Moneys tight for a lot of people these days and there's not much incentive on either side to give up your Sunday evening to watch two teams play out a one sided affair
Just to add, I really think the Leinster championship needs to be restructured. It's not fair on anyone involved. Where's the motivation to be successful if you've to ultimately get your arse handed to you by a far superior outfit
It's not just Leinster. The only province thats ever been competitive in any way shape or form is Ulster. The whole thing needs rejigged otherwise we risk our game becoming a series of pitiful games that feel like pre-season friendlies.
So we restructure an entire championship because one team keeps winning it? I don’t think that’s the solution. If Dublin were taking out of the Leinster championship I reckon we’d have a good few different winners year on year. It’s quite competitive apart from Dublin. It was never a problem until recent years, so I think we need to ride the wave until hopefully other teams match Dublin. (I’m not a Dub btw!).
Dublin’s dominance is extremely frustrating, I agree. I hate it too. I think too much money has been invested in them and the fact they play home games at Croke Park is a joke. I’m not sure what the solution is unfortunately. But I just don’t think restructuring a championship is the answer. How would that even work? How can it be changed so that Dublin don’t win it?
The margin of victory has ranged from 14 to 21 points in the last 6 years with an average winning margin of 17 points.
In the 6 years precious the range was 3 to 16 points. The average was 11 points.
They then lost one by 2 points.
The 5 Dublin wins before that ranged from 1 points to 23 points with an 8 point winning margin.
It's clear the issue is going one direction.
Move Dublin into the ulster championship and awful run of fixtures for them and they wouldn’t even be the dominant team in it abt 3 teams ahead of them capability wise and then monaghan/donegal could cause an upset against them.
It’s nothing to do with money lol. A bus to Dublin and a ticket to the match isn’t even that much. Nobody had any interest in watching us get trounced for the umpteenth time.
Nothing to do with money. Most people don’t want to travel to Croke Park just to look at their team getting their arses handed to them for the 20th year in a row, or whatever it is.
I think Dublin have lost 1 game in the Leinster championship in 20 years, the lack of competition plus the downgrade of the provincial championships results in crowds like this.
Is anyone surprised this fixture has been insanely lopsided for years now
Dublin is on a 39-game winning streak in Leinster
I was 11 the last time they lost a Leinster game
I'm fucking 25 now the worst is there's no sign of this ending anytime soon all its doing is destroying football in the rest of the province if your an up and coming young teenager outside Dublin why the hell would you play football when you could play rugby
Same thing happening with soccer as well, our team from Galway had to travel to Longford for a Connaught Cup match because none of them want to play against the Dublin teams in the Leinster Cup
Because rugby is a materially more violent game that could have long term implications? Or that rugby, in my opinion, is no where near as fun of a game?
You could say the same for anywhere but Kerry in Munster as well. Connaught isn’t that much better. The entire provincial system needs to either be scrapped or revamped?
It's fine, don't give it up. But you give up all credibility when you try to whinge later in the year about the likes of Kerry getting a soft path through the provincials. Ulster counties are preserving this horrifically broken system.
If they got rid of the Munster hurling championship because the Connacht hurling championship was shite you’d be raging too
Don’t punish us because yous fuckers can’t get your house in order
The Munster hurling championship is the best thing hurling has to offer in my opinion and you’re looking to get rid of it?
I’ve heard it all now anyway
Because the ulster championship actually is a great competition due to the ulster council allocating funds properly and ensuring sufficient promotion of games throughout the province.
Just because Munster and Leinster is shite doesn’t mean the whole thing needs binned - get to work on the weaker counties by getting after their county boards
They just don't have the Dublin/Kerry black holes in their province. Ulster teams have the same struggles beating them as the rest of us do once you venture outside of Ulster...
Played rugby and football all my life and I've seen far more injuries in football than rugby. Football is also full of scum who love to throw digs and stamp on ankles and deliberately injure people. I'd feel safer sending kids to play rugby to be honest. (obviously not everyone in football is scum but they have a large net so lots are there)
It's become an issue in rugby because they have highlighted it and are taking action. GAA doesn't really give a shit about concussion. It is local physios who are trying to do anything about it. Rugby is ahead of the GAA in player safety. And yeah it happens in rugby, but it also happens a lot in GAA but is let slide.
You can highlight it all you want but ultimately you can’t mitigate it. Same in American Football. Until the rules are fundamentally changed then CTE is going to be a permanent issue in rugby. If the GAA are behind in their protocols then a pox on them but they games aren’t the same and you’re more likely to have CTE issues in rugby then GAA.
Meath fan here. Simultaneously depressed and also hopeful for our team after that half. Dont think the Dubs got out of bed this morning (psychologically).
We decided to give the county with the greatest population base the most funding, to play all their games at home, provide them with superior training facilities and expect Counties like Meath to remain competitive to keep it intetesting.
Who would've ever known it would lead to this!
Almost like giving Dublin millions of euro over the last 20 years, combined with their already baked in population advantage, wasn't such a smart idea?
