Dublin v Mayo 4th March

[Farrandeelin]

Will Dublin go 33 games unbeaten? Can Mayo beat the Dubs for the first time since 2012? We'll find out on Saturday night.

[Cunny Funt]

Will Dublin go 33 games unbeaten? Can Mayo beat the Dubs for the first time since 2012? We'll find out on Saturday night.

No and yes I reckon to those questions. My main thinking behind it is on Saturday night Mayo will probably be only missing 3 starters from the drawn All Ireland final they could or should have won while the Dubs will be missing double of the amount of starters from that September contest.

[Beffs]

Hard to say really. The Dubs don't seem to be as firing on as many cylinders as they normally are, at this time of year. But they have only played 3 counties that set up quite defensively, so is that an accurate gauge of how well they are going? Dunno really. They are always missing players at this time of year, yet Mayo haven't beaten them in 5 years. Wow, is it really that long? So am not sure how much the missing personnel will matter. The Dublin fringe panelists will be very hungry to stake a claim on the jerseys of the missing regulars. That is showing in how they play. It certainly did against Tyrone. Am not so sure that level of hunger is there in Mayo, at this time of year. Then again, their showing against Kerry was very, very impressive. Ok, now I'm really confused.

[macdanger2]

4/7 Dublin, 7/4 Mayo

[Captain Obvious]

4/7 Dublin, 7/4 Mayo

Very good value on Mayo there.

[Fuzzman]

The Dubs put out quite a strong team v Tyrone with most of their defence and MF at full strength with Jack McCaffrey back. No Cian o'Sullivan. They did try out O'Gara at full forward and gave starts to Scully, Basquel and Mannion.
McCarthy went off injured at the end of that game but don't know how bad it was.

Against Donegal they were a bit more experimental with Lowndes and Daly in defence and Reddin in MF.
Scully got another run out along with Shane Carthy and Conor McHugh who were joined as subs by Jason Whelan and Emmet Ó Conghaile. Gavin will be happy to get so many young lads and O'Gara some game time but will probably be annoyed they gave away the soft free at the end though what goes around comes around from the Tyrone game.

I'd imagine Gavin will put out a stronger team this weekend against Mayo but he seems to be keen to get O'Gara playing as much as possible and I wonder will they use him much more this year as a tactic against the blanket defence. They will be glad to have those 3 teams out of the way now as they hate playing against that style of football though Monaghan will probably give them a tough battle too.

[magpie seanie]

I think the Donegal result last weekend was a kind of false reflection of where the teams are. Credit to Donegal for battling away but Dublin were the much better side. They didn't hammer it home on the scoreboard and got caught at the end of both halves - I'd expect a different story in Croke Park.

Mayo were quite good against a poor Rossie outfit but they still have their usual, inexplicable AWOL spells. Looking forward to what should be a good tie and a truer reflection of where both sides are at.

[mrhardyannual]

A lot of talk about the depth of the Dublin team at present but Mayo are carrying a panel of 39 (maybe more) at the moment. Despite injuries to Barrett and the two senior O Sheas and not allowing for a bolter from the U-21s it must represent the strongest panel ever available in the past 20 years!
1.   Clarke, 2.   Hennelly 3. Byrne 4.   Newcombe 5.   Harrison 6.    Higgins  7.  Cafferkey     8.   Boyle
9.   Durcan 10.  Coen  11.   Vaughan  12.   Keegan   13.   Barrett   14.   Drake   15.   Nally  16.   O Donoghue   17.   Hall 18.   Crowe  19.     A O Shea      20.   S O Shea   21.   Parsons  22.   Gibbons   23.   B Moran   24.   Kirby
25.   McLoughlinn   26.  Boland   27.   D O Connor   28.  Loftus   29. C O Shea  30.   C O Connor  31.    A Moran
32.   Regan 33.   Irwin  34.   Douglas   35.   Dillon  36.   Plunkett   37.   Gallagher  38.   Reape  39. J Doherty

[MayoBuck]

A lot of talk about the depth of the Dublin team at present but Mayo are carrying a panel of 38 (maybe more) at the moment. Despite injuries to Barrett and the two senior O Sheas and not allowing for a bolter from the U-21s it must represent the strongest panel ever available in the past 20 years!
1.   Clarke, 2.   Hennelly 3. Byrne 4.   Newcombe 5.   Harrison 6.    Higgins  7.  Cafferkey     8.   Boyle
9.   Durcan 10.  Coen  11.   Vaughan  12.   Keegan   13.   Barrett   14.   Drake   15.   Nally  16.   O Donoghue   17.   Hall 18.   Crowe  19.     A O Shea      20.   S O Shea   21.   Parsons  22.   Gibbons   23.   B Moran   24.   Kirby
25.   McLoughlinn   26.  Boland   27.   D O Connor   28.  Loftus   29. C O Shea  30.   C O Connor  31.    A Moran
32.   Regan 33.   Irwin  34.   Douglas   35.   Dillon  36.   Plunkett   37.   Gallagher  38.   Reape

You left out Jason Doherty, who is injured for this weekend btw.

