Sadlier

Lads, maybe the fact that he had no trouble saying the match was dire attests to the entertainment value of the league the majority of the time? If he calls one game dull, surely that means that the other games in contrast, were not at all dull? If we're confident enough at this stage to be able to criticise dull games then is that not in some ways a good thing?

And also, as someone else said, there's dull and boring games in every league; See, the 180 minutes football in the semi-finals of the Champions League yielded one goal this week. Or watch Bolton any day.

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Originally Posted by mark12345

It pains me to say it but I don't know where the light at the end of the tunnel is for Irish football.

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www.samaritans.org

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Originally Posted by mark12345

I can't say I saw the match in question but Sadlier is not alone in thinking bad of the Irish domestic football. I have to confess I had'nt seen an Irish domestic game in a few years (living abroad) but I have heard great things about the standard in general from friends.

I tuned in to a couple of MNS's on the web and God preserve us but it was pure unadulterated rubbish, every one of the four games I saw - that included Drogheda, Bohs, Rovers and Galway. I was telling myself beforehand that I should not be so cynical, and to be more accepting of my own country's game, but I got a ruder than rude awakening.

The standard is abysmal. Long balls to nowhere, teams unable to hold possession for longer than two or three passes, creativity nil, technical ability less than nil. I have long since criticised the English game for all of the above (because the Premier League would be nothing without its foreign imports) but at least it has a halfway decent standard about it.

It pains me to say it but I don't know where the light at the end of the tunnel is for Irish football.

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I've seen you around, I find you very attractive;)

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Originally Posted by mark12345

I can't say I saw the match in question but

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I'll comment anyway?

Anyway as above sadlier is actually quite complimentary about Irish football, he just noted that lat Friday's game in Inchicore wasn't a shining example.

Oh and it was still 1000% times better than Liverpool v Chelsea

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Originally Posted by TonyD

Sadlier didn't make a general point about the standard of the league, he was talking about one game in particular (I don't think he was specifically aiming the comment at Cobh either, so Depor should calm down a bit). I find him fairly inteligent and articulate as a pundit myself.

As for Mark, perhaps you should see a few full games before you judge. Comparing the league here with one of the richest(possibly the richest) in europe is completely unfair - though the football played by the majority of teams in that league can be pretty unattractive stuff, just witness Liverpool v Chelsea last night, a horrible game.

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i agree especially with your 2nd paragraph. and maybe the 1st, maybe i over-reacted. i never thought sadlier was putting the league down, or anything of the sort, sure hes involved in a LOI club. i just felt rams (as always) put the ball on the ground and tried to play a bit of football, it wasnt the best game but it wasnt as bad as he made out. i dont know where yer man mark is coming from, but hes totally misread the thread and its replies. there is a lot of poor games in the premiership, i know i watch it. maybe mark is like a lot of irish people who need explosions, sound effects, wwe-type names like ''grandslam sunday'' and exploding crests to think a league is any good. they need their gloss.

Or more importantly, watch a side that do attempt to play football, e.g. Cork City.

For example, the City v Drogs game on Friday is very likely to be similar to the Barca v Man Utd game last night; City stroking the ball around, generally looking good but struggling to break down a solid Drogheda defence, well capable of punishing City on the break.

What would pundits and armchair fans say? Ah sure at this level of football you always have teams sitting back, theres no entertainment like.

Haha, lets all laugh at Ramblers. Sadlier gave an honest opinion. Anyone who has seen Ramblers this season knows they are muck and will struggle big time to stay up.

Good to see a director of a club be honest with regard to his own team.

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Originally Posted by Les Fluer

Haha, lets all laugh at Ramblers. Sadlier gave an honest opinion. Anyone who has seen Ramblers this season knows they are muck and will struggle big time to stay up.

Good to see a director of a club be honest with regard to his own team.

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I watched them destroy Shamrock Rovers. If they play like that every week, or even every 3 weeks, they'll stay up.

I hope they do. It will be good for Cork. 3 points is a must tomorrow night against UCD. That will be a big test of their mettle against a fellow struggler.

[quote=Les Fluer;927999]Haha, lets all laugh at Ramblers. Sadlier gave an honest opinion. Anyone who has seen Ramblers this season knows they are muck and will struggle big time to stay up.

what games have you been at this season

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Originally Posted by Les Fluer

I hope they do. It will be good for Cork. 3 points is a must tomorrow night against UCD. That will be a big test of their mettle against a fellow struggler.

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change of heart i see

My prediction at the start of the season was Rams would surprise a lot of teams and I will stick with that.Sadlier is developing into a very good writer.His column on Sundays always includes some entertaining insights.Cant believe Keane got so enraged over one article.Hes not shy about expressing his own views and needs to rid himself of that immature streak.

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Originally Posted by mark12345

I can't say I saw the match in question but Sadlier is not alone in thinking bad of the Irish domestic football. I have to confess I had'nt seen an Irish domestic game in a few years (living abroad) but I have heard great things about the standard in general from friends.

I tuned in to a couple of MNS's on the web and God preserve us but it was pure unadulterated rubbish, every one of the four games I saw - that included Drogheda, Bohs, Rovers and Galway. I was telling myself beforehand that I should not be so cynical, and to be more accepting of my own country's game, but I got a ruder than rude awakening.

