The 2025 All Ireland Senior Football Championship (Sam Maguire Cup)

Well done to all the meath supporters and team. Must be some buzz beating dubs for the first time in 15 years. The ability to kick 2 pointers was key. Without Morris and Flynn as well.

Leinster final will be eagerly awaited especially meath and louth. Be great to see a big crowd, 30-40 thousand.

Would meath be slight favourites based on their long kicking ability?

I know they have the new system alright. It's the All Ireland qualification part that I think they need to reassess. Armagh v Tyrone, Dublin v Meath, Cork v Kerry and Galway v Roscommon - all 8 were qualified before throw in. If provincial finalists are all qualifying for the All Ireland as they are, there should at least be a playoff round for the 7 league qualifier spots.

Armagh and Meath can celebrate qualifying for the All Ireland. Tyrone and Dublin could have the banana skin of a playoff to negotiate.

It would be great to see Louth winning. Especially after 2010. It would be poetic justice.

People going on about how seismic the Meath win was yesterday. I'm not really buying that too much. A Dublin team that has fallen off the edge of a cliff in terms of quality with an overly cautious manager against a team who should have probably kicked on for division 1 promotion.

Lout by 3 for me.

🤣 Well played.

The bits of satisfaction and hope I get from yesterday.

1) It will hasten a Dublin revamp both on the sideline and on the pitch

2) I know well there are are a large cohort Meath supporters who could have gone to Portlaoise yesterday but didn’t bother. I would say they are sick they didnt go. But that support will suddenly appear for the Leinster Final v Louth.

3) However, I do think that Meath might be in for a land in the Leinster Final. Start of year I would have said Louth each way. Have been bubbling under for a few years now. Mulroy like a consistent version of Galway’s Shane Walsh. But I noticed now that the Mulroy supporting cast seem to have gone up a notch as well

4) I am very tempted to go to the Leinster Final. Should be a good match, would be also nice to see one of the Dublin managers in waiting. Which Brennan will it be though the former Kilmacud manager or the former Vincent’s Dublin player? 😉

You are spot on here. Plenty of Dub fans thought it was unfair on other keepers. As much as it pains me to say it. It is time Dublin moved on from Cluxton as a starter. Problem is he probably won’t hang around as sub keeper.

Also Cluxton does not even take frees for his club Pobal Parnell anymore. Two lads ahead of him.

It is funny that Dublin have suffered the same type of problem the aging Kerry 80’s team had. How many would need to dropped or kept on etc. Keeping a fella might strengthen the panel but block the progress of another player.
In that Micko documentary they mentioned how Bomber Liston was brought back starting, and it didn’t work.

With the new rules I feared we'd get a lot of one sided matches but that really hasn't happened and instead Meath managed to finally take out Dublin and Cork was damn close to doing the same against Kerry. Both of those two teams that weren't good enough to gain promotion to div 1 this spring lets not forget and does results like that highlight further that we don't have much a gap between Div 1 and Div 2 teams? Media are taking up certain teams such as Donegal,Galway though this is a wide open championship and another underdog like Armagh could go on to win the All Ireland this summer.

I think there's been an evening out of talent across the bigger counties.

I think they've all been copying each others underage structures and coaching for 20 years so there's not a big difference between counties.

Which is obviously great for the game.

I wouldn't write Dublin off yet. They got cleaned out in kickouts and also made lots of unforced errors.

That can be rectified.

I'm pretty sure Munster isn't an open draw, it's seeded based on the previous championship

Indeed it doesn't carry the same weight in gold , I've said it many times much harder winning Munster football titles in a Hurling county and having to play 3 matches to win an All Ireland.

The details from RTE.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2025/0429/1510150-explained-sam-maguire-and-tailteann-cup-draws/

You are massaging the facts there to suit your agenda led narrative.

Dublin have played numerous championship games outside Croke Park Super 8’s qualifiers etc etc and won handy.

As usual as is your modus operandi you are being sneaky and mealy mouthed in your posting re Dublin. Not mentioning money while mentioning it, as if it was a deciding factor you can’t say.

