Are Dublin the best team ever ?

[Mike Sheehy]

The brutal truth is that Dublin would beat at least 26 or 27 counties in Ireland in their own home pitch 10 times out of 10, at the moment.

This Dublin team are so good they'd beat all 32 counties combined 15 times out of 10.

.......even if Larry Reilly was playing.

[AZOffaly]

Well, relax now. Let's not go that far. Larry Reilly would change the whole situation immediately. You'd need to pump in at least €15 trillion to counteract the Larry Reilly effect.

[johnneycool]

Utter nonsense. Cork have 5 GDA's the last I heard (covering both football and hurling), yet have millions to pump into P Ui C. They might have more GDA's now but it certainly isn't enough to properly cater for Cork and the county board and some of their clubs have the money to address that if they wanted to. Other counties can afford and can apply for funding to get more GDA's if they want and put a plan in place to do so.

By the way, if Dublin can now afford to take on more of the financial burden and reduce Central council funding then of course they should do that. My view has always been that the GAA should help all counties maximise their potential but you can't do that by giving everyone the same amount. You target certain counties for particular attention and once they get to where Dublin is you move on. Most counties wouldn't need the same level of funding Dublin get to maximise their potential because they don't have to reach as big a population.

We're not talking about facilities, Cork are getting assistance for Páirc Uí Chaoimh just as Dubl$n got assistance for their home stadium Croke Park. Where will all the other counties get the money for these games development officers? How will they pay all the coaches? Does the GAA have money to cover everyone? Will ordinary citizens be happy to pay for these plans? The money isn't there, the GAA invest in Dubl$n because they get a return on the investment. It's a business move.

Your suggestion in the second paragraph is crazy. You want to improve certain counties but leave the rest behind, what are they meant to do? Just sit and watch other counties get special funding and see Gaelic Games destroyed in their county. Joke.

I'm not talking about facilities either. Cork had in the region of €10 million in the bank some of which they could have used to fund more GDA's yet they've decided to use it all on a stadium instead. That's a choice Cork have made but the money was there.

Of course investment in Dublin is about a return and so it should be, no point pissing money away on anybody. If other counties get a plan together, show why they need they money then it is there for them. But they also need to provide a return on this investment which is only right and proper.

Errr no, but by giving everyone the same you'll end up helping few if anyone. The idea is not to leave anyone behind but to build up everyone in stages. There has to be a plan when investing millions of euros otherwise their is no acceptability, no way of ensuring the money is being well spent and no way of tracking improvements. Why the hell would anyone argue that it's better to give both county A and B €100,000 each if it is quite clear county A use this money well while county B are pissing it away? Would it not make more sense to give more to the county using it well and providing a return on the investment and giving less to county B while telling them if you get your act together you'll get the money back?

Zulu,
   you continually make the point about Cork deciding to put resources into a Stadium and Tyrone putting over £7m into a centre of excellence as that was their choice rather than spend it on full time coaches, but you've got to admit that there's no requirement for Dublin to make these sorts of outlays as they've got Croke Park on their door and numerous university campuses with state of the art facilities for them to train on.

There's no state of the art facilities in Tyrone, so I can see why they might do it, also a city the size of Cork needed to do something with their stadium to bring it up to scratch, but whilst the GAA may add some sort of financial assistance, they're not funding it in its entirety. This is just to keep up with Dublin on this level, but leaves them sorely lacking in other regards.

Lets not kid ourselves, Dublin by being the capital and hence a huge population have an advantage, but its only now they're making it count and fair play to them, but I think the GAA may now feel the need to reel back on the granting to Dublin but they'd still be way ahead of the rest.

As for Kilkenny only concentrating on hurling giving them an advantage, there's about 20 other counties this could be leveled at in terms of concentrating only in football!

[Jinxy]

The brutal truth is that Dublin would beat at least 26 or 27 counties in Ireland in their own home pitch 10 times out of 10, at the moment.

This Dublin team are so good they'd beat all 32 counties combined 15 times out of 10.

.......even if Larry Reilly was playing.

Larry Reilly had 15 kids with 15 different women in the same year.
Four years later they formed an All-Ireland minor winning Cavan team.
Football AND hurling.
5 of them were subsequently found to be female.

[muppet]

The brutal truth is that Dublin would beat at least 26 or 27 counties in Ireland in their own home pitch 10 times out of 10, at the moment.

This Dublin team are so good they'd beat all 32 counties combined 15 times out of 10.

