2019 All Ireland Senior Football Championship *Mod note: Post #1*

Prestonites

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

Tombo2001 wrote: »

I have to say - this ticketing fiasco, I cant make sense of it.

So yesterday, I wander down to the ticket office on Dorset Street thinking maybe they will have tickets.

You cant ring this office; the listed number goes to a voicemail that doesnt work.

So I get there, and there are 4 or 5 posters on the window saying "Mayo vs Dublin is SOLD OUT". Pretty clear, but I've gone all the way there so I might as well end the journey by going into the store.

Few young lads behind the counter - I am asking, will you be releasing more tickets tomorrow?

They are saying "highly unlikely, they are all gone now".

I leave it at that, go home. Sit in the garden, log onto tickets.ie. Dublin Mayo tickets are on sale. I pick up two tickets. This is less than half an hour later.

WTF?

What gets me here is that this is the only official ticket office. It is a five minute walk from GAA HQ.

Someone in HQ must know what tickets are available and when they will be released?

And yet they cant be bothered to walk down to, or phone, the ONLY ticket office they have available - to tell the people working there what the story is.

I would actually think at this point that the game will not be a sell out.

The issue here is the sheer inability to manage ticket sales in high volume, and personally - I dont think tickets.ie is the problem.

Again, why is this an issue? Because of the huge amount of peoples time that was wasted this week trying to buy tickets.

I was forunate to get my tickets through a local club.
But I joined specifically after being annoyed for years going through all this ticket messing (when I had no Parnell Pass anymore)

It is all typical GAA cloak and dagger stuff.
I guarantee you those crowd in Dorset Street have bundles of tickets stashed away for insiders - then it is a nod and a wink and off they go.

I remember years ago when there was no GAA ticket office.
As a Dub you used to have to get tickets at the DCB (again ringing them was hit and miss)
But there was one year (think it was a big game v Armagh - long before internet tickets were a thing) the queues were massive.

Then after about an hour or so a fella in a bib goes walking down the line telling people there were "no tickets left"!
"All gone" says yer man.

Some fell for it and left the queue
I knew well what he was at, and stayed in the queue.
Then eventually got my tickets.

GAA messing with tickets will always go on - it is part of the culture of the GAA.
And the more things change the more things stay the same.

The dreaded cossy miss off the upright Armagh game?

BPKS

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

Did anyone hear the roadshow in Achill GAA club Newstalk did?
It was unintentionally hilarious.

Liam Mchale, Billy-Joe Padden were try to convince themselves that Mayo have a real chance.
Dublin won't expect the intensity from the off they are not used to it!
Mayo just need to get five points ahead at half time.
Mayo have a great chance if they are four points up in the last 15 minutes!

Sean Boylan was praising Mayo to the hilt calling them warriors - saying it is the best chance out of all the games Mayo recently played Dublin in.

The interviewer Nathan Murphy (from Mayo) was even trying his best to find ways to get Damien Comer to praise Mayo.

After listening to it you would be forgiven for thinking that Dublin should not bother turning up at all!

Nathan must have been taking tips from watching Des Cahill on The Sunday Game.

ToBeFrank123

To be fair its been a poor championship as has been a number of championships the last few years.

The pundits have to hype up something to justify their wages.

Watching Dublin cakewalk to championship after championship year in year out is boring for the neutral.

All I can say is people should be thankful for a Mayo v Dublin game at this stage of the season.

The fixture is the only thing keeping Senior IC on life support at the minute. Without it, gaelic football would be completely screwed.

gormdubhgorm

Prestonites wrote: »

The dreaded cossy miss off the upright Armagh game?

It could well have been that one I remember a real tense/excitement atmosphere (even queuing for tickets ) anyway.

Especially when some fella in a big BMW/Merc rolled up past the queue.
The fella stepped out and was handed a brown envelope with tickets.

There was lots of f'n and blinding from those in the queue, and dagger looks at the fella.

