Messages

I'm all in favour of the Dubs being sent to the moon.

Who'd sponsor the rocket?

Barney Rocket
Morgan fuels
Maybe Bord na Mona
The National Stud
Mr Tayto

Spillane isn't smart enough to be a presenter which is why the experiment was abandoned. He never made it past deputy principal . He is a football legend however.

The problem is there aren't enough fancy dans.

Playing Elneny and Xhaka is just asking for trouble, there is no need for both and it weakens Arsenal considerably. Add in the fact some players just aren't very good like Walcott, Gabriel etc and it's no wonder they're struggling.

Tottenham are the fancy dans . 15/15
the Arse are the hard workers. 4/15

What does Ómaigh mean?
Flooding in Cork is logical cos the Irish, Corcaigh, means marshy.

Galway were very impressive in the last 10 minutes. Daly is a great player to have as a sub. It has been quite mediocre for a number of years but they have the makings of a decent team now.

When is the last time Kildare beat Galway in Croke Park ?

[The defence looks to be better than last year]

That is a very good result for Galway. The last time they won in Croke Park was in 2001 playing Meath.
The defence looks to be better than last year and the forwards are able to score when required.

Don't think so. 0-16 conceded today against a Kildare side that are unlikely to see August football. As was said already the Galway subs proved the difference but they seem short on defensive options.

Kildare are improving and Galway didn't leak any goals.
It was an improvement on the Tipp match. Getting the scores when they are needed rather than losing it as per last year is another thing.
The Mayo Reich's days are numbered I think. They have to win Sam this year.

That is a very good result for Galway. The last time they won in Croke Park was in 2001 playing Meath.
The defence looks to be better than last year and the forwards are able to score when required.

There's a tier below the top-level that encompasses all the worst elements of modern football.
Players are fit enough to run around all day hand-passing, but they haven't figured out how to combine this with a coherent attacking plan.
It's just sheep in a heap.

That's Cavan
Galway have better forwards

http://mediastore.magnumphotos.com/CoreXDoc/MAG/Media/TR7/8/0/f/5/PAR46678.jpg

Hugely disappointing opening 15 minutes with both teams dropping back and creating banks of defenders making any kind of attacking play difficult. Have we killed the sport altogether?

Syferus is the Svengali of this Galway team

KILDARE TEAM:
Mark Donnellan
Mick O'Grady
David Hyland
Ollie Lyons
Johnny Byrne
Eoin Doyle
Keith Cribbin
Kevin Feely
Tommy Moolick
Fergal Conway
Fionn Dowling
Paul Cribbin
Chris Healy
Niall Kelly
Ben McCormack

Strong team woth plenty of trickery in the FF line. Big men in the half-forward line too. Would like to see Conway or Moolick sitting deeper to hold the middle and stop the strike runners as they say these days in coaching parlance...
I didn't make the last game but I am told Galway were very poor, but that Kildare team had never lined out at any level together and it was still a narrow loss. We have more pace than previous years and I think it should be a good fast game.

Galway had to get promoted. They should be more flúirseach today.

Lar, I don't disagree on the larger point regarding rural depopulation but the players you mentioned, like John Small and Dean Rock are good players rather than great players. Connolly, Cluxton, Flynn and Brogan will be in the conversation when they are picking the next centenary team. Dublin will be one of the top 3 or 4 teams for the foreseeable future but the idea that they'll be unbeatable is patently not true and Kerry are now dominating at nearly every level bar senior county so I see no reason why that won't transfer to senior in due course.

Kerry have embraced the challenge Dublin are posing, it's about time others did so too.

Yeah, I'd accept what you say about Rock and Small but Dublin are better placed to produce good young players than any other county because of the professional set up they have.
I don't and never did say that Dublin will always win everything in sight as I have said numerous times, on the field its 15 against 15 and other counties could well beat them on any given day. But over the course of, say, a decade, Dublin is odds on to win more than any other county.
Also, don't forget that most  of the team that were humiliated by Meath in 2010 went on to win the AI in the following year and several more since.
That defeat stung the Dublin county board into action and the result, as the fella said, is history.
THe problem for me is that we no longer have an amatuer ethos at least where the more high profile counties are concerned and Dublin leads the way here.
Now, as you say Kerry have taken up the Dublin challenge, or have they?
Why is the outcome of the league final attracting so little interest?
Kerry are doing very well at all grade below senior inter county and despite the disparity in resources, you'd still expect their seniors to lead the challenge to Dublin most years.
But there are a few significant differences between success at underage and success at senior level. First and foremost is the issue of money. To gain success at senior level costs millions with more psychos, physios, doctors, masseurs, specialist coaches, psychologists and I'd say in Dublin's case at least one psychiatrist, and God knows who else.
Spending on underage grades is a different matter entirely. A team can be well-prepared at that level without having to spend a fortune that most counties don't have.