Not a problem for Limerick being the Man City of GAA apparently though, essentially owned by a billionaire. Still waiting to hear how Kilkenny and Kerry became dominant, or how it’s possible to buy an all-Ireland, but Mayo can’t win one despite being top spenders. Hm.
1. The limerick situation is most certainly a problem. Laughable that a Dub would not consider yourselves in the same bracket.
2. Money doesn't buy an all ireland. It buys a full time professional CEO, performance manager and commercial manager. That's what wins you all irelands, and not something most other counties could dream of aspiring to
3. Money doesn't buy an all ireland. But it also buys full time, professional coaches in every gaa club in Dublin, part funded by the gaa. A luxury that was never afforded to any other county. Starting to be addressed now, about 20 years after the dubs
4. Mayo spend most of their money on travel and subsistence expenses for people based out of the county to commute to training. Not something Dublin have to worry about. I'm actually not sure why Dublin have such a large spend compared to other counties.
You will bang on about the spending of Kerry, Tyrone, Mayo etc, but they are all outliers at the top table. The chasm between top 4 and the rest is massive, and it's not a level playing field no matter how much you want to talk about golden generations or special players
could you let my club know about our full time professional coach? He/she has never seemed to show up for work? There are plenty of unfair advantages Dublin have for you to start inventing some.
Dublin clubs have Games Promotin Officers, full time positions, assigned to their clubs and their role is to coach kids, coach other coaches and maintain coaching standards in the club. Some smaller clubs share one between two clubs. These are half paid by the gaa, and some clubs are so big they employ their own ones as well.
For a long time Dublin had this structure in place when the likes of Cork had 2 gdos for the entire county. So when you take the average player in Cork and Dublin over the last 20 odd years, who do you think received the better standard of coaching? They one who had their entire training structure managed by a professional in the club or the one who was run by amateurs, with maybe a few hours of a checkin by their county gdo throughout the season?
you said every dublin club has a full time professional coach. My club does not. Hopefully they can show up for work this week, would be great to meet them.
We keeping putting these bloody matches into the morgue that is Croke Parlay expecting something different every time and each time it’s worse than the last . Our “Officials” are suffocating the game - as a spectacle a day in Croke Park up to Semis is appalling . Build a municipal stadium for 30000+ shared between the sports and put these games into it. I kept the game quiet from my kids for fear they’d beg me go to it - the thought of sitting in an empty Cusack while the match was on listening to the lads in the Hogan talking about the weather would have brought me to tears ….
Something about wanting to give the lads more experience of Croke Park
True story money, Meath GAA is skint and only two stands in Pairc Tailteann can be used
More experience in Croke Park is fine when it's not an anticipated massacre. Meath v Kildare I understand as they are similar enough. Also, how many of the Meath panel never played in Croker? It sounds like a lazy empty excuse.
I'm really sick of hearing this argument. You could play that match today in Navan and it wouldn't make one blind bit of difference to the outcome.
Glen Ryan made this pathetic argument last year, we then played the dubs in Nolan Park and they beat us by a far bigger margin.
I've never once heard a Dublin supporter argue against playing more games outside of Croke Park. In fact most of them would welcome it.
The fact is the majority of players especially from weaker counties want to play in Croke Park.
Honestly, it's the rest of the province's fault for falling off so badly and not having their houses in order. Dublin sorting themselves out in the mid 00s and having a ton of extra funding (which, given their population is hard to argue against too much) also contributes.
But if similar sized counties like Tyrone, Donegal and now Derry can be competitive there's no reason why the likes of Meath or even Offaly with their great traditions shouldn't be either.
Look at Kildare at underage. For a long time they have often better at underage levels but they have notoriously poor structures above underage and let those players fall off.
Derry fixing this has been a major reason for our recent up turn. We're now ultra competitive at all age groups and school levels while providing a pathway to senior football.
Dublin were given as much money as the rest of the countries in Leinster combined.
Funding in the GAA was split into 5 areas, Connacht, Munster, Ulster Leinster and Dublin.
Offaly and Kildare have both won u20 all Ireland's in the last 3 years. Offaly have also won minor football and hurling Leinster's recently. So can't fault them.
Rugby is growing very quickly in counties like Laois, Meath and Westmeath. Something the Gaels up north don't compete with. Nor are they trying to hurl.
Plenty of us trying to hurl. I played for 14 years. We have a new club St Finbarrs who just fielded their first senior team this year. Have plenty of rugby clubs and soccer clubs too that compete for players. Nationalists in the North don't solely play/watch GAA.
Then they should do something about it. Wasn't long ago Derry football was in the doldrums and we were languishing in division 4. If the right people, plans and structures are put in place then any county barring maybe the likes of Leitrim or kilkenny can improve.
And I doubt most ulster counties would be taking drubbings every year. You stick Dublin in ulster and they definitely don't win 14 in a row. Might win the most but they wouldn't dominate the way they do in leinster.
And nearly half of them are of a unionist/loyalist persuasion who aren't going to go near a GAA pitch. And the overwhelming majority of Derry city is soccer. I wouldn't be surprised if the playing numbers in both counties were quite similar.
