you got that sense from the Dublin players,

1:07:03

the way they spoke about him

1:07:05

last night was, well, actually, you know what, we

1:07:07

were able to look at Desi and, you know,

1:07:09

you mightn't get what you want from him, but we get exactly

1:07:11

what we want. We get the best coaching team around. We've got

1:07:13

everything we ever need. So he's maintained that

1:07:15

from Jim Gavin of, you know, pulling all the

1:07:18

right things in at the right time. But

1:07:20

actually, he's got our back when we need him. And as

1:07:22

a Dublin footballer, probably more than anywhere in the county,

1:07:24

maybe Dublin and Kerry together,

1:07:27

you need that from your manager. Yeah.

1:07:29

It is an incredible achievement for them

1:07:33

to inspire the ones who were

1:07:35

too tired to go again, to go

1:07:37

again.

1:07:38

Like, that's his greatest achievement, you know?

1:07:41

So I don't know what's going to happen. That's not even happening.

1:07:44

I get all the story is, it was at

1:07:46

James McCarthy's wedding, the competition. But even still,

1:07:48

he clocks the digits into his forties. How

1:07:52

do you get him to come back? It

1:07:55

doesn't make any sense. He's texting you there, Jer. No,

1:07:57

it doesn't make any sense. I'm sorry, I'm trying to read the story of the wedding.

1:08:00

Like who was it at the wedding that said, are you going back?

1:08:02

Yeah, I'll go for you, go. Like who's the ringleader,

1:08:04

you know? Was

1:08:07

it like a job? Was it James, look, I know your

1:08:09

wedding day's very important, but look, there's gonna be

1:08:11

a good opportunity for you to put a bit of an emotional

1:08:13

squeeze on the lads. Three points in. Something

1:08:16

in the speech, maybe, in the speech. Mention them you'd

1:08:19

love to have them back.

1:08:20

Like really just pulling the heartstrings

1:08:22

a little bit. Yeah, well

1:08:25

it seems to have worked. 8.38 this

1:08:28

morning, let's go to Australia, live to Brisbane.

1:08:31

Kathy McNamee, good morning to you, how are you? I'm

1:08:34

good, I'm good, how are you guys? What's

1:08:37

your level of anticipation for the game? I

1:08:42

have to admit, like in the last few days, it wasn't

1:08:44

all that big, and then just being around Brisbane today,

1:08:46

it kind of went off a little bit again. The fans

1:08:48

around here have been great. I'm outside

1:08:50

one of the Irish bars at the moment in Brisbane,

1:08:53

and actually you missed it. If you come to me about 10 minutes

1:08:55

ago, it was absolutely hopping. And then this massive

1:08:57

crowd of people just started walking down towards

1:09:00

the stadium. So, I mean, there's a really good atmosphere

1:09:02

down there as well. So yeah, I think

1:09:04

everyone is just relaxing

1:09:06

into the atmosphere of today, enjoying it,

1:09:08

knowing it's our last one, and not going in with

1:09:10

a massive amount of anticipation for what they

1:09:13

want on the pitch. We're just soaking

1:09:15

in the good vibes while we're still here.

1:09:17

Have you had any sense yet about what the team

1:09:19

is going to be and what Vera's approach

1:09:21

to this game will be? So,

1:09:24

Vera was quite clear yesterday when she was talking about it in her

1:09:26

press conference that she's going

1:09:29

out to win this game. She's not coming out

1:09:31

to, you know...

1:09:32

She was like, I know it's a big deal for the players, and

1:09:34

I know you want them to have a good time, but also, I want to

1:09:36

win this game. So that's the sort of team she's going

1:09:39

to put out. To that end, I can't

1:09:41

imagine there's going to be too many changes. The

1:09:43

official word from the FAI still at the moment is

1:09:45

that Heather Payne should be available

1:09:47

for selection. However, she didn't compete

1:09:50

in the full training yesterday. But

1:09:52

she also didn't compete in full training before the Canada

1:09:54

game and still played. So she's

1:09:57

a to-be confirmed. I thought a few people

1:09:59

suggested there might be a bit... of a switch up in the back with

1:10:01

Diane Paul Gull coming in there and then that'll allow Megan

1:10:03

Conley to move up into the mid-field a bit

1:10:05

more and let Denise O'Sullivan go,

1:10:08

which I actually think could be an interesting one because I don't

1:10:10

really think we've seen the best of Denise out of all this

1:10:12

tournament. I think, you

1:10:14

know, normally after most games, she would be one

1:10:16

of the number one names that you're talking about and that hasn't

1:10:18

really been the case as much. There's

1:10:20

also been some thought that she might still be carrying a bit of a knock,

1:10:22

so maybe that is wild. But yeah, it's going to be interesting

1:10:25

to see does Vera listen to

1:10:27

all the calls from her involvement to give a few people a bit of a

1:10:29

run out tonight. Somehow I think not, but

1:10:31

we shall see.

