Dublin GAA Discussion Thread MOD WARNING POST #2944

Deleted User wrote: »

Its hard to see past Dublin year after year with the squad depth and resources and professionalism they now have. If they get a black card they can bring on a replacement just as good. The only way Dublin will lose any All Irelands over the next several years is through over confidence. Hopefully Cork with their population and resources can emerge to provide competition in years to come, otherwise we could be looking at a very boring Kilkenny type of scenario.

I really hate the way this generation of Dublin players are just casually written off as the logical eventuality of "population" and "resources".

Deleted User wrote: »

The big problem with Mayo and most other low population counties is their squad depth. Even if they do well and do manage to adapt to a more defensive structure they only have to lose a couple of players through injury or black cards and they would not be able to compete with Dublin. The replacements are simply not there or good enough. They have massively overachieved over the past several years by getting as far as they did unfortunately its close to the end for many with lower quality replacements to come in.

Its hard to see past Dublin year after year with the squad depth, resources and professionalism they now have. If they get a black card they can bring on a replacement just as good, black cards don't hurt Dublin. The only way Dublin will lose any All Irelands over the next several years is through over confidence. Hopefully Cork with their population and resources can emerge to provide competition in years to come, otherwise we could be looking at a very boring Kilkenny type of scenario for the next decade.

Whole championship structure needs to be changed. A severe drop in attendance will be the only thing that gets the GAAs hierarchy moving. Otherwise it will be more of the same as you say. People will get bored. There needs to be a more equitable exciting system. Also funding should be pooled and more given to the small counties Louth and Leitrim etc.

When was the last time they cut the grass in McHale Park?

JRant wrote: »

If they cut the grass any tighter the pitch would have been completely destroyed from cutting up.

Yeah true, just watching it again and some serious tufts out there!

JRant wrote: »

It's going to be a real nightmare for the hurlers this year. I'd say a lot of pitches will be like that.

Heavy on the legs but at least they dont have to hop the ball!!

Mayo were very good defensively, did a great job keeping Andrews and Mannion quiet.

Very tight game both teams struggled to score with the wind, don't think there was a goal chance in the game , thought it was a hard game to ref, but Boyle should have went earlier he was acting the pup and in the refs ear for the whole game .
Vaughan and Brady were at it for the whole game .
Higgins did well when he came on,

McCarthy playing the football of his life.
Showing great maturity and not getting hot headed . At one stage in the first half he held Boyle with one hand when things were kicking off.

The Mayo backs were very good at pressuring the Dublin forwards, they'll be hard to score against in the championship.

Mayo were vastly improved over last week. They'll be a different Kettle of fish by the time the championship kicks off.

They need to figure out how and where to play AOS , would not like another game of is it or isn't it barging again. Thought Fitz was solid enough at 3 again, he's had two good tests now and he's doing well.

It was good game to watch as players coped well with the conditions. Will have been worth weeks of training to both teams I would say.

A word of caution on Mayo going defensive. It may have been a reaction to hiding by Cork and wishing avoid similar, but I don't think it suits them. Over past few years ultra defensive teams (Derry, Down, Monaghan) have given Dublin close games in league but have been destroyed in the Summer - by other teams not Dublin - as you won't get away with what you do on a slow pitch in February when the sun is out and the ground is fast.

corny wrote: »

I really hate the way this generation of Dublin players are just casually written off as the logical eventuality of "population" and "resources".

I hear you. Typical chip on the shoulder mentality. There wasn't much talk about population advantages from 1985 through till the emergence of the recent golden generation.
Kilkenny certainly don't have any population advantge and they have dominated hurling for a long time now in an amazing fashion.

Deleted User wrote: »

You can only state in those years they massively underperformed and underachieved. There is almost 1.3 million people in Dublin with a much younger population ratio than anywhere else, thats ten times most other counties. If they don't win an All Ireland year after year its because they have underachieved and haven't made the most of what they have available.

To use the soccer analogy its like the Irish, Welsh or Scottish soccer team trying to compete with the English team.

Dublin might get caught out by the odd team with massive hunger or a once in a generation group of players from another county but in the most they should be top most years. No Excuses!!.

Its not something to feel guilty or attack posters about as there is nothing Dublin can do about it, but it is a reality.

The reality is your so fascinated,with Dublin you post more in the Dublin forum, than the Mayo forum,wind up merchant methinks!!

Nice to hear Tomas O' Shea say this evening he thought this generation are probably our best ever and that he loves watching them play. Whelan and Lyster gave him stick that he was blowing smoke up our arses but he wasn't.

ProudDUB wrote: »

ROTFLMAO !!!!

He does in his hole love watching us play.... lol !!!!

Corny, what is WRONG with you ???

Ha ha. Why do say that? I'm sure he's not overly enamoured with us when we beat Kerry but its hardly far fetched to say Dublin play an attractive brand of football that purists might appreciate.

He's hardly threatened by us either with 5 All Ireland medals and 5 All stars in his arse pocket.

