What good is this to Cork?

[Jinxy]

Would they not have been better off actually trying to win their last league game against Mayo instead of stopping playing when they heard Dublin were hammering Tyrone?
They would have been playing Dublin today and we would have had a decent crowd and quite possibly a decent game.
It's like watching a training session.
Terrible anti-climax after 3 good games this weekend.

[heffo]

Seeing that Cork team shorn of a handful of championship players still to come back - I'm glad Dublin didn't get through - Cork very impressive today and if they can get their head around their Croke Park/Kerry mental block should be strong favourites for the AI..

[thejuice]

Don't know what good it did Cork but it didn't do me any good, what an awful game. feel depressed watching it. Cork cantered along. Mayo looked very ordinary. Aiden O'Shea wasn't allowed into it.

[Jinxy]

Seeing that Cork team shorn of a handful of championship players still to come back - I'm glad Dublin didn't get through - Cork very impressive today and if they can get their head around their Croke Park/Kerry mental block should be strong favourites for the AI..

I don't get this tbh.

[Zulu]

I do, and said so at the time, Cork would have hammered Dublin as well.

[Jinxy]

So you're better off beating the paltry opposition in Leinster and getting blitzed in the quarters again?
If they get hockeyed, they get hockeyed.
They'll learn from it.

[BallyhaiseMan]

No good whatsoever to Cork,it was just like a training session for them.
Mayo are a vastly overrated team who were out of their depth today against an understrength but impressive Cork outfit.
Hopefully this will stop all the usual bullshit hype about Mayo winning this and that.
They are a very average team with one top class player in Alan Dillon,thats it.

[Zulu]

I don't agre Jinxy, what would they learn? What have Mayo learned today? I'd be a happy man if I was Pat Gilroy tonight, his players can go into the championship on the back of a good league and they can convince themselves that if they meet Cork in a one off game they can beat them. Which of course they theoretically can, like Limerick nearly did last year but they won't and today would have only undid the good league.

[INDIANA]

So you're better off beating the paltry opposition in Leinster and getting blitzed in the quarters again?
If they get hockeyed, they get hockeyed.
They'll learn from it.

I agree Jinxy I'd have loved to have been there today. its so long since we've been in a National Final. I appreciate Heffo's concerns but we won't learn much against Wexford. Even if we were hockeyed.

[Jinxy]

I'll tell you what Mayo have learned.
They have learned they are nowhere near as good as their league form would suggest and they have a serious amount of work to do.
If they don't improve they will struggle to beat Sligo who were very impressive last night.
It is a reality check.
I kind of understand the mentality that you have a young team so better to keep them away from Cork at this early stage, but those young players would learn a lot from playing the best in a final in Croke Park.
Cork would have been red-hot favourites anyway so there wouldn't have been huge pressure on Dublin.

[Zulu]

What would they have learned Jinxy, that their not good enough? Anyone who knows anything about football can tell you where Dublin are suspect already, like they could have told you about Mayo before today. Dublin can work away with a positive mental approach, this way Gilroy and the players can convince themselves they can beat Cork and will have learned a bit more about them without giving anything away themselves. If I was managing any genuine AI contender I'd be working away with my squad and watching videos of Cork every week to try and find out how I can beat them with my less talented team. I don't need to be beaten in a league final to know they are better than my lads.

[INDIANA]

What would they have learned Jinxy, that their not good enough? Anyone who knows anything about football can tell you where Dublin are suspect already, like they could have told you about Mayo before today. Dublin can work away with a positive mental approach, this way Gilroy and the players can convince themselves they can beat Cork and will have learned a bit more about them without giving anything away themselves. If I was managing any genuine AI contender I'd be working away with my squad and watching videos of Cork every week to try and find out how I can beat them with my less talented team. I don't need to be beaten in a league final to know they are better than my lads.

Thats a losers mentality Zulu quite frankly. Uniquely Irish as well.

[Zulu]

Not at all, it is a sensible approach to developing your team for the only competition that you will be judged on. You'd be first man on here giving out reams about Gilroy if Dublin had been on the end of that today, why would that do Dublin any good?

[INDIANA]

Not at all, it is a sensible approach to developing your team for the only competition that you will be judged on. You'd be first man on here giving out reams about Gilroy if Dublin had been on the end of that today, why would that do Dublin any good?

Because playing against better teams show up your defiencies better than bad ones. Zulu this is an argument Dublin are uniquely placed to argue on after the last 2 years. We play in a poorish provincial championship that lulls us into a false sense of security to get our arses handed to us by better opposition in the knockouts

I don't think I'd have given Gilroy a hard time at all. If you look at the Dublin v Cork thread a few weeks back I went pretty easy on them because we haven't the players to beat Cork 9 days out of 10. But today might have been the 1 day and as  a coach playing against a better team you always have to believe that your team has a chance. If you don't you shouldn't be there.

When you start wanting to avoid teams its time to retire. A 10 point defeat today for Dublin would be worth ten times any game against teams like Wexford, Carlow etc- no dis-respect to them.

[Zulu]

But today might have been the 1 day and as  a coach playing against a better team you always have to believe that your team has a chance.

Of course you'll believe you have a chance but Dublin had a good league and it will be easier for everyone involved with Dublin to maintain that they can beat Cork now that they didn't suffer that today.

Because playing against better teams show up your defiencies better than bad ones.

Dublin know their deficiencies, if playing the better teams brings you so much why haven't Dublin done better against Tyrone or Kerry in the last year or two when they had played them in the previous 3 or 4?

Gilroy knows where Dublin are and every footballer in Ireland knows that to beat Cork the likes of Dublin will need to get Cork on a bad day. I just don't think Dublin would have got much out of today regardless of the result.