1:10:32

Kathleen, all of the build-up has been

1:10:34

dominated about Vera Pow's

1:10:37

future and I'm just interested

1:10:39

your sense from being at the press conference

1:10:42

and it felt very PR

1:10:44

speak from all of the players who've spoken over the

1:10:46

weekend. They all had pretty much the same stock

1:10:48

answer of it's the World Cup, we're concentrating

1:10:51

on the next game, we've achieved an awful lot over the next

1:10:53

few years, but much like Katie

1:10:55

McCabe in that pre-France press conference did

1:10:58

not give their manager their full backing

1:11:00

in a very unusual way for a footballer when their

1:11:02

manager has generally been sat beside

1:11:05

them. Is that your sense that

1:11:07

actually the feeling around the camp

1:11:09

is that this is coming to an almost natural end

1:11:11

now?

1:11:13

I think so and I've said it even before,

1:11:15

like yesterday's press conference, which was incredibly

1:11:17

awkward to sit through and like it just feels

1:11:20

like nearly every press conference we've had in the lead-up

1:11:22

to this World Cup or during it has had some issue

1:11:24

kind of hanging over it or something incredibly awkward.

1:11:27

As you say, none of the players have really like

1:11:29

massively backed Vera. They've said like Meghan

1:11:32

Connolly yesterday kind of was probably

1:11:34

one of the players that went a little bit further. She's like,

1:11:36

it's obviously not for me to decide, but Vera has

1:11:38

been very good for me and we've achieved some great

1:11:40

things over the last couple of years. I

1:11:43

mean, I've been feeling this on the ground pretty much

1:11:45

since maybe the last two weeks,

1:11:48

week and a half anyways, that

1:11:50

it just felt like there had been a disconnect

1:11:52

between the team and Vera and it felt like,

1:11:54

you know, there was still no more

1:11:56

talk about whether there

1:11:59

was going to be more contact. negotiations, you know,

1:12:01

Jonathan Hill had said to the Irish media that he

1:12:03

would talk to us whenever we were out here about Vera's

1:12:05

contract and now that's not going to happen

1:12:07

before the delegation fly back tomorrow.

1:12:09

So it seems like everyone is trying

1:12:12

to avoid answering the questions. I was kind

1:12:14

of surprised that Vera chose to use her

1:12:16

last press conference to say, you know,

1:12:18

yes, I do think we have all been treated unfairly.

1:12:21

I don't know how well that is going to go down

1:12:23

if there are negotiations still to happen,

1:12:25

but it does kind of feel like that was maybe

1:12:27

one of her last

1:12:28

opportunities to speak out and she

1:12:30

took it for what she needed. Yeah, I think that's

1:12:33

a clear sign that

1:12:35

whatever negotiations there were going

1:12:37

to be are largely done. It feels like

1:12:40

it's very difficult to come back from that. She's

1:12:42

made a massive miscalculation

1:12:44

by talking to the journalist from the athletic,

1:12:47

whether she approached them or whether it was

1:12:49

through this survey, but the timing

1:12:51

of that article has undermined her

1:12:53

completely, it seems, in the eyes of her players

1:12:56

and also has probably changed the conversation

1:12:58

around the FAI who back themselves into a corner by

1:13:01

backing her so quickly. The results, I

1:13:03

know they're on a losing streak, but again some of the best

1:13:05

teams in the world, but football wise I think it's very hard to make a

1:13:07

case that she shouldn't stay on based

1:13:09

on the performances, but I think it does

1:13:12

feel as though she lost the dressing room with what

1:13:14

happened with that

1:13:14

athletic article and there's probably no coming

1:13:16

back from that.

1:13:18

Yeah, I definitely think that's right,

1:13:20

you know, ever since then, like Katie's

1:13:23

final words and that last press conference we had in

1:13:25

Tala before we came out was thanks for asking

1:13:27

about the World Cup guys and obviously

1:13:30

like us as journalists, you want to talk about the

1:13:32

football and you want to talk about the World Cup and all that sort

1:13:34

of stuff, but there was nothing else to talk about on that

1:13:36

day because it was such a big story and

1:13:39

I can imagine that was incredibly frustrating for the

1:13:41

players who just wanted to, you know, soak

1:13:44

up the moment, talk about this. Ever since we've been over

1:13:46

here, every press conference you go into you've kind

1:13:48

of been waiting for the international media to ask about

1:13:50

it. Surprisingly none of them have,

1:13:52

which was really surprising to me, I thought they would have been interested

1:13:55

in it and then you come to the final press conference,

1:13:57

final game and you have to talk

1:13:59

about. Vera's contract situation, you know,

1:14:01

it's just, and the fact that none of the

1:14:03

players have come out and vehemently said, yes,

1:14:06

we really want her to say, or like put some impetus

1:14:08

on the FAI to get this sorted, kind

1:14:10

of says a lot, I think. I haven't

1:14:12

had the impression all the way through that even

1:14:15

after the games, when they're talking about the match, or

1:14:17

you're chatting to them a couple of days later, everyone's

1:14:19

talking about individual players or like the team

1:14:22

spirit, but no one ever picks out Vera and

1:14:24

compliments her. And I think that says

1:14:26

a lot. There's been an avoidance of talking about

1:14:29

her, which there hasn't been in previous

1:14:31

times. So yeah, like I say,

1:14:33

I think this could be a natural conclusion.