You could also note that in our last qualifying soccer games , five Dublin soccer players started, one scot and two Englishmen. So out of 8 Irishmen 5 were from Dublin.

It's a fair point, I've nothing against mayo at all but when was the last time a Mayo man lined out for Ireland in soccer? I won't do the same for rugby because I know so little about it.

This was always the case though, once in the 70's when Dublin were all Ireland champions they fielded 11 Dublin players in the international soccer team. So that's not new

Huge parts of Dublin don't play any GAA.

My own area in north city centre more or less lost its club, joined up with a team 5KM up the road and the school has no hurling and little football in it anymore. The pitch we played on is gone too, sold for development.

If you don't believe me Mayomaffia I'll pm you more details.

The big advancement has been in hurling teams imo, the teams on the southside have grown significantly.

Also looking at our football teams. Largely its the same old clubs producing the players that were around years ago, there's four or five lads with fathers who won all Ireland's on the team. Rock, Brogan, McCaffery, McCarthy. Same old established clubs, same old schools. That's tradition. Every manager for Dublin I remember that won All Ireland's had one as a player and that's five different managers. I think four of the five were from Vincent's.

These new big areas do not have a tradition of GAA in them, many have no teams. No history of the game, no heros, that is essentially what the game was built on, your school, parish and area, many of the newer areas in Dublin have no identity.

There is an estate near me, 2200 housing units, no club, no pitch, Zero representation with the nearest clubs.

When we won the all Ireland in 1995 I think Dave Foran was on the squad, I could be wrong but I think he was the only player from tallaght on the team, that area at the time had more people in it than north side Dublin. That would be teams like Na Fianna, Vincent's, Ballymun Kickhams etc, Parnell's they are the same old clubs now. The tallaght lads had Carruth as a hero followed by our best soccer players of a generation Dunne, Keane, Duff.

There has been huge growth and some new lads coming in from the traditional south side clubs too. Dublin have a decent hurling team now.

We have advantages but saying we have 1.3 in the same way mayo have 100k is way off the mark. We have more people playing the game alright, we also have more country people and foreign people here too.
Where I grew up in Dublin in the 1980s
every direct neighbour I had was from the country, kildare, Kerry, Cork Letrim.

Throw in Cork , Meath, Cavan, Mayo Monaghan and that what I can remember from an estate with 50 houses, off hand that I knew of.

I spent lots of time in the West of Ireland growing up, I was lucky. Football was the only game in town and if you weren't from the area you were a blow in.

Counties like Meath and kildare get stick about population too, but a lot of the increase is into new areas with no tradition of GAA, it will take years for those counties to start to get players from these areas.

The finances should be looked at though.

But take Ballymun Kickhams as an example. A club set up by country men that wanted to play football.

It nearly went under a few years ago, nothing happening. Then some if the older lads from the area, Paddy Christie etc got the show back on the road. They have three starters on the team now. Had there been no tradition of the GAA there the club might have died.
Look back at the teams from the 1970s it's about 80% the same clubs and schools being represented.

We are lucky with our manager now too.
In 2013 Dublin beat Mayo by 1 point. Higgins the man mentioned as your most inspirational player was left marking an injured Dublin player, our full back thought it was still 2011 , our corner back had lumps knocked off him. Mayo's line and management messed up that day. They've messed up since against Kerry and in 2012 was there for them too, nothing to do with Dublin.
As you know I'm a big fan of the Mayo team, had you won in 2013 we wouldn't be posting here now, that's how close it is. In 2012 Donegal beat Mayo, Mayo have beaten them well twice since, the chances were there. IMO the leadership just didn't get it right.

Good post Stoner.

Minor correction Dave Foran as far as I recall was actually from Greenhills. He, Paul Bealin (Kevins) and Ciaran Walsh (St. Annes) all lived within about 100 yards of one another!

Local club is Emmets but they all played for Tallaght teams.

Good point about low participation rates. That applies to all sports in urban areas, not just GAA in Dublin and is symptom of social breakdown in my opinion. Only a minority of young fellas play any sport now. It is different in rural areas where there is less of a breakdown in family and communities and people see the club as central to all of that. You could play minor for Dublin here and no-one would know!

Stoner wrote: »

..............

But take Ballymun Kickhams as an example. A club set up by country men that wanted to play football.

It nearly went under a few years ago, nothing happening. Then some if the older lads from the area, Paddy Christie etc got the show back on the road. They have three starters on the team now. Had there been no tradition of the GAA there the club might have died.
Look back at the teams from the 1970s it's about 80% the same clubs and schools being represented.
..................

Cracking post Stoner ..would you believe that Paddy Christie was only a young fella when he recognised we'd taken our eye off the development of our underage players - himself, Val Andrews and Declan Small are probably the reason the club is still alive. The slow slide began late 80's, meltdown in early 90's - it hit me particularly hard - I had to go to Erins Isle to hurl :rolleyes: