The 2015 All Ireland Senior Football Championship

Diabhal Beag

Taking some lovely scores

Say Your Number

Lovely score from the sub, to be fair Longford aren't lying down completely.

dastardly00

Well done to the ref for giving that black card to the Longford player even though Dublin scored a goal at the end of the attack.

zetecescort

Tipp 1-17 Waterford 0-3 40 min

Boom__Boom

Dubs forwards shooting the lights out - they had 1 effort hit the post and 1 dropped short.

Every other effort was a score.

The Dublin defence conceding 8 points in a half is a bit of a surprise.

Peter Anthony

Leinster Championship is an embarrassment. Even the Dub fans were leaving at half time, the attendance is paltry. Who wants to pay to watch that rubbish?

zetecescort

Tipp 1-24 Waterford 0-5 FT

Neeson

The silence in the stadium after every score says it all.

Peter Anthony

Pathetic, utter farce of a match. The Provisionals need to be overhauled and the Dubs moved out of Croke Park, for their own fans sake.

Say Your Number

This is awful stuff, Dublin stroll down the pitch twice and score a goal both times, I was hoping Longford might at least be able to keep it respectable.

Peter Anthony

RTE fecked up showing this. Fermanagh and Antrim would have been a far better spectacle, this is just ****e.

kona

Peter Anthony wrote: »

Pathetic, utter farce of a match. The Provisionals need to be overhauled and the Dubs moved out of Croke Park, for their own fans sake.

Why move Dublin out of croker? Longford would have gotten dismantled if ya played it in Longford.

seanhynes

Dublin should just play with a handicap of going out on the beer till 4am night before games against sides up until the Leinster Finals:D play with a bit of a hangover for interests sake ,I'm sure the likes of Jimmy Keaveney and Barney Rock were at that

Peter Anthony

kona wrote: »

Why move Dublin out of croker? Longford would have gotten dismantled if ya played it in Longford.

1. Its an unfair advantage for Dublin

2. The attendances and atmosphere are pathetic, would be more of an occasion seeing Dublin elsewhere than in a stadium 70% empty

3. Probably better for Dubs fans

Fudge You

Peter Anthony wrote: »

Pathetic, utter farce of a match. The Provisionals need to be overhauled .

Please stop saying this, without coming up with an option.

Its the all ireland, sometimes, big teams play the small teams, and this is what happens. Not every game will be dublin v kerry.

Same with any cup competition in any sport. Tennis, snooker, rugby, soccer. The big teams will meet in the end, but small teams have to be beaten first.

Fudge You

Peter Anthony wrote: »

1. Its an unfair advantage for Dublin

But did you not see the leinster council vote?? Other counties voted for dublin to play in the stadium.

The Assistinator

jesus I don't think I sat through anything as bad as this in a long time pure boring can't blame Dublin they can only play what's in front of them but sheedy was very naive

seanhynes

tickets would be harder to get but sure a better atmosphere and a slightly more competittive game is better than watching this ,I'm sure some fans wouldn't be too sickened to miss out on a ticket away to Longford

kona

Peter Anthony wrote: »

1. Its an unfair advantage for Dublin

2. The attendances and atmosphere are pathetic, would be more of an occasion seeing Dublin elsewhere than in a stadium 70% empty

3. Probably better for Dubs fans

The stadium is 80,000 seater it needs to be used to pay for itself. It's first round of championship and Longford are crap. I'm sure the Longford players are delighted to get a run out in croker.

KevIRL

Chin up Longford at least you outscored our lads today....

seanhynes

Cluxton wearing a hat to prevent sunburn he could have pulled up a sitee and enjoyed some sun

The Assistinator

kona wrote: »

The stadium is 80,000 seater it needs to be used to pay for itself. It's first round of championship and Longford are crap. I'm sure the Longford players are delighted to get a run out in croker.

I remember talk one time that it takes 30000 for croke park to break even on a game day not sure if it's true but if it is it would make less sense to play it here

Say Your Number

Ah for f*cksake, why doesn't he just blow it up, what's the point of them playing another 7 minutes.

tafkach

This is just terrible.. I mean they said during the game that 8 players left the Longford panel earlier this year... You really would wonder what keeps ANY of the Longford players to put themselves forward for that sort of humiliation... Never mind the poor chap that was badly hurt..

letowski

I think Darragh Maloney was been a bit generous to Longford saying it was over at half time. It was 1-4 to no score after 5mins.