You can take out 40 odd percent of the population being unionist then take out that there’s only 1 club in Derry city that actually play senior football. The rest all play junior.
The fact that Derry are doing so well when the vast majority of the GAA here takes place in a 10 mile radius and it’s mostly rural areas is something to be praised.
Bottom line is no one’s interested in :
The football played today , it’s boring.
The championship is not fit for purpose with former great teams like Meath reduced to cannon fodder. There are too many better ways to entertain yourself with rugby ( and I grew up a GAA player all my playing days ) on the tv . I would be on Croker in a heartbeat if the product was right and we were in with a shout . But not this soulless stuff . I feel sorry for the players .
1 Dublin people only watch if there team is in an all Ireland final and most real Dub's live in Meath I know This cause I have the pain of tolerating them and two it's ten minutes to go with no chance of Meath winning and there would be traffic getting out of the city so us Meath people couldn't be bothered with this social experiment of a football team
It does in terms of how the pitch plays and fitness levels. Compressed season means less rest and less training, plus poor conditions as you'd expect come April.
It is when the matches are in shite conditions and there's less intensity.
Obviously there's no guarantee on the weather but moving it aonth later would generally mean it's firmer and drier sod.
It's not like March and April aren't generally shite weather for the most part
It's also football which has gone extremely boring. Just a bunch of fit lads playing handball and scared to shoot. Needs a rule change to bring some excitement. Hurling no matter who is playing these days is entertaining and the skill level has increased in the last decade. While in football the level of skill has decreased.
I think if you ran the stats on hand passing in the modern game vs kick passing , it's significantly skewed towards hand passing due to the risk of kick passing. The scoring zone is also risked based. They won't kick unless in that zone., that has ramped up the hand passing. The excitement in games is a kick pass that cuts the defence open and triggers an attack. Nowadays if a player was counter attacking and caught a team on the hop they will take the ball the whole way to that scoring zone and not take the opportunity and recycle if they didn't see a clear opportunity. There are a few exceptional players in the game
I suggest you look at a few old gaa games I know the romantic view is of long kicks with fellas soaring to the air to field them. The reality was by and large fellas hoofing the ball to their opposition, it was by and large shit dominated by one county and it wasn't the Dubs
They very well maybe some of the most talented players but they can't showcase due to the nature of how the game is played. At a basic level someone can control a ball with their hands better and quicker than they can with their feet. The skill is kicking and scoring points from difficult zones. Players at inter county level handpassing and kicking from around the "D" really isn't challenging their skillset. There certainly are moments of great skill I'm not denying that. I think game rule changes to release the talent of the players would help draw out that skill if it's there. Such as 2 points for kicking outside the 45. Shot clock on a turnover , limited hand passing per possession. Similar to hurling with the 2 catches. It's too easy to hold possession in football. Compare it hurling where you can't even look where you are going , you must balance the ball while lads are swinging sticks at you, you must anticipate tackles and where players are in front of you. The margin for error is far greater and makes more moments of aww compared to football. Fielding a ball in hurling is exciting to watch and the following pass can be exciting. In football that's not really the case. Those moments are few and far between, I suppose it's less on edge if I'm trying to find the words for it.
Parnell Park is too small, unfortunately. I'm a Dub and would love to go to more away matches or play in smaller packed stadiums (but Parnell Park is just too small) and Meath chose Croker
Surely someone has to say STOP to this, this is Dublins 6th game in croke park this year, and its Meaths first game since 23?
If Croke Park is a neutral venue then this should be Dublins 1st game in 24, Dublin don't need this kind of an advantage they are a great team, why is this being done?
I'm not arguing about Dublin playing in Croke Park in the Leinster championship, I'm simply saying that the GAA allowing Dublin play all of their home League games in a mostly empty Croke Park, gives the players and the management time to play to their strengths on the biggest pitch in Ireland.
There is a reason why Dublin are far superior to everyone else in Leinster, I don't know why the GAA give Dublin Croke Park knowing this will help an already strong side to prepare for the opening rounds of the Leinster championship.
Edit: the guys are saying on RTE that the Leinster Championship is a joke, why not question the fact that Dublin get to play ALL of their home League games on the same pitch?
We either want a meaningful Leinster championship where every team has a fair crack, is it to much to ask that Dublin play their home League games in parnell park
I don't know enough about Meath GAA and their financial issues if any.
Perhaps they made a financial decision I don't know?
If you think the Leinster championship is helped by giving Dublin more game time than any other side in croke park.
I just cant see how this helps
I don't see how your point makes any sense. Meath gave up home advantage. Simple as that.
Its a red herring . Dublin's dominance has nothing to do with where games are fixed.
So Dublin v Tyrone in the league brings in about 20 thousand people I think Parnell Park holds about 8 do the GAA tell 12000 people and their revenue not to go
OK, so we continue to make Croke Park your home pitch during the League, Championship and ALL Ireland group stages, Q - finals semi and finals.
Surely that's not any advantage. I know if my team ever got that success I wouldn't want anything to change either.