Prestonites

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

Prestonites wrote: »

The dreaded cossy miss off the upright Armagh game?

It could well have been that one I remember a real tense/excitement atmosphere (even queuing for tickets ) anyway.

Especially when some fella in a big BMW/Merc rolled up past the queue.
The fella stepped out and was handed a brown envelope with tickets.

There was lots of f'n and blinding from those in the queue, and dagger looks at the fella.

That was actually over sold haha. The buzz leading into that game was palpable. I hated the old manner in securing tickets, order through the club then ballots for the semi and final in larger clubs.

Chalk McHugh

ToBeFrank123 wrote: »

To be fair its been a poor championship as has been a number of championships the last few years.

The pundits have to hype up something to justify their wages.

Watching Dublin cakewalk to championship after championship year in year out is boring for the neutral.

All I can say is people should be thankful for a Mayo v Dublin game at this stage of the season.

The fixture is the only thing keeping Senior IC on life support at the minute. Without it, gaelic football would be completely screwed.

Disagree. It has been a decent championship. Many good games. Mayo v Armagh. Mayo v Roscommon. Kerry v Cork. Donegal v Kerry. Cork v Dublin. Meath v Mayo. Lots of good games thay would compare favourably witn previous years. Three top games still to come.

Tombo2001

Chalk McHugh wrote: »

Doubt that very much. There is massive excitement for this weekends semi finals.

The other point on this.

For Kerry Tyrone - its two days before the game, and they still haven't sold out the lower stands.

I'd say the attendance for the Kerry-Tyrone game will be lower than either of the hurling semi-finals.

Against that - when you went online to buy a ticket on Tuesday and Wednesday, there was a 4 hour Q on tickets.ie.

The pity is that it is likely to be a much better game (than Dublin Mayo).

gormdubhgorm

ToBeFrank123 wrote: »

To be fair its been a poor championship as has been a number of championships the last few years.

The pundits have to hype up something to justify their wages.

Watching Dublin cakewalk to championship after championship year in year out is boring for the neutral.

All I can say is people should be thankful for a Mayo v Dublin game at this stage of the season.

The fixture is the only thing keeping Senior IC on life support at the minute. Without it, gaelic football would be completely screwed.

I don't think that is completely true I enjoyed Connacht the Rossies rise.
In Ulster Cavan had the excitement of getting to a final - different to the norm.


Qualifier games weren't bad - competitive games -

Mayo v Armagh

Kildare v Tyrone

Down v Mayo

Laois v Offaly

Monaghan v Armagh


Super 8's -

The Kerry v Donegal game was great in CP
The Mayo v Donegal game was great.
The Meath v Mayo game was good in CP
The Cork v Tyrone was good in CP
The Cork v Dublin game in CP was interesting as cracks in the Dublin team were exposed just not maintained.

However, if I was a neutral I would be getting sick of the Dubs at this stage.
But the five in a row aspect does create a different angle that has not happened for decades - so I would watching that as a neutral wondering if they would do it it or fall flat somehow?

seligehgit

Chalk McHugh wrote: »

Disagree. It has been a decent championship. Many good games. Mayo v Armagh. Mayo v Roscommon. Kerry v Cork. Donegal v Kerry. Cork v Dublin. Meath v Mayo. Lots of good games thay would compare favourably witn previous years. Three top games still to come.

Ah now Mayo and Meath was quite poor to put it mildly.

Chalk McHugh

seligehgit wrote: »

Ah now Mayo and Meath was dire.

The result was in doubt up to the 60th min or so. I remember OSullivan missing a sitter from 14yards out when Mayo were creaking and were on the ropes. Meath had 4 bad wides early in second half that took the wind out of their sails and left the door ajar for a late Mayo onslought. Mayo were quite lucky that day i felt. They were hanging on. Not a bad game. Poor atmosphere though.

