The Dominance of Dublin GAA *Mod warning post#1*

Sonny678 wrote:

Derry and kildare were good teams in 1998 to 2000 but I dont think they deserve the title as All Ireland winning team or in top 2 or 3 in the country. Between 1996 and 2001 the three best teams in the country by a distance were Meath Galway and kerry with 2 All Irelands apiece in 6 years. So thats how I came to that stat.

You said "All Ireland winning teams". So I'm confused. In 2001 Galway beat Armagh, Derry, Cork and Meath. Teams that have all won All Ireland's. After that I'm not sure what your saying.

Happyilylost wrote: »

You said "All Ireland winning teams". So I'm confused. In 2001 Galway beat Armagh, Derry, Cork and Meath. Teams that have all won All Ireland's. After that I'm not sure what your saying.

Armagh won All Ireland in 2002 . That All Ireland winnig team of kieran McGeeeney and co Galway defeated in 2001 was All Ireland winning team
Gawlay defeated Derry in 2001..That Derry team , 2001 Derry didnt win an All Ireland title.
Galway defeated Cork in 2001, that Cork team 2001 Cork did not win an All Ireland title. Cork didnt win an All Ireland title between 1990 and 2010.

The Meath team of 2001 was a two time All Ireland winning team, so was 0ffaly team of early 70s which Galway beat. Kildare teams and Derry teams of of 1998 and 2000 didnt win All Ireland titles. The Donegal team of 1983 and 1974 which Galway defeated didnt win All Ireland titles.

Galway havent beaten Dublin in championship since 1930s, beating kerry once in championship since 1960s, Galways record v All Ireland winning teams or top 2 or 3 teams in the country in any given year since 1966 is poor. Thats why they have won 2 All Irelands in last 54 years. Prior to that Galways record v top teams was excellent in the 1960s 1950s etc. and Galway won an excellent 7 All Irelands from 1920s to 1966. The golden age of Galway football, particulary 4 All Irelands between 1956 and 1966, which outside kerry and Dublin is one of most sucessful eras any county has had in history of football. Only Wexford 1914 to 1918 , Cavan 1930s, 1940s , early 50s and Meath 1980s and 1990s have had similar period to great sucess Galway had 1956, 1964, 1965, 1966.
Galway defeated kerry team which won All Ireland title in 1962 twice, Galway defeated Kerry in 1964 and 1965 All Ireland. SInce 66 Galways record v All Ireland winners is poor ,thats why Dublin, Kerry, Tyrone, Cork, Down Meath and Offaly have all won more All Irelands since 1966 then Galway.

I will leave that, I cannot explain myself anymore. Its not having a go at Galway, I was just showing in my original post, population gurantees nothing. I know there is great work being done at Galway underage in recent years and their underage teams look strong. And with a possible exciting management team of Padrag Joyce ( one of the greatrest forwards of all time and one greatest players to come west of Shannon in last 50 years along with Dermot Earley snr and Michael Donnellan ) and John Divilly , hopefully Galway are back at top of the football table. Football needs a strong Galway. And a strong Down another of the great football aristocrats.

maestroamado wrote: »

I was brirfly looking at a few of the last posts.
I was talking to senior gaa officer recently.
The conversation ended with me saying
"The gaa can think back 100 years but cannot think forward 10 years"
Where do experts here think we be?

The GAA gets a lot of stick but people fail to realise that it has to cater for quite a lot.

Football, Hurling, ladies games, underage and a lot more besides.

All this in a very small country with a small population trying to juggle a unique case with 2 ultra intense indigenous sports.No other country has 2 native games only played on one island.

The GAA is not perfect but it does quite well for itself considering the constraints.

Sonny678 wrote:

I will leave that, I cannot explain myself anymore. Its not having a go at Galway, I was just showing in my original post, population gurantees nothing. I know there is great work being done at Galway underage in recent years and their underage teams look strong. And with a possible exciting management team of Padrag Joyce ( one of the greatrest forwards of all time and one greatest players to come west of Shannon in last 50 years along with Dermot Earley snr and Michael Donnellan ) and John Divilly , hopefully Galway are back at top of the football table. Football needs a strong Galway. And a strong Down another of the great football aristocrats.

