Leinster hurling final - DUBLIN V Kilkenny

[Gnevin]

Dublin were last in the final in '91...just heard it on the radio yesterday...im actually a bit suprised that it isnt further back to be honest!

Congrats to Dublin, commiserations to Wexford there wasnt much between the teams at the end despite Dublin's earlier dominance. I fancy dublin to give everything in the final, I pray the hill isnt full of blue on the day as it will mean a pile of plastic dubs have shown up like they do for the football, they arent true supporters and will more than likely be too locked to even know the score by the end of the game.

If Dublin play with the same intensity I think they will stick with them for a lot of the match (I hope) but I cant see them being within a score of Kilkenny at the end. KK will have been warned after the league game between the two sides and may be welcoming back some regulars competing for starting places so I cant see Dublin catching them on the hop.

Best of luck in the final...real progress in leinster this year, it is now uber competitive between the first five teams..and there is nothing to say antrim cant take a step up in the coming years. Its been a better provincial championship than munster this year so far and with the teams currently in it, probably will be for the foreseeable future

would you shut up talking shite, hurling is not supported in Dublin like football was not supported in Wexford until 5years ago - that doesnt mean the people that go now are not GAA people. also i dont think there is any need to worry about a bandwagon of non gaa people as they would have no interest in watching this game i would think....

Im not talking shite as you like to put it, there is many a dublin person that goes to the football games that dont actually know the team. I would hate to see their hurling fans be infiltrated by these plastic dubs that werent at the game yesterday and didnt even know it was on. Im talking about my brother in law and his mates who are part of this brigade. I also used to work with Stephen Cluxetons sister who was often telling us stories of dubs fans saying stupid stuff to her brother after the matches. Im not tarring all dubs fans with this brush but im afraid there is a minority that are clueless and only go for a drinking session unfortunately

Same as every county .Sure their is a small minority of the Offaly support have run the country in to the ground but we don't pin that on the lot of you.

[awfulynice]

Dublin were last in the final in '91...just heard it on the radio yesterday...im actually a bit suprised that it isnt further back to be honest!

Congrats to Dublin, commiserations to Wexford there wasnt much between the teams at the end despite Dublin's earlier dominance. I fancy dublin to give everything in the final, I pray the hill isnt full of blue on the day as it will mean a pile of plastic dubs have shown up like they do for the football, they arent true supporters and will more than likely be too locked to even know the score by the end of the game.

If Dublin play with the same intensity I think they will stick with them for a lot of the match (I hope) but I cant see them being within a score of Kilkenny at the end. KK will have been warned after the league game between the two sides and may be welcoming back some regulars competing for starting places so I cant see Dublin catching them on the hop.

Best of luck in the final...real progress in leinster this year, it is now uber competitive between the first five teams..and there is nothing to say antrim cant take a step up in the coming years. Its been a better provincial championship than munster this year so far and with the teams currently in it, probably will be for the foreseeable future

would you shut up talking shite, hurling is not supported in Dublin like football was not supported in Wexford until 5years ago - that doesnt mean the people that go now are not GAA people. also i dont think there is any need to worry about a bandwagon of non gaa people as they would have no interest in watching this game i would think....

Im not talking shite as you like to put it, there is many a dublin person that goes to the football games that dont actually know the team. I would hate to see their hurling fans be infiltrated by these plastic dubs that werent at the game yesterday and didnt even know it was on. Im talking about my brother in law and his mates who are part of this brigade. I also used to work with Stephen Cluxetons sister who was often telling us stories of dubs fans saying stupid stuff to her brother after the matches. Im not tarring all dubs fans with this brush but im afraid there is a minority that are clueless and only go for a drinking session unfortunately

Same as every county .Sure their is a small minority of the Offaly support have run the country in to the ground but we don't pin that on the lot of you.

Gnevin...reread my post. I wasnt pinning it on the lot of you. In fact I was saying the exact opposite that i didnt want those yobbos that turn up for the football to start ruining the hurling matches aswell, they are the opposite to the gaa ethos and completely ruin the enjoyment of matches for the teams playing them. Dublin hurling fans are not this, there are a loyal bunch of a couple of thousand that turn up to the games and id hate to see what will be their glory day (whatever the outcome) marred by a few drunken idiots who wouldnt know a sliotar from a cricket ball.

