The 2024 All Ireland Senior Football Championship (Sam Maguire Cup)

So why host it at all then?

Standard stuff. Let's people go and show their appreciation for their efforts. Kids get photos and jerseys signed and a chance to meet the players. Would have all been planned well in advance, win or lose. Nothing wrong with it imo.

At least they didn't charge €4 per person for a ticket that had to be bought in advance online like the Cork hurlers did after losing!

Have you ever not won a sporting event or competition you entered ?

Were you ashamed of yourself ?

Are you trolling or have you just no clue about what the GAA represents? Real Madrid comprise multi millionaire players playing a professional sport for clubs run as profit making businesses. The GAA is a voluntary community based organisation. Homecomings are a county's way of acknowledging it's volunteers and giving a chance to kids and their parents, elderly people and others who are unable to attend the game to meet their hero's. Dublin and Kerry have had homecomings following defeats and gone on to win all Ireland the following year so what you said is nonsense.

And another go at Dublin from bitter little Kerry man 😂

Move on lad with the tired rhetoric and get over that 11 semi…you cant even get the year right.
Donegal won in 2012 with the Highest scoring average since Tyrone in 2008… but these defensive ulster sides! That Donegal average came beating every team that appeared in an AI final the 10 years previous bar dublin.

If any of Donagheys tactical play, the poor Durcan Kick out or the width of the post at the end for McFadden didnt go Kerrys way we could have won 2014 but its fine margins,ifs and buts, they didnt and Kerry won. Probably not very positive putting 3-14 on the 'invincibles' in the semi final either? But easier to keep the narrative isnt it? Rather than say kerry were defensive too.

We played Spillane prasied 'positive' free flowing stuff Bonners first 2 years racking up massive scores in Ulster and couldnt get past the Super8s… if only we tried it in 2014…

Why in all of your posts do you keep comparing the position to soccer and you also mentioned rugby. Those are professional sports. That is their job/profession. They get paid a significant amount of money to carry out those roles and they do not have any other jobs to focus on. There is huge reward for competing to be the best.

GAA is completely different. It is an amateur set-up. As in, like a past time for players and supporters. All of these guys have their main jobs to tend to, which takes up the majority of their time. Their GAA time is their hobby or pasttime. The homecomings are a way for the fans to show appreciation for the dedication that these guys have out in to make things happen, and get their team to an All - Ireland.

If you had made the sacrifices that those guys have done, you could also have made it to Croke Park. But you weren't willing to do that, and didn't bother, so became an armchair supporter. As Fr Tod has said, you haven's a clue about the GAA set-up. And are obviously one of those "fans" who head down to the pub on a Sunday to wat the premiership match, decked out in the latest premiership teams jersey that you got suckered in to buying. And referring to your UK team as "We", when in reality you have zero connection with the team.

Writing them is a bit harsh. Considering where there heads were at after losing the Ulster final you can't dismiss their character either. History does suggest it is very difficult to go back to back though. Even the great Dublin team didn't manage it until the third attempt in '15 and '16. Tyrone had an awful defence in '22. Donegal in '13 etc so I'd say it's not very likely but certainly not impossible they win it

Well - you are stating the obvious a bit there.

A lot needs to go right for Dublin to win it next year, and Dublin has a player population ten times that of Armagh.

So of course a lot needs to go right for them to win it again.

To win it once is a great achievement. To win two on the trot, for this county would be absolutely incredible. Apart from Dublin's big run, in the past 30 years Kerry have retained the title once, and not other team has done it.

As for a 'flash in the pan' - what does that mean? That if they dont win it next year, then this year was just a 'flash in the pan'?

Armagh will be in the top 5 or 6 teams next year. They wont start as favourites.

Are they a better team than Galway, or Kerry? Maybe, maybe not - but when it mattered they beat them this year.

And what you cant possibly take away from them is that they have some top class players who have shown they can perform at the highest level.

Have to say, personally I am delighted for Armagh.