.......even if Larry Reilly was playing.

Larry Reilly had 15 kids with 15 different women in the same year.
Four years later they formed an All-Ireland minor winning Cavan team.
Football AND hurling.
5 of them were subsequently found to be female.

That is known as the year of The Big Bang.

[Zulu]

Utter nonsense. Cork have 5 GDA's the last I heard (covering both football and hurling), yet have millions to pump into P Ui C. They might have more GDA's now but it certainly isn't enough to properly cater for Cork and the county board and some of their clubs have the money to address that if they wanted to. Other counties can afford and can apply for funding to get more GDA's if they want and put a plan in place to do so.

By the way, if Dublin can now afford to take on more of the financial burden and reduce Central council funding then of course they should do that. My view has always been that the GAA should help all counties maximise their potential but you can't do that by giving everyone the same amount. You target certain counties for particular attention and once they get to where Dublin is you move on. Most counties wouldn't need the same level of funding Dublin get to maximise their potential because they don't have to reach as big a population.

We're not talking about facilities, Cork are getting assistance for Páirc Uí Chaoimh just as Dubl$n got assistance for their home stadium Croke Park. Where will all the other counties get the money for these games development officers? How will they pay all the coaches? Does the GAA have money to cover everyone? Will ordinary citizens be happy to pay for these plans? The money isn't there, the GAA invest in Dubl$n because they get a return on the investment. It's a business move.

Your suggestion in the second paragraph is crazy. You want to improve certain counties but leave the rest behind, what are they meant to do? Just sit and watch other counties get special funding and see Gaelic Games destroyed in their county. Joke.

I'm not talking about facilities either. Cork had in the region of €10 million in the bank some of which they could have used to fund more GDA's yet they've decided to use it all on a stadium instead. That's a choice Cork have made but the money was there.

Of course investment in Dublin is about a return and so it should be, no point pissing money away on anybody. If other counties get a plan together, show why they need they money then it is there for them. But they also need to provide a return on this investment which is only right and proper.

Errr no, but by giving everyone the same you'll end up helping few if anyone. The idea is not to leave anyone behind but to build up everyone in stages. There has to be a plan when investing millions of euros otherwise their is no acceptability, no way of ensuring the money is being well spent and no way of tracking improvements. Why the hell would anyone argue that it's better to give both county A and B €100,000 each if it is quite clear county A use this money well while county B are pissing it away? Would it not make more sense to give more to the county using it well and providing a return on the investment and giving less to county B while telling them if you get your act together you'll get the money back?

Zulu,
   you continually make the point about Cork deciding to put resources into a Stadium and Tyrone putting over £7m into a centre of excellence as that was their choice rather than spend it on full time coaches, but you've got to admit that there's no requirement for Dublin to make these sorts of outlays as they've got Croke Park on their door and numerous university campuses with state of the art facilities for them to train on.

There's no state of the art facilities in Tyrone, so I can see why they might do it, also a city the size of Cork needed to do something with their stadium to bring it up to scratch, but whilst the GAA may add some sort of financial assistance, they're not funding it in its entirety. This is just to keep up with Dublin on this level, but leaves them sorely lacking in other regards.

Lets not kid ourselves, Dublin by being the capital and hence a huge population have an advantage, but its only now they're making it count and fair play to them, but I think the GAA may now feel the need to reel back on the granting to Dublin but they'd still be way ahead of the rest.

As for Kilkenny only concentrating on hurling giving them an advantage, there's about 20 other counties this could be leveled at in terms of concentrating only in football!

Johnny, the point I'm making is that other counties also have money and/or in built advantages, not just Dublin, the 6 counties for example can access UK sports funding. I fully accept Dublin have advantages but Cork are building a centre of excellence even though they have UCC and CIT to avail of and I would debate the necessity of totally rebuilding PUC. I didn't engage in this type of thread until it, and about 4 other similar ones, ran for weeks on end with lads hammering the Dubs over money, a dubious home advantage (which even the poor minors now have apparently) and even match day atmosphere due to their brilliance. I've no relationship with Dublin whatsoever but I like to think I'm fair minded and I was sick of reading all the moaning about everything from the reasonable to the down right bizarre.

It should be noted that Dublin's resurgence has provided us with a wonderful football team at a time when so many others seem determined to destroy the game as a spectacle and their hurlers have added a much needed shot in the arm to the competitiveness of the championship.

