Dublin GAA Discussion Thread MOD WARNING POST #2944

Shurrup Flukes. Don't be giving away all of our secrets.

I'm a big fan of Meaghers too. It's so big, it never seems as jammers as other pubs in the area & generally seems to be all Dubs people. Not that there is anything wrong with "visitors", but sometimes, you just want to be with your own.

I have fond memories of the place after the 2011 final. There was a rumour going around that the lads may bring the Sam in. (Was told that it was/is Tony Hanahoe's local and that is what the teams that he captained did, when they won silverware. I think that's how the rumour started.) It seems a daft idea now, but back in 2011, it's not like we had a lot of practice in knowing what to do after an AI win.

I think I ordered a large brandy to settle the tummy. It was in bits all day long with nerves. Then somebody arrived with a few bottles of champagne from the off license and the brandy was quickly forgotten about.

I love going to the Clonliffe House before the game. It's not exactly the most salubrious spot around, but I love the buzz from it being right at the heart of all the action. Also love standing outside it, about an hour before throw in, cold Corona in hand... suddenly you hear the sirens off in the distance, you see the flashing blue lights approach & the bright yellow high viz vests on the Guards. Then you hear it, the roar of the motor bikes of the Garda escort & then you see it, those magic words Dublin Senior Football Team lit up on the front of the bus. Your heart literally stops for a few seconds.

The bus stops, as the stewards remove the barrier at the bottom of Clonliffe Rd. You see the faces of a few of the players up close. You know they see you too, but they aren't really seeing you. Their minds are far, far away, focused on the field of dreams just up the road, but you raise your bottle anyway, in silent salute. Maybe one of these days, you'll get a nod back....

It never gets old.

Plenty of secret readers here Flukey.
The Kerry and Mayo lads read every scrap looking for evidence of our legendary cockyness to fuel a victory over our over hyped team

I suspect Yop and spegilite set up an RSS feed for the Mayo management team for immediate updates

Keane searches for any superlatives whatsoever to stick on the wall in killarney

Anyway
Word on the street is Barney Rock is back training with the senior panel. He was the best ever. He's lost a bit of speed but he's full of good ideas. We'll win with him. Unbeatable.

Disappointing minor semi-final today. We had the winning of it. We gifted them some scores, silly turnovers and the like. We have a lot of them that will still be minors next year, so there is scope to build on this.

The senior match was a cracker, best match of the year. To think too, that we should have beaten Galway on the first day. We were a lot better than the hammering they gave us in the replay. The pace of today shows us the level we have to get to at this stage of the year.

As for boozers, a couple of us ended up in the aforementioned Briody's, not for the first time let it be said. A few other Dubs there, and some others.

donkey balls wrote: »

Just heard that the match is sold out,I was checking out tickets.ie the other day and they only had upper tier and some Nally tickets left.
Just as well I have the Parnell pass really looking forward to the match.

This can't be true? I want to go but I'll be pissed off if this is sold out already. They rarely sell out this quick but then again it's the 2 best supported counties.

The really scary thing is how Andy Kettle, Dave Billings and Heffo are now working together. So we'll now have help with any high balls heading towards the heavens in midfield.

Flukey wrote: »

Disappointing minor semi-final today. We had the winning of it. We gifted them some scores, silly turnovers and the like. We have a lot of them that will still be minors next year, so there is scope to build on this.

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Both forward lines were carrying huge threat yesterday, I thought after Tipps initial ascendancy that the young lads settled down well and upto around the 40 min mark were just shading the game. Big problems then going scoreless for over 10 mins in a 60 minute game. Will be interesting to see how the youngsters develop - I thought Considine from Crokes has the hallmarks of being a big physical full forward in the years to come.

On a side note it was encouraging to see a good few northside clubs being represented again .. the likes of Na Fianna, Craobh Chiarain & of course the boys out in the sticks Maurs & Mearnogs. Nothing to be down about at all they gave it a good run

DoctaDee wrote: »

On a side note it was encouraging to see a good few northside clubs being represented again .. the likes of Na Fianna, Craobh Chiarain & of course the boys out in the sticks Maurs & Mearnogs. Nothing to be down about at all they gave it a good run

Funny, I was just thinking the very same thing during the team announcements. (I went in yesterday, to give my heart some good practice for the Mayo game. ) There were a couple of Whitehall lads on the team too, weren't they?

Should there be more tickets released? Sold out very quick.

CurryFlavoured wrote: »

Should there be more tickets released? Sold out very quick.

Dowrit ... only returns I'd say at this stage .. will be later next week before any light is shone on that tbh. Ticket office for PP holders only starts doling them out from next Tuesday

ProudDUB wrote:

Funny, I was just thinking the very same thing during the team announcements. (I went in yesterday, to give my heart some good practice for the Mayo game. ) There were a couple of Whitehall lads on the team too, weren't they?

I did the same took a count . Very even spread, good news for the county.

ProudDUB wrote:

I'd be curious to know if the Mayo Co Board are going to take up their full allocation of Hill tickets, like they did for the AI final back in 2013

They had the minors then too. Tip and Kildare will follow the traditional path I'm sure.
I'd say Kildare will get some support from Dublin.

Oasis_Dublin wrote: »

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Was there ever a time when northside clubs weren't represented on Dublin senior hurling teams?!?

I'd doubt it but off the top of my head the 2 Na Fianna lads - Barrett & Boland were the only representatives last time out v Waterford ?

Stoner wrote: »

No but there was a time that there were far more from the north side pointing at good development on the Southside and decline on the northside no ?

Eoghan Ruadh traditionally drew their players from the Stoneybatter area historicaly they had decent success and took players from church street to cabra cross were, they did well across all grades and genders even winning all Ireland senior camogie championships.
Very few players from that part of the city now.
The area produced hurlers like Joey Towell
http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=706.10;wap2

It's sad to see the decline in hurling in that part of the city , clubs like Finbarrs have brought things on but a large part of traditional northside Dublin hurling has declined imho. I guess like many areas if you plotted a graph of this vs the drop in Christian brothers teaching in the schools you'll find a pattern. But that's a different story!!!

Was it ten years ago or more that Ballynoden and O'Tools were contesting senior county championship finals regularly That was possibly a turning point I remember Ballyboden had something like 8 lads on the senior intercounty panel .

Since then the Southside clubs have produced some all star players and Dublin have picked up some silverware.

All in all it can only be good to get some of the other clubs producing more players that can compete at a higher level again.

Yeah the Larriers and Craobh provided decent numbers to the set up 15 years ago .. now with Mick Carton going there's no representative from O'Tooles. The only beacon Northside is Na Fianna, I think they're competing well underage (the only NS club to win minor titles recently) but really the focus this side of the water is football .. and thats just the way it is ..

Stoner wrote: »

Well the 61 team had about 7 lads Vincents. Franner Whelan from Eoghan Ruadh started too. Would be interesting to check that out. They lost to tip by 1 point in the AI final.

Ill look up the the breakdown on that team.

I'd be fairly confident that all around the NCR , Aughram street , Abour Hill , stoneybatter was mainly hurling for long periods.

You've just reminded me of the Foleys with Vins and Des in particular who played Railway Cup in both codes on the same day. .twas early 60 too

Stoner wrote: »

the line up on the day.
No clubs though . Jimmy Grey was from Galway. So we'd be looking for a breakdown of the outfield players. I dont know how many of the Vincent's lads were from Dublin, I assume 100% .

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I wouldn't have thought Jimmy Gray was a mudblood ? .... I remember reading only 1 true blue has an AI hurling medal the rest were mercenaries