Even though Galway had injuries they finished the game stronger than Armagh. IMO they had run Armagh into the ground. What stood for Arnagh were they were clinical tgey took there scores from tge few chances they had late in the game.

Liam Silke pass a ball to Walsh tgat he shoukd have put over the bar to even the game after the goal. The chance went and Armagh went straight down and scored. They did similar with a goal chance later in the game they took there point.

I think after the goal Galway wasted about 6-8 chances. Armagh nearly scored all of there chances. Being clinical will usually win games

You told us that there were a number of teams better than Armagh this season, and that did not quite work out.

I think it is very hard to win two in a row, teams now see you coming and your hunger is a fraction less. Armagh in 2002 encouraged/outraged Tyrone, and their win in 2024 will encourage Donegal and Derry. Add that to Galway, Mayo, Kerry and Dublin and it is a period of unusual unpredictability. If a team meets one of these others in a quarter final, then they need to be good for 3 games.

However, while there is no doubt that any winning team needs a few breaks, it is a false narrative that everything went well for Armagh in a unique combination. In the final they did not play especially well, several of their players are capable of better than they played that day. While Galway did not score from frees, Armagh did not either.

All I can give you is my opinion a d it was the opinion of a couple more neutrals that were at the game Sunday that I was talking to in Dublin.

Armaghwere trying to conserve energy for the last 20 minutes. They used a couple long balls over the top to try to free runners after turnovers when they got no joy from.that theyused there running game to get a few scores. However thry never over committed going forward. They played it extremely cute but that is the way you win games.

Donegal missed a couple of handy ones late on against Galway, much poorer shooting than in the Ulster final. Part of the reason is of course the work rate of the Galway defence, who got a goal and defended their lead. So a semi final where a team failed to get to extra time is a measure of Galway success, whereas somehow the same thing happening in the final is Armagh luck.

We live close to Croke Park and I'd say its the best atmosphere we've seen for a game, before and after.

Also your point on kicking is well made - kicking under pressure is very very difficult, I think its much harder than people think.

The good weather helped the atmosphere and you could see all the colour as nobody was wearing coats. Good music before the match too and it got everyone singing.

I must have watched a different game to you. Armagh had 15 behind the ball for long periods of the game. I wouldn't call that an attacking team. Dublin in contrast don't generally do that. So I'd take the Dublin approach any day.

Unfortunately coaches across the country will take a look at the Kerry or Dublin approach or the Armagh approach and decide to follow Armagh's one.

15 players behind the ball will become a common tactic if this continues.

By flash in the pan I mean that Armagh will do well to win another all ireland this decade. By everything going right for Armagh this year that they won I mean the results that they got. Basically the tactics seem to be try and nullify the game for 60 minutes, and then hope to catch the opposition out in the last 5/10 minutes.

I think Armagh's win in general could actually set the game of Gaelic Football backwards as other teams try and copy them. Because that is what normally happens.

I can't see Armagh's way of playing consistently winning all ireland's or drawing the neutrals into the game. It's the GAA equivalent of Cliff Thorburn snooker from the 1980's. A lot of it is slow paced, backwards and sideways, backwards and sideways, backwards and sideways etc. Armagh rarely break with speed consistently in most of their games, like the way Donegal do for example.

The Armagh template is more based on stopping football rather creating chances. Instead hoping the opponent makes an error. That is normally left ot the last 5/10 minutes of games in which Armagh are involved in.

Most of the time from watching them they leave it too late to win games, but they still stick to the format - for example the league final div2 v Donegal. Backwards and sideways, backwards and sideways when they were well behind.

But in the championship this year it worked. Thanks to two goalkeeper errors Galway (Group match) and Kerry (SF), plus Roscommon getting a man sent off early in the QF after around 30 minutes. Yet Armagh still only won by 2. What does that say?