[slow corner back]

I hope the Leinster council push the boat out and promote this game properly, free entry for u-16s accompanioed by an adult that sort of thing. Threw a few thousand tickets out to the schools in Dublin and KK. What would the average gate be at a Leinster final for the last five years, 35,000? 25,000?. If lots of bandwagon jumpers want to come out and support the dubs all well and good it might inspire some of the younger generation to pick up hurls instead of footballs.Abit of hype and excitement is just what the hurling championship needs.

[INDIANA]

Would fear for some of our young forwards against the kilkenny backs. Think we'll be horsed out of it personally up there. Daly has to put someone on Walsh who can put manners on him. If the likes of Hickey and Cha are fit and JJ goes to wing back. Think we may get a hiding to be honest. The roughing up Dotsy and Rushe got yesterday will be nothing compared to what the kilkenny backs will be dishing out. We just don't have the experience and cutting up there to give kilkenny a really serious game. Think the backs wil do fine- but somewhere along the line wthe dam will burst.
Still we're in bonus territory now.

[EddieMerx]

It's probably better for the Dublin team if it is not hyped up! If Kilkenny are given stick from the opposition supporters we might just see a mauling. Low key is in Dublins best interest

[slow corner back]

I am not talking about promoting Dublins chances of winning the match, as you say probably best for the dubs to play it low key tell everyone how great KK are etc etc and then try to ambush them, do not think Cody will fall for that. The point I was making was that the Leinster Council should promote/ hype the match as much as possible to put bums on seats and generate intrest in hurling overall. It is a sad indictment of hurling followers when only 20-30000 got to Croke park to watch ( arguably ) the best team of all time.

[awfulynice]

I am not talking about promoting Dublins chances of winning the match, as you say probably best for the dubs to play it low key tell everyone how great KK are etc etc and then try to ambush them, do not think Cody will fall for that. The point I was making was that the Leinster Council should promote/ hype the match as much as possible to put bums on seats and generate intrest in hurling overall. It is a sad indictment of hurling followers when only 20-30000 got to Croke park to watch ( arguably ) the best team of all time.

I think the average attendance is closer to 40 or 50,000 for Leinster Finals...but in fairness you have to look at the population of the countys getting there. For example if offaly get to the leinster final you can expect about 10 - 20,000 supporters to be there. Considering the countys population is around 50,000 that is as much as you can expect from a dual county. The likes of Kilkenny with bigger populations and only one code to support could possibly supply 30 - 40,000 on their own. It is really only the likes of Dublin etc that could probably compete with them numbers in leinster, also hosting it in croke park...a good 2 hours drive away from most of the general contenders (apart from dublin) also affects the numbers along with the extra ticket price that headquarters gets.

[INDIANA]

Need to get 40k. They will get it if they promote it well.

[Declan]

Do people think Kilkenny supporters will travel in any numbers for this game? Forgone conclusion and all that

[Zulu]

In fact I was saying the exact opposite that i didnt want those yobbos that turn up for the football to start ruining the hurling matches aswell, they are the opposite to the gaa ethos and completely ruin the enjoyment of matches for the teams playing them.

Nonsense, every county loves playing the Dubs when there is a packed CP and every sport attracts the day tripper support but if they didn't go you'd never sellout CP regardless of the teams playing or the code.

I think the average attendance is closer to 40 or 50,000 for Leinster Finals...but in fairness you have to look at the population of the countys getting there. For example if offaly get to the leinster final you can expect about 10 - 20,000 supporters to be there. Considering the countys population is around 50,000 that is as much as you can expect from a dual county. The likes of Kilkenny with bigger populations and only one code to support could possibly supply 30 - 40,000 on their own.

You're being more than generous with those figures, Offaly don't bring anywhere close to 20K for Leinster finals, certainly not since the great teams of the 80's and 90's left the scene. And Kilkenny wouldn't even get 40K for an AI let alone a Leinster final, they have often brought less than 10K for a Leinster final. Wexford are the only county that has kept attendences at Leinster finals at the 25K+ mark.

