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Dublin County Committee are delighted to confirm the appointment of Pat Gilroy as Dublin Senior Hurling Manager on a 3 year term.
Details of the full management team will be announced shortly.

Interesting to see who is team will be

Messi never does it for Argentina except when he scores one of the all-time great hat-tricks in a do or die World Cup qualifier after they've gone a goal down. Well worth a look on YouTube.

In a game they desperately needed to win, at altitude in Ecuador where they had something like one win in about the last billion years. The man is a footballing God.

Unbelievable stuff from Messi - absolute genius

Results trump everything so in that regard you've got to hand it to MON in achieving great results against better ranked teams. However you can applaud those achievements as well as questioning our tactics against teams where we should be able to have better possession and passing stats.

I'd love us to get Portugal in the playoffs and let McClean welcome Ronaldo to the Aviva

That was unbelievable

Had a chuckle at this 

one of my values as a coach is to gain the trust of my players and not just make them better athletes but better people. Humphries in what he did is the antithesis of that value

+1

I'd be a fan of Kimmage and his writings and investigations over the years so willing to cut him a bit of slack on this. I do find his holier than thou black/white argument a bit tiring at times and his assertion re Gavin and the press conference on the radio that morning was spiteful and crazy. I deliberately didn't listen to the podcast with Fitzgerald - As he says himself I may be an asshole but at least I'm a consistent asshole

Yep another soundtrack from my youth gone. RIP Tom and thanks for all the great music. Thankfully got to see him a good few times and never disappointed

Talk of splitting Dublin shows a defeatist attitude
Philip Jordan

Updated / Wednesday, 20 Sep 2017 15:34

I want to address the suggestion of breaking Dublin up into more than one team for senior inter-county football by looking at their results over the past two seasons.

In 2016 and 2017, between League and Championship, they had 12 games that were decided by three points or less.

They drew four of them, lost one one - this year's League final to Kerry at Croke Park - and won the rest.

Of the four they drew, they came from behind against Kerry and Tyrone in the League to get a point and only Donegal and Mayo were able to catch them coming from behind with a late equaliser.

Mayo are a brilliant team, even close to being a great team, and in any other era they would have won an All-Ireland by now, and Dublin have only beaten them by a point in their two All-Ireland final wins over them plus last year's draw.


I would love to see more money invested in Belfast, which is a big city with a young population, to help drag Antrim up

The fact of the matter is that this Dubs team have an incredible ability not to lose games and, more importantly, win the big ones when the stakes are highest and margins are at their finest.

There's no amount of coaching at youth level, investment or anything else that can train a team to do that.

This is a mentally tough group of players that know how to close it out and that sort of resolve is built up over time.

I predicted the past two years that Dublin wouldn't have the hunger to come back and win another All-Ireland and they did it both times. Doing three in-a-row, something that happens so rarely in Gaelic football, in this modern era, where the demands on players are greater than ever, is truly remarkable.

Again, there's no amount of money that can buy that desire. Dublin also have a brilliant manager in Jim Gavin who has been able to adapt his game plan and overhaul his team with new players while keeping established names happy on the bench.

There are so many other reasons too, one of them that the Dubs had such an easy passage to the All-Ireland final this year that they only had to peak for one game in September.

If there was more depth and stronger opposition, maybe they wouldn't be three in-a-row champions because it seems to be a case of the top two a long way ahead of everyone else.

In history before we've had dominant teams, Kerry in the seventies and eighties, Galway in the sixties and others further back and it's a cause for concern at the time, but they always get beaten eventually.

There's no doubt in my mind that this Dublin team are the greatest I've ever seen playing Gaelic football and it would be no surprise to see them win again next and maybe even do a five in-a-row in 2019.

But splitting the county up isn't the right thing to do. Sure, Dublin have a bigger population than everyone else, but they can only have 15 players on the field at any given team, the same as their opponents.

To say that they have to be split up is a defeatist attitude: 'we can't reach that standard so break them up'. As a player I certainly wouldn't have had any interest in beating North Dublin or South Dublin - I wanted to beat the best.

I would agree though that the GAA's funding has to be divided up differently. Dublin has gotten a lot of money in recent years and it's to their credit that they have invested it wisely and reaped the rewards - there's no guarantee that another county would have made such good use of similar funding.

For example, from an Ulster football point of view I would love to see more money invested in Belfast, which is a big city with a young population. Soccer and rugby are the most popular sports there and with greater investment the GAA could harness that youth and drag Antrim up a long way.

The Leinster Championship also has to be made more competitive. Dublin have dominated it since 2005, only missing out once in 2010, and just moving them out of Croke Park more often would have a positive effect on this.

Carlow were competitive against the Dubs this summer in Laois and had that been at Croke Park the margin of defeat could easily have been double.

The problem for every other Leinster county is that they are beaten before they go out, which is understandable, and players have to see hope in order to develop. It's no use to them if they see no way of beating Dublin and straight away start wondering can they get a good draw in the qualifiers.

With equal funding, every county should be able to produce 25 senior footballers of a similarly good standard to be competitive, even though it requires an awful lot of work from grassroots up to get right.

Dublin have invested their money well and now the time has come to invest in other counties.

Sad to to hear that the legend Jake LaMotta has died.

"There's no way I'm goin' down. I don't go down for nobody."

I wonder if genuine Dub supporters would answer a few questions; no messing now, the questions are serious.
It seems to me that Dubs in general feel annoyed/ perplexed/ resentful or whatever that all outside County Dublin are jealous of the Dubs' success and put it down to jealousy. A classic Dubs v Culchies scenario, if ever there was one.

