I have it on very good authority that Mooney was told categorically to go long with his KO's. That was the level of planning that went into a 1/4 final, 1 night of training between games and told to boot it out as far as ya can.
Replying To farneygael3: "Mooney has no short to medium range. He was told to go long to advert the danger of kicking to a Louth man on the arc. It was then midfield sector to win primary or secondary ball, which they didn't. As it's been said by most posters on here, a tactical meltdown from GB."
Mooney had a short to medium range in the first half. Louth simply pushed up on our kickouts much more effectively in the 2nd half. Perhaps he should have been instructed to bypass midfield entirely in the 2nd half as9if a shorter kick not on) rather than kich repeatedly into MF. We had only 1 sizeable midfielder yesterday That way a better chance to utilise our extra man.
Replying To level: "The insights here have been the most interesting part of the follow-up to yesterday's game. Everyone who knows football knows that Monaghan always punches above its population size and everyone knows that yesterday's game was there for the taking. But only the Monaghan fans on here really understand their football and their footballers.
Monaghan attack (once they were a man up) - slow the attack, drag Louth over to defend in numbers on Monaghan's left, move the ball quickly to the right, and a scorer comes onto the ball in space and scores. That had a near 100% success rate from what I could tell. So the 1 man advantage worked in attack. Monaghan has tons of reliable scorers. When Monaghan moved at speed, the Louth defense looked a man down and tried protect the goal in numbers (even if we did concede two). So basically, Louth decided to limit the goal damage and put pressure on the 2 point kickers. Single points were there for the taking and Monaghan could have clocked as many scores as possession and time would have allowed them.
Louth kickouts - with the extra man, Monaghan pressed effectively so Louth's kickouts mostly went out to the big men and Louth won the percentages (mostly). However, it seemed like Monaghan's press came as the expense of more coverage at the back so when Louth offloaded the marks at speed to ball carriers, the Monaghan half back line was very exposed.
Monaghan defense - new rules means that Monaghan could have always been 12 vs 11 on defense behind the half-way line. Monaghan had a few turnovers when Louth had to build slowly from the back (and Monaghan usually punished those with scores) but it honestly felt like the Louth inside forward line and ball carriers coming from deep (McDonnells, Lennon, Downey) had it way too easy to get space when the ball was moved quickly or carried at pace. Maybe everything just went right for the Louth lads (they did seem very efficient) but it felt like the Louth lads would win all of the inside forward 1 on 1's and even some 1 on 2's. That could be the consecutive weeks of games or lack of prep taking its toll. Louth have a few lads playing in Monaghan and might have some tactical smarts. But still -- it was too easy given the numerical advantage.
Monaghan kickouts - don't think it's fair to put any blame on the keeper brought it. With Rory, Monaghan always felt like it had a quarterback who could call the shots and everyone had a decade working with him so they knew what runs they were supposed to do. Without Rory, the new had 14 experienced lads in front of him who should know how to make the extra man count by making space. Wasn't in Croker so can't tell whether he just didn't know/see the runs they were making or if the outfield players just didn't know how to pull the shape from the Louth middle.
Am I right in thinking: - Monaghan would have been much better off conceding the Louth kickout, covering deeper, and survive on turnovers - Monaghan defense needs work (probably has the right players but lacking in experience or nous). Once Louth got going, it was way to easy to get scorers on the ball in scorable positions. - for some reason, Monaghan's players didn't try or succeed in finding space further from the arc on its own kickouts. So the kickouts ended up going into fielding 50-50 or worse fielding battles. That was mostly the fault of the outfield players who couldn't make the numerical advantage turn into space."
The runs were made but the kicker was in the "land of nod"
Replying To Corklegend: "3 out if the 4 teams that played in the quarter final went through after playing 3 weeks in a row. Dublin had extra time against Donegal las week and finished strongly and won.Monaghan did not look fit, nor did their mindsets look like a winning one. Still can't believe 14 men beat 15 in that heat in Croke park. I would say that's a first in the new rules!"
The 1 week turnaround was a factor not the deciding factor as it was last year when we easily beat Louth. And the old rules made it easier to use the extra man. But of course extra man should still be an advantage if used effectively. Louth had 3 or 4 big men across midfield we had 1. The Louth press was very effective in the 2nd half & our young keeper (with 1 training session) couldn't just couldn't bypass their big men around the middle.
Two days later and its still extremely raw. That was a complete and utter horror show from start to finish. Cannot believe Stephen Mooney didn't start that game. Really thought we had turned a corner with injuries, mentality of the squad and team selection from earlier in the league. However, the news throughout the week and at the weekend which displayed the fact so many people knew our squad before the turnstiles even opened on Sunday still bewilders me. Shows the mentality of certain individuals.
I gave him credit last week but I'm sorry this one is 100% on Gabriel Bannigan and his management team.