On the hurling match - 30 Burke frees and a Chris Crummey MOTM performance sure we will be grand!
Go easy Limerick!
—-
On the footballers - David who? He must have had a sleepless night having to face Fitzsimons again.
—
I hope it not too bleeding cold
(I am fast approaching auld fella status if I am worrying about that)
Good to see Con back to form. Sent over a few nice points showed well for the ball and was a little unlucky to give away a couple of harsh frees in first half. Having Con near or back to his best come the championship is a must.
Paddy Small and Costelloe need to improve imo. Costelloe unlucky to get Gannon's arm into his face he also got a crack of the umpires flag in game v Monaghan. Outside of these unlucky injuries he needs to up his game.
Good to see John Small get a good run out. Scully and Howard too.
We were never going to lose this game esp after the two losses. Probably not the most attractive game a Saturday 17.00 throw in a stand alone fixture v Roscommon.
Big double header up next footballers v Kerry and hurlers v Limerick. There will be a nice turnout for that one.
There was a protest on in the city centre too, that might have impacted.
Why the crowd so small today I wonder? Told by Steward was expecting 15k.
Must be the smallest crowd at a senior Dublin football match since a few years ago bitterly cold day/stormy/rainy etc in the league which clashed with a big Rugby game.
But this time the weather was grand, was it because it was on telly?
Was a strange one alright.
He's a number 9 to us in the same way Pat Gilroy was a water carrier.
Only thing that threw me about his performance was the 9 on his back.
I wonder what Dessie’s logic was naming him at 9 and then playing him in his normal spot. Did he think it would confuse the Rossies?
Happy with the two points anyway, looked like it could be another collapse at one stage.
Thought Con had his best game in a while
Better second half clearly ,we were far too slow on our build up in the first plus hit some poor wides .We will have our work cut out against Kerry and Derry by the looks of things .Nothing really new stood out for me with the lads getting a bit more game time .
We were very lucky with their denied goal
Roscommon defense is wide open here.
There for the taking with a bit more zip going forward
Similar story for Dublin, better team, race into a lead, get hauled back..
I'd believe that the vibrancy is trained out of players so as to suit the coaches
I had completely forgotten about the Rossie match tandem permutations to be honest. Only for Joanne Cantwell mentioned Dublin drew with them in Championship on League Sunday
I expected Dublin to win that quarter final however things fell very nicely for Dublin last year.
Worth remembering Dublin was a Conor Cox missed free away from finishing 2nd in their group and Mayo really messed up not topping their group after their win in Kerry.
The Quarter final whereby it could have been Dublins 3rd match in three weeks v a rested Mayo would be a lot different.
The hurlers are a little off the top tier counties and i feel beating Wexford to the the third place in Leinster round robin is probably the best we can hope for this year.
Decent two opening league games. Some nice football played in both. Wouldn't worry in the slightest about two narrow losses. Blow the dirty petrol out early. Try new lads see if their up to it. Loads lads to come back in like Cluxton, Murch, Fitz, J Small, McCarthy, Howard.
Be nice to see Con get back to his best form.
Anything less than an All Ireland win is going to be a disappointing year.
Kerry are the one team i'd have my doubts against. I see they are All Ireland favourites. Probably will be between us again.
Derry and Donegal will be dangerous.
Who knows with Galway and Mayo.
Great to have the games back. Seems to have come around so quick of last years All Ireland. Lots to look forward to.
It seems a long way from the days where top Dublin forwards could be injured for a few months, and it was so seamless, style of play did not change.
I honestly used to forget about the injured player until he came back! Then you were wondering who should be left out. Not like that now.
That is starting to look like to me, but then I didn't give Dublin much of a hope last year when drawn v Mayo in that AIQF so what do I know?
There does not seem to be a single team out on their own at the moment, so a team with smart game management could still sneak an AI.
I feel the team needs a spark a young attacking player with fearless exuberance, thinking Jayo 1995 he transformed the mood of the Dublin camp back then when it was full of auld fellas, or an Alan Brogan type from about 2003.
Something to lift the team crowd cheers when he gets the ball in anticipation that something is going to happen. Con used to do that but his role seems to have changed?, before him it was Connolly. I suppose you could even Connolly role changed at the tail end of his career going for those pinged longrange passes, sitting deep.
A flair player I suppose you would call it, the type who runs at defences and you don't know what he is going to do next.
Has the vibrancy being trained out of players? Or are they just not being produced these days? More concerned with "turnovers" and "possessions"?
Have to agree with you about Dublin hanging on.
Basquel and Costello were not good enough to get into the team during the glory days but are now the marquee forwards.
There isn't a single forward who would play ahead of Connolly, Flynn, the two Brogans, Andrews, O'Gara, Rock, McMenamon, etc. Kilkenny is past his peak and Con seems to have lost something. Mannion will be badly needed if Dublin are to make any headway this year.
Some are saying he will be back later but haven't heard anything official just here and there for a while now .
That's annoying if true.
They are very reliant on him no doubt, but they did OK against Derry last week without him.
There seems to be more talk of Pat Gilroy not involved this year .Big loss to us .
Thought McEneaney for Dublin was good (fisted miss aside)
I miss the old dublin when they where clinical and ruthless, very passive now and sloppy when in good positions. Maybe it will grow as the season goes on, but under gavin even in the league that had a brilliant ruthless edge to them.
Theo Clancy had very good debut I taught .
They are lucky David Clifford is rarely injured. in fairness though his brother Paudie and those Geaney's are no slouches.
There is definitely a real open feel bubbling up in this league div 1, you wouldn't be surprised if there is any kind of result in a match. As there is no teams miles ahead of the rest, where it is easy to call.
And there is no team with "aura" based on constant success. Sort of a power vacuum in football at the moment hard to say who will be the dominate football side in for the next five years.
Kerry, Tyrone, Derry, Mayo, Monaghan, Galway all at similar competitive levels. And I would expect Donegal to improve from div 2.
I am still waiting for some Dublin young lads to emerge that will keep Dublin in the mix, the type everyone is talking about. At the moment it feels Dublin are "hanging on" at the top level. Based on experience more than anything else.
Get the coddle and creatine into those young fellas quick!
Kerry have Clifford the whole thing revolves around him. If you took him out that team they would fall apart.
Interesting to see Kerry decisively beating Monaghan on the road. Typical Monaghan on one level, rarely put two good back to back performances together.
Agree with comments above that Roscommon and Galway best opportunités for wins then probably Tyrone. Dublin have given up beating Kerry in the league, terrible recent record.
We don't believe in that approach in Mayo. We like to settle early in the season, go all guns blazing, and then let the weeds grow in the crunch part of the season !!😥
Galway were very poor last week. Made Mayo look good. I expect Roscommon to give them a good going over today - that's if Ros put out their full-strength team.
For Dublin, it looks like they will be depending on getting a home win against Roscommon, and a win in Galway to get 4 points. And then probably looking for one win from Kerry (in Croke Park), Derry (away) and Tyrone in Croke Park. Any of those three games could go either way. I don't think they will beat Derry in Derry. For the Kerry match, the Croke Park element doesn't phase Kerry. They have played there several times, and don't get phased by it. And the Cliffords are due back then too and fresh after a nice break for themselves. So the Tyrone match will probably be the most winnable from those 3 matches. It could be a slog for Dublin. Or it could turn out they could win all of the games. That's the great thing about the league in comparison to the championship. The championship has generally become predictable, until you get to the semi-finals. THere will generally be a shock or 2 along the way, but it is more the exception than the rule.
