A victory for football and fair play - Well done Dublin

[Jinxy]

Somebody needs to keep these young punks in line.

[Mayo4Sam]

Yer ' talking absolute bollix! Total horse shit. ! I can't be bothered even trying to talk you around, you have obviously convinced yourself, through years of self righteousness  that you know what you are ranting about. I hope you live alone..or at least that the people who do live with you are all deaf as posts.....

Squire, you let yourself down here, best to just fess up

[squire_in_navy_slacks]

Yer ' talking absolute bollix! Total horse shit. ! I can't be bothered even trying to talk you around, you have obviously convinced yourself, through years of self righteousness  that you know what you are ranting about. I hope you live alone..or at least that the people who do live with you are all deaf as posts.....

Squire, you let yourself down here, best to just fess up

Hand on heart, not moi.......................maybe admin will look into the falseness of the case 

[Mike Sheehy]

Paris_in_navy_slacks (well..close enough anyway  )

[squire_in_navy_slacks]

Ah good man sheehy........................... 

However you will find they are tracksuit bottoms and not slacks, had to consult with Galvin on that one 

Ive reported the paris thing to the admin, so maybe those guys will sort it out

[heffo]

Ive reported the paris thing to the admin, so maybe those guys will sort it out

What did you report?

What's for them to sort out?

[AQMP]

First of all I'm a bitter wee Antrim bollix...now I suppose in order to combat the "professional" foul (or shall we term it the GPA foul, grant foul, or the Dessie foul ) there needs to be an appropriate sanction to make players stop doing it.  I remember about 6 or 7 years ago in soccer they brought in that "deliberate delay of the game" e.g. standing over the ball at an opposition's free kick was a yellow card offence (though I note this lasted for about 1 season and appears to have fallen by the wayside, a bit like the re-defined handpass I suppose).  So could it be that a two handed "rugby" tackle earns a yellow for the tackle and a yellow for the deliberate delay of the game??  I dunno, hard to say.

On a wider note, a lot of people round the country don't like to see the Dubs do well.  Can I just say as a paranoid nordie fair play to the Dubs.  They produced a performance that was entertaining to watch and we can't say that too much this year (Antrim v Donegal on 14 May is still a bitter memory!).  Some of the basic skills e.g. foot passing, forward movement, support play and score taking were a joy to watch.  If the Dubs keep playing like that I wouldn't mind in the least if they lifted Sam.  They bascially hammered a Tyrone side who despite all the "end of an era" stuff on their day would still beat most teams in the country.  Well done the Dubs (and I hope you win the hurling too!)

[lynchbhoy]

this is the problem with the modern day game.
The officiation. (................)
Refs are instructed to give frees for any small kind of holding , pulling, third man tackle, push  etc etc.
However when they go out and blow for these transgressions, they are lambasted for destroying the game an turning it into a stop start shambles.
Refs that more or less ignore the modern day directive and allow more manly old school style of play , only giving frees for the OTT exaggerated pulls/pushes/trips etc (should blow for dives and feigning inj too imo) are applauded for allowing the game to flow.

It is no coincidence that the four remaining teams left in the championship all use a good bit of cynicism in their defending techniques. It works. Or at least it does when a certain type of referee is officiating. All these remaining teams have talent, OK  (and no offence Mayo lads) Mayo are lucky to be there  but they are among the top 12 side in the country.
Cork were not clever or cynical enough. I only wish Derry could bring such football intelligence and cynicism to their game. Meath have it, Kildare are superb at it.
You need to be able to play football as well though.
The question is , do we want to have refs obey the letter of the law and induce a complete american football-esque borefest or do we want to have it played and retain the excitement as demonstrated by Dublins fantastic performance on Sat night?
If the former, then we will become as boring as soccer !

[highorlow]

Fair play to the Dubs on Sat.

A goadless victory by them. Good to see they have finally grown up.

[Drummerboy]

Gilroy would have never been my choice of Dublin manager but he has transformed this team. Last year he sorted out the defensive system, it was boring to watch at times but now he has achieved the right balance. The foot passing and movement on Saturday were a joy to watch. Whether we can repeat that performance against better opposition remains to be seen.

As regards cynical fouling towards the end of games. Everyone does it. Madness not to if you want to win. How to stop it? bring back the sin bin.

[tyronebhoy]

It would be very disappointing for Dublin and there fans if the performance on Saturday can't be replicated again in semis and in final because what I saw on saturday evening was a superb performance from every man in the Dublin side.  It was hard, intense but fair and oozing with quality.  Some of the points from out the field were really excellent and that had a demoralising effect on Tyrone as it didn't seem to matter where they got the ball they could score.

I know some will complain about the cynical tackles and players lying down at the end of the game but if Tyrone did the same I'd be the first to commend them for it.

Fair play to the Dubs, just hope you can keep up the form and win the All-Ireland.  If you do, our defeat might not be so hard to swallow.

[Billys Boots]

Really enjoyed Dublin's display on Saturday, especially in the wet conditions.  Their attacking was breath-taking; in the end they took it easy for the last 20 mins, and they could still have scored 3 goals in that period.  They looked really dangerous in the last third every time they got the ball.  I hope (for their own sake) they can repeat that performance when they meet a team that takes them on. 

[AZOffaly]

Can anyone who was there confirm my impression that dublin were almost playing 1-1-1 in the full forward line. i.e.


Bernard Brogan was playing about 13 yards out, dead centre. Connolly was about 10 yards further out dead centre, and Alan Brogan another few yards out dead centre as well. Then when Dublin got the ball, all three broke in different directions


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[tyronebhoy]

AZOffally

Quite possibly though more often than not when the ball got up that far my head was in my hands.

[AZOffaly]

This is why I hate watching on TV. This is the sort of nerdy stuff that I like I just saw a glimpse of that formation I thought, and every time the ball went up to the forwards, it seemed to be put left centre or right centre, and one forward running onto it from a central position, and always with only 1 Tyrone man even half close to him.