[mrhardyannual]

A lot of talk about the depth of the Dublin team at present but Mayo are carrying a panel of 38 (maybe more) at the moment. Despite injuries to Barrett and the two senior O Sheas and not allowing for a bolter from the U-21s it must represent the strongest panel ever available in the past 20 years!
1.   Clarke, 2.   Hennelly 3. Byrne 4.   Newcombe 5.   Harrison 6.    Higgins  7.  Cafferkey     8.   Boyle
9.   Durcan 10.  Coen  11.   Vaughan  12.   Keegan   13.   Barrett   14.   Drake   15.   Nally  16.   O Donoghue   17.   Hall 18.   Crowe  19.     A O Shea      20.   S O Shea   21.   Parsons  22.   Gibbons   23.   B Moran   24.   Kirby
25.   McLoughlinn   26.  Boland   27.   D O Connor   28.  Loftus   29. C O Shea  30.   C O Connor  31.    A Moran
32.   Regan 33.   Irwin  34.   Douglas   35.   Dillon  36.   Plunkett   37.   Gallagher  38.   Reape

Corrected. Thanks.
You left out Jason Doherty, who is injured for this weekend btw.

[rosnarun]

A lot of talk about the depth of the Dublin team at present but Mayo are carrying a panel of 38 (maybe more) at the moment. Despite injuries to Barrett and the two senior O Sheas and not allowing for a bolter from the U-21s it must represent the strongest panel ever available in the past 20 years!
1.   Clarke, 2.   Hennelly 3. Byrne 4.   Newcombe 5.   Harrison 6.    Higgins  7.  Cafferkey     8.   Boyle
9.   Durcan 10.  Coen  11.   Vaughan  12.   Keegan   13.   Barrett   14.   Drake   15.   Nally  16.   O Donoghue   17.   Hall 18.   Crowe  19.     A O Shea      20.   S O Shea   21.   Parsons  22.   Gibbons   23.   B Moran   24.   Kirby
25.   McLoughlinn   26.  Boland   27.   D O Connor   28.  Loftus   29. C O Shea  30.   C O Connor  31.    A Moran
32.   Regan 33.   Irwin  34.   Douglas   35.   Dillon  36.   Plunkett   37.   Gallagher  38.   Reape

Corrected. Thanks.
You left out Jason Doherty, who is injured for this weekend btw.

is  Douglas  on the panel? he hasn't been given much of a run

[Captain Obvious]

A lot of talk about the depth of the Dublin team at present but Mayo are carrying a panel of 39 (maybe more) at the moment. Despite injuries to Barrett and the two senior O Sheas and not allowing for a bolter from the U-21s it must represent the strongest panel ever available in the past 20 years!
1.   Clarke, 2.   Hennelly 3. Byrne 4.   Newcombe 5.   Harrison 6.    Higgins  7.  Cafferkey     8.   Boyle
9.   Durcan 10.  Coen  11.   Vaughan  12.   Keegan   13.   Barrett   14.   Drake   15.   Nally  16.   O Donoghue   17.   Hall 18.   Crowe  19.     A O Shea      20.   S O Shea   21.   Parsons  22.   Gibbons   23.   B Moran   24.   Kirby
25.   McLoughlinn   26.  Boland   27.   D O Connor   28.  Loftus   29. C O Shea  30.   C O Connor  31.    A Moran
32.   Regan 33.   Irwin  34.   Douglas   35.   Dillon  36.   Plunkett   37.   Gallagher  38.   Reape  39. J Doherty

Out of interest how many senior championship appearances did those players in bold have so far?

[macdanger2]

I'd say you're looking at 10-12 combined

[highorlow]

I'd say you're looking at 10-12 combined

Maybe if you exclude Drake and Gibbons.

[Captain Obvious]

A lot of unproven inexperienced players at championship level then and most of those lads will be expected to fill the boots of Clarke, Higgins,Boyle,Barrett,S O Shea, B Moran,A Moran, A Dillon who are all coming to the end of their county careers. Dublin have plenty of players approaching their end also however their strength in depth is well ahead of the rest and the best hope for their challengers Mayo,Tyrone,Kerry in the championship is to have a near injury free year.