1:14:35

Give me your prediction, Kathleen. Three,

1:14:41

two, two, Send her home, send

1:14:43

her, it's time to come home, Kathleen, it's time to come home.

1:14:45

No, I think it'll be two nil in

1:14:47

Nigeria, to be honest. That's probably my actual one. Yeah,

1:14:51

let's go with that. All right.

1:14:54

Happy, happy times, Kathleen. Enjoy

1:14:57

the game, thanks for the game. I haven't really slept

1:14:59

in three weeks. Thanks

1:15:01

guys. See you later, good luck. Kathleen,

1:15:06

not predicting a win for Ireland at the moment. It's

1:15:08

a difficult situation. Last group game, we've

1:15:10

not to play for it. They have everything to play for.

1:15:12

Yeah, they need, they need, definitely

1:15:15

need this game now to really secure.

1:15:18

But, you know, I think

1:15:22

if we apply ourselves, if we play

1:15:24

a different type of game, because the game

1:15:26

that the Nigerians are

1:15:28

playing are a high game,

1:15:30

and they have two fantastic midfielders

1:15:33

that one always holds. But

1:15:35

I think we have a chance, I mean, we've

1:15:37

really done well. We've equipped ourselves very

1:15:40

well in terms of, you look at teams who are

1:15:42

beaten really badly. We've been

1:15:44

marginalized in our score. And a couple

1:15:46

of those goals were our own

1:15:48

making. Yeah, yeah. Like,

1:15:50

a lot of

1:15:53

the analysis of the World Cup is that this has been a

1:15:55

failure, right? And I see

1:15:57

that, you lose two games, the World Cup. It's hard.

1:15:59

hard to paint it any other way. But we have

1:16:02

been against teams who were significantly better than

1:16:04

us, much further down the line than us

1:16:06

in terms of their

1:16:07

evolution, development, experience of major

1:16:10

tournaments. And we

1:16:12

actually played better football in those games than

1:16:15

we have done

1:16:16

in qualifying for the tournaments in many ways.

1:16:19

That's what happens when you play in a tournament like

1:16:21

this. Like you draw on things

1:16:23

that you probably wouldn't

1:16:25

have used in other games. You have the

1:16:28

huge support that lifts you as

1:16:30

well. And then you lift your own game personally.

1:16:34

We've had a few injuries from missing a couple of players.

1:16:38

Again, today, I'm not quite sure if

1:16:40

Vera is going to stick to the plan. Again,

1:16:42

that would be dependent on whether she has injuries.

1:16:45

Players are putting their hand up to say that they're injured.

1:16:48

At the

1:16:48

same time, it'd be great to see that you

1:16:50

could get maybe 100% half

1:16:53

a game out of somebody so that we can get 100%

1:16:57

right through the game. But we

1:16:59

need to go at

1:17:01

them.

1:17:04

If we win the game to a great end to

1:17:07

the competition, if we get something out of it, it'll

1:17:09

be something to cling to. But if we lose the game, does

1:17:12

it matter at this stage?

1:17:14

Well, I think the men's

1:17:16

here are in the 90s. I think the first one we

1:17:18

went to, the guys lost the first three

1:17:20

games and they were out. The

1:17:22

Euro 88 was first. We beat England

1:17:24

in the first game, drew with Russia

1:17:26

and then lost the Dutch game at the end. But we

1:17:29

obviously were beaten

1:17:33

in all three games in 2012 and Trappitoni

1:17:35

was the manager.

1:17:36

Yeah, that's the one I'm thinking of. This

1:17:39

is different though. Because pre-tournament, I

1:17:41

think people with the controversy around Vera Powell

1:17:43

felt it might be a Euro 2012. And I think the

1:17:45

conversation there was with Trappitoni. You talk to the players

1:17:47

afterwards, they felt it was sort of done

1:17:50

a year before they were sort of done with Trappitoni.

1:17:53

This team have gone out and actually... Really performed.

1:17:56

The performance against Canada

1:17:58

was probably reminiscent of the first...

1:17:59

first 45 minutes against France where they were brilliant

1:18:02

like they kept Kira Caruso like

1:18:05

an absolute nightmare to play against that if

1:18:07

anything the game plan that they're trying to implement

1:18:09

is getting better. Yeah but then I

1:18:11

from my perspective it's got to do

1:18:13

with and fitness that we can

1:18:15

last a full game at pace because

1:18:18

and again our formation going out Caruso

1:18:21

is brilliant but she's no good up there on her own

1:18:23

you know and that's that and if

1:18:25

you look at all the setup for the other teams coming

1:18:27

out they're pushing three up front well

1:18:29

that's what the plan is to put three up

1:18:31

front whether they drop back and other people

1:18:34

move forward but the idea is

1:18:36

to go out with that mindset and

1:18:38

the fact that you stay close and

1:18:41

compact as you move up the field you'll have

1:18:43

the stars that will shine like

1:18:45

Katie McCabe maybe Denise Sullivan

1:18:48

maybe Abby Lark and you know Louise

1:18:50

Quinn you know you'll have those type of players

1:18:52

that will shine

1:18:54

but today is the day to do it it's all

1:18:56

or nothing today. Yeah and

1:19:00

it'll be a lot to cling on to as they roll

1:19:02

forward if we were to get something from the game today.

