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Not sure Kildare are the team to test us. They certainly have some great talent (although will some of their important players be missing?). They'd need a good start, and to have it absolutely drilled into them not to put the head down if they concede a goal

Feely is definitely out, on top of the loss of Cribbin earlier in the season. I'm assuming Doyle has done his hamstring and also won't play. That's three big players and probably kills our chances of making the game competitive.

Kildare: Mark Donnellan; Mark Dempsey, Mick O'Grady, Eoin Doyle; Kevin Flynn, David Hyland, Ryan Houlihan; Luke Flynn, Aaron Masterson; Alex Beirne, Daniel Flynn, Paul Cribbin; Jimmy Hyland, Kevin Feely, Darragh Kirwan.

Alex Beirne makes his debut and Ryan Houlihan returns after a four/five year absence. Not sure whether Feely will genuinely play FF but if so it's not an experiment I'd have a lot of faith in.

We could argue all day about causes but the effect is a lack of interest outside Dublin in the game.
I attended all bar two or three Leinster finals in the 90s and 00s, now I don't even flick on the telly for it. I won't bother with the All Ireland semi and if the margin in that game is 15 or so, as I think it will be, for the first time in my life I won't bother with the All-Ireland final either.
I suspect I'm not alone.

I think people get swept up in the general hand-wringing and forget how tight most of Dublin's critical games in this five-in-a-row actually were. Here's a reminder:

2015: Dublin blew a seven-point lead in the semi-final against Mayo – shades of 06 – and clung on by their fingernails, almost literally, McCaffrey diving to block the killer blow from Sweeney. In the replay, they were four points down with a quarter of the game to go before dominating and winning convincingly. They won a tense final by three points.

2016: Dublin were five points down at half-time in the semi-final against Kerry, two down with nine minutes to go, and level in injury time, before winning by two. In the final, they were outplayed by Mayo for much of it but two own goals helped them scrape a draw. In the replay, Cillian O'Connor missed a free to send the game to extra-time.

2017: Mayo had a free in the 71st minute to go ahead. They missed. Dublin got a free in the sixth minute of injury time. They didn't miss.

2019: Kerry led by a point at the end of normal time and David Moran just had to play a routine pass to Tommy Walsh, who was completely unmarked, for what would surely have been the decisive score. He took a play instead, lost possession, and Dublin drew and won the replay convincingly.

I'd argue that 2018 was the only year this decade when Dublin were comfortably better than everyone. I grew up watching the Dublin team of the early 90s and if they'd been as calm in the decisive moments (eg scoring penalties, scoring routine frees, picking the right pass in injury time) they'd have won three or four All-Irelands. Put it another way, this five-in-a-row was far harder earned than Kerry's would have been if Kerry had held their nerve in 82.

I don't see what money has to do with those decisive moments where Dublin did the right thing and their opponents didn't. I think the more extreme people who shout "financial doping" aren't able to take the pain of watching a county they dislike clean up titles. I get that, I'm a Kildare fan, I don't like seeing Dublin win, but you have to take a deep breath, have some class, and offer your congratulations. I routinely do this with Dublin friends and family. It's painful, but Jesus lads, it's football, there's more important things – none of are getting out of here alive, as Colin Regan says.

That's not to say we should bury our head about financial inequities in how the GAA is run but that to me is a separate conversation. The GAA could easily fix some of the other small inequities - picking dressing rooms, playing Dublin songs in the build-up to games, etc. 

But as far as the football goes, it comes down to this: if Mayo and Kerry had been as composed under pressure as Dublin, and Dublin had been as panicky as they used to be, it would have been business as usual this decade in terms of not many teams putting All-Irelands back to back.

Who are the assumed retirees from the Dublin panel?
I suspect they still have have players coming through and quite a few young players who have already made the team in the last few years will be there for quite a few years yet.

The biggest issue may be replacing Stephen Cluxton - not just for his kickouts but the standards he seems to set for the team in training and everything else.

I'd have Cluxton, Fitzsimons, McMahon, O'Sullivan, Macauley, Connolly, O'Gara, Brogan, McManamon and Andrews as the probable/possible retirees.

what's the story with that o'callaghan lad? looks absolutely juiced up

Ten years too late with that question about the Dubs.

their fitness levels seem light years ahead of everyone. they're finishing games looking fitter and fresher than when they started them. mayo used to be the only team who were a physical match for them, but i dont think thats even true anymore

Anyone taking even a passing interest in the potential for doping in the Gaa would be deeply disturbed at how easy it would be to cheat. This is a fact that applies beyond Dublin. People are horribly naive on the subject.

Masterson left the panel despite a decent bit of game time in the league. Daniel's not interested this year. Luke in similar boat afaik.

Paul Cribbin's probably a bigger loss than Daniel Flynn. If we had those two we could keep it below 10, but we don't, so we won't

Even if we win our last two games we're unlikely to go up, given the head to head situation with Meath and Fermanagh.

Have to say I didn't think Monaghan were particularly dirty. They were horrible to play against, all right, but that's not the same as dirty. It's the last eight of the competition, if you can't handle good tackling and verbals, you're not going to last long.

Maybe there's something wrong with me but I've never really cared that much whether they won the AI or not.

The capacity of the ground is 9,020, according to the Slattery report, commissioned by the Gaa itself

If you start out a competition with certain rules you have to stick to them. And the rules of this competition are that the first drawn team in this round play at home, unless they're a Div1/2 county playing a Div 3/4 county.
You can't change the rules because you want to make more cash.

Competition has zero integrity. Time to stop forking out money to watch it, will be cancelling Gaa Go subscription.

What exactly is McEntee complaining about? I was reading his quotes and he's on about O'Sullivan landing in the small square ... it's irrelevant where he lands, what matters is where he was fouled.
And look, I thought it was probably a penalty, but it wasn't so clear cut that I'd be lambasting the ref over it. He should cop himself on.