And sneakily limiting your criteria to Leinster Semi Finals which omit games such as the following Laois v Dublin 2016 in the Leinster QF etc It was in Nowlan Park where Laois were hammered in ice cream weather

https://amp.rte.ie/amp/793353/

You also neglected to mention (or not mention) the fact that Dublin are the only county in the Country forced to play away from their home ground Parnell Park for the greater good of Gaelic football.

You also neglect to mention that teams like Kerry /Tyrone/Mayo around 2006 much preferred the bigger pitch of CP than the tight pitch of Parnell. Kerry and Tyrone in particular were said to enjoy CP.

Dublin struggled in that wide Croke Park pitch for many a year. It was a disadvantage not to be able to play in Parnell. Much like how the Dublin hurlers thrive in Parnell, but struggle in Croke Park even now.

Also you also neglect to mention that the standard of Leinster is poor one div 1 team currently. As it was for the majority of the guts of 15 years. How many Leinster teams did well outside Leinster in that period?
If anything it took a Dub (Jim Gavin) to help Meath beat an average Dublin by rewriting (literally) the rules of Gaelic football.

I did address the issue I would argue for the most part it has been a DISADVANTAGE for Dublin being forced to play away from Parnell Park in Dublin’s GAA history.

Dublin’s home is Parnell Park tight pitch electric atmosphere. GAA HQ is Croke Park it is NOT Dublin’s home. Dublin have had to make do, for the sake of the GAA organisation, and not grumble.

Dublin do the Leinster Council and by extension the GAA a favour by playing in Croke Park. When asked.

Leinster has been so weak the last 10 years it wouldn’t have made a damn if Dublin had played those counties on the moon. Given Dublin’s superior football prowess, football intelligence and sklll.

Worse still, other Leinster teams have been extremely poor the last decade, as shown in the league and championship games against non-Leinster sides.

Leinster provincial football nearly resembled the Munster football championship (as low can get) for about a decade there.

But it is the norm for Munster. Little comment is ever passed on the Munster Championship. It took a pandemic and shortened AI along with Aussie Rules players forced to stay - to last dethrone Kerry in Munster.

The real issue is the lobsided nature of the provincial championships. But that does not suit your narrative.

Kerry have been playing in a hurling province since the foundation of the GAA. Well over 100 years. Easiest route to Sam STILL. Division 3/4 teams mostly. What other competition would have that structure?

Kerry (div1 Champs) AI favs will shortly be playing the mighty football force of Clare for the second year in a row in a final. A team who have not won Munster Football, in well over 30 years. Clare are div 3 plodders.

Does that devalue Mick O’Dwyer’s tenure as Kerry manager? Given the provincial advantages Kerry have had year in, year out. Waterford, Limerick, Clare, Tipp
As Paudi used to say they only “tuned in” for Cork, then Dublin,

Or the fact that other three provinces top teams never that advantage the same extent as Kerry in Munster or for as long, in the history of Gaelic Football?

That Parnell Park argument that gets trotted out is so disingenuous

The All Ireland semi finals and finals, along with quarters since 2002, have always been played at Croke Park

When you're a big county like Dublin, who's 95%+ likely to make that stage, then it's a yes it's a big advantage to have played a whole host of the much less important games there all year long in preparation

Might it cost Dublin a slightly more intimidating atmosphere in a league game? Yes but who cares. It's paid back 100fold when you're in Croker for an All Ireland semi and you've played there in preparation 10 times more than the opposition

Do you not like the facts I'm presenting? They seem to be making you uncomfortable but that's a you problem. Dublin footballers have only played in Parnell Park for 1 or 2 championship games in the past 50 years. That's a fact. An overwhelming number of peer reviewed studies have shown that playing matches at home is an advantage. That's a fact.

I think even some Dublin supporters have realised how unfair the advantages they've received have been as attendances at matches have decimated.

The Meath win is further proof that other counties have been wronged but the sad thing is that for some it will never be rectified. For example, Mayo would have had a few All Ireland's at least if they were playing Dublin in a neutral venue. Imagine if Mayo had been at home!