I'll call a spade a spade, if Dublin (for instance) were playing Donegal I would have been more worried. But if Dublin played Armagh. Dublin would have found it easy. Because Armagh are a very predictable one dimensional side. Dublin would just pick off the scores early on, while Armagh would sit back going slow-slow-backwards, sideways.

Armagh won their all-ireland fair dues etc, but people talking as if it is going to be an Armagh era, is hyperbole caught up in the emotion. Because Armagh don't have the personnel to vary their play or style. People need to step back and look at big picture. Armagh won the all-ireland because other teams let Armagh into games, by making errors. It was not Armagh domination. It was other teams fluffing it.

Plus I don't really think Armagh have any "star" players. If I compare Armagh to Derry for example, Derry have the two best midfielders in the country by far. Armagh to me just seem like a bunch of lads who stick to framework, and hope for the best. They don't know any other way.

Tyrone have got lads like young Canavan with spark fellas that can play off the cuff. Armagh don't to me, they are constrained by the style of play, that is forced upon them.

I realise these are extremely difficult days for you, but unfortunately it is what it is. If I could offer a degree of comfort, it would be that the next 12 months will just fly by and before you know it, these days and weeks will become a bad and distant memory.

I have another party to go to this evening, which seems rather inappropriate, given what you are going through, but I promise that you will remain in my thoughts and prayers.

Please stay strong.

Jesus it must be hard to live with Dublin in your head all the time. It’s well known and accepted that the massed defence was an Ulster innovation (and a useful if pragmatic one), building on what some successful teams in previous decades had developed. The more patient style of possession football became an approach to counter that, developed by Dublin mainly, but used by many teams., albeit some such as your own side have perhaps overdone things due to an overreliance on one or two players and a lack of fitness

Equally that style puts an emphasis on the goalkeepers role as first playmaker, reducing the reliance on punting the ball down the middle and hoping a big lad can catch it. That said fielding isn’t gone, it’s just less important, not in itself a bad thing. Indeed Dublins midfield can match most for that, while having in Fenton a player who may be the best to ever play that position, certainly top 3.

in reality football is greatly evolved in the last 30 years, some good some bad. At its best it’s arguably more skillful and diverse than ever. There is however a need for the rules to keep pace (a proper tackle is needed for example) but that’s true of most sports, with both soccer and rugby also seeing significant rule changes in that period

Sundays game, and indeed the semi finals were great examples of that evolution, with some good football based on understanding space and transition between defence and attack, backed with the athletic ability to sustain that. While it had flaws the skills and execution are dramatically ahead of what was played in the 70’s and 80’s, with a much more complete game on display that emphasises 15 skillful players

That's a bit over the top. Armagh have been knocking around close to the top table the past few years. I know it was only a league match, but I recall them beating Dublin quite emphatically couple of years ago - it was the first time that I had noticed one Rian O'Neill. He gave Davy Byrne some lesson in football. And they were in a couple of quarter finals - knocked out on penos. This is not a flash in the pan. With Dublin and Kerry knocked out, it was left open for the likes of Galway, Armagh, Donegal, Derry etc. to seize the opportunity. If any of those counties won it, by your reckoning, it would be a flash in the pan. So basically, if any team other than Dublin or Kerry win the All-Ireland, is it a flash in the pan for them too.

You mention about Armagh constantly slowing things down - backwards and sideways passes. Did you watch the game on Sunday. It was the other way around. It's well documented at this stage about Galway's slow play on Sunday, and how frustrating it was to watch. On the other hand, it was Armagh who broke up the field with some form of speed and ambition. See the break that Stefan Campbell made from the sideline, directly towards goal and passed it across for the goal. Galway did not show that ambition once on Sunday. Armagh can mix it up well. They have high-fielders like O'Neill and Turbitt, and they all seem really comfortable on the ball.

I don't see this as a flash in the pan at all. I think they have been promising something for the past 4 years, and this year they delivered. If they don't win an All-Ireland again for a number of years, it doesn't make this a lucky All-Ireland for them.