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Is Paul Hudson still on the Dublin panel or was he let go? He was playing alright in the O'Byrne Cup and was very good with the U21's last year

He is as far as i know. He got injured few weeks back. Very hard to get back in

When we get the likes of ROC, AB, EOG and Kilkenny back it will be one hell of a panel to choose 15 from. in my time watching Dublin this is the strongest panel we have ever had. Nothing won yet & Summer football a whole different game but very very encouraged by the way we are going.

There is great young talent coming through plus Gavin has reinvented & rejuvenated the likes of Andrews, Cooper and Devereaux into serious players!

Hi guys,

Tactical preview of Dublin vs Mayo now up http://action81.com/blog/?p=7092

Thanks,
Emmet

Having watched your bizarre analysis & predictions on Seo Sport last week your credibility is kinda shot as far as I'm concerned.

Well thanks for watching but while my predictions stank I'm a little surprised by your issues with the analysis. I work off what I see, like anyone, look for patterns and then try to assess how teams will adjust to each other. Sometimes that goes pretty well on the presiction side, I went 16/17 last championship season but that defied probability as therw should have been more random variance to throw me off.

Emmet - analysis of patterns is one thing but you were quite disparaging & dismissive of the Dublin hurling team. And yes your predictions did indeed stink!

Hi guys,

Tactical preview of Dublin vs Mayo now up http://action81.com/blog/?p=7092

Thanks,
Emmet

Having watched your bizarre analysis & predictions on Seo Sport last week your credibility is kinda shot as far as I'm concerned.

Getting used to big Tyrone victories being followed up by calls for rule changes.  Spillane will be preparing a list of catchphrases for the summer, to sum up this 'premeditated' evil of tactical fouling and people will run with it for around ten years or so!  I'd say the likes of Limerick would look at the game against Kildare last year and wish they had adopted a more cynical approach in the final minutes of that game.
         The rugby yellow card rule is an interesting concept, however, a fella pulling a jersey at the start of a game will probably get off with it whereas at the end of the game, he wouldn't-this would introduce more ambiguity into the game in my opinion and the poor oul refs will get dog's abuse.

Don't buy that. It works in rugby without any problem. Would work in football too if it was introduced.

Whether it was Tyrone committing these so called 'tactical' fouls or Mayo last Sept or whoever it will become a cancer on the game if not addressed. It might have been there to a degree in years gone by but what is being seen now is a new low in team tactics and means blatant cynicism is being rewarded. It needs to be stopped end of! Unfortunately this black card proposal is a shambles and won't get through. As was apparent several years ago the rugby yellow card option is the only real solution!!

McKenna writes a lot of decent articles to be fair.

No big mention of Dublin hurling I note in the articles.

Why would there be? They've done little of real note in that code and most of the best dual players are choosing football so I'd imagine their domination of hurling is a way off yet.

I really don't agree with the idea of splitting Dublin but there is no point in ignoring the possible problems an overly dominant Dublin might pose for the GAA as a whole. A situation to be monitored but the idea of splitting Dublin would be worst case scenario stuff IMO.

Does he? You might put them up I've never read on these decent articles. Miracles do happen I suppose.

Split Cork in half they have more clubs then us. Its a tired old argument built on sand tis debate

Vast tracks of Dublin don't even play GAA and probably never will if the truth be known.

Meath would have beaten Carlow by 25 points at least and this wouldn't have been a story.

This has more to do with the standard of other counties underage teams in Leinster being crap rather then Dublin being good.

Leinster at football is in a crisis in my view and its completely tilting results in making Dublin look like a superpower.

Other counties are well able to beat us at all levels. In my view its not dublin that needs to be split its the provincial boundaries that need to be reshaped to add a bit of balance to the provincial championships.

He has written many fine articles and the one at the start of this thread is a recent example, just because the Dubs around here don't agree with him doesn't make it a poor article. While I agree with a number of his points, I don't think splitting Dublin is a solution but he doesn't propose that either, he simply doesn't rule it out as a solution to a potential future problem, which is a sensible thing.

The point that seems to be escaping our Dublin contributors is that unlike any other county, Dublin has the potential to utterly dominate the GAA IC scene through advantages no other county could hope to enjoy. This has to be a concern for everyone, Dubs included, as the integrity of our championships would be undermined if one county dominated not, primarily, through excellence but by population, infrastructure and finances.

Personally I think we are a long way from that happening and sport isn't all about numbers or money, English rugby proves that, but I think it is fair to raise the issue as a talking point and it's something worth tracking to make sure the worst case scenario doesn't transpire.

Dublin has the potential to dominate?? Ah right so we should now split Dublin as a result. This is such a pile of crap! Kilkenny and to a lesser extent Kerry have actually dominated. At what point has that dick written an article suggesting the splitting of these counties? As already highlighted its the usual dub bashing that is nothing but boloxology! As also pointed why try and raise standards elsewhere when you can drag the likes of Dublin down! O'rourke should know better if he wants to be taken seriously!