Very Bored

Peter Anthony wrote: »

RTE fecked up showing this. Fermanagh and Antrim would have been a far better spectacle, this is just ****e.

I suspect RTÉ is only concerned with viewing figures. Even BBC in the north is showing Fermanagh and Antrim as a delayed coverage game. I agree with you in principle, but people simply wouldn't have watched Fermanagh - Antrim as they would know that the standard would be poor, no insult intended to those two counties. With Dublin - Longford, there are those who will watch because at least one good team is playing, others because of the chance of an upset, however slight, and then there are far more who will automatically watch it because its their county.

Peter Anthony wrote: »

Pathetic, utter farce of a match. The Provisionals need to be overhauled and the Dubs moved out of Croke Park, for their own fans sake.

I thought the Good Friday Agreement had already done that .

Seriously though, the other provincial championships are better than Leinster at the moment. Certainly Ulster is and Munster and Connacht will produce at least one decent match a year. None of the other three are the cakewalks for one team that Leinster is. And that's only the case because Dublin are going through a period where they have a very good team.

The Dubs have won nine of the last ten, and will make it ten from eleven shortly. Prior to that though they won it once in ten years and in that decade six counties from twelve (in reality, eleven because Kilkenny never enter it) won it. This period of dominance by one team is unprecedated and it will eventually end. The hurling has become somewhat more competitive in Leinster and likewise so will football given time.

Also, if you get rid of the provincials, what do you replace them with? Be very careful what you wish for as a Champions League-style competition, which has been mooted in the past, would likely do to GAA what it has done to association football, basically destroy it. At the start of the season everyone knows that the winner of the Champions League will come from either Germany, Italy, Spain or England. No-one else has a look-in. At least in GAA, we have seen the (re-)emergence of certain teams after years of struggling. That wouldn't happen if the door was basically shut by a Champions League-style format.

iDave

kona wrote: »

The stadium is 80,000 seater it needs to be used to pay for itself. It's first round of championship and Longford are crap. I'm sure the Longford players are delighted to get a run out in croker.

No self respecting footballer should be delighted with what happened today regardless of the venue

deadybai

The match should have been played in Longford. But that doesn't mean Longford would have made the score more respectable .

It was a senior team vs a junior team end off. Two tier championship all the way

Fudge You

Say Your Number wrote: »

Ah for f*cksake, why doesn't he just blow it up, what's the point of them playing another 7 minutes.

Because the referee has to, he has no choice. It is the rules, he has to play 70 minutes. This is not an u-10 match, which obviously a ref would blow up early if it was so one sided.

You are just repeating what McStay, and the two boyos in the studio said. Come up with your own opinion.

kona

iDave wrote: »

No self respecting footballer should be delighted with what happened today regardless of the venue

That's true but at the end of the day Longford knew they were going to get destroyed and to be fair it could have been alot worse, they also put ten points on Dublin, which is more than can be said for others.

Say Your Number

Fudge You wrote: »

You are just repeating what McStay, and the two boyos in the studio said. Come up with your own opinion.

I said it before any of them said it so they should come up their own opinions instead of stealing mine

Very Bored

deadybai wrote: »

The match should have been played in Longford. But that doesn't mean Longford would have made the score more respectable .

It was a senior team vs a junior team end off. Two tier championship all the way

Two tier limits development in my opinion. It would also mean that half of counties don't get anything to look forward to in the summer.

Barlett

In fairness lads there's no point trying to defend Dublin playing in Croke Park...I don't see how that was a benefit to either team? Delegates may be voting for Dublin to play their games in Croke Park but I know managers aren't

kona

They should leave the championship the same and maybe add another cup for teams that are knocked out of the qualifiers early. Play final on the Saturday before the all Ireland.

Fudge You

Say Your Number wrote: »

I said it before any of them said it so they should come up their own opinions instead of stealing mine

Ha, lies I tells ya.
McStay said it when the injured player was still being treated.

You were wrong, the ref was right.

Darkest Horse

kona wrote: »

They should leave the championship the same and maybe add another cup for teams that are knocked out of the qualifiers early. Play final on the Saturday before the all Ireland.

That's the worst solution I ever heard. At the very least can't they ensure slightly more fairness by having four "provincial" championships with 8 teams in each but divide them into north, south, east and west. That way you'd retain a similar format whilst retaining local rivalries.