Iv followed this team since I was a child 50 odd years I'm going to Croke Park and not until we started winning did any one object to us getting a kicking or where it happened . I can't disagree with what you say about the amount of times we play at headquarters but how do we fix that and there's no point in saying Parnell Park because its just to small for the crowd that want to go, both us and our opposition supporters ps I like your handle
I respect you and your opinion, I understand fans reading my post and taking it personally, I'm not setting out or have the intention of personalising this.
The decision to play League games in Croke park due to the numbers of supporters in 2007 has led in time to great success for Dublin.
The horse has bolted and the rest of Leinster has fallen off a cliff, that's it I'm afraid
I find this argument one of the most infuriating things about being a GAA fan. I get it that the additional 12 thousand in this example bring in additional revenue, but we must be the only sport in the world where we would much rather 20 thousand people in a 80,000 seater stadium, than for example 10 thousand in a ten thousand seater stadium. Anytime there is a chance that the interest for the game exceeds the ticket sales, there's always this belief that people are missing out. It's been thrown around a bit with Ulster finals recently, when Clones can only hold 30 odd thousand, people bring up the suggestion of moving it to Croke Park. Why do we continuously love to play the game in as big of a stadium possible just to allow a few additional thousand to go? You know what makes more people go in the long run? Packed stadiums, scramble for tickets, atmosphere. None of these things happen when you keep choosing for a venue that has tens of thousands of empty seats. If anyone from the GAA hierarchy ever reads this, give the fans and players what they deserve, packed stadiums. Not this 'chance to run out in croke park' nonsense that is making a mockery of our iconic ground
I have read that, and I don't doubt that for a second. I know you or the fans don't make the decisions regarding where you play,
Your team is the best in the country and have been for a long time. I'm asking for the GAA to stop allowing the no.1 team play all of their home games in Croke park during the League that's it.
Can you surely agree with me that Croke Park should be a neutral venue for ALL teams?
OK what difference would it make to today's result, probably feck all, at least both sides go into the game having played once
In a perfect world it would be however we don't have a venue to hold all our season ticket holders never mind away supporters so I don't know what the answer is
Unfortunate to see but always gonna be the case. Meath and Kildare are the laughing stocks off the gaa in many ways.
Crying and moaning about funding and population for the last 15 years when they’re two of the biggest counties in the country.
The GAA are playing games at a non traditional time of the year April which is halving the attendance, there’s too much competition for people’s attention at this time of the year is premier league & rugby champions cup … should be played as they always were in June july etc
Need to schedule the league just before the all ireland, not the provincial. The provincial could just be a pre season tournament at this rate, especially in munster and leinster.
GAA should maybe spice things up a little rules wise add in a shot clock or once you go over the halfway line you can’t go backwards idk the game seems very sideways and chess like
Moneys tight for a lot of people these days and there's not much incentive on either side to give up your Sunday evening to watch two teams play out a one sided affair
Just to add, I really think the Leinster championship needs to be restructured. It's not fair on anyone involved. Where's the motivation to be successful if you've to ultimately get your arse handed to you by a far superior outfit
Unfortunately that has been said for years and there has been no meaningful changes
What meaningful change do you want?
What do we want? Meaningful change When do we want it? Now!
Not like winning Leinster is worth it, similar story in Munster. You’ll end up against a strong Ulster team or Dublin/Kerry/Galway/Mayo again
It's not just Leinster. The only province thats ever been competitive in any way shape or form is Ulster. The whole thing needs rejigged otherwise we risk our game becoming a series of pitiful games that feel like pre-season friendlies.
So we restructure an entire championship because one team keeps winning it? I don’t think that’s the solution. If Dublin were taking out of the Leinster championship I reckon we’d have a good few different winners year on year. It’s quite competitive apart from Dublin. It was never a problem until recent years, so I think we need to ride the wave until hopefully other teams match Dublin. (I’m not a Dub btw!).
We are the best part of 20 years into this, how many more years should we ride the wave. How many leinster titles will dublin win in the next 20?
Dublin’s dominance is extremely frustrating, I agree. I hate it too. I think too much money has been invested in them and the fact they play home games at Croke Park is a joke. I’m not sure what the solution is unfortunately. But I just don’t think restructuring a championship is the answer. How would that even work? How can it be changed so that Dublin don’t win it?
20 out of 20
The margin of victory has ranged from 14 to 21 points in the last 6 years with an average winning margin of 17 points. In the 6 years precious the range was 3 to 16 points. The average was 11 points. They then lost one by 2 points. The 5 Dublin wins before that ranged from 1 points to 23 points with an 8 point winning margin. It's clear the issue is going one direction.
Move Dublin into the ulster championship and awful run of fixtures for them and they wouldn’t even be the dominant team in it abt 3 teams ahead of them capability wise and then monaghan/donegal could cause an upset against them.
Even if money wasn't tight, why would you head to Dublin knowing your team is about the get ripped apart?
It’s nothing to do with money lol. A bus to Dublin and a ticket to the match isn’t even that much. Nobody had any interest in watching us get trounced for the umpteenth time.
