The 2023 All Ireland Senior Football Championship (Sam Maguire Cup)

Fair enough

Galway the best value odds there. Doing what any potential All Ireland winner should do which is solid defensively but if they are to reach another All Ireland final they'll need both Comer and Walsh to play good as nearly always one is off colour.

I think Dublin are only that high in the odds because of the potential numbers of fans backing them, more historic form long past, instead of current form - which is all over the shop.

Go matches seem to be the Saturday ones mainly

Hard to see a team finishing second in there group winning an AI this year. You will have to play three games on the trot. Last group game, preliminary QF and the QF against a group topper.

Therefore it is critical IMO to top your group to get the rest between preliminary QF and QF proper. Even if you win the QF I think those teams will have picked up too many Injuries and maybe player bans ( due to yellow red and black cards) to continue on and win an AI.

Last year all four provincial winners made the SF's

Both will be aiming to win on Saturday, Winner of this match will top the group (no disrespect to Louth, Cork) that equals avoiding the play off and having free week to prepare against your quarter final opponent. 2nd place could end up playing Tyrone or Armagh in the play off and with three matches in 14 days it won't be ideal for possible All Ireland Quarter final.

True but at least some big teams will meet and we can start to gauge form.

I think it is the most open championship for a while to be honest. It should be good down at the business end. In fairness to Mayo they are great until they have to get over the line. The pressure that weighs them down is massive. Very hard for them to focus on the game itself.

That's the basic template. Sunday games on RTÉ. Saturday games on GAAGO, with a few exceptions. Mainly around hurling quarter-finals and football semi-finals.

The GAA and RTÉ put themselves under criticism for GAAGO when there was no Saturday highlights a few weeks back. One learning might be a consistent Saturday night highlights show, even if it is showing the highlights of one semi-final.

The 3 games for the price of 2 is a fair offer. Kerry v Mayo and Galway v Tyrone are the makings of good games. All-Ireland finalists against the two dangerous Seed 3 opponents.

Dublin v Roscommon and Derry v Monaghan should be good in Round 1 part 2.

Round 2: Cork v Kerry, Tyrone v Armagh,

Round 3: Galway v Armagh,

Round 1 arguably has 4 top games, 2 in Round 2 and 1 in Round 3.

I think this is a slight flaw in having a fixed template that sees Seed 1 v 'Seed 3' (the second best teams) in each group taking place first. Whilst the GAA obviously has no need to copy UEFA or FIFA it's noticeable that's those organisations have a further draw in their competitions to decide the fixture order so that the most attractive ties are dispersed to different stages. I think this is a throwback to the first instalment of Super 8s a few years ago when a few provincial winners had initial away ties which they lost, and it became that weeks media pile-in that playing at home first should be a reward for winning your province. Acting on tiny sample sizes is never a great idea.

Dublin backline is there for the taking if Louth played any decent ball to Mulroy at all he was through. He was making the runs but wasn't been picked out most of the time.

High ball or quick ball the Dublin backline is very vulnerable. When in div 1 this was really stark. It is only when weaker teams set up wrong tactically against Dublin that they do well - Louth the last day - and Meath in the league, for example.

I am convinced that if even the weakest team play it smart and cagey v Dublin they have a chance. Just stay in the game and watch Dublin tire. Play smart. Dublin these days have a non-existent bench plus a manager on the sideline who is very slow to see issues, and make changes.

This is far from the truth more of people thinking of 'The Dubs' as if they were the same team in their pomp. They are riddled with issues.

Struggled to find a partner for Fenton so put McCarthy there weakening the back line, Costello does not cut it against the top teams these days, Rock's legs ate gone so that is Dublin's most assured free taker benched for most games. In general shot selection for Dublin is erratic when any pressure is put on. These days you see hail Mary stuff when panicked.

In div 2 Dublin were ran very close by Clare - a hurling county, they were beaten once by Derry and the main reason that Derry lost the Final was because glass went off injured. Dublin squeaked by Kildare in the league and were very fortunate to beat Kildare in Leinster. It was just nous and inexperience of being in that position that let Kildare down.

In div 2 Cork really put it up to Dublin and Dublin only won by the 2 points. When Dublin were in div1 the worst match by far was when Armagh walloped Dublin. When Dublin played a real high line. It was a shambles.

