Kildare v Dublin LSFC - 9th June 2019 Croke Park

[From the Bunker]

Tweets from Ewan

''Dublin 0-26 Kildare 0-11. Majority of the gate receipts from this will go to victors too so they can win by more next year. Game thriving. Funny part is grew up regularly losing to Dublin and, man, it grated. Now honestly don't feel any emotion. Most are the same.''


''Still time left and it's Dublin 0-21 Kildare 0-10. Cue being told it was a good game and there's plenty to work with and it could have been closer and with a little bit of time that gap will close further and the championship isn't dead yet. That's the level we've reached.''


''Neutral Leinster semi-final in Dublin's ground begins with a lengthy video tribute to Stephen Cluxton (who has been and still is remarkable, before people go after that). The knees must be nearly worn from the GAA's trousers at this stage.''


''10 years ago, Dublin and Kildare met in the Leinster final. 74,572 were there. In the Irish Times, the attendance was described as 'slightly disappointing'. Dublin and Kildare meet today, and as part of a double bill, but less than half of that expected. And not being shown on TV''

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Yet another Leinster yawnfest, let's be at least honest about it. 

[From the Bunker]

[irish345]

there will be no massive celebrations when dublin win leinster

[The Hill is Blue]

there will be no massive celebrations when dublin win leinster

Not much celebrating in Tyrone this week .....

[Hound]

Dublin had too many good players for Kildare. Mannion and Costello were just superb on the day.

As always, Dublin will give you a chance, if you've the forwards to take them. Kildare had a very good second quarter to claw themselves back into the game after going 7-1 down early. But they'd 3 clearcut goal chances between the end of the first half and beginning of the second, and took none. At least 2 of them should have been scored and that would have put some pressure on, but the Dubs made them pay for the misses.

I presume Spewan was the only Kildare man who was upset at Cluxton being honoured prior to his 100th appearance.

[mup]

Dublin had too many good players for Kildare. Mannion and Costello were just superb on the day.

As always, Dublin will give you a chance, if you've the forwards to take them. Kildare had a very good second quarter to claw themselves back into the game after going 7-1 down early. But they'd 3 clearcut goal chances between the end of the first half and beginning of the second, and took none. At least 2 of them should have been scored and that would have put some pressure on, but the Dubs made them pay for the misses.

I presume Spewan was the only Kildare man who was upset at Cluxton being honoured prior to his 100th appearance.

The name calling is very mature. For the record he wasn't the only one upset. However nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to the lovefest between the Gaa and Dublin.

Enjoy another Leinster win. Its hard earned. 

[Hound]

Dublin had too many good players for Kildare. Mannion and Costello were just superb on the day.

As always, Dublin will give you a chance, if you've the forwards to take them. Kildare had a very good second quarter to claw themselves back into the game after going 7-1 down early. But they'd 3 clearcut goal chances between the end of the first half and beginning of the second, and took none. At least 2 of them should have been scored and that would have put some pressure on, but the Dubs made them pay for the misses.

I presume Spewan was the only Kildare man who was upset at Cluxton being honoured prior to his 100th appearance.

The name calling is very mature. For the record he wasn't the only one upset. However nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to the lovefest between the Gaa and Dublin.

Enjoy another Leinster win. Its hard earned. 

Yeah, if you're looking for "mature", read Spewan's tweets and articles 

No surprise that you were another who was upset for the 90 second montage marking the remarkable achievement of Cluxton.

[mup]

Dublin had too many good players for Kildare. Mannion and Costello were just superb on the day.

As always, Dublin will give you a chance, if you've the forwards to take them. Kildare had a very good second quarter to claw themselves back into the game after going 7-1 down early. But they'd 3 clearcut goal chances between the end of the first half and beginning of the second, and took none. At least 2 of them should have been scored and that would have put some pressure on, but the Dubs made them pay for the misses.

I presume Spewan was the only Kildare man who was upset at Cluxton being honoured prior to his 100th appearance.