ArmaniJeanss

Say Your Number wrote: »

Ah for f*cksake, why doesn't he just blow it up, what's the point of them playing another 7 minutes.

Dub subs entitled to stake their claim for starting places next day, would have been robbed of this if he blew up on 70.
People who bet on number of Dublin goals, hcaps or winning margin bets, at least now no-one can feel robbed by shoddy timekeeping.
It would be embarassing for Longford players if the ref blew up early like in a U12s game, arguably more embarassing than the defeat.

Bret Hart

That was a joy to watch from Dublin,they ooze absolute class. It's going too be hard to stop them this year again.

Longford where lucky that it was under the 30 point mark that they got beaten by. It's not often that Longford get to play one of the big boys,so you could understand them wanting to have it being played in Croke Park,so they could have a day out and get some much needed experience for there next games.

COYBIB.

Hammer Archer

kona wrote: »

The stadium is 80,000 seater it needs to be used to pay for itself. It's first round of championship and Longford are crap. I'm sure the Longford players are delighted to get a run out in croker.

Bret Hart wrote: »

That was a joy to watch from Dublin,they ooze absolute class. It's going too be hard to stop them this year again.

Longford where lucky that it was under the 30 point mark that they got beaten by. It's not often that Longford get to play one of the big boys,so you could understand them wanting to have it being played in Croke Park,so they could have a day out and get some much needed experience for there next games.

COYBIB.

Don't understand these patronising "should be delighted with a day out in Croker" posts. Croke Park isn't the hallowed turf that it was decades ago. Pretty much every Leinster county gets regular games at Croke Park. Sure Longford played in it just over a month ago.

Very Bored

Darkest Horse wrote: »

That's the worst solution I ever heard. At the very least can't they ensure slightly more fairness by having four "provincial" championships with 8 teams in each but divide them into north, south, east and west. That way you'd retain a similar format whilst retaining local rivalries.

I'd suggest that for evidence whether that would work look at how regional rugby has failed in Wales. The key difference is that in Ireland the rugby provinces are real, historical provinces and people have local pride in them. In Wales they fabricated teams and expected people to follow them and have local pride in them regardless of how conceived the idea was. Its the same with the GAA. People want to win their province because that's where they are from. Applying the idea to hurling because as that's my sport I can talk about it more easily but the same idea applies. Fourteen teams enter the All Ireland series each year, now, split those teams into groups of seven each say. I would still rather win a Leinster championship that consisted of Kilkenny, Carlow, Westmeath, Laois, Dublin and Offaly (Antrim, Galway) than I would one that consisted of Kilkenny, Waterford, Tipperary etc. because the Leinster championship is the Leinster championship. Kilkenny is a Leinster county and first off I want to be champions of my province, then hopefully All Ireland champions.

kona

Darkest Horse wrote: »

That's the worst solution I ever heard. At the very least can't they ensure slightly more fairness by having four "provincial" championships with 8 teams in each but divide them into north, south, east and west. That way you'd retain a similar format whilst retaining local rivalries.

Why is it the worst solution you ever heard? There's 5 or 6 teams that will be capable of winning it this year, that means 26 teams are not good enough.

It keeps these teams playing football throughout the summer, which doesn't happen at the moment.

Your solution just continues the pattern of **** teams championships being finished for the summer.

Also this is amateur football, the lads have club games to play too , maybe it's good for some to get knocked out, frees up time for other things.

kona

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Don't understand these patronising "should be delighted with a day out in Croker" posts. Croke Park isn't the hallowed turf that it was decades ago. Pretty much every Leinster county gets regular games at Croke Park. Sure Longford played in it just over a month ago.

Carlow are in Leinster Havnt seen them play there regularly.

Bret Hart

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Don't understand these patronising "should be delighted with a day out in Croker" posts. Croke Park isn't the hallowed turf that it was decades ago. Pretty much every Leinster county gets regular games at Croke Park. Sure Longford played in it just over a month ago.

I don't thinks it's patronising at all when it comes to the smaller counties like Longford and Carlow etc etc. For the small counties it will always be seen as hallowed turf considering there likely to never play there,maybe only more then 5 times in there inter - county career and you could also make the same statement when it comes too them playing for there clubs,if they get lucky.

They did but,it doesn't hold the same prestigise as playing the Dubs at Croker,that's worth more then a flimsy Divsion 4 title.

