Dublin

[Hill16 Blues]

The Dubs would look a lot less impressive if Mayo were winning their share of Sams.
Winning is in large part psychological and the Dubs have the edge over Kerry as well. But the notion of a thousand year Reich is nuts .

Dublin win because at the minute they have the best team, better footballers and a desire & hunger to keep winning as all great teams do.

Share of SAMs?? Mayo have not won because of physchological shortcomings. More so because they are not as good as Dublin and the year recently Dublin didn't make it to the final they got done by inept& incompetent ref in semi replay v Kerry. No guarantee they would have beaten Donegal in final but you would have fancied them to.

the psych thing is what prevented Mayo from winning 2 of the last 5 all Irelands
the Dubs had it 91 to 94 as well of course...
But they made it over the line in 95

If Mayo can win one Sam they will kick on and develop even further

dubs have been going since 09 maybe so have a lot of mileage on the clock

If they were to win one they would obviously get great lift from it. However Mayo team has as much if not more mileage on the clock than current Dublin team. Recent additions to starting 15 include Byrne, Cooper, Small, McCaffrey, Fenton, Kilkenny, Rock, Mannion & Costello. Another 4 or 5 younger lads close to getting a chance / breaking into the team. Granted the likes of Connolly, Flynn, McCarthy are around 5/6 years now but they're only in mid to late 20s so plenty of football in those guys yet.

[From the Bunker]

The Dubs would look a lot less impressive if Mayo were winning their share of Sams.
Winning is in large part psychological and the Dubs have the edge over Kerry as well. But the notion of a thousand year Reich is nuts .

Dublin win because at the minute they have the best team, better footballers and a desire & hunger to keep winning as all great teams do.

Share of SAMs?? Mayo have not won because of physchological shortcomings. More so because they are not as good as Dublin and the year recently Dublin didn't make it to the final they got done by inept& incompetent ref in semi replay v Kerry. No guarantee they would have beaten Donegal in final but you would have fancied them to.

the psych thing is what prevented Mayo from winning 2 of the last 5 all Irelands
the Dubs had it 91 to 94 as well of course...
But they made it over the line in 95

If Mayo can win one Sam they will kick on and develop even further

dubs have been going since 09 maybe so have a lot of mileage on the clock

If they were to win one they would obviously get great lift from it. However Mayo team has as much if not more mileage on the clock than current Dublin team. Recent additions to starting 15 include Byrne, Cooper, Small, McCaffrey, Fenton, Kilkenny, Rock, Mannion & Costello. Another 4 or 5 younger lads close to getting a chance / breaking into the team. Granted the likes of Connolly, Flynn, McCarthy are around 5/6 years now but they're only in mid to late 20s so plenty of football in those guys yet.

Mayo and Kerry will fade away in a year or two. Donegal are nearly gone. Tyrone are moving up a level, but that level is only equal to the teams named. Leinster is a graveyard. The game is up. Dublin will have it all to themselves, Leagues, Leinsters and All Irelands. There is no doubt about it. They hold all the ace cards! Can you tell me one disadvantage they have from the beginning of the League to the All Ireland final? One? Their fans don't want to let on, but in their heart of hearts they know. Everybody knows. Crowds are falling year after year. Even the Dubs won't be bothered in time to come.

[Syferus]

The Dubs would look a lot less impressive if Mayo were winning their share of Sams.
Winning is in large part psychological and the Dubs have the edge over Kerry as well. But the notion of a thousand year Reich is nuts .

Dublin win because at the minute they have the best team, better footballers and a desire & hunger to keep winning as all great teams do.

