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

The still you took conveniently excluded the strike by the Dublin player to the shoulder/neck area. See first few seconds of the video. If a player tries to tackle like that, coming in from behind the player with the ball, it's going to be a free all day long. It's not Galway bias, or anti-Dubs. And JRant trying to stand over his comment that Con O'Callaghan was pushed for the wide that he kicked at the end. Galway player clearly tried to block the ball, and jumped in front of Con. Get over it. The better team won yesterday. Just about the better team. You can take every game and try to analyse every play in great detail - and you will nearly always come up with some fault of a ref e.g. many players take 5/6 steps, but get away with it cause it's not obvious; most tackles that are executed are not in line with the rule book, but they are not called out unless generally overly aggressive. Happens for all teams in all matches. It's really sour grapes - saying other teams are cheating just because they win. Dublin are plenty good with the dark arts themselves. I was at the match, and the amount of times Galway runners were taken out of the game when they were trying to make an off-the-ball run. And I (not so fondly) remember well Dublin players taking down several Mayo players before a last minute kick-out some years back so that they couldn't attack to get an equalizer I think. But that's part of the game. I wish my own team had a greater level of deviousness - they would have landed Ciaran Kilkenny and Jack McCaffrey into row Z of the stand in Roscommon 2 weeks ago. But unfortunately they don't.

This talk of several Mayo players been pulled down in last minute of 2017 final is one great GAA myths. Aside from Kilkenny pulling down Keegan incident I don't recall any other Mayo players on the ground.

Deserves credit for winning Sam last year where he got it spot from the QF's on. He got it wrong this year with his selection though. As others as pointed out it left no bench with his starting 15. I have not forgotten he did the opposite v Mayo in last years QF and turned it around. It was odd that he did not stick to the same plan, that worked.

Surely Ger Brennan is top choice now?

The water boy was a big influence on the players last year.

I think all of us were happy last year when Dessie took the short term view and we got over the line for another one .At that point we were happy to postpone the necessary rebuild for another day .We paid the price this year for it but still have lovely memories from last year .

Dessie doesn't appear to have real faith in the young lads that were given some game time during the year ,hence he started the three lads where surely there one or two others that could have held the fort till the last twenty mins or so .Even Jack coming on at around 50 mins could have given us the shot in the arm required .

My auld lad (A Galway fella who was delighted yesterday) was describing Dublin's win last year as a coronation. One they were not supposed to win. Hard to argue with that.

But I can't help thinking that if Dessie did his same selection tactic as v Mayo in last years QF Dublin would have seen the game out handy enough.

Must have been a boost for Galway when they saw the players coming to replace the lads being called a shore .I suppose at half time they were proberly happy knowing we had our best out that wouldn't last and they were only four points down .

That's it. Psychologically it gave Galway a boost.

Well we will never know if we would have won last year with a few different players but as we only scraped home it's likely the experience played a big part in those final minutes. Unfortunately that experience went missing last evening in those final minutes.If Dessie stays on he will have to bite the bullet for the league start the best younger lads if he can and leave them in place and see how it goes from there.

Yeah, I know if I was a tired Galway back.I would much prefer seeing Jack McCaffery coming off than Jack McCaffery coming on.

Another thing I was thinking about was the way the Dublin starting changes were announced was weird not the usual like for like replacements. As if it was a rushed last minute thing by Dessie? I might be reading too much into that, I don't know.

Too soon for Ger Brennan.

Hard to see Farrell staying and given there will be a number of retirements it's a good time to make a fresh start.

Ger Brennan, Jason Sherlock are obvious shouts, Mick Bohan clearly wants the job too - are there other obvious choices?

All good things come to an end. Disappointing way for an era to go out.

However, Galway are a good team, better than Mayo, have been very unlucky with injuries over the last half-decade. We didn't play well on the day.

Cluxton, Fitzsimons, McCarthy, Mannion, McCaffrey, don't expect to see those five again. Wonder if Fenton and Kilkenny will have the motivation to go again. Have never believed that Costello was quite good enough, Dean Rock badly missed.

We could see nine or more of those starting players gone next year.

O'Hanlon, McMahon, Clancy, Newcombe, Gannon, Murchan, Murphy, Lahiff, Howard, Bugler, McGinnis, McGarry, Basquel, O'Gara, O'Dell will all be still around. Would be a very different team.

Oh, I see a few years where we will be glad to be winning Leinsters. That team won't win an All-Ireland in its current state, will have to gain experience, but it will still be top 8 in the country. A fresh managerial look at what's available together with some overlooked players and it might be better.