Dublin GAA Discussion Thread: Mod Note - No 'Dublin Dominance' chat allowed!

I would be expect Dublin to beat any of the above, possibly with the exception of Galway.

Anyway - time will tell.

It's a one horse race me thinks , Kerry are up there on there own , 87 Munster titles now that's what you would call , " it's not a proper competition" .

What winds me up whatever about Dublin’s lack of two pointers . Why don’t they get ball into the forwards quicker and run with the ball? That to me is when Dublin look dangerous. Running at teams get Bugler on the ball, Basquel.

Instead they seem to focus on defensive structure, and do loads of sideways and backwards stuff. It’s starting to annoy me at this stage. Because it seems to be a definite pattern. I wonder is it a planned tactic or is it the players afraid to take any risks ?

ah no, I think Armagh could beat them, possibly Donegal also.

Donegal will beat them in next round.

I say that as a Kerry man.

Too many players injured or not match fit.

Donegal are at peak condition except maybe Langan.

Kerry might beat them later in the summer if they get players back and fit. That's assuming they get through. Lots of potential banana skins en route.

Nobody stopping that Kerry team this year , in a knock out game that matters .

As i said in games that matter , no one will touch Kerry, they have the squad to deal with injuries, Sam is staying in Kerry, if your a betting man bet big on Kerry winning the All Ireland .

Easy money.

Will Dublin be feeling the pressure in this Leinster final - expected to win etc? Westmeath won't have any expectations from the general GAA fan anyway.

I was having a look at the Dublin team that lost to Westmeath in that Leinster QF 2004.

Bryan Murphy

Barry Cahill, Paddy Christie, Paul Griffin

Shane Ryan, Darren Magee, Peadar Andrews

Ciaran Whelan (captain), Darren Homan

Conal Keaney, Bryan Cullen (0-1), Colin Moran (0-1)

Alan Brogan (0-4), Jason Sherlock (0-4), Senan Connell (0-2, 2f)

Subs used: Ray Cosgrove for Keaney; Coman Goggins for Homan (inj.); Declan Lally for Cullen; Tomás Quinn for Moran.

:-:

Sure Dublin had a Kerryman in goal - that was a bad omen for a start!

All the same I was thinking if that Dublin line up played the current Dublin team. That 04 team would beat the 26 team. Would clean them out in midfield.

No Armagh

I have a suspicion that a lot of people are overplaying how good Louth are, fair enough tgey won Leinster last year, mostly though some dubious calls on day by referee, who let’s face it were always going to get 50:50 after 2010 especially playing Meath and Meath team being very young and naive, they rely on a lot of place balls and if they don’t get rub of green off refs they usually are in trouble to score much. They still haven’t beaten a county that’s top8 in championship over the past 3 seasons.

Ok thats all fair.

But when I say competitive - what I mean is, there are more competitive games AND they are games of consequence. Take Waterford; they are nowhere near the top of that list but

(i) they have been really competitive in every game they've played; they lost to last years all Ireland champs by a point.

(ii) More to the point, every game they play matters.

Thats not true of the football championship, until much later in the competition.

In fact, going back to it - the odds in the hurling reflect the games that have happened already. Cork and Limerick are favourites because they are winning out in Munster. And Galway third, because they beat Kilkenny.

Tipp are all Ireland champs, but they are 5th favourites because they lost to Cork. They have much harder route now. (I cant work out though why Clare are ahead of them though).

Whereas in football, the top 5 list is as it was at the start of the year. Donegal are second favourites, they've lost a game but it made no difference to their odds. If they lose to Kerry they will still be second favourites then. Likewise Galway.

So I think those odds dont tell the full picture. If you looked at the odds for hurling at the start of the championship, thats not how it would have looked (well i dont think anyway - stand to be corrected).

I just found out that John Heslin will be back on the Westmeath panel before the Leinster Final.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2026/0512/1573047-heslin-set-for-dramatic-westmeath-return-reports/

No need for Westmeath to take it that seriously, give us a chance !

Brian Fenton (who knows Heslin from UCD) has a theory that Heslin won’t play any part in the Final. But that Heslin is being used to replicate Con O’Callaghan in training -

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2026/0513/1573182-fenton-suspects-heslin-helping-westmeath-to-prep-for-con/

“Immediately the thing that comes to mind with John Heslin is maybe they brought him in to replicate a Dublin player. Maybe they brought him in because he's big and strong and powerful to replicate a potential Con O'Callaghan or something like that. Just something different.”