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

If it was Dublin or Kerry who had 3 games in 14 days would you still claim that their chances of being competitive were slim?

Would galway have taken the same beating? No. But that is more to do with their ultra defensive setup.

Would they have lost is the question? And the answer is yes.

The truth is galway are probably a bit over rated. They are able to beat ourselves in connacht on poorer pitches with bad conditions earlier in the year because it suits their system, but in the height of summer in croke park they wont beat the elite teams.

Typical Mayo scutter.... get a hammering and the deflection is we are still better than Galway

Mayo averaged 14 ppg in this years championship. 5 of those 6 games they could not reach the 15 point mark. Ultra Defensive Galway averaged 16 ppg [ excluding the Connacht Final .... left that out because it would be the first thing thrown back]. But hey Mayo are the ones to bring us Total Football. Every team plays at some stage with 13 or 14 behind the ball... Mayo included....

Whats the story with the fighting between fans at GAA games now, is this a new thing? sad to see, are we going to have to separate the fans now like in soccer?

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/iconic-hill-16-could-be-converted-to-seats-if-fights-continue-gaa-warns-amid-brawl-between-armagh-and-monaghan-fans/a1460846723.html

I have never seen such a miserable poster as @royalcelt.

The poster above takes glee in anything anti Dublin at all.

And I just remembered my first interaction with the poster above on baords.ie It was when the poster was hoovering around the Dublin thread (as would be a common accordance I found out later)

And I was chatting away in the Dublin thread as usual, I happened to be saying that I thought the AI 2011 was won by Dublin against the the run of play. Kerry switched off etc

Some of the Dublin posters didn't like it. And what happened next I received a gleeful PM from RoyalCelt who was clearly revelling in it. That is the sort of mindset that you are dealing with.

You would think that a proper GAA fan would be delighted that their team (in this case Meath) are in a final with a chance to win silverware T-Cup or not? Before a Dublin match or not? What difference?

Yet the poster manages to yet again make a complete misery guts of it. and turn it into yet another gripe about Dublin, which is the only reason they can tenuously post on this thread - as it then falls under the 'AI football championship.'

I honestly wonder does the above poster go to matches at all?

In my mind it is more like the poster @RoyalCelt moping along a lonely country road. With the head down kicking a stone, phone in hand, cursing about the Dubs and looking enviously at the Football Championship thread - waiting for something else Dublin related to whinge about.

Ironically, the main reason that Galway are overrated is because they regularly beat Mayo, and many believe, falsely, that Mayo are a decent team.

I dunno Galway were in an AI final last year gave a great account of themselves, this year they were unfortunate that their two main forwards - Comer went off injured, and Walsh had probably his worst game in the Maroon geansai. It would be the equivalent of Kerry having S.Shea off injured and David Clifford having a terrible match.

I think a lot of that Mayo panel would walk into the Dublin team, if they wore a Dublin jersey the mindset and psychology of them would be completely different. It is a lack of 'cultural confidence' that Mayo players have IMO.

I can't exactly remember the fellas name but I think it was an Offaly fella won a Sam with them, switched to Mayo played inter-county with them 1980's or so. And was shocked at the high standard of players Mayo had, who said if they had Offaly jersey's on they would win AI's

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Last Sunday Mayo had Dublin but folded. In Dessie Farrell's interview he was asked what he said to the Dublin players at HT. I was thinking it wasn't anything Dessie said to Gee them up! Dessie wouldn't be the most motivational fella.

And he said in the interview 'I did not say much to be honest'. 'It was the lads themselves that did it'. That to me shows the mindset of the players that is mental strength under severe pressure. Mayo went the other other way mental weakness under severe pressure.

Those two sets of supporters cause trouble where ever they go, football or social events. The worst of both counties. (and I'm from Monaghan)

Time the GAA banned them from games altogether. Zero tolerance.

With all that being said, your "bleeding yerra" schtick is comically bad.

Meant as reply to gormDaragorm

Look back at the Dublin thread so it is all there, comments on league, championship.Even O'Byrne Cup over the years. And that is just my comments on the footballers.

Looking at it logically I had

Kerry no1 (following the Peak Dublin defensive blueprint) letting the magic forwards do the damage upfront while grinding down teams chipping away at the score board not doing anything silly

I had Mayo second great in the league - a vibrant young team, with pace and power

Galway were a solid third in my mind at the start of the championship - if Comer stayed fit and Walsh fired a match for any side

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Then below that there was Tyrone, Monaghan, Dublin, Derry, Cork, Armagh, Kildare all vying for that fourth spot.

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Plus Dublin had a very average league in div2 - struggled v Kildare, Clare, Cork, lost to Derry once. Plus the main reason Dublin won div2 v Derry was that Glass went off injured early on in the final and it turned the game. Then struggled again v Kildare in Leinster.

I could go back further on the Dublin decline in the year previous to that, so yes I definitely would have been delighted with a SF spot at the start of this year for Dublin.

So Derry and Monaghan are competitive, but Armagh is abysmal even though both those teams only beat Armagh on penalties after extra time? Or Galway is abysmal because Armagh and Mayo beat them narrowly? Kerry and Dublin are a bit ahead, but the next half dozen teams are much the same in standard.

Both and to override the antiquated provincial system. The way the AI series is set up is the way the provinces should be. Weeds out the poor sides no flukes. Gives all teams a 'cut at it' no excuses. Westmeath were in hard luck in it, the the Rossies had good showings, and Kildare's inconsistencies were shown up by the AI series.

Until there is enough of people who want to get rid of the provincial system, this was the best solution the GAA could come up with

The league does matter IMO for the last 20 plus years there has been a direct correlation between successful league teams and championship. Go down through the years if you don't believe me. Also it is crucial for Dublin to be in div1 - as they get no proper games in Leinster the majority of the time as most teams there are lower div 2 - div 3 and div 4.

Dublin fans have called me worse than a troll, the year I said Kerry would beat Dublin in the AI SF they called me a Kerryman!! And one poster was kind enough to rejig my grav with flatcap and pipe, which I kept!

So after all the new format with groups and all it will be still Dublin v Kerry just as it would have been without the new format.