Of course central council funding has to be revised but I wouldn't take any one cent from Dublin unless it can be well spent elsewhere.

I'm not talking about facilities either. Cork had in the region of €10 million in the bank some of which they could have used to fund more GDA's yet they've decided to use it all on a stadium instead. That's a choice Cork have made but the money was there.

Of course investment in Dublin is about a return and so it should be, no point pissing money away on anybody. If other counties get a plan together, show why they need they money then it is there for them. But they also need to provide a return on this investment which is only right and proper.

Errr no, but by giving everyone the same you'll end up helping few if anyone. The idea is not to leave anyone behind but to build up everyone in stages. There has to be a plan when investing millions of euros otherwise their is no acceptability, no way of ensuring the money is being well spent and no way of tracking improvements. Why the hell would anyone argue that it's better to give both county A and B €100,000 each if it is quite clear county A use this money well while county B are pissing it away? Would it not make more sense to give more to the county using it well and providing a return on the investment and giving less to county B while telling them if you get your act together you'll get the money back?

Stadiums like Corks have to be done. It's not just GDA's that have Dubl$n where they are.

The aim should be to improve all counties equally, give everyone a fair chance to compete. A strategic programme manager and team should be appointed to every county. They formalise a plan and assess what's needed for the county they're assigned to. They go back to HQ with the report and the cost of implementing it. Obviously some counties will need more money and some less.
This way you'll have accountability, everyone will know where the money is going so it wont and can't be wasted, every county will have proper structures in place to produce talent and increase playing numbers in Gaelic Games and most of all it's FAIR for every county.

At least you're talking a bit of sense now! I'd have no problem with that. I don't care what mechanism you use to distribute funding as long as it is going to get a return and everyone with a good plan can access it.

[macdanger2]

PP are giving 11/4 on Dublin to win the 5 in a row by 2017!!! 

[armaghniac]

The brutal truth is that Dublin would beat at least 26 or 27 counties in Ireland in their own home pitch 10 times out of 10, at the moment.

This Dublin team are so good they'd beat all 32 counties combined 15 times out of 10.

.......even if Larry Reilly was playing.

Larry Reilly had 15 kids with 15 different women in the same year.
Four years later they formed an All-Ireland minor winning Cavan team.
Football AND hurling.
5 of them were subsequently found to be female.

That is known as the year of The Big Bang.

I heard Larry Reilly had 15 kids with in one year with the same woman!

PP are giving 11/4 on Dublin to win the 5 in a row by 2017!!! 

I wonder is there a market for that on Betfair!

[Rossfan]

Don't matter must be at work -- 

http://www.hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=222830

[ck]

Crazy crazy odds for a two horse race. Whilst I hope Dublin win against Donegal I think we could be in for a shocker

[seafoid]

Crazy crazy odds for a two horse race. Whilst I hope Dublin win against Donegal I think we could be in for a shocker

There must be a wall of money on Dublin. 3/10 to win Sam.

[moysider]

Crazy crazy odds for a two horse race. Whilst I hope Dublin win against Donegal I think we could be in for a shocker

There must be a wall of money on Dublin. 3/10 to win Sam.

No wonder there s so little interest about for the Mayo/Kerry semi. Seems like a pointless acedemic exercise to most I think.

[Rossfan]

Crazy crazy odds for a two horse race. Whilst I hope Dublin win against Donegal I think we could be in for a shocker

There must be a wall of money on Dublin. 3/10 to win Sam.

No wonder there s so little interest about for the Mayo/Kerry semi. Seems like a pointless acedemic exercise to most I think.

Sure someone has to get hammered by them in the Final

[moysider]

Crazy crazy odds for a two horse race. Whilst I hope Dublin win against Donegal I think we could be in for a shocker

There must be a wall of money on Dublin. 3/10 to win Sam.

No wonder there s so little interest about for the Mayo/Kerry semi. Seems like a pointless acedemic exercise to most I think.

Sure someone has to get hammered by them in the Final

That s what bothering me although after Sunday it may be Kerry people' s concern only.
Maybe to give the final opposition a chance the final will be played in Killarney or Castlebar. I m sure the Dubs won t mind. They always say they love their trips down the sticks.

[Rodman]

Are Dublin really that good. Maybe its a case of the rest of the teams just being useless at the  moment.  I don't think they any better than the Kerry or Tyrone teams of the 00's.  Man for man, Tyrone and Kerry probably had better players.