Bonniedog

Chalk McHugh wrote: »

Once we have the 5 in a row secured we wont be that disappointed if we have a famine of a couple of years. We'll get through it as we're a resilient bunch.

Yep.

Along with a few other counties kept the GAA going when Brits and RCC tried to destroy it. Survived the Tans who used to go for rest and recreation in the rest of Leinster, and a few years without Sam.

We'll be fine. don't any of you be worrying. I'm sure you will all enjoy our fall when it comes, in the absence of anything positive about the places most of you come from

pgj2015

what is the the story with tickets now? is it sold out yet?

Prestonites

pgj2015 wrote: »

what is the the story with tickets now? is it sold out yet?

Will be a sale today on tickets.ie

gormdubhgorm

Oh yeah and Kerry v Cork game was a decent game as well - I was watching that on the telly putting on my best Cork accent - to see it would help Cork win,

I remember thinking jayus Cork have them! And then wondering how they managed to make a balls of it.

Unfortunately for Cork this ended up being the theme of thier championship - great early promise then they would fade/tire.
They are a young team though have some very handy/clever players I think (particularly at half back) and I will keeping an eye on them next year to see can they get consistency going.

gormdubhgorm

seligehgit wrote: »

Ah now Mayo and Meath was quite poor to put it mildly.

It was poor but it was exciting - there were some awful wides from the two of them but it was tense.
I would say Mayo would have lost the game if Newman did not get injured early on.
Would have been easier to get tickets for Saturday if Meath won that day - that's for sure......

Chalk McHugh

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

Oh yeah and Kerry v Cork game was a decent game as well - I was watching that on the telly putting on my best Cork accent - to see it would help Cork win,

I remember thinking jayus Cork have them! And then wondering how they managed to make a balls of it.

Unfortunately for Cork this ended up being the theme of thier championship - great early promise then they would fade/tire.
They are a young team though have some very handy/clever players I think (particularly at half back) and I will keeping an eye on them next year to see can they get consistency going.

Cork football looks on the up, no doubt. Only problem is playing in Div 3 league next year. Not the best preperation for playing Kerry and other Div 1 teams later in year.

jr86

flasher0030 wrote: »

Really? Cork hockeyed them in the under 20s last week. And the minors were beaten by Kildare last month, I think. Do you mean younger than minors. You can't tell how a player will do at senior when they are only 16 or 17.

They'll be happy to have one or two coming out of every age group. Poor collective minor teams still often have individual superstars

Given their population, facilities, strength of their coaching etc. I find it impossible to see a scenario where Dublin aren't winning regular All Irelands anytime soon

heck, they now absolutely own Leinster, something not many would have seen coming in the mid 00s. For the good of the game lets hope similar dominance doesn't extend to the All Ireland series. It wasn't far off last year

gormdubhgorm

jr86 wrote: »

They'll be happy to have one or two coming out of every age group. Poor collective minor teams still often have individual superstars

Given their population, facilities, strength of their coaching etc. I find it impossible to see a scenario where Dublin aren't winning regular All Irelands anytime soon

heck, they now absolutely own Leinster, something not many would have seen coming in the mid 00s. For the good of the game lets hope similar dominance doesn't extend to the All Ireland series. It wasn't far off last year

When the core of this Dublin team start dipping/retire that will be the real test.
When Jim Gavin steps down as well, the new fella who comes in will be under terrible pressure not to make a balls of it in the few years after.


Like when the Kerry team of the 80's broke up, Micko left etc
When Boylan left Meath the slide started quickly.

I think it is almost impossible for Dublin to find a core of players as good as the stalwarts.
There is bound to be a dip in quality.

Tomw86

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

When the core of this Dublin team start dipping/retire that will be the real test.
When Jim Gavin steps down as well, the new fella who comes in will be under terrible pressure not to make a balls of it in the few years after.


Like when the Kerry team of the 80's broke up, Micko left etc
When Boylan left Meath the slide started quickly.