The name calling is very mature. For the record he wasn't the only one upset. However nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to the lovefest between the Gaa and Dublin.

Enjoy another Leinster win. Its hard earned. 

Yeah, if you're looking for "mature", read Spewan's tweets and articles 

No surprise that you were another who was upset for the 90 second montage marking the remarkable achievement of Cluxton.

I don't know how long it was as I wasn't in CP yesterday.

So you presumed Ewan was the only Kildare man that was upset and you are not surprised I was another one that was upset. Intelligent stuff out of you. 

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/dublin-are-so-far-ahead-that-leinster-is-beyond-repair-1.3920177

Dublin are so far ahead that Leinster is beyond repair

Tipping Point: Fans know how it will end – no wonder they don't bother their barney to go

On the walk into Croke Park on Sunday, just down at the corner where the Hogan Stand meets Hill 16, two metallers stood gawping at the edifice in front of them. That's right, metallers. One bald, one hirsute, both in cargo shorts, black T-shirts, Slayer, Megadeth, the whole bit. If you were to guess they had been to Slane on Saturday for Metallica, they could not have been offended by your presumption.

They were German, but one of them had been here before and he was explaining to his mate that this huge stadium was going to be filled today for the Dublin football team. Croke Park never looks bigger than it does at that corner, where you can peer in through the gate and see the seven floors of seats rise up around the bowl, with the sheer terrace of the Hill off to your left. In the imagination, before the stiles open on a matchday, it's a wondrous place.

Had they chanced it and looked about popping inside for the afternoon, we all know their wonder would have taken a fair battering. But they were only passing through and had no notion of going to the games, so it would have been pointless to interrupt them with the truth. What would you say, anyway?

"Well actually chaps, the place will only be about a third full. Time was, you'd get seventy-odd thousand in here for a Leinster semi-final double-header, but Dublin have only lost one game in the competition in 15 years so nobody bothers their barney anymore. Hope they rocked the gaff for ye down in Slane because this place will be like a Monday afternoon cinema visit."

Which it was. As the Meath and Laois teams warmed up on the pitch 15 minutes before the first game, the Cusack Stand had fewer than 1,000 people in it. That's no vague estimate – they were easily counted. Not alone could you hear the teams going through their warm-ups, you could all but hear the grass grow underneath them. You'd feel a greater sense of occasion paying your car tax.

Meath and Laois played out a perfectly harmless semi-final. At times, when Donal Keogan or Bryan Menton or Cillian O'Sullivan would plant a flag for Meath, you allowed your mind to go crazy and imagined the place rocking with hard-chaws from Navan and Skryne and Ashbourne a fortnight from now. But then you remembered that it was the Leinster Championship we're talking about here, and sure Ashbourne is full of Dubs now anyway.

And then Dublin came out and did what Dublin do to everyone in the province and have done for pretty much the whole decade. It was 15 points yesterday; it will be the same again or something like it in the final. The Leinster Championship is a non-competition.
Meath's Donal Keogan and Robert Pigott of Laois during their Leinster Championship semi-final match at Croke Park, Dublin, on Sunday. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho Meath's Donal Keogan and Robert Pigott of Laois during their Leinster Championship semi-final match at Croke Park, Dublin, on Sunday. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho 
"As the Meath and Laois teams warmed up before the first game, the Cusack Stand had fewer than 1,000 people in it

This thing is broken. It really is. You can get smothered under the avalanche of numbers when it comes to how far Dublin are ahead of everyone, and yet the beauty of sport is that everything is measurable. These are hunches or swings in the dark. Sport tells you what the story is and it tells you right between the eyes.

Yesterday was Dublin's 20th Leinster Championship game since Jim Gavin took the reins at the start of 2013. They have, of course, won all 20. No great leap forward there – they won 22 of the 23 they played before he took over, going all the way back to the start of 2005.