Galways woes are our woes. Hurling and football run the same course it would seem. Still take issue with with your opinion of "top two or three teams" and 2001. As you say Armagh won it in 2002. Meath had won it in 1999. Derry were in an All Ireland semi final in 1998 and 2001 also winning a league 2000. Cork had contested and lost an All Ireland final against Meath in 1999. All those teams for me were at the top table of football at the time and Galway I think were underdogs against all of them. Opinion is opinion.

Sonny678 wrote:

Fair enough, Galway had a brillant team in that period 1998 to 2001, Donnellan and Joyce were all time great players. And of course great Ja Fallon made that team tick, and u had underated Niall Finnegan also and excellent Savage. Walsh was powerhouse at midfield , and Galway had quality defenders like Sean Og De Paor, Gary Walsh, Tomas Mannion , Kieran Fitzgerald and Declan Meehan. A class outfit that Galway team was.

Jesus that was a great read! Thank you!

Happyilylost wrote:

Jesus that was a great read! Thank you!

No problem. They were an excellent team. Especially the forwards. Joyce is the greatest natural forward to come from Connacht in last 50 years. Fallon was a great player and was central to so much of Galways clasa play. Finnegan and Savage were quality forwards. But Donnellan was the difference. Between 96 and 00 Trevor Giles and Michael Donnellan were the two best footballers in Ireland. Without them both their counties would not have won 2 All Irelands each, but especially in 1996 and 1998. Both actually suffered with injuries in early 00s and were never the same. But at their peak in early 20s they were something else. Giles had imagination and creativity , what a passer of the ball. And Donnellan ran with the ball like no other gaelic footballer I have ever seen. He glided over the ground . Donnellan is the greatest footballer to come from West of the Shannon from Connacht in last 50 years. Himself and Sean Purcell and Padraig Joyce and Mattie McDonagh are Galway greatest players. Shane Walsh reminds a bit of Donnellan. But Donnellan was a different class of footballer.

Happyilylost wrote: »

Sonny678 wrote:

Galway have only beaten one /All Ireland winning team/top team in the country/ outisde Connacht in last 50 years eg that was Meath in 2001.

Where did you pull this stat out of? I think your mixing it up with Galway hadn't beaten a top team since 2001. Then we beat Kerry last year the hoodoo was lifted and all the children were happy again. In 2001 we beat three teams with All Ireland titles on route to our own an All Ireland!

It also conveniently ignores the fact that Galway has always been effectively two counties under one umbrella. One half played hurling, the other football. So effective playing numbers for football would probably be about 13000 and hurling about 8000. Far below the level implied above and more in line with average playing numbers and zero all Irelands. We've the 3rd most in football and 7th in hurling. Within 5yrs I believe we'll be 4th. For the numbers available we punch well above our weight.

Powerhouse wrote: »

Over the last ten years Meath and Kildare have at best yo-yo'd between Division 1 and other divisions in the National League. Teams that have been consistent enough to maintain Division 1 status most of the time - Tyrone, Monaghan, Mayo, Kerry, Donegal, have given Dublin decent matches. It is unrealistic to expect counties who cannot achieve that standard to put it up to Dublin in the championship. Leinster has regularly had only one Division 1 team which was Dublin themselves.

The Leinster championship has been "killed off" by the fact that teams which might be able to compete with Dublin (and did in the 1990s and 2000s), namely Meath and Kildare, have fallen off and let standards slip. Wicklow or Carlow or Longford or Wexford weren't beating Dublin in the 1980s and 1990s either.

It is no different in Munster where Kerry, like Dublin, have won 9 out the ten provincial finals this decade. A statistic of historical significance which has largely gone uncommented upon. And Kerry have had largely unremarkable teams in the national context - one All-Ireland in ten attempts and that a fortunate one in 2014.

