Dublin GAA Discussion Thread: Mod Note - No 'Dublin Dominance' chat allowed!

I agree with you there with the bigger point about since you were a kid. In the here and now personally I have a bad feeling the Farrell era will not go well at all. But to be fair to him this is his first full proper season assuming we are finally on the way to putting covid into the background so lets give him the full season and see how he does. I hope I am wrong and he can rebuild us into a decent side again but I am not hopeful I must admit.

I think Farrell needs to dump those who were around during the Gavin era but weren’t good enough to hold down a place then, I am thinking of O’Conghaile, the Basquels, O’Cofaigh-Byrne, Dias, and even Costello. There is still a core of lads who have been there, done that - Rock, Fenton, Kilkenny, McCarthy, Scully, Murchan, Fitzsimons, Cooper and O’Callaghan - who can carry new young lads. The Smalls have to go too, a great team could carry John Small, but his indiscipline will cost a less than great team, and Paddy has only one foot.

New talent is needed around that core, not those who were found wanting before.

I would keep Costello for sure other names mentioned agree with but we don't seem to have anyone to come in that is ready . I am surprised that so few seem to up to the level we need with the number tried here and there . The sight of lads getting the ball near enough to score just passing it backwards or awful attempts if they do shoot has been very disappointing over the last year .The fact that people are talking about Mick Fitz etc coming back shows we are very short even if they have been great for us .

Bit of an old-school comment there about Paddy Small. I have no idea how this "discrimination" came about for lefties. That they are somehow chastised for kicking with their left peg. You'd hear it from the stands - "turn him on to his left", "he can only kick with one foot". If you take it that there are a couple of lefties on the pitch, you'd never hear anyone say similar comments to the right-footed players. Even though they only kick with their right.

Would you leave Paudie Clifford of the Kerry team? Paul Mannion of the Dublin team? (if he made himself available).

Anyway, whatever about your comment about poor Paddy, your comment about dumping Cormac Costello is outrageous. The only player in the Dublin forwards right now who will take a shot outside the 21 yard line.

Happens in all counties. Some like to think it’s just a Dub thing tho

I think its just that Dublin's success is very recent and Dublin gets more attention because of that as well as other factors that leads to people thinking that.

Mayo has picked up alot of this type of supporter over the last decade too because of our good runs in the championship. None more so than when we make it to a final and you will see people at the final, with tickets, who have not gone to a game or even dreamt about going since the last final!

Ha Ha, Jesus I forgot about that.

Another to add to the list 😁

I would take Paul Mannion over Paddy Small every single day of the week, he is a far superior player. In fact the downgrades from the likes of Mannion to Small is one of the problems with the team and is reflected in a few positions. I do remember Mannion scoring with his right foot.

Costello is a strange one. He seems to always have huge potential but throughout the Gavin years he couldn't nail down a place. Not as good a placekicker as Rock. He will be 28 this year and is still struggling to shrug off that nearly man tag. For me, he would be behind eight or nine of the Dublin forwards of the last decade.

Skill wise Costello is right up there with the best of them. However, having watched him a lot it's clear he can't stay focused for an entire game nevermind a season. He drifts in and out of games for no apparent reason but when he puts his mind to it can really turn it on. At his age I doubt he's going to suddenly develop the ability to stayed focused for long spells but he could very well prove me wrong. In many ways having a role as an impact sub over the past few years has probably exasperated this tendency. Lets see if he can start putting back to back performances together. If he does we'll be a far better team for it.

Collie B, POCB, Costelloe all worth their place. Have you seen any talent in the club championship better? I certainly have not. Some lads need moving on but those three certainly have something to offer.

Which of them? Do you mean Colm?

The 2 Basquels thrive at club level, but don't seem to be able to make an impact at county level. From what I see anyway.

Costello was playing well on Saturday evening before he was sidelined. Looked bad enough too. Hopefully it's not too serious.

I was just thinking if you were to rate where the current Dublin football squad is man for man?

And the current Dublin hurling squad man for man. Where would you put them?

I just ran through teams in my head - Tyrone, Mayo, Kerry definitely all better squads than Dublin football at the moment. Then I started thinking. Jayus there is feck all of a difference between Kildare, Meath, and this Dublin squad. Nevermind the perennial last 8 type football teams - Monaghan etc!

And that is worrying. There is starting to be a mid 00's feel about this Dublin squad. Even with AI legends still in the mix. They are mostly lads nearing the end of the line. Fenton and Con the few 'true greats' who are entering their prime.

Would the current Dublin football squad even be 8th in the country now?? Honestly?

Suddenly arguments can be made for other squads matching the Dublin football panel, that would never have been in the conversation.

The hurlers - hard to say. But I am hoping that there are signs of consistency. A team greater than the sum of its parts. Like when Dalo was manager. If the Galway hurlers had all their players back. I would honestly say this Dublin hurling team always has a chance against them. Especially now that Joe Canning is gone. That is the sort of level I would put the current Dublin hurlers. Awkward for teams to play against on their day.

But it all feels like everything has gone upside down - the hurlers seem like a coming force. And the air has been taken out the footballers.

I don't know what to make of it. I have given it a few days to see if my opinion has changed it hasn't.

Ha Ha...I was just thinking, all the pundits have gone a bit quiet about splitting Dublin in four etc etc

C'mon

"Would the current Dublin football squad be 8th in the country now?" This is the inversion of the hype I'd be giving out about. They were within one piece of skill by Davey Byrne of beating Mayo and getting into an All Ireland Final for the 7th year in a row. The Tyrone fans, despite our relatively poor season last year, would not have been licking their lips at the prospect of facing us in the final. They may have won anyhow, but we'll never know.

In the order of 50 lads will play for Dublin this year. I think Dean was no 42. The worst of those players is still a very good player. Our top players (Kilkenny, Fenton, Scully, Con) are all on the right side of 30. We don't have the game changers on the bench right now, and there is something amiss with our structure/set up on the pitch, but to describe us as barely a top 8 team is just plain wrong IMO.

I think that's a little overdramatic. Are there that many over 30? Only ones that spring to mind for me are Rock, MacCarthy and Cooper. And you wouldn't exactly have Rock and Cooper as game-changers.

IMO, Dublin could do with a physical target man. Most teams have at least one exceptional go-to person who will hang around the goals and have a decent chance of a 50:50 ball. Tyrone have McShane, Kerry have D Clifford, Armagh had Rian O'Neill last SAturday night. Laois had a very good full forward too in the match against Dublin. Donegal have Murphy. I don't see it with Dublin at the moment. They have nice neat footballers who look great when against average opposition. But when come up against quality, fast strong defence, they go hiding. I know there has been bits of moaning about the slow build up play by Dublin in the last couple of games, and it going nowhere. But from being at the Armagh game, there wasn't a whole lot of options. I saw very little proper movement from the inside line. NOthing dynamic anyway. That being said, there were many times when a shot was on from around 30 metres, but the shot was taken on.