Leinster SFC 2023

[Captain Scarlet]

I know Dublin skew everything but as was pointed out already Kildare and Meath have to look at what is happening compared to Monaghan, Roscommon and other counties with smaller populations.
Like a Kildare man is managing the Rossies. Someone who openly wanted the job after delivering an U20 All Ireland.

[seafoid]

Leinster football is a closed shop. Dublin have won every title since 2011. Nobody can get within 10 points of them. Getting hammered every year is not conducive to team development.  Since 2011 Ros and Monaghan have won several provincial titles  but they aren't in Leinster 

[An Watcher]

Is this not the reason for the current format.  Irrespective of the leinster championship you can have a decent league campaign and compete against other counties for the Sam maguire.  Forget about leinster titles

[Armagh18]

Bullshit. Dublin are better than everyone obviously but drop them in to Ulster or Connacht and you'd have at least 3 teams in each being competitive with them. The other Leinster counties are pathetic, especially Meath and Kildare.

[seafoid]

Irish Times

Dublin's Leinster dominance
On only two occasions since 2011 have Dublin conceded more than one goal in a Leinster Championship match.
Damningly, since the retirement of, Ross Munnelly, last year, there is now no other active player outside of Dublin with a Leinster SFC medal to his name.

[Rossfan]

Kildare and Meath with their populations and strong economies and tradition in Meath's case ought to be at least as good regularly as Galway and Mayowestros.
Donegal a scattered mountain County with none of the advantages of Leinster Counties haven't done too badly last 10 or 12 years.
Laois, Offaly and Westmeath ought to be at least at Ros/Monaghan level.

Does the lack of any possibility of a Provincial title lead to hopelessness leading to lack of interested?

[Captain Scarlet]

Also, the league doesn't lie. Look at where Leinster counties are. Dublin was a major blip, but after that none can stay up.
Still there are some good days. Well done to Offaly at the weekend. It shouldn't all be about Meath being poor here in fairness.

[seafoid]

Kildare and Meath with their populations and strong economies and tradition in Meath's case ought to be at least as good regularly as Galway and Mayowestros.
Donegal a scattered mountain County with none of the advantages of Leinster Counties haven't done too badly last 10 or 12 years.
Laois, Offaly and Westmeath ought to be at least at Ros/Monaghan level.

Does the lack of any possibility of a Provincial title lead to hopelessness leading to lack of interested?

The new structure should help them with more matches against other counties .
They could even play development teams against Dublin in the Leinster championship.
They have to build momentum wherever possible.

[High Fielder]

Kildare and Meath with their populations and strong economies and tradition in Meath's case ought to be at least as good regularly as Galway and Mayowestros.
Donegal a scattered mountain County with none of the advantages of Leinster Counties haven't done too badly last 10 or 12 years.
Laois, Offaly and Westmeath ought to be at least at Ros/Monaghan level.

Does the lack of any possibility of a Provincial title lead to hopelessness leading to lack of interested?

Not sure why Laois should be at the same level as Roscommon and Monaghan. Similar sized counties but Laois has a much higher focus on hurling than either of those. Other factors of course too. A third of our population in one town and only one club in it who are financially broke. I could go on and on. Sufficed to say we're a mess

[Rossfan]

Are gaelic games a minority pursuit in the big Leinster towns generally?
One or two I'm somewhat familiar with have fine GAA clubs with loads of youngsters on Saturday mornings etc.
But all the young lads play soccer on the greens all week unlike in Ros where kick arounds are more often than not gaelic football.

[High Fielder]

End of the day Rossfan, Portlaoise serves no purpose to Laois, despite its population. If anything, they have acclimatised to what's around them and stopped dominating. Between attrition, lack of finance and lack of interest, we get very little from what should be our more most productive resource

[seafoid]

Anthony Moyles on Meath

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtLMUgVjIoU&t=4980s

[shark]

Kildare and Meath with their populations and strong economies and tradition in Meath's case ought to be at least as good regularly as Galway and Mayowestros.
Donegal a scattered mountain County with none of the advantages of Leinster Counties haven't done too badly last 10 or 12 years.
Laois, Offaly and Westmeath ought to be at least at Ros/Monaghan level.

Does the lack of any possibility of a Provincial title lead to hopelessness leading to lack of interested?

You need to account for hurling. For example, Westmeath have been in division 1 for 3 or 4 years in a row now. Money is a huge factor in prepping intercounty teams. There is a finite amount in any small county. Now take (at least) 30-40% off Roscommon and Monaghan's budgets and you have an equal playing field in that respect.

To your other question, there is no doubt that it has an impact. Playing intercounty for more than a few years is objectively a nonsensical thing to do if you want to have a balanced life, like your non intercounty playing peers. But the dream of winning something can sustain lads. Take that away, and you're left with huge turnover every few years, and can't build.

[Bord na Mona man]

Are gaelic games a minority pursuit in the big Leinster towns generally?
One or two I'm somewhat familiar with have fine GAA clubs with loads of youngsters on Saturday mornings etc.
But all the young lads play soccer on the greens all week unlike in Ros where kick arounds are more often than not gaelic football.

Soccer is the go-to sport because it's straightforward to play and everyone can play it.
If you get a group of kids on a green and a subset play rugby and a subset play GAA, then soccer will be catch all for having a game.

[Bord na Mona man]

Best Offaly win in years.
The first half game control was excellent. Offaly put in the big tackles and won the turnovers that Meath rarely did. Offaly worked the ball around the field well to create openings.
Meath hit a few wides, but they were generally one-dimensional in attack. Straight and narrow drives, very little width on the ball.
At the back, they had no real defensive setup, meaning Offaly could open them up with overlaps.

For the 2nd half Meath had to go for broke and throw everyone forward, including the keeper. A half time team talk by Sean Boylan and O'Rourke would have been about invoking the voodoo of Meath past and launching a famous comeback.

Offaly made some poor handling errors and coughed up too many turnovers, but Meath spilled and lost the ball a lot too. The conditions were terrible.

The golden rule of the top soccer managers like Guardiola or Arteta is "if there's a transition, make a foul". So every Offaly turnover of Meath was immediately followed by a cynical Meath foul. All matter of pulling and dragging, head high at times. With a ref who had no intention of stamping it out, Meath were rewarded when they fouled because they bought time to get players back, and unfortunately Offaly tapped the frees short or backwards and the pressure was back on Offaly.
And while Meath did make inroads, they didn't look like getting a goal, or they never got many easy, quickfire scores.

After the Down match, I didn't believe Offaly would go well in 2023. The players looked deflated and downbeat. Here we are now, daring to dream.
Unfortunately, Louth are better than Meath. Offaly edged them by a whisker in 2021 when Louth were still a division 4 team. They are better now.
While Meath had a throwback manager in O'Rourke, Louth have the manager who practically invented the swarm defence. Looking at the Sunday Game, every Louth player looks 6 foot 3 as well.

We'll need something special again. You'd never know though.