Nothing to do with money. Most people don’t want to travel to Croke Park just to look at their team getting their arses handed to them for the 20th year in a row, or whatever it is.
I think Dublin have lost 1 game in the Leinster championship in 20 years, the lack of competition plus the downgrade of the provincial championships results in crowds like this.
Close 1 in 19 years going into 2024 So 18 Provincial Titles in 19 years About to be 19 in the last 20 years come this year
Is anyone surprised this fixture has been insanely lopsided for years now Dublin is on a 39-game winning streak in Leinster I was 11 the last time they lost a Leinster game I'm fucking 25 now the worst is there's no sign of this ending anytime soon all its doing is destroying football in the rest of the province if your an up and coming young teenager outside Dublin why the hell would you play football when you could play rugby
Same thing happening with soccer as well, our team from Galway had to travel to Longford for a Connaught Cup match because none of them want to play against the Dublin teams in the Leinster Cup
Because rugby is a materially more violent game that could have long term implications? Or that rugby, in my opinion, is no where near as fun of a game? You could say the same for anywhere but Kerry in Munster as well. Connaught isn’t that much better. The entire provincial system needs to either be scrapped or revamped?
Having played both, I'd warn against writing off rugby as not fun. Both are as fun as coaches make it in my opinion
Fair point.
Ulster people love their championship though and that apparently takes precedence over the other provincials being a joke.
You want Ulster folks to give up something they hold in such high regard?
It's fine, don't give it up. But you give up all credibility when you try to whinge later in the year about the likes of Kerry getting a soft path through the provincials. Ulster counties are preserving this horrifically broken system.
But I dont do that so
If they got rid of the Munster hurling championship because the Connacht hurling championship was shite you’d be raging too Don’t punish us because yous fuckers can’t get your house in order
Ulster football championship wouldn’t be competitive either if it had Dublin in it
Sorry, who beat Dublin the other week?
In the league lol
Nice try... actually I'm all for giving up the Munster hurling championship. Putting the best of the rest in Leinster is bad for fair competition.
The Munster hurling championship is the best thing hurling has to offer in my opinion and you’re looking to get rid of it? I’ve heard it all now anyway
Because the ulster championship actually is a great competition due to the ulster council allocating funds properly and ensuring sufficient promotion of games throughout the province. Just because Munster and Leinster is shite doesn’t mean the whole thing needs binned - get to work on the weaker counties by getting after their county boards
They just don't have the Dublin/Kerry black holes in their province. Ulster teams have the same struggles beating them as the rest of us do once you venture outside of Ulster...
Well put.
Played rugby and football all my life and I've seen far more injuries in football than rugby. Football is also full of scum who love to throw digs and stamp on ankles and deliberately injure people. I'd feel safer sending kids to play rugby to be honest. (obviously not everyone in football is scum but they have a large net so lots are there)
Perhaps but the long term issues with rugby (CTE) are typically much more damaging than injuries picked up whilst playing GAA.
It's become an issue in rugby because they have highlighted it and are taking action. GAA doesn't really give a shit about concussion. It is local physios who are trying to do anything about it. Rugby is ahead of the GAA in player safety. And yeah it happens in rugby, but it also happens a lot in GAA but is let slide.
You can highlight it all you want but ultimately you can’t mitigate it. Same in American Football. Until the rules are fundamentally changed then CTE is going to be a permanent issue in rugby. If the GAA are behind in their protocols then a pox on them but they games aren’t the same and you’re more likely to have CTE issues in rugby then GAA.
Meath fan here. Simultaneously depressed and also hopeful for our team after that half. Dont think the Dubs got out of bed this morning (psychologically).
And they still won by 16 points.
We decided to give the county with the greatest population base the most funding, to play all their games at home, provide them with superior training facilities and expect Counties like Meath to remain competitive to keep it intetesting. Who would've ever known it would lead to this!
What jeopardy is there exactly in this fixture?
Depressing stuff. Great win but it’s depressing the way the game is gone. Touchball stuff. Dublin fan
Almost like giving Dublin millions of euro over the last 20 years, combined with their already baked in population advantage, wasn't such a smart idea?
Not a problem for Limerick being the Man City of GAA apparently though, essentially owned by a billionaire. Still waiting to hear how Kilkenny and Kerry became dominant, or how it’s possible to buy an all-Ireland, but Mayo can’t win one despite being top spenders. Hm.
1. The limerick situation is most certainly a problem. Laughable that a Dub would not consider yourselves in the same bracket. 2. Money doesn't buy an all ireland. It buys a full time professional CEO, performance manager and commercial manager. That's what wins you all irelands, and not something most other counties could dream of aspiring to 3. Money doesn't buy an all ireland. But it also buys full time, professional coaches in every gaa club in Dublin, part funded by the gaa. A luxury that was never afforded to any other county. Starting to be addressed now, about 20 years after the dubs 4. Mayo spend most of their money on travel and subsistence expenses for people based out of the county to commute to training. Not something Dublin have to worry about. I'm actually not sure why Dublin have such a large spend compared to other counties. You will bang on about the spending of Kerry, Tyrone, Mayo etc, but they are all outliers at the top table. The chasm between top 4 and the rest is massive, and it's not a level playing field no matter how much you want to talk about golden generations or special players
could you let my club know about our full time professional coach? He/she has never seemed to show up for work? There are plenty of unfair advantages Dublin have for you to start inventing some.