RoyalCelt

Fudge You wrote: »

But did you not see the leinster council vote?? Other counties voted for dublin to play in the stadium.

You mean the dinausors that sit on various county boards? The GAA need to make the decision. No vote. Not like they had a vote for the sky sports thing. They do it when it suits them.

kona wrote: »

The stadium is 80,000 seater it needs to be used to pay for itself. It's first round of championship and Longford are crap. I'm sure the Longford players are delighted to get a run out in croker.

the stadium has already paid for itself incase you haven't heard. They make a profit a year now from non gaa events alone and even if you left out the concerts too I'd imagine.

There were around 25k there for the football alone. Max. Easily could have been held elsewhere and even if a few thousand missed out big ****ing deal. You don't see connaught forced to play a home match against leinster in the RDS just because it would get a bigger attendance.

Very Bored

kona wrote: »

Why is it the worst solution you ever heard? There's 5 or 6 teams that will be capable of winning it this year, that means 26 teams are not good enough.

It keeps these teams playing football throughout the summer, which doesn't happen at the moment.

Your solution just continues the pattern of **** teams championships being finished for the summer.

Also this is amateur football, the lads have club games to play too , maybe it's good for some to get knocked out, frees up time for other things.

I think your idea is a sound one, to a point. I think the summer should be organised on the basis of lose your first match, into the qualifiers, lose your first qualifier into this secondary tournament. That way every team is guaranteed at least three matches per summer.

Dangerous Man

Longford should be split in two.

kona

Very Bored wrote: »

I think your idea is a sound one, to a point. I think the summer should be organised on the basis of lose your first match, into the qualifiers, lose your first qualifier into this secondary tournament. That way every team is guaranteed at least three matches per summer.

That's what I mean, your guaranteed 3 games then each team should find their level after being filtered 3 times .

kona

RoyalCelt wrote: »

You mean the dinausors that sit on various county boards? The GAA need to make the decision. No vote. Not like they had a vote for the sky sports thing. They do it when it suits them.

the stadium has already paid for itself incase you haven't heard. They make a profit a year now from non gaa events alone and even if you left out the concerts too I'd imagine.

There were around 25k there for the football alone. Max. Easily could have been held elsewhere and even if a few thousand missed out big ****ing deal. You don't see connaught forced to play a home match against leinster in the RDS just because it would get a bigger attendance.

But how are you going to pay for the floodlights for the astro in the parish of ballygobackwards ?

GAA is a amateur organisation , there's a 80,000 seater stadium which is in Dublin since it's the capital. Dublin brought I'd say 20k to that game, there's no point turning away paying custom , sponsorship , corporate etc just so Longford can get hammered somewhere else.

Dublin is a big draw, most the games are televised, it's easier from every point of view to play the game in croker.

Money talks and Dublin bring in a **** load of it which is redistributed around the country for communities to have floodlights and astro pitches.

RoyalCelt

kona wrote: »

But how are you going to pay for the floodlights for the astro in the parish of ballygobackwards ?

GAA is a amateur organisation , there's a 80,000 seater stadium which is in Dublin since it's the capital. Dublin brought I'd say 20k to that game, there's no point turning away paying custom , sponsorship , corporate etc just so Longford can get hammered somewhere else.

Dublin is a big draw, most the games are televised, it's easier from every point of view to play the game in croker.

Money talks and Dublin bring in a **** load of it which is redistributed around the country for communities to have floodlights and astro pitches.

How? By playing Dublin v Longford in portlaoise and Galway v Dublin elsewhere. The combined of both on their own would be similar and instead of charging everyone 25 quid for a double header, charge them 15 for each game separately. It also costs less to open a provincial venue than an 80k stadium in a big city.

RoyalCelt

kona wrote: »

But how are you going to pay for the floodlights for the astro in the parish of ballygobackwards ?

GAA is a amateur organisation , there's a 80,000 seater stadium which is in Dublin since it's the capital. Dublin brought I'd say 20k to that game, there's no point turning away paying custom , sponsorship , corporate etc just so Longford can get hammered somewhere else.

Dublin is a big draw, most the games are televised, it's easier from every point of view to play the game in croker.

Money talks and Dublin bring in a **** load of it which is redistributed around the country for communities to have floodlights and astro pitches.

Oh and another thing Kona. The money mostly goes back to Dublin. They received more funding from the GAA than all other counties combined in 2013.