1:19:04

Yeah it will be

1:19:06

and also maybe now

1:19:08

that they've had this experience they're now

1:19:11

going to have to go back and look at the teams

1:19:13

they played against and look across all the others and

1:19:15

see what are we missing that they have

1:19:18

and where can we find

1:19:20

the players that can do that because we're

1:19:22

looking for players and that are

1:19:25

you know just natural that when they're in

1:19:27

front of the goal you just take a chance to stop

1:19:31

passing the ball here there and everywhere walking

1:19:33

the ball into the goal or shooting from too

1:19:35

far out have confidence you know

1:19:37

because we have skillful players but we

1:19:39

need to allow them to express

1:19:42

themselves.

1:19:42

I think

1:19:44

everybody's just disappointed because we didn't get the bandwagon

1:19:47

up and running and the opportunities playing in the last 16

1:19:49

if we got out of the group it would all have

1:19:51

been pretty special it would like a

1:19:54

big breakout moments.

1:19:55

It would have been fantastic I mean we

1:19:57

are we are in a very very tough group.

1:19:59

really really were. But

1:20:02

yeah to get out and play against England because

1:20:05

I felt that in the Euros when I was looking at

1:20:07

it that we would have had a really

1:20:09

good go at some of those teams. And

1:20:12

if you think of England the first match was, they

1:20:14

were diabolical but the second match

1:20:16

they were clinical.

1:20:17

Yeah.

1:20:19

Qualified for the Euros is now obviously the single

1:20:21

most important thing right? There's a strong

1:20:24

feeling that this is going to be the end of the Vera Pow

1:20:26

era.

1:20:27

Sometimes

1:20:31

you just need to be careful with that stuff.

1:20:33

Like a new manager comes in and has to

1:20:35

hit the ground immediately.

1:20:38

Yeah you see that's the danger. So

1:20:41

you can't experiment with such

1:20:43

a short period coming up to the Euros.

1:20:45

You know what do you do? But who do

1:20:47

you get?

1:20:49

And then the players have to know what style

1:20:51

that particular manager wants you to play. Whether

1:20:53

they want to allow you to express yourself

1:20:55

or want to contain you in an area but

1:20:58

you express yourself in that area. Or

1:21:00

whether they want to play players

1:21:03

in the proper positions.

1:21:05

That is the difficulty because Vera Pow is so strong

1:21:07

in how she wants Ireland to play for

1:21:10

good and for bad because I'm interested in

1:21:12

what you talk about supporting Kyra Carusa there.

1:21:15

One of the great things about this World Cup is that the Minnows

1:21:17

if we call them that have been so good to watch.

1:21:20

On the counter attack they've sucked up

1:21:22

pressure but actually there's a

1:21:24

load of technical ability there. When they get on

1:21:26

the ball they go forward quickly. Whereas

1:21:28

too often still with Ireland it feels that

1:21:30

it goes forward to Carusa. And unless

1:21:32

Katie McCabe makes the run up there's nobody really

1:21:35

there in support. Even when Sinead Farley did

1:21:37

well it sort of slows down a little bit. If

1:21:39

you're looking at today's game what can

1:21:41

she do tactically to

1:21:43

help Carusa? Do you play like

1:21:46

there's talk that maybe Megan Conley goes into midfield. Did

1:21:48

Nisa Sudivin play in one of those more advanced roles?

1:21:50

Does that change us?

1:21:51

Yeah I would because it's natural for the Niece

1:21:53

to go forward and we need people to go forward.

1:21:56

But I think often we're very stretched

1:21:58

in our play. You know, where the

1:22:01

fence is stretched away from the midfield, the

1:22:03

midfield is miles away from the forwards,

1:22:06

that if we can push up, it'll actually save

1:22:08

you a bit of leg if you move in relation

1:22:10

to the ball,

1:22:12

if you know what I mean. And we're inclined to

1:22:14

ball watch and see what's going to happen and

1:22:16

let's protect here and let's protect

1:22:18

here. If you look at the Nigeria,

1:22:24

they rotate to two midfield

1:22:27

players. So when one goes and supports,

1:22:29

the other one sort of holds back, but she

1:22:31

doesn't hold back in the defensive, she holds

1:22:33

back in the V so that then when

1:22:36

the ball breaks, she makes the run so

1:22:39

the other midfielder gets a break,

1:22:41

if you know what I mean. But you have to

1:22:43

have an engine on you to be able to do that

1:22:45

type of work on the pitch. And

1:22:48

a lot of the teams seem to have that, a

1:22:50

lot of the successful teams seem

1:22:52

to have that, but that's an individual thing

1:22:54

that you can work on yourself. What

1:22:57

do you think is going to happen today? I

1:23:01

hope I'm going to be pleasantly surprised.

