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

Agree on the on the split is never going to happen , as for redistribute resources and building up to Dublins level , i think that has already happened .

There has always been counties with extensive advantages in terms of population. Dublin arent any different. The funding they get from GAA is to start kids playing the sports. much needed when compared to many other counties and areas especially rural where it would be more engrained.

You keep repeating that a split Dublin would create rivalries and make fans happier despite all evidence of dubs and others stating otherwise. A split Dublin doesnt help all counties. Say tipperary or westmeath. how does a split Dublin help them. these are mid to lower division 3 sides. a 2nd dublin side is going to be as strong or stronger then them. same with any division 4 side. extra dublin side makes their attempts to make latter stages of the all ireland series harder as its yet another side who is stronger than them/in their way.

Dublin havent been in any final(minor/u20/senior) in football since 2020 which suggests their extremely good team of the 10s-20s is finishing up and the next generation isnt as good as them and theyve dropped back to the pack as a result.

Splitting Dublin may not create rivalries as its quite clear a lot of Dublin fans and others are against such a move and it wouldnt allow more players to challenge for Sam Magure as they wouldnt be challenging for it.

If you are going down the line that Dublins population is too much of an advantage then you must also look at splitting other counties because of population. Cork must be split. theyve a strong record in hurling and football. huge population multiple times bigger than many counties.

The GDOs are starting many kids off playing. they help out in primary/secondary schools and many kids dont play. in many rural schools/other counties the GAA is far far more engrained.

I lived in Dublin as a kid and would never have been able to point out my local GAA club and for vast majority of my class mates it was the same and there were 60 or so across 2 classes in my year in primary school. its the same across dublin. compare that to more rural counties with smaller numbers of course but the GAA club will be far more engrained with the local school.

2 dublin sides will still be far stronger than a huge proportion of Leinster sides especially your division 3/4 sides so no a split Dublin doesnt make their year easier.

Not at all- while there are obviously differences in population between counties, Dublin are such a massive outlier that it means that they alone should be split, particularly when you factor in their other advantages. Dublin are well over twice as big as the next biggest county, which is also a huge outlier.

The GDOs help schools and clubs both- this enhances the game within the county both by itself and as the children age. If this was done equitably, this would be fine, but Dublin alone were unfairly singled out for special favourable treatment. It also reduces the spending that Dublin would have to commit to Games Development, which can instead be used to inter-county. You've ignored government and sponsorship money again- try to think through these issues properly.

A split makes it better for other Leinster sides as the benefits are not concentrated in a single team. It's not perfect but it's a massive improvement on the current situation. So two Dublin sides are better than one, three are better than two, four better than three etc.- this helps all counties.

Look, the honest truth is you support Dublin and don't want them to be split. That's fine, I would think more about the greater good than one single county, but ultimately it's your right to think that. But at least be honest about accepting that they are and have been unfairly advantaged compared with every other county.

That's also false , splitting Dublin will not improve Gaelic games, it will certainly weaken Dublin which of course is what your after , and helping your own County.Plenty of Counties are uniquely advantaged over others .

(1) It improves Gaelic Games by increasing the fairness, prestige and integrity of the All-Ireland. Dublin's success has come extraordinarily unfairly given the unique advantages they have, so splitting them helps to address that. I've pointed this out to you repeatedly and the evidence is overwhelming. Even with less success, as in the last couple of years, they should still be split as the issue is not just success as such, but also the fact it is coming from an unfairly advantaged position. A split will also enhance standards as interest and participation rise in response to the enormous increase in overall fairness that will come from splitting Dublin.

(2) It helps all counties, other than Kilkenny, as anyone who competes for the Sam Maguire benefits. This includes Dublin, for the same reasons as everyone else, but also specific reasons in their case, such as more players challenging for the All-Ireland. But Dublin also benefit from an increase in fairness. Also, no county benefits from maintaining the status quo, where all the advantages of population, funding and home pitch advantage are concentrated in a single side.

I agree voluntary amalagamations can be offered, but standards and fairness will be helped most by splitting Dublin. This situation of them being uniquely unfairly advantaged should never have been allowed to arise, and unfortunately a split is now the best and only way to deal with it.

A few things to mention after reading through the last few pages:

Mentioning Down and Antrim as being prime for a split because of population advantages is disingenuous. They may have large relative populations, but the percentage of that population who may be inclined to play Gaelic games is probably less than 40% in Antrim and a little smaller in Down.

The argument I made earlier was in respect of how Dublin loses so much talent, but that appears to be ignored by the Dublin posters on here who seemingly don't believe this to be the case. I will outline why I strongly believe that is the situation.

Over the past few years I've watched a number of my relatives play underage for my county, I did so myself many years ago - we're historically strong and indeed beat Dublin minors last weekend!!

Being from small clubs my nephews were easily identified and brought into county development squads etc from u15, 16 etc.

The teams I'm involved with in my Dublin club have multiple players at each age group at the level my nephews were at when they were comparable ages. Each age group would easily have 10 - 15 players at that level and that appears to be reflected across the board as most of the teams we play (non competitive go-games) against have the same quality. When it comes to selecting development squads etc there will be a vast number of players who won't be identified who will drift off, concentrate on other sports etc.

I think it's been mentioned before, but at least at underage level there has to be an extremely strong argument for splitting Dublin. In fact that would almost certainly benefit the Dublin senior team as it would keep more players involved who will otherwise be lost to the game. And as we all know, the best 30 u14's will almost certainly not be the best 30 u15's and definitely not the best 30 u20's!

The talent that I see on a weekly basis is phenomenal and it's a shame that it all funnels towards one team of 15 players which cannot accommodate it.

Indeed an argument could be made that the current system benefits every other county because as every manager worth his salt points out "they can only put 15 on the pitch".

Just wondering here why you would mention splitting the top 5 populated counties and then randomly throw in the 15th most populated county in Ireland with them?

South Kerry for Sam 😃

Dry your eyes lol......

... and Dublin wonder why their wins do not carry the same weight in gold of respect as counties who win without home advantage e.g. Derry, Kerry and Monaghan at the weekend!

This thread resurrects itself every time Dublin win a game. It is funny.

Whatever about yesterday teams like cork get stafted with croker. There was 14k fans in cork for their earlier round match v Roscommon there would have been far more if they had a quarter final at home v Derry. Croker there was probably 2k.

If Dublin can get home matches for these rounds it's only fair if other counties can aswell. Remember Kerry v Limerick in croker years ago? Criminal. There should have been a coin toss for home advantage.

Meh, its a double edged sword. Croke Park was an anchor around Dublin's neck for years, particularly against the likes of Kerry and Tyrone and even Meath in the 80s, 90s and 2000s. Just too much pressure and expectation on them and they usually flopped.

If you look at Mayo, Croke Park suits them perfectly and in fact no other county exploited Croke Park better than Mayo at their peak, as they ran the legs of everyone. Maybe Meath should consider this approach, ie a running game.

Even just looking at registered players/members. Dublin have the most, at all age groups and that gap is growing. Combine that with their other advantages and you see how ridiculous the current situation is.