[EddieMerx]

I think the attendance will be shocking for this game, kk won't travel to watch their team play Dublin and the Dubs probably will bring 10k or 15k. If there is more than 25k at this I would be very surprised

[bottlethrower7]

Do people think Kilkenny supporters will travel in any numbers for this game? Forgone conclusion and all that

No. I can't imagine they will.  A lot travelled on saturday so I can't see too many making the journey to the final.

I really hate that Daly persists with this extra back tactic. He doesn't give his full-forward line a chance. Its interesting the amount of crticism Dotsy comes in for, but what could he do? Every ball was contested 2 on 3. I really think Dublin would have won by a lot more if they had taken them man for man. I didn't even think Durkin that effective as the extra man. Against Kilkenny it might be more understandable to do it, but then it comes down to how they approach the game. Will it be to win, or merely damage limitation?

[INDIANA]

You might be surprised how many Dublin people will go. Could be 20,000 kids at it if they market it properly. Juvenile hurling in Dublin has more numbers than any other hurling county at the moment. Its getting these kids access to tickets especially in non-traditional GAA families. If they've any bloody sense they'll offer free tickets to u16's. If they do that they'll get at least 30,000 dubs at it. At the end of the day thats the audience they need to target. They aren't going to make money on this game but they might breakeven if they show a bit of innovation.

[awfulynice]

In fact I was saying the exact opposite that i didnt want those yobbos that turn up for the football to start ruining the hurling matches aswell, they are the opposite to the gaa ethos and completely ruin the enjoyment of matches for the teams playing them.

Nonsense, every county loves playing the Dubs when there is a packed CP and every sport attracts the day tripper support but if they didn't go you'd never sellout CP regardless of the teams playing or the code.

I think the average attendance is closer to 40 or 50,000 for Leinster Finals...but in fairness you have to look at the population of the countys getting there. For example if offaly get to the leinster final you can expect about 10 - 20,000 supporters to be there. Considering the countys population is around 50,000 that is as much as you can expect from a dual county. The likes of Kilkenny with bigger populations and only one code to support could possibly supply 30 - 40,000 on their own.

You're being more than generous with those figures, Offaly don't bring anywhere close to 20K for Leinster finals, certainly not since the great teams of the 80's and 90's left the scene. And Kilkenny wouldn't even get 40K for an AI let alone a Leinster final, they have often brought less than 10K for a Leinster final. Wexford are the only county that has kept attendences at Leinster finals at the 25K+ mark.

Every county loves playing Dublin in front of a packed croker?? Maybe in football  Any of the offaly vs dublin (football games) ive been at, a memorable one being the leinster final what 3 years ago i think it is now ive always been abused / assaulted. On that occasion i got great seats right in front of the presentation i was there with my girlfriend at the time who was from dublin in a dublin shirt, i stayed to clap on the presentation as a gracious loser only to be jostled and abused enough to make a fast exit. I have never experienced this against any other county and id say ive attended most offaly hurling and footballing games over the last two decades

I dont particularly care whether croke park was never sold out again in its lifetime...that is a mute point.

On Offaly i said between 10 & 20,000 if you reread my post, the average probably being somewhere in the middle of these. Attendance figures for the hurling are well down on previous years due to kilkennys dominance...im pretty sure ive attended some in 2000 and before that were close to 50,000 but i do take your point. I believe last years final between KK & Wexford was only around the 20,000 mark if im not mistaken

[INDIANA]

Do people think Kilkenny supporters will travel in any numbers for this game? Forgone conclusion and all that

No. I can't imagine they will.  A lot travelled on saturday so I can't see too many making the journey to the final.

I really hate that Daly persists with this extra back tactic. He doesn't give his full-forward line a chance. Its interesting the amount of crticism Dotsy comes in for, but what could he do? Every ball was contested 2 on 3. I really think Dublin would have won by a lot more if they had taken them man for man. I didn't even think Durkin that effective as the extra man. Against Kilkenny it might be more understandable to do it, but then it comes down to how they approach the game. Will it be to win, or merely damage limitation?

Where has Dotsy been criticised? He played very well yesterday. I haven't seen any criticism.
What would you prefer Daly to do? Give Eddie and Henry the run of the place? Wexford and Offaly have tried that and been beaten out the gate. We're not much better than those two- in fact all could beat each on any given day, so there is no need to start getting ideas about ourselves.
I wish we could win- but its damage limitation unfortunately. 10-12 points would be respectable.