1:23:03

I really do. I hope Vera

1:23:07

puts on, I

1:23:08

mean, our options are very tight

1:23:10

now, depending on whether there's injuries, I

1:23:13

hope she puts on a couple

1:23:15

of players forward, you know,

1:23:17

and low, particularly

1:23:19

Katie McCabe,

1:23:20

not to be drawn back so far, so

1:23:23

far, you know, and let her come

1:23:25

up and support, because she has the legs that

1:23:27

were missing in quite a few places. On

1:23:31

the other side, I think

1:23:34

if Payne is out and she

1:23:36

has to pay Anya Gorman, Anya is a

1:23:38

little bit lost for pace. So if I

1:23:40

was playing with Anya and I knew Anya was playing

1:23:43

and I was a central defender, one at

1:23:45

central, I would be going out to make

1:23:47

it a two on one, do or die,

1:23:50

you know, the idea

1:23:50

is, if you don't, if the ball doesn't

1:23:53

come in, you can't do any damage. So

1:23:55

the idea is to prevent the ball coming in.

1:23:57

Vera has come in for criticism for pointing out

1:23:59

that there's a lot of lack of pace in our

1:24:01

squad and that's why she plays with the three

1:24:03

centre backs. Are

1:24:05

we all being a little bit precious or is

1:24:08

the manager not supposed to say that stuff?

1:24:09

Well I wouldn't be saying that stuff number

1:24:12

one because that's given ammunition

1:24:14

to the opposition. When

1:24:17

the cross came in for

1:24:19

the second goal we

1:24:23

didn't need any pace, we

1:24:24

just needed to be able to track the ball

1:24:26

and move in relation to the ball and adjust ourselves.

1:24:29

And are you as the manager not supposed

1:24:31

to say that or are you as the manager supposed

1:24:33

to say, well look, because I think she

1:24:35

was criticised for also saying that too.

1:24:38

I wouldn't be saying anything

1:24:40

to give any other team, any

1:24:43

type of ammunition

1:24:45

to use against me. I would not be

1:24:47

talking about my players. That'd be something

1:24:50

I'd be trying to work out myself

1:24:53

in terms of, okay, if

1:24:55

I have somebody who isn't so fast I need

1:24:57

somebody to decide that's going to be able to

1:24:59

support her. But I wouldn't be saying anything derogatory

1:25:02

about my players at all. Alright, fair

1:25:04

enough. I wouldn't even do it for my club team.

1:25:06

Alright, give us your prediction. I

1:25:09

hope that, well,

1:25:12

I think we might do pretty well if

1:25:14

the players are rotated and not left

1:25:17

on until they're tired, they're

1:25:18

absolutely tired. We've been

1:25:20

very close in goals, really close and

1:25:23

the girls have to be admired for that.

1:25:26

If

1:25:29

we can contain the two central midfielders,

1:25:33

I think that we might have a chance.

1:25:35

Of getting a draw or a win? I

1:25:39

think we might have a chance of getting a win. The

1:25:42

only thing that will go against us, I think,

1:25:44

is our pace and our lack of pace.

1:25:47

I don't think the Nigerians are

1:25:51

what we call dirty players, they're very powerful

1:25:53

and physical and they

1:25:55

stand our ground, great balance, lovely

1:25:58

little technical skills.

1:25:59

they're willing to run to

1:26:02

win the ball and they

1:26:05

do an awful lot of interchanging. If you look at the

1:26:07

front three, I mean they're

1:26:09

moving in and out. The player that was on the right is

1:26:11

now on the left but the player on the left has

1:26:13

actually moved to right so the awareness of where

1:26:15

the positional sense is in relation

1:26:17

to everybody on the team I found

1:26:19

quite remarkable.

1:26:20

Okay, so a big challenge for us today. Then

1:26:22

the good stuff. Enjoy the game. Thanks a million. Thanks a lot,

1:26:24

Lance. It's 8.56. A reminder,

1:26:27

Braeburn Coffee, the official coffee partner of Off The

1:26:29

Bowl. Braeburn Coffee coming to an Apple Green store

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experience.

1:26:41

Let's go back to

1:26:43

Gaelic football. Paul Caffrey is with us this morning.

1:26:45

Paul, good morning to you. How are you? Thoroughly,

1:26:49

Gerard, very happy, very happy man. Yeah,

1:26:52

there's a lot of talk in the papers that this is

1:26:54

their favourite one. Of all of their nine children, many

1:26:57

of the dubs are saying it's their favourite. I can see why. Because

1:27:00

there was a sense that this was a Kerry team that was coming

1:27:03

with a young force and you kind of need to stop

1:27:06

them in their tracks now. And so

1:27:08

how do you rank it?

