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oh .... eh .... right .... just thought that you thought it was a full dublin north selection 

Im tipping Fingal/North Dublin to win it this year. Improving with each game and plenty of players to call upon.

Not that may players to choose from, it's not a full north dublin selection, clubs included are : Fingallians, Naomh Mearnóg, O'Dwyer's, Skerries Harps, Setanta, St Brigid's, St Finian's (S), Naomh Maur, Naomh Barróg, St Sylvester's and Trinity Gaels - not many of those are well known for hurling. But they do seem to be improving as the competition progresses alright. 

Fingal seem to be improving with each game and they ran lotuh close in their first match, could be very tight if they meet again.

Yea, we still have too many passengers inthe team, we need to start giving some of the 06 minors game time next year as we're going nowhere with some of the lads currently being selected, particularly in the forwards. Just need to strike the balance between pateince with these young lads and hanging onto the older crew too long. the HF line selected for Dublin is : Qualter - O'Dwyer - Burke .... not much scoring going to come from that line.

A lot will depend on tommy's selection, for some reason i'm not all that inspired by our FF and Hf lines, although the return of dotsy has beena major boost the loss of McCrabbe has offset that for me. Also Kev O'Reilly isnt back fit yet after his cruciate so we'll probably go with Curtin or Mullen for the frees, good freetakers both but not sure they produce enough from play. Think we'll see Qualter and O'Driscoll start who are both willing but limited enough hurlers in my opinion. I'm prefer to see O'Dwyer and young Ryan get their chance, they're the future.

Munster championship is a meaningless charade. Didn't do the Deise a whole pile of good last year. The current format is just a series of phoney battles, until it gets to the semis, alas. Who cares who wins it, the only relevance is Liam.

Cant agree with that at all, the munster championship is still a coveted trophy in it's own right.

McCrabbe left becasue he only got 5 minutes against Cork and 8 against Waterford after coming back from injury, said he didn't think he was being given a fair crack. Big blow as he's better then some of the regulars, no question about it, as if to highlight the point he hit 2-10 for his club last week. Cant help thinking this is a hangover from the row himself and the management had last year over u21 training or something, which ended in him leaving the panel, only to return later int he summer. If i was Tommy i'd be doing my best to get him back in the fold, he is a serious talent and should be in the starting lineup, but i'd worry that this is a clash of personalities as much as anything. 

Yea fingal would be traditionallly football country, think this is a great opportunity for lads from those clubs to play inter-county. A lot of clubs in the area are investing more time in hurling these last few years so this can only help promote the game.

A number of posts on hoganstand.com saying that Monaghan are being allocated 1,500 tickets to be distributed through clubs with none on general sale...... not sure how reliable that is (hope it's not - i'm officially on the hunt for a ticket!)

There was a couple of hundred monaghan fans, at most, in Parnell Park last time we played. Why the sudden need for 1500 tickets?

However if Monaghan do manage to get off to a flyer and stand their ground I trust that the Dubs can take it on the chin and we will not be reading a lot of whinging about the biased ref in the post game thread.

They beat us fair and square in parnell park last time, it's going to be close.

Sher everyone in ireland had better give up soccer by that logic.

Agree Scalder, it'd be a great day, might take a few years of a successful Dublin team to get to that level, i know a couple of people who's first trip to Croke Park was for the U21 final last year, hurling does fascinate some non-GAA people, like you say, and a competitive Dublin has the potential to draw a lot of them to Croke Park as well as a chunk of the football bandwagon, a lot of who wouldn't be GAA people. At this stage it's still a big if as to whether we can get on a par with Wexford, nevermind the likes of Kilkenny.

I'd be only too happy to see Wexford sort themselves out, we need a really competitive Leinster Championship for the good of the game. 

Interesting post and I feel you're spot on. However I think that IF the investment in Dublin hurling does finally translate to a truly competitive Dublin senior hurling team, then the GAA will make their money back soon enough, as there's serious potential for a bandwagon the likes of which hasn't been seen since the rise of Munster Rugby. If we were getting to semi-finals or even to the final itself the GAA could coin it with the crowds that would surely follow. Whether we can get to that level at senior is debatable but if we can keep the underage improvement going it should eventually translate through. Here's hoping anyway.

No Vaughan for the frees could be crucial.

That's all he's good for though. If yous could wheel him on a la American Football youw would be sorted 

ha ha, Would be handy alright! Vaughan has never had a run in the league, he's either been injured or on a run with Crokes, he could do with a good run this year, i expect him to improve from play this year, contributes well from play for his club. he's worth having for the frees anyway, nothing worse then missing easy frees and last summer it got to the point where you'd just assume he'd score from a 45. 

Well it'll be interesting to see if they can strike the right balance, a lot of good players but possibly not enough outstanding ones to match Galway. If they get it right, management team from the 05 minor team, then I think we've the potential to be as good if not better then last years u21s. Fingers crossed anyway.

Someone on the Dublin minor panel said they fancy Wexford to be the team to beat in Leinster this year.