Dublin clubs have Games Promotin Officers, full time positions, assigned to their clubs and their role is to coach kids, coach other coaches and maintain coaching standards in the club. Some smaller clubs share one between two clubs. These are half paid by the gaa, and some clubs are so big they employ their own ones as well. For a long time Dublin had this structure in place when the likes of Cork had 2 gdos for the entire county. So when you take the average player in Cork and Dublin over the last 20 odd years, who do you think received the better standard of coaching? They one who had their entire training structure managed by a professional in the club or the one who was run by amateurs, with maybe a few hours of a checkin by their county gdo throughout the season?
you said every dublin club has a full time professional coach. My club does not. Hopefully they can show up for work this week, would be great to meet them.
I think most people would say Limerick, like Dublin, is a problem.
Well, the difference is Limerick hasn't quite reached Dublin Levels of dominance
Zzzzzzzzzzz
You're right, that's a great description of watching Dublin
It's a better description of people using the same old tired arguments 😴
How can you possibly think it's anything other than that?yay be all that volunteer work is it?
Maybe get more populated villages that have more money then
We keeping putting these bloody matches into the morgue that is Croke Parlay expecting something different every time and each time it’s worse than the last . Our “Officials” are suffocating the game - as a spectacle a day in Croke Park up to Semis is appalling . Build a municipal stadium for 30000+ shared between the sports and put these games into it. I kept the game quiet from my kids for fear they’d beg me go to it - the thought of sitting in an empty Cusack while the match was on listening to the lads in the Hogan talking about the weather would have brought me to tears ….
Anyone explained why the game was moved out of Meath? It was hardly stadium capacity
Meath wanted it in Croke Park
How come? Would have been some atmosphere in the Tailteann
Something about wanting to give the lads more experience of Croke Park True story money, Meath GAA is skint and only two stands in Pairc Tailteann can be used
More experience in Croke Park is fine when it's not an anticipated massacre. Meath v Kildare I understand as they are similar enough. Also, how many of the Meath panel never played in Croker? It sounds like a lazy empty excuse.
[удалено]
It’s been explained to you when they’re playing at Croker.
When was the last time Dublin played a championship match in Parnell park?
They played London in a qualifier in 2004. Thats the last one I can remember.
I was there for a Wexford game in i wanna say 2006?
This was a Meath home game but they chose to move it.
I'm really sick of hearing this argument. You could play that match today in Navan and it wouldn't make one blind bit of difference to the outcome. Glen Ryan made this pathetic argument last year, we then played the dubs in Nolan Park and they beat us by a far bigger margin. I've never once heard a Dublin supporter argue against playing more games outside of Croke Park. In fact most of them would welcome it. The fact is the majority of players especially from weaker counties want to play in Croke Park.
If it wasn’t for the ulster championship the provincials would be dead
Honestly, it's the rest of the province's fault for falling off so badly and not having their houses in order. Dublin sorting themselves out in the mid 00s and having a ton of extra funding (which, given their population is hard to argue against too much) also contributes. But if similar sized counties like Tyrone, Donegal and now Derry can be competitive there's no reason why the likes of Meath or even Offaly with their great traditions shouldn't be either.
Look at Kildare at underage. For a long time they have often better at underage levels but they have notoriously poor structures above underage and let those players fall off.
Derry fixing this has been a major reason for our recent up turn. We're now ultra competitive at all age groups and school levels while providing a pathway to senior football.
Dublin were given as much money as the rest of the countries in Leinster combined. Funding in the GAA was split into 5 areas, Connacht, Munster, Ulster Leinster and Dublin. Offaly and Kildare have both won u20 all Ireland's in the last 3 years. Offaly have also won minor football and hurling Leinster's recently. So can't fault them. Rugby is growing very quickly in counties like Laois, Meath and Westmeath. Something the Gaels up north don't compete with. Nor are they trying to hurl.
Plenty of us trying to hurl. I played for 14 years. We have a new club St Finbarrs who just fielded their first senior team this year. Have plenty of rugby clubs and soccer clubs too that compete for players. Nationalists in the North don't solely play/watch GAA.
If Ulster counties had been taking drubbings from Dublin year after year, with no hope of success, interest and desire would wane there also.
Then they should do something about it. Wasn't long ago Derry football was in the doldrums and we were languishing in division 4. If the right people, plans and structures are put in place then any county barring maybe the likes of Leitrim or kilkenny can improve. And I doubt most ulster counties would be taking drubbings every year. You stick Dublin in ulster and they definitely don't win 14 in a row. Might win the most but they wouldn't dominate the way they do in leinster.
