Monday 30 June 2008

No All Ireland in Caffrey's Dubs

Back from a few days away in Donegal but the shadow boxing in the championship has all but come to an end and at last we are getting a clearer picture of who will be in the mix come the end of the season.
Watched the Dubs with great interest yesterday and it's clear that they are struggling despite pulling the game out of the fire against Westmeath in the second half.
I think if anything Dublin have gone backwards this season.
Paul Caffrey should have called it a day at the start of the year and on the evidence of everything I have seen so far I still believe he made the wrong decision to give it one more year.
The Dublin defence is there for the taking by any good attack.
Westmeath were almost totally reliant on Dessie Dolan and Denis Glennon to do the damage and if they had have had a little more composure in the team they would have seen Dublin off.
For all the hype about Bryan Cullen's performance yesterday I wasn't over impressed with his defending and he is not the answer at centre half back.
The full back line were almost taken to the cleaners in the first 20 minutes and midfield is still a weakness. Neither Whelan or Shane Ryan have a 70 minute game in them, and Eamon Fennell has promise but not much more.
Up front Alan Brogan was exposed as being very limited by the tight marking of John Keane and while Brogan will always give you 100 per cent it's not enough at the top level, I think he is hugely over rated.
Jayo still shows the odd flash of brilliance but he's not capable of conducting the orchestra from centre three quarters, he couldn't do it when he was younger and fitter and he can't do it now at the top level.
He should at this stage of his career be an impact sub or be playing as close to goal as possible where his intelligence and craft can still unlock a defence.
Mossie Quinn and Colm Keaney are average players and struggle against packed defences and for the life of me I just don't see an All Ireland in this team.
And as for Caffrey himself he seems to lack the tactical nous of the top managers and you get the feeling with Dublin that unless they run all over the top of with you with strength and fitness that there isn't an awful lot more.
They should still win Leinster but Wexford will give them a run for their money.

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