Originally posted by Hitch:

The best of all the Olympic analysts. Calls it as it is!

Originally posted by Hitch:

The best of all the Olympic analysts. Calls it as it is!

Originally posted by Hitch:

The best of all the Olympic analysts. Calls it as it is!

Originally posted by Hitch:

The best of all the Olympic analysts. Calls it as it is!

Originally posted by dodgy-keeper:
Jerry Kiernan is a top man. Was down at the Listowel races a couple of years back and bumped into him on one of the nights out. We'd a skinful of drink after a successful day on the nags but Jerry talked away to us for ages about athletics and Ireland's Olympic prospects. I don't think he drinks. A genuinely sound fella anyway.That "Off the Ball" interview he did with Eoin McDevitt a while back was class. "Nobody in Ireland plays rugby." He assumed legendary status for me after that!

Originally posted by dodgy-keeper:
Jerry Kiernan is a top man. Was down at the Listowel races a couple of years back and bumped into him on one of the nights out.

Originally posted by rebelrebel30:
Ya top man and not one of these lads who goes into the auld brill cream and preening stuff. A real mans man.

Originally posted by About a Bicycle:

The swimming analysts could be out of a job for the next Olympics, if the government have any sense.

Originally posted by Anemone Ken:
A bit of a sh1tty comment, this. Ok, the swimmers didn't fulfill potential, but they don't deserve smart ass comments like this. Remember people like Grainne Murphy moved away from most of her family and friends to improve. She did this when she was only a kid. Gets up most mornings at 5 (all year round, not for a few months of the summer like some GAA teams), trains 3 times a day most days of the year. Swimming is probably one of the hardest sports for the participants to achieve, and the people who are good enough to achieve the qualification standards do not deserve to be laughed at.

This message has been edited - 04-aug-2012 @ 06:54

Originally posted by Banner1995:
well said. and i hope annalise murphy holds on for a medal in the sailing so she can ram it down the throats of clowns like ivan yates.

Originally posted by Anemone Ken:
A bit of a sh1tty comment, this. Ok, the swimmers didn't fulfill potential, but they don't deserve smart ass comments like this. Remember people like Grainne Murphy moved away from most of her family and friends to improve. She did this when she was only a kid. Gets up most mornings at 5 (all year round, not for a few months of the summer like some GAA teams), trains 3 times a day most days of the year. Swimming is probably one of the hardest sports for the participants to achieve, and the people who are good enough to achieve the qualification standards do not deserve to be laughed at.

This message has been edited - 04-aug-2012 @ 12:22

This message has been edited - 04-aug-2012 @ 11:38

Originally posted by farmerjohn:
The swimming high performance director then is quoted“Looking at where the results are, what made the top 16 and what made top eight, we certainly had the atheltes who could have done those things. But unfortunately, whether you want to put it down to luck or just where we are at the moment it just didn’t hit it right on the week. It’s disappointing, especially when you know you have the athletes that can get there.“And I’m sorry we didn’t make it work but I think we’ve learned a lot and looking at how we plan the next four years

Originally posted by kilkennycat2004:
Britain just one another gold their in rowing mens fours probably due to the influence of Steve Redgrave.We had top rowers (Sean Drea) & cyclists ( Sean Kelly & Stephen Roche )but no follow up at all & in both of these sports facilities are available.The state of Irish swimming with a 50 metre pool no longer an issue is shocking, seems to be a massive waste of tax-payers money.Focus surely should be put on field events like hammer & discus where many moons ago Ireland stood tall in these events.

Originally posted by Blanco:
It is not just in the poor were we are under-performing in big events but our Athletes also have a tendency to massively under-perform in the major tournaments, I mentioned this in another thread the other night about how often how Athletes put in their seasons worst at just the wrong time.Nobody is expecting a haul of medals from such a small country but why can't our athletes peak at these events , at the European championships a few weeks ago after the men's and women's relay races both teams went disastrously and then both teams came on afterwards in TV interviews talking about how happy they were nonetheless to be there and how this would bring them on etc, the panel back in the studio rightly tore strips off of them and said it was not good enough and bordered on embarrassing for the country the times that they put in, an could not understand how they could be happy with the performance.Hopefully this Olympics will change things but it is not off to a good start , we have seen the swimmers already , this moring our women in the triathlon who is ranked 7th in the world finished 43rd or something like that, she had a bit of fall off the bike but she was well out of it before that anyway after a very disappointing swim.I did not see Fionnuala Britton's race last night but one of the papers today said it was humiliating for her so was so poor , I did see her give an interview afterwards and she did look and sound devastated and shocked at her own performance.I am not not trying to put these Athletes down I know the sacrifices and work they put in but I am trying to figure out why they are consistently under-performing to their own standards at the major events , Do out Athletes play to the Occasion and the trappings too much much rather than complete focus on their own tasks , we often hear advise on AI final day such as Play the game in hand not the Occasion.Nicky English always talked about some players getting wrapped up in the occasion on a big final day and too busy sampling the big day atmosphere and before they realise it , it is all over and has passed them by.I assume we do employ a sports physiologist in Team Ireland, I would have been skeptical of these in the past but after seen so many top Golfers , boxers even GAA players etc swear by them to get that extra 1 to 2% performance on the day, I think they must have some merit.

This message has been edited - 04-aug-2012 @ 13:47

Originally posted by farmerjohn:
The above is typical Irish, you can bet your ass that the Aussie public wont be saying "bad luck boys, maybe next time" to their swimmers who have underperformed in London.The simple fact is that one Irish pb has been broken in the pool if I can recall correctly. When are people going to say thats not good enough. I am not looking for world records or medals, I am expecting though that something that they have trained for 4 years and have had supposedly had better then ever support for them. The least we should have expected is PB's in a proven fast pool that plenty of world records have been brokenThe swimming high performance director then is quoted“Looking at where the results are, what made the top 16 and what made top eight, we certainly had the atheltes who could have done those things. But unfortunately, whether you want to put it dow
n to luck or just where we are at the moment it just didn’t hit it right on the week. It’s disappointing, especially when you know you have the athletes that can get there.“And I’m sorry we didn’t make it work but I think we’ve learned a lot and looking at how we plan the next four years is going to helps us look to the future and help the young swimmers coming up and obviously the ones that are here at the moment it’ll helps those in the future as well.He should be sacked in my opinion, the above is nothing but waffle but he wont be - why is it only the boxers that perform to their ability. Fair play to Billy Walsh and his team

Originally posted by rebelrebel30:
Before the games all i saw and heard.. was the best prepared ... team in history ( where have i heard that before?)

Originally posted by cerebus:
Cough, cough.

Originally posted by rebelrebel30:
Kerry 1982?..........

Originally posted by Cusack Park:
the Brits are pumping money into those sports as they identified them as sports where they could achieve success about 6 years ago