As the poster below points out Dublin were beaten by Mayo. Dublin tried to see out the game but were not able to. Mistakes were made. A mad ball was played across their own square causing Byrne to make an error. On the final that year I was convinced Mayo would beat Tyrone - better panel - better management on sideline. But the pressure killed them between the ears.

The main reason that Dublin ran Kerry so close in last years AISF was because Kerry were very nervy. They had yet to 'get over the line' mentally. I think if Kerry play Dublin again it could get really embarrassing. Kerry are now much more defensively solid while at the same time can play 'head up football. spreading play. moving at pace. All the things Dublin used to be able to do in their pomp.

If people want to know when the signs for the fall dip of Dublin first appeared it was when Dublin went down to Wexford - Leinster QF in 2021 and really struggled.

It was handy frees tapped over by Costello that kept Dublin ahead.

I was at that years Leinster Final 2021 where Dublin played Kildare - Kildare played really defensive the whole time and did not seem to have the ability to change their approach. The one and only time decent ball was played in the Kildare forward line Daniel Flynn scored a goal from it.

But it is clear to me that Kildare are slowly learning, after Kildare beat Dublin in the league div 1 - 2022.

They were way too confident and open v Dublin making Kamikaze dopey errors - conceding 5 goals in the 2022 Leinster Final - stupid stuff.

In the league div 2 2023 and the SF of Leinster Kildare have shown improvement on their game management. The real irony is Kildare have decent side with a good scatter of handy players. But for some reason they have never really fulfilled their potential.

It now should be a question of 'when' not 'if' Dublin beat Kildare in the championship. Because Kildare are slowly losing that fear factor, learning tactically etc.

But no doubt the spin on it from outsiders will be that Kildare have beaten the 'mighty Dubs'. The truth is that this Dublin team have been spluttering along for the last few years since that Wexford Leinster match in 2021 that I pointed out earlier. But many teams who should beating them or putting it up to them, were slow to realise it and develop tactically/mentally - and stop playing the blue jersey's

The media (basically Marty Morrissey) dress Dessie Farrell up as 'All Ireland Winning Manager' - but the truth is that was really a Covid AI - an O'Byrne cup in all but name.

Dessie is not a manager most Dublin fans have confidence in. And the only reason he is still there is because there is no stand out alternative. If non-Dubs don't believe me they should ask any Dub fan they meet/know who should be Dub manager after Dessie, and watch them struggle for names.

Yes, I know there has been retirements and ageing squad etc - but Dessie Farrell has made this Dublin dip far more shaky than it should have been. Dublin getting relegated to div 2 was an absolute disaster for Dublin. As it meant no decent matches for Dublin at all. There is no way that Dublin should have been even near to be relegated - the main reason was Dessie Farrell. And yes he got Dublin promoted again, but Jayus if that is the barometer now the bar is being set very low for Dublin.

For me Dublin are far from 'back' they are still spluttering and Louth's and Micky Harte's surprising tactical nativity (not keeping it tight early on) does not paper over the cracks. I am not sure do many non-Dubs realise it but Dublin are there to be 'got' if teams set up with the right gameplan getting the balance right.

I lost count of the number of times this Dublin team fall asleep in games, and go missing. A good side or a side set up cleverly, should be able to take advantage of this.

Kildare will have home advantage in this new format. That is one excuse less Kildare will have. The next question is will Kildare be waving the white flags in surrender, or victory? I am reminded of the passionate line 'Newbridge or Nowhere' that was a Kildare rallying cry a while back.

But when I think of Kildare - I think massive underachievement and 'nowhere men'. As the Beatles put it 'nowhere plans for nobody'.

Kildare's time for excuses is over, they have their game in Kildare, they have their legendary former player managing them, they have decent quality players. They have had the 'learnings', as the phrase goes. Kildare should now be pushing on. Kildare should now be beating Dublin more regularly.

I'd agree with a lot of that.

However Dublin have a decent panel (not on the same level obviously) as a few years ago but they have experience and in truth are a div 1 side.

The also have home advantage for any meaningful games,any top 6 team with that advantage couldn't be discounted from being All Ireland contenders.Dublin could very well win the all ireland this year.

No amount of systems are gonna make miracles happen for the shambles that is Leinster football. It's not lucky Louth are the ones on the up while other counties sat around.