It is inconsistent that this Kerry dominance - especially achieved in the context of being less than brilliant themselves quite often - is not of concern to people too. In reality it will take Cork to get their act together to challenge Kerry. The same applies in Leinster to those counties who are naturally positioned to challenge for honours.

What amazes me in this era of professional scientific approaches in how poor and off the pace so many county teams are. I heard Tomás Ó Sé the other night commenting that football is more competitive now than when Kerry won four in a row but it's not clear to me that it is. Team prepare more but they seem just as far off the pace as they ever were.

Football is a bit more competitive now as Ulster and Connacht is stronger than when Kerry won 4x.

It's just not as diverse as 87-03.

Like anytime a team wins at least 4 there is a bit of a drop in standards by the challengers and close to perfection by the dominant team.

The decade has seen a major drop off from the mid tier counties like Down, Derry, Meath, Cork.

What's gone unnoticed is the presence of hurling. For all the talk of funding and the Dubs the bottom half of the country has the small ball to compete with. Theres a top 6 or so in Football an a top 8 in Hurling.

There's around half the country who don't lack for anything in terms of being looked after but its spread out between 2 codes. People go on about a fair 32 county sport in Football. Try spreading that gospel to parts of Munster/Leinster and tell us how you get on....

TrueGael wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2019/0912/1075568-gilroys-love-of-gaa-places-community-above-county/

The question always is whether you are interested in increasing competitiveness or whether you are just interested in taking down Dublin.

If you have the broader view, then other splits and amalgamations must be on the table, and not voluntary, they must be as compulsory as any proposal for Dublin.

rm75 wrote: »

The fact that you have nothing to say about Kerrys domination of Munster ( which is significantly more than dublins of leinster) or Galway and Mayos of Connacht indicates this is simply anti dublin bias on your part.

Attack the man not the ball as per usual

rm75 wrote: »

The fact that you have nothing to say about Kerrys domination of Munster ( which is significantly more than dublins of leinster) or Galway and Mayos of Connacht indicates this is simply anti dublin bias on your part.

Roscommon won more Connacht Finals in this decade than Galway.

Look - its a fair argument to say - if the GAA is prepared to invest a disproportionate amount in Dublin GAA in order to 'revive' the sport in the city, then why not turn off the tap now in Dublin and instead put the money in say Belfast, Cork or Limerick. Because I'd say the same argument could be made for all of the above.

I'd say part of the problem is that what this money pays for is Games Development Officers, who aren't necessarily club members but will work closely with clubs as well as with schools.

And these are people - you cant just move them from Dublin to Cork like chess pieces.

On the other hand - competing counties shouldn't lose sight of the fact that even if spending in Dublin dropped dramatically - there is such an infrastructure now of underage players, teams and in particular volunteers - that Dublin will continue to produce really strong teams in hurling and football, men and women, for the foreseeable future.

So the question I'd be asking really is - forget about the spending for a minute - if you go into a primary school in Newbridge or Kells or Mallow or Newry - how many of the kids there are playing gaelic football or hurling. And are there sufficient community structures around this. Because that's where you really compete.

shockframe wrote: »

Limerick city wouldn't entertain any Gaelic Football related initiative any way seriously. You could present it to schools like St Munchins or Crescent Comp via A4 and it would be thrown in the fire/dustbin seconds later.

I don't equate Dublin's success to money all that much. The will to succeed has to be there first and foremost. It's apparent in teams like Kerry, Mayo, Tyrone and the Dubs.

Gavin has said it himself that players like Cluxton go through everything in great detail like the last day and prepared accordingly. That's your base level, build from there.

Financial Doping has become a cliche at this stage. It ignores the culture change set about by Gilroy and Gavin and total buy in from the squad that's really important here.

The whole point of this initial funding was to put GAA in areas in Dublin where it wasn't been played!! Your saying its ok to try and do it in Dublin but not Limerick? How does that make sense?