The standard is abysmal. Long balls to nowhere, teams unable to hold possession for longer than two or three passes, creativity nil, technical ability less than nil. I have long since criticised the English game for all of the above (because the Premier League would be nothing without its foreign imports) but at least it has a halfway decent standard about it.

It pains me to say it but I don't know where the light at the end of the tunnel is for Irish football.

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That must have been a different Bohs v Drogheda I watched. I thought the game on Sunday was a credit to the league. A big crowd, good atmosphere & plenty of drama & exicitiment. As for technical ability or creativity, what about Brennan's goals? As you can guess I'm a Sunderland fan & have been over a lot this season. I can think of at least 3 games this season that if I wasn't a dire heart fan, I would have sued the club for lying calling themselves 'A Premiership football club playing in the best league in the world'. You can't compare the LOI to the EPL. That would be like trying to Bristol City to Manchester Utd. But if you compared the league to League 1 or the bottom have of the Championship even the SPL. You would see that the LOI is just as good if not better. I'm afraid Mark you've be brainwashed by the Sky Primiership monster!

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Originally Posted by 6yardpunisha

what games have you been at this season

change of heart i see

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No change of heart. I think Rams will struggle. UCD is an early 6 pointer IMO.

And for the record, I have been to the Shams, galway and Cork City games in St Colmans this season. Probably the same as yourself at a guess?

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Originally Posted by Les Fluer

No change of heart. I think Rams will struggle. UCD is an early 6 pointer IMO.

And for the record, I have been to the Shams, galway and Cork City games in St Colmans this season. Probably the same as yourself at a guess?

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so you after being at those games you still call us muck, must be wearing those cork city tinted glasses :p

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Originally Posted by Sheridan

Well, that's it for me, lads. If some nameless blow-in has proclaimed our league worthless on the basis of a few edited highlights packages, that's good enough for me. I don't know what I was thinking all these years. See you all at the bar for the next installment of The Premiership!

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Moi aussi.
I realise now that I was foolish to consider that we were on a par with EPL and La Liga. What was I thinking?
In future, I would like to see matches such as the 90 minutes of sheer eye-glazing class that we witnessed between Barca and ManU last night. It was so good, you hardly noticed that nothing happened.

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Originally Posted by cheifo

My prediction at the start of the season was Rams would surprise a lot of teams and I will stick with that.Sadlier is developing into a very good writer.His column on Sundays always includes some entertaining insights.Cant believe Keane got so enraged over one article.Hes not shy about expressing his own views and needs to rid himself of that immature streak.

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I havent seen or read thsi article yet! Has anyone a link to it?cheers

i also feel that running to the paper, or tellin his journalist buddy on the record, that keane called him this or that was pathethic. and then on MNS sadlier acted like he didnt know how it got on the paper.

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Originally Posted by depor

i also feel that running to the paper, or tellin his journalist buddy on the record, that keane called him this or that was pathethic.

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*COUGH*

I do enjoy his articles for the Indo, but i wouldnt trust him.
He was a keen supporter of Stans regime right upto the end, then when he got the sack he totally changed his opinion and was very negative against stan. I mean I dont like people who cant stand by what they write

And how dare he criticise our Roy:(

Hello lads, it's the 'blow in' here. Yeah, sorry about that earlier post, I just base my knowledge of Eircom League football on the highlights of four games. I had never seen a game before, and never even set foot in Ireland. I usually make all my judgements in life based on such scant information...........

Now for reality. I played in the League of Ireland back in the 80's, represented the country in the Schools World Cup during the same period, have followed the game at home all my life and the national team for the duration, and watch as much English football (not by choice mind you) as the next guy. D'ya think that qualifies me to have the right to an opinion, slightly more than say... a blow in?

The thing about the Eircom League is that it has not changed as far as I can see in all those years. I started the original post by questioning my own cynicism and hoping to be proved wrong. But on the evidence of four games, and I've seen a few since (and let's be honest they are the highlights, ie. the best of what was on view) there is absolutely nothing to get excited about and plenty to be worried about.

I'll say it again - I would love to be proved wrong about the game at home, but until our teams start qualifying for the middle rounds of the Uefa Cup or the knockout stages of the Champions League, then how (as much as you lads try to persuade us otherwise) can they be taken seriously?

As far as I'm concerned English football is the big malaise - simply because it is useless beyond the four big clubs and our kids at home mimick it all day long (at least that's what it seems like to me). Hence the low standard of the Eircom League.

Funny that most people who trumpet the Eircom League have this deep hatred of the English game - that hatred seems far stronger on the surface than their affection for the Irish game? Maybe it's just me. I've no love for English football - it's not half as good as they make it out to be - and I'd take the far more attractive Spanish, German, Argentinian leagues over it any day of the week.

Now for the hard part. If either of you are interested in talking about constructive ideas for the game at home, I'm all ears. It's so easy to slag one another off but I'm more interested in getting a good dialogue going about the problems that beset the Irish game and hopefully contributing to solving those problems. I have a few ideas of my own - how about you lads?