1:27:10

Yeah, look, in the ground,

1:27:12

there was a lot of emotion. I

1:27:15

think, you know, Pat

1:27:19

Gilroy's first one, 2011, was very

1:27:21

special. The Clucks

1:27:23

in late three, it was a moment. You

1:27:26

know, it was a long time since 1995, so

1:27:29

that gap was bridged. And then,

1:27:31

look, Jim had this fantastic run where,

1:27:34

I suppose just Dublin people couldn't believe

1:27:36

what was happening year after year. Producing

1:27:39

big performances and the great battles

1:27:41

with Mayo in particular over that period. And look,

1:27:44

the hurt of the last two years in

1:27:46

terms of losing semifinals and, you

1:27:49

know, after such a great run. Paul,

1:27:52

I'm just going to hold you there because actually we

1:27:54

can cross live to the team hotel and I think

1:27:56

we're good to talk to Desi Farrell this morning.

1:27:59

Desi, good morning to you.

1:27:59

How are you? Good morning,

1:28:02

Chair. Nathan, how are you? Congrats,

1:28:04

yeah. What was your night like? The

1:28:07

night was lovely, yeah. It was great. Sort

1:28:10

of

1:28:12

couldn't wait to get to me bed either at

1:28:14

the same time. It was one of those types of days,

1:28:16

but now it was lovely to spend

1:28:18

time with family and friends and

1:28:21

share a special period

1:28:23

after a day like we had. What

1:28:26

was your experience with the match

1:28:28

like? Because it was bloody tense for us

1:28:30

as neutrals. I can only imagine how

1:28:32

tense it was for you. What was the

1:28:35

ebb and flow in your sense of it?

1:28:37

Yeah, it was, I think

1:28:40

it probably went according to script.

1:28:43

We knew it was gonna be nip and talk all the way.

1:28:47

I'd hate to actually watch it as a spectator

1:28:49

myself because I can imagine what that was

1:28:51

like, but when you're on the sideline

1:28:54

and you're sort of trying to be on task and you're

1:28:56

engaged, the brain is engaged

1:28:58

and active in all sorts of different things. So

1:29:01

the tension piece of it doesn't really hurt. You're

1:29:03

still trying to figure out the

1:29:05

puzzle and come up with different solutions to different

1:29:07

challenges as you see them in front

1:29:09

of you. So it's, yeah, but

1:29:12

it was just over and back. And I think

1:29:15

ultimately we had that

1:29:17

sense of belief that

1:29:19

we'd get there at the end and materialize

1:29:22

that way, thankfully. When the gainy goal

1:29:24

goes in just before halftime, a

1:29:26

lesser team, a less experienced team, a

1:29:29

team maybe who wasn't prepared for something like that might

1:29:31

find that to be a bit of a shock to the system

1:29:33

because you played quite well and contained them

1:29:36

in that first half. So what's the conversation

1:29:38

at halftime like? Yeah,

1:29:40

the conversation at halftime was positive.

1:29:42

It's strange. Sometimes you might go in

1:29:45

at halftime in a lead or a

1:29:47

comfortable lead, and it's a different type of conversation

1:29:49

because you're not so happy with how

1:29:52

the performance has been in the first 35 minutes. But

1:29:55

actually at halftime yesterday, we were happy

1:29:57

with how we were playing defensively.

1:30:00

Obviously, they have some huge threats up front

1:30:02

and even some of the defenders, their

1:30:04

packs are very comfortable going forward. So

1:30:06

there is a big emphasis

1:30:09

on team defence and containing them. We

1:30:12

talked about the soccer points just before

1:30:14

the half-time whistle to concede at goal. We

1:30:17

talked defensively, we have done very well and

1:30:19

very happy with that.

1:30:21

Just to make some adjustments up

1:30:23

front into our attacking game was what

1:30:25

was required at half-time. But

1:30:28

we were happy with where we were at.

1:30:30

It's a good sign when there is such a debate

1:30:32

about the man of the match that there was probably four or five

1:30:34

different Dublin contenders who put their hands

1:30:37

up. Mick Fitzsimons very unlucky not

1:30:39

to get it. I think everybody felt going in

1:30:41

that Clifford gets six points regardless

1:30:43

of what happens and he ends up with three. Can

1:30:45

you talk about how you planned to contain

1:30:48

him both with Mick Fitzsimons marking him but

1:30:50

also as a defensive unit? It

1:30:54

wasn't rocket science.

1:30:55

We

1:30:58

could get a sense from Mick Fitzsimons

1:31:02

maybe 10 days out that he was keen to

1:31:04

take on that mammoth challenge in

1:31:07

Maharkan David Clifford

1:31:10

to mix the terrible credit like

1:31:12

the homework and the preparation and

1:31:14

the in-depth analysis he had done

1:31:16

on all his opponents. Particularly for

1:31:18

this one, it was something to behold.