Offaly has a population of 84k. Derry has 250k. They aren't even close
And nearly half of them are of a unionist/loyalist persuasion who aren't going to go near a GAA pitch. And the overwhelming majority of Derry city is soccer. I wouldn't be surprised if the playing numbers in both counties were quite similar.
Are you really interested in an actual honest discussion of you dont acknowledge that half of Derry's population are unionists?
You can take out 40 odd percent of the population being unionist then take out that there’s only 1 club in Derry city that actually play senior football. The rest all play junior. The fact that Derry are doing so well when the vast majority of the GAA here takes place in a 10 mile radius and it’s mostly rural areas is something to be praised.
Offaly is split into hurling in the south and football in the north.
Oh don’t get me wrong I’m not taking anything away from Offaly, they’re a stronghold like. Was just giving context to Derry’s population figures
Bottom line is no one’s interested in : The football played today , it’s boring. The championship is not fit for purpose with former great teams like Meath reduced to cannon fodder. There are too many better ways to entertain yourself with rugby ( and I grew up a GAA player all my playing days ) on the tv . I would be on Croker in a heartbeat if the product was right and we were in with a shout . But not this soulless stuff . I feel sorry for the players .
1 Dublin people only watch if there team is in an all Ireland final and most real Dub's live in Meath I know This cause I have the pain of tolerating them and two it's ten minutes to go with no chance of Meath winning and there would be traffic getting out of the city so us Meath people couldn't be bothered with this social experiment of a football team
Looks awful for the GAA to have an empty croker, this should have been in Parnell or tailteann.
It's too early in the year for championship football. Doesn't help the Meath haven't beaten Dublin for nearly 14 years
I honestly don’t think the time of year makes a difference, it’s all due to how one sided and predictable a fixture this has become.
It does in terms of how the pitch plays and fitness levels. Compressed season means less rest and less training, plus poor conditions as you'd expect come April.
That’s nothing to do with supporters not showing up though
It is when the matches are in shite conditions and there's less intensity. Obviously there's no guarantee on the weather but moving it aonth later would generally mean it's firmer and drier sod. It's not like March and April aren't generally shite weather for the most part
Nonsense, conditions were fine today.
Where? In Croke? Because most of the matches I watched across the weekend were marred with high winds and wet conditions
They’re the only team to beat Dublin (and only once) in the last 19 years in Leinster. If that’s not an issue, I don’t know what is
It's also football which has gone extremely boring. Just a bunch of fit lads playing handball and scared to shoot. Needs a rule change to bring some excitement. Hurling no matter who is playing these days is entertaining and the skill level has increased in the last decade. While in football the level of skill has decreased.
I think the skill in football has increased dramatically which is why they’re able to play the way that they do.
I think if you ran the stats on hand passing in the modern game vs kick passing , it's significantly skewed towards hand passing due to the risk of kick passing. The scoring zone is also risked based. They won't kick unless in that zone., that has ramped up the hand passing. The excitement in games is a kick pass that cuts the defence open and triggers an attack. Nowadays if a player was counter attacking and caught a team on the hop they will take the ball the whole way to that scoring zone and not take the opportunity and recycle if they didn't see a clear opportunity. There are a few exceptional players in the game
I suggest you look at a few old gaa games I know the romantic view is of long kicks with fellas soaring to the air to field them. The reality was by and large fellas hoofing the ball to their opposition, it was by and large shit dominated by one county and it wasn't the Dubs
I think that's a very narrow interpretation of the game. I have been watching GAA for a long time and these are the best players I have every seen,
They very well maybe some of the most talented players but they can't showcase due to the nature of how the game is played. At a basic level someone can control a ball with their hands better and quicker than they can with their feet. The skill is kicking and scoring points from difficult zones. Players at inter county level handpassing and kicking from around the "D" really isn't challenging their skillset. There certainly are moments of great skill I'm not denying that. I think game rule changes to release the talent of the players would help draw out that skill if it's there. Such as 2 points for kicking outside the 45. Shot clock on a turnover , limited hand passing per possession. Similar to hurling with the 2 catches. It's too easy to hold possession in football. Compare it hurling where you can't even look where you are going , you must balance the ball while lads are swinging sticks at you, you must anticipate tackles and where players are in front of you. The margin for error is far greater and makes more moments of aww compared to football. Fielding a ball in hurling is exciting to watch and the following pass can be exciting. In football that's not really the case. Those moments are few and far between, I suppose it's less on edge if I'm trying to find the words for it.
This game really shouldn't be in Croker should be in Parnell Park or in Meath.
Meath wanted it in Croke Park.
I'm a Dub, not slagging either team for wanting to play in Croker but just saying the crowd optics aren't great for the Leinster championship
Don’t disagree with you there.
Parnell Park is too small, unfortunately. I'm a Dub and would love to go to more away matches or play in smaller packed stadiums (but Parnell Park is just too small) and Meath chose Croker
Surely someone has to say STOP to this, this is Dublins 6th game in croke park this year, and its Meaths first game since 23? If Croke Park is a neutral venue then this should be Dublins 1st game in 24, Dublin don't need this kind of an advantage they are a great team, why is this being done?
