Dublin GAA Discussion Thread MOD WARNING POST #2944

ProudDUB wrote: »

Agreed. I can see this seriously affecting attendances, despite the delayed throw in. A lot of the walk up crowd will stay in the pub, regardless of the outcome...a bit like the Six Nations Days. Whether you are into soccer or rugby or not is irrelevant. It's the spending the whole day in the pub, with your mates, watching the national team, that is the big draw.

Just once the whole thing doesn't become a distraction that leads to a Meath ambush!

Here we go.

ProudDUB wrote: »

Well, if an Irish victory over France gets added to the the ever growing list of sporting upsets, I'd say every Dub in Croker will be having a very stiff drink at 6.35pm, even you !

Couldn't care less about it to be honest unless I have a bet, if I can get France at around 8/15.

Stoner wrote: »

Looking forward to the game now. My 7:30 walk with young Stoner has me freed up for the day. I'd love it if the whole Irish game was on in CP. The N3 and NCR will be heavy I think between the games .
I have it in the back now my mind that they will have the whole game on in CP
Hopefully Giles will give a shout out for the Dubs he is a Brunner man afterall even if he was forced to play, he might get over that some day.

Giles hates the GAA, as do a lot of Irish soccer people. They even renamed the Hill as "North Terrace" on the tickets when they were our ungrateful tenants for a while.

Allez les Bleus ....... the Dubs ones obviously

Under 35.5 pts for me, considering the pissings of rain 3/1

Well, the colour scheme on the Hill should be interesting today. Walked up from Connolly Station to Croker at half time. There wasn't a sinner in a blue jersey outside any of the pubs I passed. They were all in green. No sigh of any rain so far, but you sense it could come bucketing down at any minute. It's very muggy.

There is a sparse enough crowd on the Hill, but thankfully it's raining, so our shame is covered up by those blue, plastic ponchos. Phew !

DoctaDee wrote: »

Under 35.5 pts for me, considering the pissings of rain 3/1

Well that was the highlight of the day for me.

The game was nothing more than a training match for Dublin and a containment exercise for Meath, a blanket defence, giving away soft frees at the peril of letting play develop. I think it spoke volumes for O"Dowds mindset when he replaced Wallace with a corner back with 5 minutes or so remaining... An underwhelming day all round

We got there at the end of the first half of the Kildare match, and have to say the most excitement of the whole day was the ramblings from the folks on the hill and last 2 minutes of the Kildare match. It was my girl's first match and not a great one, both teams didn't seem to give 100% and it might mean trouble for Dublin in the final.

FionnK86 wrote: »

We got there at the end of the first half of the Kildare match, and have to say the most excitement of the whole day was the ramblings from the folks on the hill and last 2 minutes of the Kildare match. It was my girl's first match and not a great one, both teams didn't seem to give 100% and it might mean trouble for Dublin in the final.

The Kildare Westmeath game was played at a completely different pace though. Pretty much Division 3 standard fare really, poor skills, blanket defense type stuff.

Weatmeath will pose very few questions for us in the final. They'll man the barricades trying to keep it tight and loose by 8-10 points in the end. Leinster football is in real trouble these days.

DoctaDee wrote: »

Leinster championship is in trouble but Leinster football is far from dead, looking at Laois & Longford so far in the quals. Meaths blanket strategy yesterday was a tryout with Derry in mind - I think it was quite obvious they'd accepted their fate before the ball was thrown in and for other than a decent 10 min spell it panned out like that. I'd give them a 50/50 chance up north.

Simple fact of the matter is Dublin are too good for all but 1-2 teams out there, we're riding the crest of the wave at the moment but it won't go on forever.

I'm not as confident as yourself. Leinster has a single division one team. The standard of football outside of ourselves is woeful to be honest.

I agree we are on the crest of a wave and all good things come to an end. That has no bearing on the state Kildare and Meath football finds itself in though.

The Leinster football championship is the single biggest waste of time in the GAA calendar.

Also let's look at a few things,

That big lad Tommy Moolick (spelling) for kildare, I've never seen him have the legs for a full game yet he's a goal scorer and inspirational player, Meath Burke tanked by half time yesterday, Graham Reilly the same again this year.

When teams can stick with Dublin they cause trouble, but every year Dublin play teams in our province that fall away at the end yet Ulster can throw three or four teams that can stick with them. Kerry can't and Mayo usually do a little better, give or take with them really after the replay last year.

DoctaDee wrote: »

Leinster championship is in trouble but Leinster football is far from dead, looking at Laois & Longford so far in the quals. Meaths blanket strategy yesterday was a tryout with Derry in mind - I think it was quite obvious they'd accepted their fate before the ball was thrown in and for other than a decent 10 min spell it panned out like that. I'd give them a 50/50 chance up north.

Simple fact of the matter is Dublin are too good for all but 1-2 teams out there, we're riding the crest of the wave at the moment but it won't go on forever.

You know I'd actually agree with that. Dublin 11 points up with 5 minutes to go, and Meath have 14 men back defending, and Dublin are handpassing it over and back across the pitch. Its all well and good to have a practice match, but do 42000 people need to come to see it.

The only person mad up for it was the ref.....constantly stopping play when advantage could be played. Three minutes into injury time, Dublin send a super pass from a free into MDM, first bit of excitement in the second half, and the ref calls it back to give a guy a card. They retake the free, and the ref blows it up for full time. I've no doubt it was technically good refereeing, but it was frustrating to watch.

The groan from the crowd when they announced 5 minutes of 'Am Breise' told its own story. I cant imagine Dublin Westmeath will be any different, cant see myself going to it.

To be honest at this stage, I far prefer the National League as a competition. Decent evenly matched games the whole way through.