1:31:21

And then there was a big emphasis on team defence

1:31:23

that it wasn't just going to

1:31:25

be Mick's responsibility, it was everyone's responsibility

1:31:28

to marshal a player

1:31:30

like David. The problem

1:31:32

with that is it can open up the flowgate

1:31:35

elsewhere so we had to be fairly

1:31:37

strategic in how we managed that.

1:31:40

Mick Fitz plus one other, not

1:31:43

two or three others and leave

1:31:46

other carry-forwards free and in space.

1:31:48

It was just as compact as we

1:31:50

possibly could. It

1:31:53

worked very well in the first half for us. They

1:31:57

had a period of dominance then in the second half

1:31:59

where

1:31:59

We seem to be a little

1:32:02

bit more open at the back, but I think we

1:32:04

got on top of that again and kicked

1:32:06

down from there. In the second half then,

1:32:09

what was your sense of how that went? Obviously

1:32:11

there was that period where Kerry were getting on

1:32:13

top and then in the final ten minutes a couple of your

1:32:16

big players start to find pockets

1:32:18

of space or carry the ball for 60, 70 yards

1:32:21

and really just drive it at the heart

1:32:23

of that Kerry defence. What was your

1:32:25

sense of how the game was unfolding,

1:32:28

particularly in those last 15 minutes?

1:32:30

We anticipated that

1:32:32

it might open up a little bit more in the

1:32:34

second half because you

1:32:36

carry a renown for obviously

1:32:39

having some serious attacking threats

1:32:41

and they're very good defence to lead themselves,

1:32:43

have good structure, some really good

1:32:46

one-on-one defenders. We

1:32:48

knew space and time was going to be the premium,

1:32:52

particularly in the first half, but that there may be

1:32:54

opportunities and it might start to open up a little bit

1:32:56

in the second half. Some

1:32:59

of our fellows got that little bit of space

1:33:02

to big turnover as well, which helped

1:33:04

Khali Basquale did brilliantly in terms

1:33:07

of turning over Kerry defender, which

1:33:10

set up the goal for Paddy Small. We

1:33:13

spoke about it in advance that this game was

1:33:15

going to turn on the big moments and

1:33:18

try to window as many of those

1:33:20

moments as you possibly could, particularly going

1:33:22

down the stretch. How

1:33:24

enjoyable has it been to manage this group

1:33:27

over the last 12 months in particular as the

1:33:30

old stages return, but as some of those

1:33:32

new

1:33:33

younger players also manage to begin

1:33:35

to put their hand up for selection?

1:33:38

Yeah, it's really enjoyable. It's

1:33:40

a great season. It's

1:33:43

well-renowned

1:33:45

and well-spoken about the

1:33:48

older guys and the senior guys and the types

1:33:51

of individuals there, some special people.

1:33:55

And then with a lot of young players coming in over the

1:33:57

last two years, I think something like 22 in total. the

1:34:00

last two seasons and we

1:34:02

just got a great blend going. The

1:34:04

younger guys, full of enthusiasm,

1:34:07

energy, eager to learn,

1:34:09

and there were some really good student-mentor

1:34:12

relationships developing within the group. I

1:34:14

think a lot of the younger guys,

1:34:16

they really sparked life into some of the senior

1:34:18

guys as well. Having a bit

1:34:21

of fun and a bit of crack is important along

1:34:23

the way. But a lovely little

1:34:25

bond seemed to emerge and that's how we

1:34:27

were dynamic within the group. And then

1:34:29

the other part of it is time in the course.

1:34:32

Different season, different format, competition

1:34:34

structure. Not an exact

1:34:36

science. You've got to trust your gut with a lot of these

1:34:38

things in terms of when to push

1:34:40

and when to hold back and ultimately

1:34:43

to be able to peak at the right time, which

1:34:45

thankfully seemed to happen

1:34:48

for us yesterday. We've been

1:34:50

doing a deep analysis on James McCarthy's

1:34:52

wedding and what must have developed that

1:34:54

night. Was it during James McCarthy's speech?

1:34:56

Did he give a shout out to Stephen Cluckston and

1:34:58

say, you're my one true love?

1:34:59

Actually, please come back. How did that actually

1:35:03

happen? There's a lot

1:35:05

of speculation around how those

1:35:08

conversations materialized.

1:35:11

Some of them may have happened

1:35:13

at the wedding. Some of them may have taken place before

1:35:15

that as well. But they're

1:35:19

great lads. They have great relationships

1:35:22

themselves. There's that

1:35:25

special bond from, as

1:35:27

you can imagine, from fellows who have sold you as

1:35:29

long as they have together. It

1:35:31

was great to see some of those

1:35:34

more experienced lads who'd been away for some

1:35:36

time come back. But

1:35:38

it was always a case of the door was always

1:35:41

open and it was just whenever they were ready.

1:35:44

And if that day came,

1:35:46

we were delighted to have them back. You

1:35:48

also deserve a lot of credit for bringing Pac Iroi

1:35:51

on board. How did that all come about? Pac

1:35:54

and myself obviously played together over

1:35:56

the years and we have

1:35:59

a great friendship.