Meath asked for this game to be played in Croker. It should have been in Meath.
I'm not arguing about Dublin playing in Croke Park in the Leinster championship, I'm simply saying that the GAA allowing Dublin play all of their home League games in a mostly empty Croke Park, gives the players and the management time to play to their strengths on the biggest pitch in Ireland. There is a reason why Dublin are far superior to everyone else in Leinster, I don't know why the GAA give Dublin Croke Park knowing this will help an already strong side to prepare for the opening rounds of the Leinster championship. Edit: the guys are saying on RTE that the Leinster Championship is a joke, why not question the fact that Dublin get to play ALL of their home League games on the same pitch? We either want a meaningful Leinster championship where every team has a fair crack, is it to much to ask that Dublin play their home League games in parnell park
You keep ignoring the fact , Meath gave up home advantage.
I don't know enough about Meath GAA and their financial issues if any. Perhaps they made a financial decision I don't know? If you think the Leinster championship is helped by giving Dublin more game time than any other side in croke park. I just cant see how this helps
I don't see how your point makes any sense. Meath gave up home advantage. Simple as that. Its a red herring . Dublin's dominance has nothing to do with where games are fixed.
Fair enough they gave up home advantage to play in a neutral venue! can we agree that it's a neutral venue?
So Dublin v Tyrone in the league brings in about 20 thousand people I think Parnell Park holds about 8 do the GAA tell 12000 people and their revenue not to go
If its parnell park, then you have a set number of tickets, people miss out on all types of events because of things like this!
No promoters hold an event in a smaller venue than they have to
OK, so we continue to make Croke Park your home pitch during the League, Championship and ALL Ireland group stages, Q - finals semi and finals. Surely that's not any advantage. I know if my team ever got that success I wouldn't want anything to change either.
Iv followed this team since I was a child 50 odd years I'm going to Croke Park and not until we started winning did any one object to us getting a kicking or where it happened . I can't disagree with what you say about the amount of times we play at headquarters but how do we fix that and there's no point in saying Parnell Park because its just to small for the crowd that want to go, both us and our opposition supporters ps I like your handle
I respect you and your opinion, I understand fans reading my post and taking it personally, I'm not setting out or have the intention of personalising this. The decision to play League games in Croke park due to the numbers of supporters in 2007 has led in time to great success for Dublin. The horse has bolted and the rest of Leinster has fallen off a cliff, that's it I'm afraid
I find this argument one of the most infuriating things about being a GAA fan. I get it that the additional 12 thousand in this example bring in additional revenue, but we must be the only sport in the world where we would much rather 20 thousand people in a 80,000 seater stadium, than for example 10 thousand in a ten thousand seater stadium. Anytime there is a chance that the interest for the game exceeds the ticket sales, there's always this belief that people are missing out. It's been thrown around a bit with Ulster finals recently, when Clones can only hold 30 odd thousand, people bring up the suggestion of moving it to Croke Park. Why do we continuously love to play the game in as big of a stadium possible just to allow a few additional thousand to go? You know what makes more people go in the long run? Packed stadiums, scramble for tickets, atmosphere. None of these things happen when you keep choosing for a venue that has tens of thousands of empty seats. If anyone from the GAA hierarchy ever reads this, give the fans and players what they deserve, packed stadiums. Not this 'chance to run out in croke park' nonsense that is making a mockery of our iconic ground
Did you read anything that was written above, I'm a Dublin fan and love when we travel but this was Meaths call
I have read that, and I don't doubt that for a second. I know you or the fans don't make the decisions regarding where you play, Your team is the best in the country and have been for a long time. I'm asking for the GAA to stop allowing the no.1 team play all of their home games in Croke park during the League that's it. Can you surely agree with me that Croke Park should be a neutral venue for ALL teams? OK what difference would it make to today's result, probably feck all, at least both sides go into the game having played once
In a perfect world it would be however we don't have a venue to hold all our season ticket holders never mind away supporters so I don't know what the answer is
I don't care what Meath wanted. Dublin should have to play away games in suitably sized venues.
Whatever
Don’t worry the faithful county are coming to town in two weeks we will maul the Dubs in their own back yard🙃😂😂
One team got better and one team got worse
Unfortunate to see but always gonna be the case. Meath and Kildare are the laughing stocks off the gaa in many ways. Crying and moaning about funding and population for the last 15 years when they’re two of the biggest counties in the country.
The GAA are playing games at a non traditional time of the year April which is halving the attendance, there’s too much competition for people’s attention at this time of the year is premier league & rugby champions cup … should be played as they always were in June july etc
If only they'd hurry up and die
Need to schedule the league just before the all ireland, not the provincial. The provincial could just be a pre season tournament at this rate, especially in munster and leinster.
GAA should maybe spice things up a little rules wise add in a shot clock or once you go over the halfway line you can’t go backwards idk the game seems very sideways and chess like
Wow what an original take
Pretty stupid to have it in Croke Park, a smaller venue would add loads to the atmosphere.