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

You can't coach tradition. Even the recent Dublin team were probably not amazing natural footballers overall but they were drilled like army by a great manager. Fully committed, disciplined super athletes following a system of play. Kerry may have been in transition in the middle of that but they always come back at some stage.

we have taught the same for years and went close to beating them , its the system they have at club level that works though and very few counties will copy it

for example when the cliffords reached adult level the club they played for were junior b , if this happened in any other county they wouldnt be playing adult football if they were good at soccer or any other sport , its quiet possible they might not bother playing senior because the club they play for is so far down the pecking order

because they have the divisional championship it means they can bring through players to senior football from all grades , in clare clubs have lost several players of intercounty standard because they couldnt be arsed continuing with junior or poor intermeatite teams they grew up with some have transferred to other counties or just played hurling

I'm from Kerry.

We're obsessed.

We practice in the garden or against the wall from a young age.

I did it from the age of 10 and I was a "mullicker".

Clifford wasn't born like that. It's 1000s of hours of practice at home. He obviously has the genetics also.

If you read Gooch's autobiography, you'll get a sense of how much practice they put in.

Dublin had brilliant footballers.

They had everything really. Tough defenders, skilful forwards.

Athletes in the middle 8.

Diarmuid Connolly is as talented as anyone to play the sport.

Con, Brogan, Jack, Kevin Mc.

All brilliant.

If Dublin aren't bothered winning Leinster next year Kildare will.

Lol no.

I did all the same practice but was just a mullicker.

Genetics and natural talent matter also.

A lot of our great players come from South Kerry also so I think there's something in the water there.

Even Clifford's dad is from South Kerry.

No, Meath and Kildare fans hate eachother more then they hate Dublin.

Kerry were weak in that period and lucky to win in 2014, but we knew talent was coming.

We've a small population so will always have cycles.

Not to denigrate the Dub's achievements, but lots of counties were at a low ebb in that period.

The game is much healthier now.

I'd like to see other traditional counties like Cork, Down, Kildare, Offaly etc improve also.

Just a few comments on what was a great weekend of football.
Firstly we have to remember that all the entertainment we enjoyed was produced by eighty amateur players most of whom will be back in work licking their wounds tomorrow morning.
On Donegal v Monaghan I thought Monaghan did really well for the first half until Donegal finally woke up and produced the football that they are capable of. Murphy is inspirational. And that result was what I expected.
On Dublin and Tyrone I always thought that Tyrone had the edge with the “ dog “ they normally bring to their game and without Dublin having a fully fit “ Con “

On the two matches today I was absolutely delighted to see a young and upcoming Meath team beat Galway. Having gone ahead in the second half, being pegged back and yet having the resilience to dig in, stem the attack and come back to win will surely stand to this team. They are a fine young side with big skilful players who have a great future. While it hasn’t been mentioned any I don’t know the dynamics of Meath football I suspect that this year’s results for Meath must have been built around the foundation laid by the great Colum O Rourke over the last few years. .
And finally to Armagh v Kerry . While I thought that in the previously mentioned matches the favourites were likely to win the one favourite I would have put my confirmation money on for a win was Armagh. Not taking from the Kerry performance but where was the McGeeney battle edge that Armagh normally produce. Such insipid defending to allow Seanie O Shey to waltz down the field and score two pointers at will would not be tolerated by McGeeny as a player and I don’t know why he couldn’t adapt a strategy to prevent it. Perhaps “ man marking “ is old hat and not longer cool.
Anyhow please excuse my ramblings and spelling mistakes and think of those forty loosing players who have to turn up for work in the morning.

Our population is 15th out of 32 so not too bad.

The northern counties would have a big protestant population also so their population is less really. For example Tyrone is 66% Catholic so their population of 188,000 is really 124,000 (I know some protestants play GAA, but not many.

Limerick, Tipp and Wexford are hurling.

Antrim have no football.

Galway and Cork are dual counties.

So in terms of actual Gaelic football population, we might be top 6 or 7 maybe. Not sure really.

But we lose lots of people as we've no city or university or a real jobs market.

I think one big difference is that in my day, nearly every boy played GAA and soccer and basketball. And if you were talented, you generally kept playing to Senior.

So we cast a wide net and don't lose too much talent.