I think it is almost impossible for Dublin to find a core of players as good as the stalwarts.
There is bound to be a dip in quality.

You talk about the 'core' of the Dublin team, but for me there isn't one. They are an amazing panel and every year there is new blood getting significant game time.

Some of the stalwarts barely get a look in now and you have players like Smalls, Costelloe, Murchan chomping at the bit to come in, and when they have they have look really good. That's without looking at the lads still within the panel that have seen only brief appearances.

I can't see the Dublin steamroller/production line slowing down in any way.

jr86

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

When the core of this Dublin team start dipping/retire that will be the real test.
When Jim Gavin steps down as well, the new fella who comes in will be under terrible pressure not to make a balls of it in the few years after.


Like when the Kerry team of the 80's broke up, Micko left etc
When Boylan left Meath the slide started quickly.

I think it is almost impossible for Dublin to find a core of players as good as the stalwarts.
There is bound to be a dip in quality.

There's a lot been said about the difference in personnel between 2015 and now, not alone 2011 and 2013. Guys like Flynn, Brogan (Alan too) and Connolly who were the best 3 players before are now either retired or barely on the panel. MDMA footballer of the year in 2013 barely starts anymore

Given the playing pick they have, chances are Dublin will continue to find more marquee players on a regular basis to keep the conveyor belt going

their best 5 outfield players currently Fenton, COC, Mannion, Kilkenny and Mccaffrey are all 26 or younger. Years in them yet

Tombo2001

Tomw86 wrote: »

You talk about the 'core' of the Dublin team, but for me there isn't one. They are an amazing panel and every year there is new blood getting significant game time.

Some of the stalwarts barely get a look in now and you have players like Smalls, Costelloe, Murchan chomping at the bit to come in, and when they have they have look really good. That's without looking at the lads still within the panel that have seen only brief appearances.

I can't see the Dublin steamroller/production line slowing down in any way.

Was thinking about that.

Who is the footballer on this Dublin team that every (footballing) kid in Ireland knows.

That if they showed up at a GAA club in Galway or Derry, all the kids would know them.

The equivalent of a Gooch or Sean Cavanagh or Graham Geraghty or Padraig Joyce.

Cluxton....and after that? Connolly and Brogan are famous but they arent on the team.

After that who. Jack McCaffrey maybe?

They are very much a unit without star players.

gormdubhgorm

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Was thinking about that.

Who is the footballer on this Dublin team that every (footballing) kid in Ireland knows.

That if they showed up at a GAA club in Galway or Derry, all the kids would know them.

The equivalent of a Gooch or Sean Cavanagh or Graham Geraghty or Padraig Joyce.

Cluxton....and after that? Connolly and Brogan are famous but they arent on the team.

After that who. Jack McCaffrey maybe?

They are very much a unit without star players.

The young lads always know the forwards - I assume most know Rock (freetaker in the back garden)

I remember I used to be Barney Rock in my head.

jr86

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Was thinking about that.

Who is the footballer on this Dublin team that every (footballing) kid in Ireland knows.

That if they showed up at a GAA club in Galway or Derry, all the kids would know them.

The equivalent of a Gooch or Sean Cavanagh or Graham Geraghty or Padraig Joyce.

Cluxton....and after that? Connolly and Brogan are famous but they arent on the team.

After that who. Jack McCaffrey maybe?

They are very much a unit without star players.

Certainly don't agree with the bolded

Fenton, Mccaffrey, Mannion, COC, Kilkenny alone are on their way to becoming all time greats

It won't really be appreciated until they retire though. People tend to look at these things with very sentimental rose-tinted specs

Like Graham Geraghty probably wouldn't make the bench for this Dublin team but I'll let you off with him

kilns

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Was thinking about that.

Who is the footballer on this Dublin team that every (footballing) kid in Ireland knows.

That if they showed up at a GAA club in Galway or Derry, all the kids would know them.

