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

Darragh O’Se , a legend of the game, lamenting the Munster championship over in the Irish Times this morning. That tallies with years of reports lamenting drops in attendance. Yet we have posters here telling us the Dubs should be filling Croker

That used to be a game that any Cork fan could at least dream about. Kerry have well and truly killed the Munster championship by this stage. Yet we have posters who won’t even countenance rotating Kerry and Dublin between Leinster and Munster

apparently everything’s grand apart from Dublin. The rest are “Just good”

I am worried though. Think of the Dublin players- I want them to have them to have the option of winning an All-Ireland fairly. They can't achieve this dream without being split.

It's not actually relevant where he's from as arguments stand on their own merits. But in this case you already know the answer- yes, he is from a county that would benefit from Dublin being split, as all counties benefit! So if he is from Dublin or Leitrim or any one in between, he is from a county that benefits from Dublin being split.

You are not being serious. Kerry is smaller in population than Cork or Limerick, no rational person could imply that they have a population advantage.

You are right in the sense that the momentum for a split is just not there at the moment. It was building in 2019-20, there was a lot of attention to Dublin's unfair advantages both in general discussions but also discussions on the Sunday Game, Prime Time etc. but it has died off for now. Doesn't mean it shouldn't happen though, for the good of the game.

Dont think it ever had momentum, and there is no way it can be said to be for 'the good of the game'. It can be for the good of attendances for a handful of championship matches.

My own view fwiw is that the All Ireland championships is a small part of what the GAA is about, the game is absolutely thriving at club level - far from the crisis that some punters would have us believe.

Very bitter anti Dublin crazy old men shouting at the wind 😂

Ahh FFS there is a hell of a difference of Kerry people not travelling from Dingle, Kenmare, Tralee, Killarney to Croke Park in Dublin for a match and dubs not walking down the road to a match.

is that why attendance are dying in the Munster championship?

This argument is going round in circles for years at this stage and at the same time the football championship is going down the toilet.

Firstly Dublin have an unfair advantage, which definitely wasn't helped by government funding, in that they have the playing population, the massive fanbase and they have the local financial clout in backing clubs and resources.

Added to that they have all their players and other resources like medical and rehabilitation in small geographic area which most other counties do not.

Frankly arguing that they don't have all these advantages is idiotic.

And yes the arguments Dubs make about other counties also have advantages over their neighbours holds true, but to a lesser extent.

Arguing that Mayo, Galway haven't advantages over Leitrim and Sligo is equally idiotic.

So unless we have splits and amalgamations then really the county model of championship is doomed as the gulfs between counties is growing year on year with Dublin being the most stark example of this.

And no counties wants to amalgamate no more than Dublin wants to split.

So what is the future?

I think ultimately the county model may be doomed and we have to resort somehow back to idea of club somehow.

The other thing that is now depressing is the state of the actual football game.

I tried to watch early part of Dublin-Meath and after a while it was just plain old boring.

Even Dublin with the calibre of forwards they have were trying to work the ball into positions where they couldn't miss.

Players of the past like Maurice Fitzgerald, Ciaran McDonald, Colm Corkery would probably be shot for taking on a long range efforts.

It is now keep ball and bloody boring.

Oh yeah I know some people who revel in analysing the tactics, but really who wants to watch 10 or 20 hand passes with the odd kick pass of 10 or 20 yards when the ball is out near the half way line.

I know this is a different argument, but the actual game needs serious review if people are to not tune out altogether.

I don't know what game you were watching, but some of the football on display in the last two Dublin games - against Derry and Meath - was of the highest quality.

If you want to go back to the borefests of the 1980s and 1990s, off with you.

I mean they can all say "Well, the unfairness isn't my fault, it is the GAA's". They can truthfully say that for sure. But they can't truthfull say "This was a fairly won medal". You'd have to ignore the population, funding, home pitch advantages etc if you were to say the second statement.

but they’re just good right 😉

Another cracker! Keep the Dublin wit coming, we need some humour in this thread. I'm enjoying it.

The issue with other counties in funding, population etc. is that yes, there are discrepancies between other counties but they are so small compared to Dublin vs anyone else, that they are basically negligible for as long as Dublin are a single team. There's a population gap between Galway and Leitrim- but if we were to address that, it's also far more pressing to deal with Dublin first. Same for funding and any other unfair advantage that Dublin enjoy. Dublin have all these advantages in combination, plus the scale is off the charts vs every other county, plus the duration is now decades, even for funding alone. So disputing that Dublin are not uniquely unfairly advantaged just will not wash.

I do find it bizarre that some Dublin supporters cannot even admit that these are advantages, even if they don't agree with some of the measures being proposed. This thread was set up because every other thread involving Dublin GAA would eventually just become a discussion on Dublin's unfair advantages. What is strange is that even in this thread specifically to discuss Dublin's advantages, some Dublin supporters cannot even bring themselves to admit to them but will instead try to divert the thread to dozens of irrelevant topics. Rather than discuss the point of the thread i.e., "The dominance of Dublin GAA". As a neutral who wants to help the GAA in all counties, I just cannot understand that level of partisan bias. Even from a purely selfish point of view, do Dublin supporters really want the All-Ireland to go the way of the once great Leinster Championship? Where All-Ireland finals get maybe 20k people if lucky?

Maybe the county model is doomed. Maybe even splitting Dublin into four is too little, too late. But we should at least try it, if not for Dublin we would have an essentially fair competition. But perhaps a return to Club Football will be the way to go after that; we would not see the best 15 players in each county competing on the same team though in that case.

I agree football is far worse as a spectacle too- too much handpassing, diving, "safe" shots. No high fielding. Blanket defences being the norm for all the top teams, including Dublin despite what gormdubhgorm has falsely claimed. It's just not as good a sport anymore. Maybe along with a split of Dublin and some other reforms, and a few rule tweaks, we can get back to a decent sport, but it is unlikely.

Kerry have won one senior All Ireland in the last decade, as have Tyrone. This is normal and they are not a problem.

We want to split Dublin as it is unfair, and that includes people from counties that are not going to win All Irelands one way or the other.