Don't feel annoyed, perplexed or resentful at all. I can understand other counties being jealous of  the recent success but I put it down to people being sick of us winning all the time

Seems you think all your recent successes can be put down to the sheer talent of the players, there is nothing else involved. Once the like of Brogan, Cluxton, Connolly etc. retire, thing will return to normal once more.

I think by far and away the major reason for the recent success is the special group of players that have recently worn the jersey- no doubt about it. at least 5 of them are the greatest Dublin players in their position of all time and a couple are in the top 5/6 ever to play the game. When they finish up I do think we'll still be in the top echelon of teams but won't be as successful as we have been

By and large, youse all seem to hate the northern sides with their bloody packed defences, who won't open it and play like the Dubs.
Are you with me so far?

Don't hate them at all but would prefer to play Mayo/Kerry/Kildare type matches than the other ones

I think the above is a fair representation of general Dublin attitudes and I'm not one bit interested in trading insults with anyone, okay?

Maybe I'm not a fair representative of general attitudes 

How many of you remember the All Ireland semi against Donegal in 2011? Dublin eventually won, 0-08 to 0-06 in what was widely hailed as the most boring game of all time.

Certainly do

This was Colm Keys take on it in the Indo, entitled "Dublin-Donegal 2011 semi-final: The day that shook football's landscape to the core."
Anyone who is a glutton for punishment can read about it here.
According to Mickey Whelan, the Dubs coach,  ""There is no such thing as a right or wrong system. If it works and people buy into it, it can be really effective. We had our own systems."
What for it's worth, I kind of agree with Mickey that the end justifies the means. It's all about winning and a team, Dublin included, will do anything it can to win and stuff the entertainment value.
Dublin has taken a full turn around in the way they play and now Dub supporters despise the tactics used six years ago. Why do you think Dublin has made such a dramatic change to their football philosophy?

Those tactics were used in a one off game and I'd say that since then we've returned to our more natural way of playing

Mayo and other western counties seem to moan a lot about how far their players have to travel to train from their home and places of work/study and claim it puts them at a serious disadvantage. Do you agree or disagree?

Its an obvious advantage but I wonder what has happened to the days of collective training in Dublin for country teams with enough people to make it worthwhile in pure fitness terms - Does every training session in the early part of the year have to be attended by all 30 in Castlebar /Galway etc. Obviously the need to work on game tactics and scenarios etc is different

I'm really curious here. This arises from the last post by The Hill is Blue and I wonder how many Dubs share his views.
Better still, is there a genuine Dublin viewpoint that you compete with other counties on equal terms.

I think we compete on equal terms with the top counties in terms of prep/ resources etc for senior inter county teams. I don't think we have an inherent advantage over Kerry/Mayo/Tyrone other Div 1 teams in this regard. The obvious question around playing home league games in Croker and getting to sleep in their own house on big match mornings might be seen as an advantage but at the elite level I wonder really how much it is.

Life is short and I won't respond to abuse but I know the vast majority of Dubs here and elsewhere are sound characters and they most likely have rational opinions on some or all of the above.

Hope I've been able to help

No pun intended!

RIP Jimmy. Great memories

mmm - who to believe O'Leary or the pilots

Over 700 pilots left Ryanair in last financial year, Ialpa claims

Issues surrounding Ryanair flight cancellations flagged with airline over a year ago

about 20 hours ago
The changes that have led Ryanair to introduce its flight cancellation programme were flagged to the airline at least a year ago, according to the Irish Air Line Pilots' Association (Ialpa).

They have described as "strange and unsustainable" the airline's explanation that the disruption is being caused by difficulties with pilots' entitlements to annual leave.

However at a press conference on Monday, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary denied the airline was short of pilots or that a large number of pilots had joined other airlines.

On Friday the airline announced it was going to introduce a six-week programme of cancellations, to address a number of matters including a shortage of pilots caused by the airline having "messed up" its holiday leave roster.

However Ialpa has said the disruption and the cancellations are due to Ryanair having to implement its scheme for measuring pilot flying hours in a way that is keeping with EU flight time regulations.

They say that for years Ireland and the Irish Aviation Authority interpreted the EU rules governing maximum flying hours in a way that was different from other EU regulators, which gave Irish airlines an advantage.

However Irish airlines now have to adopt the rules in the same way as their EU counterparts. This is affecting the airline's pilot rostering operation, but it has been known that the change is coming for some time.

"It seems clear that Ryanair has failed to plan properly for the implementation of the regulations," Ialpa said.

The change regards when airlines began to count the annual flying hours of a pilot. Up to recently Ryanair began counting the hours on April 1st, but it must now do so from January 1st.

The association also says that the high turnover of pilots at the airline is putting pressure on its pilot roster, and point to filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US that show that, as of 2017, the average length of stay for a pilot with the airline was four years.

An Ialpa analysis of the data indicates that more than 700 pilots left Ryanair in its latest financial year, creating a significant new pilot and training challenge for the airline.

It said that Ryanair has requested pilots to work during their "leave" period, but this appears to contradict the airline's claim that difficulties are being caused by pilots having to take leave before the year's end.

"Since there is no requirement in aviation regulation to provide annual leave per se, it is unclear what is compelling Ryanair to provide any leave to their pilots at this time. It seems clear that Ryanair has failed to plan properly for the implementation of the regulations."

"A separate point of note is Ryanair saying that the problem will last for about six weeks. This conveniently brings them to the winter schedule with its reduced overall crewing requirement, which is further evidence of the real problem being a shortage of flight crew."

Best of luck to everyone lucky enough to get a ticket for Sunday. Hoping for the Dubs to prevail for a famous three-in-a row