1:35:59

a great relationship. Even at

1:36:02

Pat 1 in 2011, I was the minor manager at that stage and

1:36:10

Pat was always a great assistant. Even

1:36:13

though he was busy with a big job himself,

1:36:15

he was always keeping an eye out for

1:36:17

how well we were getting on with

1:36:19

the minor team. The same with

1:36:21

the under 21 teams over the years, he

1:36:24

was always a great sounding board. Philip

1:36:26

had a cup of coffee with us, pick his brains

1:36:29

on certain things. That would have

1:36:31

been the case over the last couple

1:36:33

of seasons. At some

1:36:35

stage this season, I said, why don't

1:36:38

you give us a little bit more of a dig

1:36:40

out and start to come out to some

1:36:42

of the sessions and being around a great place.

1:36:44

He's been brilliant, his experience

1:36:47

and just the type of man he is,

1:36:50

he's great to have his input

1:36:52

and support on season.

1:36:54

Can I just ask about

1:36:55

those quieter moments you had last night with your

1:36:57

family and friends? It's a tough gig being the Dublin

1:36:59

manager. You win a

1:37:01

game in Leinster, you don't win it by 10 points, you get stick, you

1:37:03

draw at Ross Common earlier in the championship,

1:37:05

you're getting stick for that. It's sort of relentless,

1:37:08

the level of expectation that is there. There

1:37:10

seems to be a sense watching you on TV last night of just

1:37:13

relief. Can you talk about actually getting that

1:37:16

time to yourself and actually being able to sit down

1:37:18

and maybe have that first moment of contemplation

1:37:20

of what you've achieved?

1:37:22

Yeah,

1:37:24

it is just the first moments because there's

1:37:27

a lot going on at last night's event.

1:37:30

I think it's probably over the next couple of days that

1:37:32

we get actually some quieter time

1:37:34

and quieter moments to

1:37:37

be together as a group ourselves.

1:37:39

I'm looking forward to those moments and those conversations.

1:37:43

They're a great crew, as I mentioned,

1:37:47

of

1:37:48

special affection for them. The service

1:37:51

that some of the senior lads have given to Dublin

1:37:53

football over the years is just unquantifiable.

1:37:55

I've been very privileged.

1:37:59

to have worked with some of these men

1:38:02

when they were kids and I've

1:38:05

seen them grown from young

1:38:07

boys to young men

1:38:10

over the course of the last 10-12 years and

1:38:12

a very privileged position to be in. So

1:38:15

I'm delighted for them. They're a great crew and

1:38:18

they deserve that yesterday. Have you thought

1:38:21

about what's next for you yet?

1:38:24

No, I haven't. I have

1:38:27

a cup of coffee here beside me and that's definitely

1:38:29

the next thing. Look,

1:38:34

some of the players obviously are going

1:38:36

to be in that position as well where they need to make some

1:38:39

decisions.

1:38:41

Yesterday, today or tomorrow isn't the time

1:38:43

for that. I think everyone will

1:38:46

take time to reflect on what's next

1:38:48

for them and we'll see how

1:38:51

that all unfolds in due course. I want to thank everybody

1:38:53

to give you whatever space you need to make whatever

1:38:56

decision you want to make because that's

1:38:58

the benefit of having this little bit of breathing

1:39:00

space and moment for reflection. This is

1:39:03

obviously very different from winning your

1:39:05

first time with the group. This is like

1:39:07

the full board. It'll be a homecoming.

1:39:10

You'll be able to go out and

1:39:11

meet people and fully enjoy it. It's like

1:39:14

a very different experience I suspect from

1:39:16

the first one that you won as manager. Yeah,

1:39:18

definitely. The first one we won

1:39:20

back in 2020. The

1:39:23

post-match celebrations were quite

1:39:26

rooted as you can imagine. We went

1:39:29

back to Parnell Park and it was just players and backroom

1:39:31

team only. No partners, no families

1:39:33

and that was lovely and special

1:39:36

in its own way. But yesterday

1:39:39

was very different and it

1:39:41

was a delight to have family

1:39:43

and friends around and to be able to share that

1:39:46

special time. How does it compare

1:39:48

with winning as a player? It's

1:39:51

very, very different. As a

1:39:53

player, you're just solely focused on yourself and

1:39:57

get yourself right as a manager.

1:39:59

there's much more responsibility

1:40:02

and it's actually, you

1:40:04

know, there's nothing like playing jersey, you can

1:40:06

imagine, but it's definitely

1:40:09

a

1:40:10

privileged position to be

1:40:12

in to work with players like this and

1:40:15

just delighted for them all. Well listen, enjoy your

1:40:17

coffee and whatever comes next Desi, congratulations,

1:40:19

cheers.

1:40:20

Thanks lads, thanks a million, all the best. Desi

1:40:23

for having some thoughts there. Paul,

1:40:26

it is a stunning achievement from

1:40:30

Desi's perspective

1:40:32