Share of SAMs?? Mayo have not won because of physchological shortcomings. More so because they are not as good as Dublin and the year recently Dublin didn't make it to the final they got done by inept& incompetent ref in semi replay v Kerry. No guarantee they would have beaten Donegal in final but you would have fancied them to.

the psych thing is what prevented Mayo from winning 2 of the last 5 all Irelands
the Dubs had it 91 to 94 as well of course...
But they made it over the line in 95

If Mayo can win one Sam they will kick on and develop even further

dubs have been going since 09 maybe so have a lot of mileage on the clock

If they were to win one they would obviously get great lift from it. However Mayo team has as much if not more mileage on the clock than current Dublin team. Recent additions to starting 15 include Byrne, Cooper, Small, McCaffrey, Fenton, Kilkenny, Rock, Mannion & Costello. Another 4 or 5 younger lads close to getting a chance / breaking into the team. Granted the likes of Connolly, Flynn, McCarthy are around 5/6 years now but they're only in mid to late 20s so plenty of football in those guys yet.

Mayo and Kerry will fade away in a year or two. Donegal are nearly gone. Tyrone are moving up a level, but that level is only equal to the teams named. Leinster is a graveyard. The game is up. Dublin will have it all to themselves, Leagues, Leinsters and All Irelands. There is no doubt about it. They hold all the ace cards! Can you tell me one disadvantage they have from the beginning of the League to the All Ireland final? One? Their fans don't want to let on, but in their heart of hearts they know. Everybody knows. Crowds are falling year after year. Even the Dubs won't be bothered in time to come.

And some people want to get rid of the provincial championships so everyone can experience the hopelessness of being a Leinster county.

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

And some people want to get rid of the provincial championships so everyone can experience the hopelessness of being a Leinster county.

At this stage the best solution would be to have the 10 impoverished Leinster teams playing in a separate championship and let Dublin have a bye to the AI quarter finals. May as well forget about qualifiers as no other Leinster team will get close to an AI final for the forseeable future.
Two groups of 5 with each team guaranteed a minimum 4 games. The two top teams progress to the semi finals while the second and third teams from each group meet in the quarter finals.

[seafoid]

The Dubs would look a lot less impressive if Mayo were winning their share of Sams.
Winning is in large part psychological and the Dubs have the edge over Kerry as well. But the notion of a thousand year Reich is nuts .

Dublin win because at the minute they have the best team, better footballers and a desire & hunger to keep winning as all great teams do.

Share of SAMs?? Mayo have not won because of physchological shortcomings. More so because they are not as good as Dublin and the year recently Dublin didn't make it to the final they got done by inept& incompetent ref in semi replay v Kerry. No guarantee they would have beaten Donegal in final but you would have fancied them to.

the psych thing is what prevented Mayo from winning 2 of the last 5 all Irelands
the Dubs had it 91 to 94 as well of course...
But they made it over the line in 95

If Mayo can win one Sam they will kick on and develop even further

dubs have been going since 09 maybe so have a lot of mileage on the clock

If they were to win one they would obviously get great lift from it. However Mayo team has as much if not more mileage on the clock than current Dublin team. Recent additions to starting 15 include Byrne, Cooper, Small, McCaffrey, Fenton, Kilkenny, Rock, Mannion & Costello. Another 4 or 5 younger lads close to getting a chance / breaking into the team. Granted the likes of Connolly, Flynn, McCarthy are around 5/6 years now but they're only in mid to late 20s so plenty of football in those guys yet.

Mayo and Kerry will fade away in a year or two. Donegal are nearly gone. Tyrone are moving up a level, but that level is only equal to the teams named. Leinster is a graveyard. The game is up. Dublin will have it all to themselves, Leagues, Leinsters and All Irelands. There is no doubt about it. They hold all the ace cards! Can you tell me one disadvantage they have from the beginning of the League to the All Ireland final? One? Their fans don't want to let on, but in their heart of hearts they know. Everybody knows. Crowds are falling year after year. Even the Dubs won't be bothered in time to come.

Tyrone and Galway will be close enough within 3 or 4 years. Mayo will still be interested. Cork will be around Kerry will have another team. Meath might even come around.
The Dubs will do a Man Utd. Too long with the same winning formula.

[Cunny Funt]

The Dubs would look a lot less impressive if Mayo were winning their share of Sams.
Winning is in large part psychological and the Dubs have the edge over Kerry as well. But the notion of a thousand year Reich is nuts .