The equivalent of a Gooch or Sean Cavanagh or Graham Geraghty or Padraig Joyce.

Cluxton....and after that? Connolly and Brogan are famous but they arent on the team.

After that who. Jack McCaffrey maybe?

They are very much a unit without star players.

Who in the modern game has the "star" appeal, in that they dont have to be the best player around but are recognisable to the general public, there arent really any. That is where the GAA fall down in that they dont really market the players images as much as they should I think

ToBeFrank123

jr86 wrote: »

They'll be happy to have one or two coming out of every age group. Poor collective minor teams still often have individual superstars

Given their population, facilities, strength of their coaching etc. I find it impossible to see a scenario where Dublin aren't winning regular All Irelands anytime soon

heck, they now absolutely own Leinster, something not many would have seen coming in the mid 00s. For the good of the game lets hope similar dominance doesn't extend to the All Ireland series. It wasn't far off last year

Owning Leinster is key in the modern game. It ensures an easy path to the Super 8s. Then two home games there and they will always be qualified by the 3rd game where they can rest the core of their team. They are then fresh for the semi final whereas their opponent likely had a tough game 6 or 7 days before.

Many Dublin supporters admit the championship doesn't really begin until the AI semi final as they aren't tested until then.

kilns

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Was thinking about that.

Who is the footballer on this Dublin team that every (footballing) kid in Ireland knows.

That if they showed up at a GAA club in Galway or Derry, all the kids would know them.

The equivalent of a Gooch or Sean Cavanagh or Graham Geraghty or Padraig Joyce.

Cluxton....and after that? Connolly and Brogan are famous but they arent on the team.

After that who. Jack McCaffrey maybe?

They are very much a unit without star players.

You could name 5 or 6 of the current team who will go on to be all time greats and would walk into any team from any era

kilns

ToBeFrank123 wrote: »

Owning Leinster is key in the modern game. It ensures an easy path to the Super 8s. Then two home games there and they will always be qualified by the 3rd game where they can rest the core of their team. They are then fresh for the semi final whereas their opponent likely had a tough game 6 or 7 days before.

Or dont get knocked out in the first round of your province could be another key to the modern game :rolleyes:

jr86

kilns wrote: »

Who in the modern game has the "star" appeal, in that they dont have to be the best player around but are recognisable to the general public, there arent really any. That is where the GAA fall down in that they dont really market the players images as much as they should I think

Aidan O'Shea probably the first that comes to mind.

I reckon he'd find it difficult walking down the street/to go out anywhere across the country, without being mobbed for photos. Michael Murphy to an extent too. Joe Canning in hurling

Very few others I can think of

Fann Linn

ToBeFrank123 wrote: »

Owning Leinster is key in the modern game. It ensures an easy path to the Super 8s. Then two home games there and they will always be qualified by the 3rd game where they can rest the core of their team. They are then fresh for the semi final whereas their opponent likely had a tough game 6 or 7 days before.

Many Dublin supporters admit the championship doesn't really begin until the AI semi final as they aren't tested until then.

All those years those Super 8s have been going on for, eh Frank?

ToBeFrank123

jr86 wrote: »

There's a lot been said about the difference in personnel between 2015 and now, not alone 2011 and 2013. Guys like Flynn, Brogan (Alan too) and Connolly who were the best 3 players before are now either retired or barely on the panel. MDMA footballer of the year in 2013 barely starts anymore

Given the playing pick they have, chances are Dublin will continue to find more marquee players on a regular basis to keep the conveyor belt going

their best 5 outfield players currently Fenton, COC, Mannion, Kilkenny and Mccaffrey are all 26 or younger. Years in them yet

You could add Howard, Small and Costello to that list.

That said, several of the older players are only in their early 30s and given how they can be rested for several games, also have years in them yet.

The idea that Dublin might have a famine after the 5 in a row is simply laughable.