Dublin GAA Discussion Thread MOD WARNING POST #2944

My jaysis wasn't it cold in Croker? - was out of the house for 8 o clock yesterday morning bringing the young lads to the Dublin development trials and for the 1st time in memory rather than going home afterwards and coming back in, I waited for the turnstiles to open in Croker. Sat in the Cusack doin my frostie the snowman impression, warmed slightly early on by Derrys performance and in particular Lynch & McKaigue. That glow quickly abated when our match started - 15 strangers on the field getting to know one another while Cork just sniped and darted around them. I've always had an admiration for Corks forward play but couldn't appreciate their finer points yesterday while lost and befuddled at the total lack of organisation in the Dublin ranks. My mood wasn't helped by the late arrival of the crowd next to me, who unlike me had a nice Sunday dinner of I'd say a gallon pints while watching the soccer and their sole contribution was tellin me yer man is "phukinshih" .. O'Mahony phukinshih, Whelan phukinshih.

My halftime routine when there's a small crowd in Croker is generally to spot a few vacant spaces in the Hogan and wander over there to aid the quick getaway at fulltime. I knew if I started to wander yesterday I'd keep going out the Jones' Road into the car with heater full blast and home, the Hogan was in complete shadow so it was gonna be colder than the Cusack, for better or worse I nailed me arse to the seat and strapped on the seatbelt for what I expected to be more of the same 2nd half.... the rest is history... I didn't see that coming... I even hugged yer man when Connolly scored ... certainly didn't see that coming

Random thoughts ... we might be a bit more circumspect in criticising stand in goalkeepers (Supple, Savage and Currie), when the best out there adds their own clanger to the hall of shame.

Cian O' Sullivans absence yesterday had a knock on effect of 3-4 guys playing in positions not suited to their style of play.

MDM when he switched on was the heart and soul of Dublin football he pulled each and every player by the lugs to give another 20%.

Diarmuid Connolly can fill the gap left this year by the greatest of them all as the ginger headed one recuperates in Killarney - marmite to some but the finest footballer in this country left on 2 legs

Eoghan O'Garas improvement is immeasurable compared to the bambi on ice we saw a couple of years ago - nothing better demonstrated how far he's come than the point he scored turning back in on his left to clip it over the bar.

I purposely haven't called for O'Gara to start every match in light of a comment I heard yesterday - that Jim Gavin likes for his strongest 15 players to be on the field at the end of every match. Eoghan O' Gara should finish every match.

Finally to finish, I thought there were 3 worthwhile comments from respected analysts of the game - Eugene McGee said that he doubts there's a team that can beat Dublin over 70 minutes, while there are those that can beat them for prolonged periods of general play in a game.

Colm O'Rourke remarked that Dublin are head and shoulders above all the other challengers

and Vincent Hogan ended his article with the simple closer "For now, it's Dublin's world . The rest of us just live in it."

Come to think of it 12 hours out the house and frostbite in my toes was all worth it yesterday

Gary Neville wrote: »

Cork are a side with good forwards but a very weak MF and an unsettled defence.
Dublin would not have come back against a battle hardened outfit like Donegal.

Eh....'scuse me...were you not in Ballybofey last April? I sure as heck was.

I seem to remember a Dublin team (that was lacking a lot of its superstars) having the bottle to come back from a 3 pt deficit and, grit out an injury time draw, against a full strength, very much battle hardened Donegal squad. That result cemented Dublins spot at the top of Division One and consigned Donegal to Division Two.

At the end of the season, Jim Gavin specifically mentioned it as a game that showcased Dublins mental toughness, that they would not have won the AI without. Add in another Celtic Cross picked up along the way and its safe to say that this Dublin team don't ever, ever give up or capitulate.


.....And in other news....yes, I froze my giblets off in Croke Park too. That lovely warm bar at the Canal End (with the toasty rads that you can warm your frozen fingers and toes on) was crying out my name, all afternoon long. But I just couldn't bear being that far away from the action.

Cork will be there or thereabouts, make no mistake. They'll learn from Sunday.

Hi I am looking some advice.

I will be moving to dublin within next couple of weeks and I am looking to get an appropriate Football club in the stillorgan area. I know kilmacud are there however I want to be sure I go to someone that is right for my level.

I played senior club football then intermediate club football for my club in Tyrone for the last 10 years. I was never close to county standard but I would have been okay on the club scene. I would like to continue playing football down here.

Anyone any helpful advice.

Thanks

heard from a friend that ciaran kilkenny is making unbelievable progress with his acl injury and could play before the summer is out

TheBomber14 wrote: »

heard from a friend that ciaran kilkenny is making unbelievable progress with his acl injury and could play before the summer is out

Your friend is seriously misinformed. Ciaran only had his operation last week. It will be a long time before he can walk without the aid of crutches and a cast, never mind do any serious rehab work on his knee. We won't see him at all for the rest of the year.

keane2097 wrote: »

Same friend that told you about Seamus Scanlon?

yeah the very same fella actually, howd you know

premierstone wrote: »

Just incase any of the Dubs get some false hope from Bombers ramblings, please note that

a) he has no friends
b) he knows about as much about football as I do about astrology
c) Ciaran Kilkenny is definitly out for the entire year and
d) bomber will be back to school next week and things can get back to normal around here!

libellous comments, ur lucky i didnt report you! i apologise for my comment about ciaran kilkenny, was only going off what one of my mates was saying,!..

I find myself in Longford for the weekend so I'm heading to Pearse Park to see the Minors, should be a good chance to see some upcoming talent.

Cavan have been dominating this game so far but haven't showed much for it on the scoreboard only leading 7 points to 5 at halftime

Dubs win by a point.

Dublin by far the best team, on another day they'd have won by 10 points, need to be more clinical in future though.

Cavan players and management were a disgrace after the game.

Slattsy wrote: »

Dubs win by a point.

Dublin by far the best team, on another day they'd have won by 10 points, need to be more clinical in future though.

Cavan players and management were a disgrace after the game.

The referee however was a disgrace during the game

Slattsy wrote: »

Dubs win by a point.

Dublin by far the best team, on another day they'd have won by 10 points, need to be more clinical in future though.

Cavan players and management were a disgrace after the game.

Imagine all the work they put in to be beaten by the referee? He didn't even play enough added time. 2 minutes and 1 minute if it was spent with a Dublin player lieing on the ground.

McHugh scored the equalising point and should have been off the pitch for a black card.

Cry me a river lad.

fta93 wrote: »

Whether McHugh should have got black or not is a moot point. He was having his jersey quite clearly pulled by the Cavan man in possession. It's not even a yellow.

Don't think the ref did too badly. Maybe the black for the Cavan forward was harsh, looked like he fell/slipped into the tackle. Advantage was correct at the end, rule says he's entitled to bring it back 5 seconds later. On the injury time thing, Timekeeping shouldn't be in the refs hands.

Scenes at the end weren't nice at all. Why would you want to be a referee only to be abused like that?

Was he pulled down by the Cavan man? No, he pulled the Cavan man down. That's a black card offence. Not the jersey pulling. Should have been a black card and Costelloe was lucky also.

Cavan's best forward however was given a black card the minute the referee got a chance.

The free was a soft free. Even Dublin supporters would admit that. The ones I spoke to at the game did.

In regard to timekeeping, he has to be aware that a minute of the short two minutes had been wasted. There was no reason for him to blow up and deny Cavan the chance for one last attack given how close the game was.

Referees that put themselves in situations like that don't help. Those players have put in huge effort and the referee has had a huge bearing on their exit.