Dublin win because at the minute they have the best team, better footballers and a desire & hunger to keep winning as all great teams do.

Share of SAMs?? Mayo have not won because of physchological shortcomings. More so because they are not as good as Dublin and the year recently Dublin didn't make it to the final they got done by inept& incompetent ref in semi replay v Kerry. No guarantee they would have beaten Donegal in final but you would have fancied them to.

the psych thing is what prevented Mayo from winning 2 of the last 5 all Irelands
the Dubs had it 91 to 94 as well of course...
But they made it over the line in 95

If Mayo can win one Sam they will kick on and develop even further

dubs have been going since 09 maybe so have a lot of mileage on the clock

If they were to win one they would obviously get great lift from it. However Mayo team has as much if not more mileage on the clock than current Dublin team. Recent additions to starting 15 include Byrne, Cooper, Small, McCaffrey, Fenton, Kilkenny, Rock, Mannion & Costello. Another 4 or 5 younger lads close to getting a chance / breaking into the team. Granted the likes of Connolly, Flynn, McCarthy are around 5/6 years now but they're only in mid to late 20s so plenty of football in those guys yet.

Mayo and Kerry will fade away in a year or two. Donegal are nearly gone. Tyrone are moving up a level, but that level is only equal to the teams named. Leinster is a graveyard. The game is up. Dublin will have it all to themselves, Leagues, Leinsters and All Irelands. There is no doubt about it. They hold all the ace cards! Can you tell me one disadvantage they have from the beginning of the League to the All Ireland final? One? Their fans don't want to let on, but in their heart of hearts they know. Everybody knows. Crowds are falling year after year. Even the Dubs won't be bothered in time to come.

Tyrone and Galway will be close enough within 3 or 4 years. Mayo will still be interested. Cork will be around Kerry will have another team. Meath might even come around.
The Dubs will do a Man Utd. Too long with the same winning formula.

If the dubs do a Man United then you are looking at another 15 years of Dublin dominance. Lack of competition could mean that Dublin will stroll to All Ireland titles in the years ahead at least right now Kerry,Mayo been competitive against them.

[seafoid]

GF goes through phases. Meath kerry Galway lasted 6 years. Tyrone won 3 in 5. Kerry picked up a few other than the finals against Tyrone. Now the Dubs have 3. Players age. Tactics evolve. Managers lose their mojo. Hunger pops up elsewhere. It is very hard to win an all Ireland.
I would be surprised if the Dubs won 2 out of the next 10.

[Zulu]

Prepare to be surprised so. The Dubs will win at least 4 of the next ten, probably more.

[Zulu]

The Dubs would look a lot less impressive if Mayo were winning their share of Sams.
Winning is in large part psychological and the Dubs have the edge over Kerry as well. But the notion of a thousand year Reich is nuts .

Dublin win because at the minute they have the best team, better footballers and a desire & hunger to keep winning as all great teams do.

Share of SAMs?? Mayo have not won because of physchological shortcomings. More so because they are not as good as Dublin and the year recently Dublin didn't make it to the final they got done by inept& incompetent ref in semi replay v Kerry. No guarantee they would have beaten Donegal in final but you would have fancied them to.

the psych thing is what prevented Mayo from winning 2 of the last 5 all Irelands
the Dubs had it 91 to 94 as well of course...
But they made it over the line in 95

If Mayo can win one Sam they will kick on and develop even further

dubs have been going since 09 maybe so have a lot of mileage on the clock

If they were to win one they would obviously get great lift from it. However Mayo team has as much if not more mileage on the clock than current Dublin team. Recent additions to starting 15 include Byrne, Cooper, Small, McCaffrey, Fenton, Kilkenny, Rock, Mannion & Costello. Another 4 or 5 younger lads close to getting a chance / breaking into the team. Granted the likes of Connolly, Flynn, McCarthy are around 5/6 years now but they're only in mid to late 20s so plenty of football in those guys yet.