Lar

The Dubs were banging on the door for a long time before 2011.
Winning begets winning and they managed the team well.
But they have only won 4 all Irelands in 20 years, 3 less than Kerry

It's up to the other teams to beat them 

Lar, I don't disagree on the larger point regarding rural depopulation but the players you mentioned, like John Small and Dean Rock are good players rather than great players. Connolly, Cluxton, Flynn and Brogan will be in the conversation when they are picking the next centenary team. Dublin will be one of the top 3 or 4 teams for the foreseeable future but the idea that they'll be unbeatable is patently not true and Kerry are now dominating at nearly every level bar senior county so I see no reason why that won't transfer to senior in due course.

Kerry have embraced the challenge Dublin are posing, it's about time others did so too.

I don't buy the 1000 year Dub reich theory. In the last 5 championships the Dubs won the same number of finals that Mayo lost. Mayo should have won at least one.

[Where did the three names come from? Go figure....]

As  I see it, the jackeens vs the culchies is all right for a bit of pub talk and some waffle on internet forums (fora?) but Dublin's dominance on the field  right now isn't my biggest concern. I think Jim Gavin is a good manager and a very nice chap and he's only making the best of what he has at his disposal, as any manager worth his salt would do.
But there are socio-economic forces at work that will propel Dublin further and farther away from the chasing pack and that can't be good for Dublin and for the whole of culchie land.
Rural communities along the western seaboard are being decimated by the drift of people from the land to the towns and cities along the eastern coast. That's a fact of life and it's tearing the heart out of towns and villages in Mayo, Galway and every other with its arse to the Atlantic. Anyone who takes a walk around Ballinrobe or Kiltimagh or other small towns in Mayo on any night will find pubs shut down and shops that were shuttered a few years ago.
The arrival of multinational supermarkets on the scene has given the kibosh to small shops that served as social centres, just as blacksmiths' forges did in previous generations. THe GAA is in serious trouble, at least in the short to medium term as the young , fit and ambitious are packing up in greater numbers than ever before.
You have assloads of clubs in Dublin that have no room for new members while you have the likes of Parke-Keelouges- Crimlin trying to survive in Mayo. (Where did the three names come from? Go figure....)
Dublin can only get bigger and better and further ahead of the rest, there is no other logical alternative. But the percentage of the population of those who engage actively in GAA affairs is decreasing. I mentioned Erin's Isle before- a middling-sized club with a catchment  area with the same population as County Cavan. One club to represent over 72,000 people!  And that's only one example.
Not good for the future of the GAA.
Believe me, there may be is trouble ahead!

The Parish of Parke (also half of Turlough), The Parish of Keelogues (also half of Turlough and Ballyvary) and Crimlin (half parish of Parke). Name was Changed for just Parke which it was called up to lately. After a big row! The name came about to keep a lot of people happy and to stop players from Keelogues being Robbed by neighbouring Clubs!

The reality is that it is still known as Parke to everybody.

I know the craic alright.
I was addressing that at those who can see nothing wrong with Dublin's stranglehold on the game for now and forever.  The whole goddamn lot may play as Parke but look at the area that once had three clubs and now has only one. Amalgamations left right and centre to try and keep the game alive.
As John Power says, the number of clubs in Leinster is dropping as well so what hope is there for Connacht and the other counties isolated counties? Population figures give a false impression of what the reality is.
Figures are skewed by the number of non-nationals coming to live in those counties. The actual population in the counties I have in mind may have increased somewhat, (apart from Mayo) but the fact is they are not GAA-oriented. Anyone know when the last rural club in rural counties was founded? Very few in cities and large towns but none I have heard of in country areas.
The probability is that things are going to get worse not better.

The Dubs have a long term success rate of around 19% of all Irelands.
They won a higher percentage pre 1921
This team is dependent on 6 or 7 key players who won't be around forever.

On the economic front things are probably going to change soon because the system
doesn't work for the majority of people.

Far from me bit it to fight with you but the facts don't support your argument.
The idea that when Berno and Clucko and Dermo and Flynner and the likes retire, the Dubs will drop back into the pack once more is wishful thinking at best  and a sign that whoever belives that could do with a spell in a home for the bewildered.
What about McCaffrey, McCarthy, Fenton, Kilkenny, Costello, Small, Rock and all who are coming through in a never ending stream? Even if you could discount the fact that Dublin won't be going away any time soon, there's the little matter of finance involved. Nowadays, it takes more to prepare a team to win an All Ireland than it took to put Neil Armstrong on the moon. Mayo and Kerry and Tyrone or Donegal etc. won't be able to keep up the challenge year after year. They're bankrupting themselves as it is.
Statistics? Like Mark Twain said, there's lies, damn lies and statistics.
What happened fadó, fadó has no bearing on the present or future because of the changed social and economic conditions that prevail now.  Besides, Dublin didn't have their Blue Wave initiative in operation until 2011.

Fadó, fadó is important because of how economic systems work. Now is most similar to the 1930s for example.

Mayo and Donegal might fall back but other counties will replace them.
Dublin's economic success is built on debt and speculation. Debt will probably be written off in the new system. 

I dont think Jim Gavin will emulate Brian Cody either.