McKenna writes a lot of decent articles to be fair.

No big mention of Dublin hurling I note in the articles.

Why would there be? They've done little of real note in that code and most of the best dual players are choosing football so I'd imagine their domination of hurling is a way off yet.

I really don't agree with the idea of splitting Dublin but there is no point in ignoring the possible problems an overly dominant Dublin might pose for the GAA as a whole. A situation to be monitored but the idea of splitting Dublin would be worst case scenario stuff IMO.

So on that basis why not split Kilkenny or Kerry. Cork have dominated previously and actually have more club players than Dublin so why not split Cork too?? Dublin have 2 senior all Ireland's since 1983 and 2 minor titles! That's a serious state of affairs alright!

And no from Dublin perspective McKenna does not write decent articles as fair percentage involve derogatory comment & criticism of Dublin.

Same old lazy journalist sh1te! On basis Kilkenny keep winning hurling All Ireland's they should be split into 4 teams. Kerry likewise cause they keep on winning football all Ireland's!

China have 200 times our population so they should be split 200 ways for international sport 'it's just not fair' that they have more people to pick from that us!

Surprised by orourke. Had figured him for decent enough commentator and journalist. Shows himself to be no better than that d1ckhead McKenna who has long & distinguished history of spouting sh1te.

Fair play to Brigids..they went out with a gameplay to slow the game down and Deegan allowed them to implement it

Bollox...Brigids were the better team so give them the credit they deserve...Both teams were at the niggly stuff all game but moreso Cross...Ref had a decent game too...typical sour 'apples' from an armagh man!

You are the one talking bollox. deegan allowed pulling and dragging of the Cross lads to go unpunished. the No.3 kicked Clarke FFS when he was a cert to be one on one. At one stage a Brigids defender fell over the ball with the two Cross lads at least 3 ft away from him...result free out. not sour apples. Deegan is a poor ref and once again Northern teams are done over by a southern ref.

You're embarrassing yourself with that post

McCaffrey, O'Brien, O'Conghaile, Kilkenny and a few of the other young forwards won't be involved due to U21 committments (if we beat Carlow in the first round next week).
Connolly confirmed as out due to injury until mid March, Macauley suspended.
Bastick will be back available, and perhaps the Ballymunners if they lose this weekend.

How many of those U21s have lined out for Dublin this year and how many Ballymun players will make the Dublin starting 15? Connolly can only play well against teams that defend poorly Macauley a much bigger loss.

Dublin should win by 4-6 points.

From current u21s Paul Mannion, Philly Ryan, Emmet O'Conaghaile, Jack McCaffrey have all played v Cork or Kerry and of course there's a certain C Kilkenny now available also!

From Ballymun Philly McMahon, James McCarthy and probably Dean Rock. Davey Byrne & Sean George may feature also.

Don't agree with you re Connolly. He is probably the most naturally talented player we have. Having seen him in number of the OByrne cup games he's also in best condition I've ever seen him in. Expect him and the other established players to step up this year. Think they realise if they don't Gavin won't pick them!!

Don't matter. I'd reckon you're nothing more that a frustrated pr*ck with a Dublin envy complex who either can't get it up or who no one will touch with a barge pole!!!

Go see a counsellor, a doctor, phsychologist or whatever it is to get the help you need!!

Without this you'll just have to continue pulling yourself off every time Dublin manage to achieve any success at any level!!

The very best of luck to you with your treatment you sad f***er!!!

And mods: shame on you that you've allowed this sh*te continue for months without dealing with it!!

The whole thing is obviously very raw having just got home after that shambles and clise on major embarassement to dublin football!M! An awful lot of stuff not right about today!!! One thing I will say though is unless Bernard Brogan is going to commit properly to Dublin football he should go off to his bar buying, modelling, blogging, media focused career. You do one or the other. Our top top player that we couldn't live without two years ago is now a bleeding useless distraction and liability. So with all due respect Bernard choose one or the other because with the other stuff going on you're making a complete ballix of the football side!!!

And one other opinion!! Pat thanks for last year! Sincerely! But without Mickey Whelan you don't really have a clue what you're at!!

The poor old us and conspiracy theories from the pair of ye are becoming a bit tiresome at this stage. It's like ye're trying to get the excuses in early

Have never seen such a load of whinging sh*te from a county in advance of the game never mind after it. As above McQuillan cost us the 2010 semi final v cork with couple of dreadful decisions. The 35 frees against v Tyrone were so bad they were almost funny by the end!! We've had our fair share of bad refereeing just like everyone else!!

This sort of nonsense makes Mayo supporters look like a bunch of 5 year olds!! Grow up will ye?

It was no stage fright the last time. You just got beaten by a much better team!