Mayo and Kerry will fade away in a year or two. Donegal are nearly gone. Tyrone are moving up a level, but that level is only equal to the teams named. Leinster is a graveyard. The game is up. Dublin will have it all to themselves, Leagues, Leinsters and All Irelands. There is no doubt about it. They hold all the ace cards! Can you tell me one disadvantage they have from the beginning of the League to the All Ireland final? One? Their fans don't want to let on, but in their heart of hearts they know. Everybody knows. Crowds are falling year after year. Even the Dubs won't be bothered in time to come.

And some people want to get rid of the provincial championships so everyone can experience the hopelessness of being a Leinster county.

That's one way to look at it, another imminently more sensible way of looking at it is Dublin would be far less likely to win every year if they had to face all the top teams each year - you know, the way most sports go about it.

[Syferus]

There is no top teams. There is one top team. Manufactured and fully endorsed by the GAA because they were afraid of the egg ball's growth in the capital. What a wonderful organisation the GAA is.

[Zulu]

Remind what Dublin have beaten Mayo, Donegal and Kerry by in recent championships? Of course Dublin are ahead of the pack but if they had to meet the top teams regularly then the chances of them getting caught are increased. The GAA correctly invested in the main population centre in Ireland and that, allied to the great work volunteer GAA members do in Dublin, has delivered results. Similar investment should go to other counties but it won't produce the same results because of the population but Kildare, Meath and many others could close the gap significantly and Dublin won't produce Cluxtons, Connollys and Brogans every decade. Anyone who thinks the provincial system will improve the game is daft IMO. The sooner we acknowledge the different levels in the GAA the better.

[J70]

And some people want to get rid of the provincial championships so everyone can experience the hopelessness of being a Leinster county.

At this stage the best solution would be to have the 10 impoverished Leinster teams playing in a separate championship and let Dublin have a bye to the AI quarter finals. May as well forget about qualifiers as no other Leinster team will get close to an AI final for the forseeable future.
Two groups of 5 with each team guaranteed a minimum 4 games. The two top teams progress to the semi finals while the second and third teams from each group meet in the quarter finals.

Surely Donegal are the proof that that is not necessarily true. Donegal were ranked 19th in the country at the end of 2010. Nine months later they were Ulster champions and a kick of the ball from the AI final. True, we had a few outstanding players, but those lads were all there in the period 2007-2010 when we were very poor and poorly managed. Everyone says that none of the Leinster counties have the players to challenge at the very top, but you would have said the same about us going into 2011. The likes of Karl Lacey, Michael Murphy and Kevin Cassidy had achieved All Star and Young Player of the Year awards, but our squad was hardly the source of envy. Yes, Dublin being as they are mean none of the Leinster counties will win a provincial for the next couple of years, but there is nothing stopping them upping their game and making a run at an AI semi through the qualifiers if they get the right man in to run things. Especially as the likes of Mayo and Kerry follow Donegal into transition.

[Syferus]

You're clutching at straws, J70. Dublin have sapped away any fight left in Leinster counties. And they're in the process of doing the same to everyone else. Can you really blame them when the deck is so heavily stacked in the favour of Dublin? It's a shell game, one or two upsets are no more than a passing distraction. Nonsense talk that it's even those counties' faults is just that. Very easy for the ivory tower dwellers to blame the poor feckers on the ground floor.

[Zulu]

You're clutching at straws, J70. Dublin have sapped away any fight left in Leinster counties. And they're in the process of doing the same to everyone else. Can you really blame them when the deck is so heavily stacked in the favour of Dublin? It's a shell game, one or two upsets are no more than a passing distraction. Nonsense talk that it's even those counties' faults is just that. Very easy for the ivory tower dwellers to blame the poor feckers on the ground floor.

What the blue blazes does that mean? Dublin have a huge population and are now utilizing that so of course they'll dominate counties with less than 100,000 people. What do you suggest the GAA do?

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

What the blue blazes does that mean? Dublin have a huge population and are now utilizing that so of course they'll dominate counties with less than 100,000 people. What do you suggest the GAA do?

At a very minimum development funds for Dublin should not be greater than other counties on a per capita basis. This would not achieve much but at least it would remove one source of unfairness.