But the margins have ballooned beyond all proportion to what went before. Of those 20 wins under Gavin, 18 have been by 10 points or more. The other two were by seven and nine: the Leinster finals of 2013 and 2017. For comparison, in those beano years between 2005 and 2012 when Dublin won seven titles out of eight in the province, they only put up five double-digit wins altogether. Essentially, they've gone from handing out double-digit beatings 22 per cent of the time to doing it 90 per cent of the time.

Regenerate

Thing is, nobody can see a way for it to be any different anytime soon. Dublin's ability to refresh and regenerate their playing squad is apparently set in train for generations at this stage. They took the field on Sunday with Dean Rock and Jonny Cooper not on the panel through injury, and with Eoin Murchan and Philly McMahon on the bench. Darren Gavin is this year's new addition; Paddy Small came on to snipe a point. Dublin will have footballers as long as there is football.

"The numbers for this semi-final double-header have been steadily dwindling across the decade

Will anyone in Leinster still care, though? When they announced the attendance at half-time in the second game here, the figure of 36,126 was met with a few nodding heads and raised eyebrows. Not because it was so low, more because it was generally expected to be lower still. There had been talk beforehand of them struggling to get 30,000 through the gates.

That will happen in time, surely. The numbers for this semi-final double-header have been steadily dwindling across the decade, from 58,000 in 2011 to 51,000 in 2015 to 36,000 this year. Where does this end? Where does it go?

With supremely odd timing, the GAA put out a press release at 4.50pm on Sunday afternoon, just as the second half was getting under way in the Dublin game. It was to announce the names and aims of the taskforce set up to take a wholesale look at fixtures in the GAA and try to find a workable calendar, with everything on the table and up for grabs. And you can only bid them godspeed, not an easy task ahead of them, etc, etc.

The Leinster Championship is a bolted horse, though. Whatever they come up with, there's no fixing what it has become.

[Dinny Breen]

Dublin had too many good players for Kildare. Mannion and Costello were just superb on the day.

As always, Dublin will give you a chance, if you've the forwards to take them. Kildare had a very good second quarter to claw themselves back into the game after going 7-1 down early. But they'd 3 clearcut goal chances between the end of the first half and beginning of the second, and took none. At least 2 of them should have been scored and that would have put some pressure on, but the Dubs made them pay for the misses.

I presume Spewan was the only Kildare man who was upset at Cluxton being honoured prior to his 100th appearance.

The name calling is very mature. For the record he wasn't the only one upset. However nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to the lovefest between the Gaa and Dublin.

Enjoy another Leinster win. Its hard earned. 

Yeah, if you're looking for "mature", read Spewan's tweets and articles 

No surprise that you were another who was upset for the 90 second montage marking the remarkable achievement of Cluxton.

I thought it was highly inappropriate and disrespectful to play it so close to the start of the game. And I don't recall having seen it done for any player before and certainly not one that's still playing. Nothing the GAA does surprises me anymore when it comes to Dublin.

[Dinny Breen]

As for the game itself, Kildare's body language was a give away. Mentally they just wanted to get through it . Very impressed with Dublin's movement, they really play like a basketball team, loads of illegal blocking too but it's all so fast no referee would ever pick it up.

The feet on Costello, Mannion and O'Callaghan, brilliant at gaining half a yard in space. No county has three players like them, maybe Clifford, Geaney and an in-form O'Donoghue but still the 3 Dublin lads work harder.

Unless they have an off day in the semi-final or final no team will stop them this year.

[LilySavage]

I'd imagine be last time provincial semis played at Croker. One in Tullamore. Other in Portlaoise. Funny Dubs subs did a bit of a session on pitch after the game yesterday. Long term, not sure what will happen. Practically splitting Dublin won't be easy. And if it doesn't happen I think they should look at possibility of treating Dublin like a separate entity. Rotate which province they play in each year maybe.

[Hound]

Nobody has made their 100th appearance before.

[From the Bunker]

Nobody has made their 100th appearance before.

Yes Hound, their comments are "divisive and mean spirited"!