Dublin GAA Discussion Thread: Mod Note - No 'Dublin Dominance' chat allowed!

I think the difference would be Gavin would quickly spot the fellas with drive/no drive. He would have a clear system of play developed at this stage. A simple one that could be implemented quickly. Organisational stuff.

He would at least have Dublin staying in games and not fading/losing heart. If Gavin was still manager. I would say Dublin would be at least a hard working team. They are not even that now.

Definitely. Dublin under Gavin had plenty of fight in them. They were never dead and buried til the final whistle. They seem to be tapping out of battles very early now.

Could be another spell of barren years for the Dubs aka 95 to 2011.

Well for starters i'd tentatively argue the case that maybe Paul Mannion, Jack McCaffrey, Eric Lowndes and dare i say it, even Stephen Cluxton would still be available if Gavin was in charge. We can only speculate but it seems at least plausible that there has been trouble in camp since Dessie has taken over.

It's all about culture. It always was with Dublin. People spoke about their individual brilliance, their bench, their tactics, etc but in the grips of battle what got them over the line was their willingness to pull together as a group and fight harder than the opposition. Philly McMahon had a good piece in one of the newspapers a few weeks ago saying the same thing. There's no togetherness with this group or standards set that they all buy into. I'd be fairly confident in saying that wouldn't be the case under Gavin.

Spot on if the players were disinterested they would just walk away. It is an amateur sport not Pro Soccer. Where fellas can go through the motions and get a pay packet.

In gaelic football if fellas are fed up of it they walk away - like Jack McCaffrey. Simple as that. Dessie has managed to make a complete arse of the whole thing. But I doubt the League Sunday lads will say that.

It will be more cliched guff about losing hunger and dropping levels. When the main variable that has changed is the man in charge! But it is never said!

Really annoying to hear those cliches and it is repeated so often some people believe it. People have to remember if fellas lose interest they simply move on. That is why the likes of Vinny Murphy played so long he did not want to stop. Regardless of the state of the team at the time. He was even happy as a sub.

It was fundamental part of a Jim Gavin team. Something money can't buy determination and drive. When you think of all those AI's won. There were a good few that Dublin should have lost by right. But they had that eerie calmness that all class sides have. They know they just have to be patient and wait for the other team to make a mistake.

Now it is the complete opposite all the other teams around the country now know Dublin will give teams chances. They don't even have to work hard for chances. A simple high ball and it is pure chaos.

Ah now, for a start you would have to explain Covid to the fella from 20 years ago! That was the main reason Dessie won Sam lets be honest. It was like an O'Byrne Cup. Even less crowds. A limited championship. Kerry were knocked out by an Aussie Rules fella that would have been in Australia only for Covid for example. Plus Dessie hardly changed a thing tactically. It was still Jim's team. If is not broke don't fix it etc.

Now it should be a Dessie Farrell team. And look at the state of the flipping thing. Shambles no improvement, no discernable system. No heart, no fight. And the pundits are feeling sorry for Farrell! He could end up sending Dublin football back 20 years at this rate if he was given a longer period to wreck things.

How have dublin slipped back so badly since last July, they sleeped walked to a leinster title against kildare under believe it or not Dessie. The keep ball tactic that was ridiculed last year might be the best to return back to.

In answer to the question... all you need to do is provide a structure and an environment for the players to thrive. I say that like it's easy. It's not but it is for good leaders.

The motivation is intrinsic. Jim Gavin doesn't make James McCarthy flog himself for 12 years straight in pursuit of his goals. McCarthy will run through walls because that's who he is. The lads who shared his dressing room were exactly the same. All Farrell had to do was provide a platform for them to continue to express themselves. That's an easier job than most. He didn't need to pick players off the ground and instill belief in them that they could win. That's a tough gig.

On the evidence he has failed badly here. We are drifting further and further away from even an acceptable standard, never mind all All Ireland winning standard, and imo we are drifting because of the reasons I outlined in my first post.

To be fair to Jim, he toke over from a manager that had won Dublin's first All Ireland in 16 years!! That was huge success from what I remember anyway so he did have big boots to fill. Dublin had the players for a long long time but Gilroy managed to get them across the line and on top of that Jim managed to integrate all the young players at the time and bench the likes of Bernard Brogan and MDMA and still keep it all together and later on then bring back Diarmuid Connolly and still manage to keep it together. That must have created alot of friction in the camp at the time!

Yeah the only time I heard of any sort 'trouble in the camp' was from Bernard Brogan. He thought he had done enough in the dead rubber super 8's game in Omagh. But there was still no place for him on the bus in drawn AI Final game 2019.

Basically because Connolly was brought back. But the bit that stood out to me was Bernard had the drive to want to come back for the second Kerry game. Another fella would have walked away in a huff.

That to me was great management know your players - motivate them fire them up.

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Apparently Brogan was even not starting in one training game in 2019 which he described as 'a knife in the heart'

And that was only a training game! Yet he stuck with the panel for the year.

Dublin might not even get that far. Kildare are probably in best shape to win Leinster this year. I remember that Kildare game against Dublin under the previous Kildare management. It was damage limitation stuff from Kildare never had a go. If they did I think Kildare could have made it much closer at least. The Dublin FB line was only ran at once and Daniel Flynn got a goal from it.

Real vibrancy in the Kildare camp -now. And a good style of football. I always feel McGeeney (for example) wasted all Kildare's underage success. Did nothing even in the qualifiers.

But in contrast Ryan seems to be a great organiser and has a cut at teams. If Kildare get a run going all the Lillywhite supporters will be back in force. Kildare could even take over the neutrals favourite tag from Mayo!

On the contrary. I hear ye are amalgamating with Meath.

Thats a confidence killer tbh. Although ive never been a fan of Dublin i would have always been a fan of certain players. Its a pity the decline was so swift and players decide to opt out.