That Turlough O’Brien chap seems to always have an awful lot to say for himself.
Glad Laois beat them.
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Offaly in 98 was a back door winner, 01 Tipp won, after surviving a sem final replay against losing Leinster finalists, 02 the Munster champions were knocked out by qualifiers Clare in the semi final, 03 saw Cork survive a semi final replay to losing Leinster finalists, 04 final was between both losing provincial finalists, Cork won as Munster champions in 05. Kilkenny dominance after that though.
Point being, that you cant just count the winning AI champions as being a back door all ireland, with usual provincial champions being knocked out by other back door teams, that also has to be taken into account.
But counties cant have it both ways, cant moan that you dont have enough games, and then complain because it suits the stronger counties to have a second chance.
Clare v Cork in 2013 were both back doorers.
Sure there was barely 6,000 at the Derby last year with most coming by the motorway as Sid notes.
yeah I started getting bored and gave up when it was just a Kilkenny Tipp procession from mid 00’s onwards.
Kind of like in real life too actually
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Cheers bro. We beat them three (3) times.
Poor ol Mayo fans, thoughts of going to that car park in Newbridge
So many games on you couldn’t watch them all I found. The end of it will run off very fast. The semis being on the same weekend is a huge mistake, halves the amount of coverage for each match in the week leading up. Will be over very early too.
It’s not set up well to capture media attention.
There are tweaks that can be made to it.
Signing a television contract designed for the previous formats and then carrying it through to the new formats is classic GAA incompetence.
A gap week should probably be introduced during the round robins with the option of adding a sixth team to both provincial competitions.
There are arguments to be made for pushing the finals back to their usual dates in September and having one semi-final on four successive weekends - I was against moving them in the first place, but the club lobby would be up in arms, and the reality is you probably need to separate club championship and inter-county championship seasons entirely.
The bottom line though is that the GAA has a duty to maximise revenue and media exposure as best it can and it can only do that through the inter-county game.
@GeoffreyBoycott pleads for a return to straight knock-out - he should have a look at how rugby both in Ireland and internationally has evolved over the last three decades in terms of competition formats.
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The game would be dead in 5 years leaving just the traditional counties winning it year after year.
Kerry won Minor U20 and Senior games over the past week by close to 20 points per game I believe. I’ve been saying it for years, Gaelic Football is dead.
Gaelic football is no different to hurling really ---- there’s 10 or so top teams and then the standard falls off. Gaelic football probably has more middle teams that could potentially break into the top tier every now and again — and due to nature of game (defensive blanket) can have a few more upsets than hurling – but all in all they are not far off each other.
Theres few skills in gaelic football really, so it was always easier for teams to come up to speed. However the top two sides of Kerry and Dublin have taken it beyond the reach of the rest. The game is dead.
Assuming the provincial structures are kept in place when will Kerry or Dublin next be beaten in their own province?
Cork to beat Kerry in 2031, I’ll say.
I think Donegal will have a big say this year if they come out of Super 8s (I have no idea of structure of super 8s) — That Kerry team looked impressive the other night but they were up against a very poor Cork team. (Can these two Kerry/ Donegal meet in semi finals?) I can see Donegal v Dublin this year but that Kerry team will be around for the next 5/6 years.
What the fuck are Cork at??? They have good numbers playing and a decent club championship but just fall apart at county level. Geoff going on about the back door earlier - you also cant bate a winning tradition - look at the difference in mindset between their hurlers and footballers due to years of being mauled by Kerry.
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Cork is hurling country, bar a few clubs out west.
For their size, number of clubs and resources their return from football is pretty shameful. Should be last eight every year, minimum.
Donegal are a breath of fresh air. Its good to see them coming as Mayo are no doubt on the wane. We need one team challenging the big two anyway if nothing else.
Cork is a very big football county . Most of west cork , duhallow , muskerry are predominantly football . Up around Mitchelstown is football . The city has strong football clubs . East cork generally gives a player or two .
One of the biggest problems in gaelic football is that two of the traditional Big 6, Cork and Meath seem to have given up on it over the last decade, maybe even 15 years ago in Meath’s case. You need a strong Cork and Meath to keep Kerry and Dublin honset provincially. The set up in what should be two of the strongest Ulster counties Down and Derry has been a shambles for years as well.
Monaghan are one of the admirable counties in the GAA over the last decade of so. For the fourth least populous county on the island, with a population of in or around 60,000 to operate at the level they have consistently been at for more or less the last 11 or 12 years is some going.
Player numbers is the issue outside of big counties. Most counties probably have 9-10 players of a reasonably good intercounty standard maybe even 11 or 12. The evolution to a 21 man game has been a real killer. You see it in rugby all the time as well. I’ve lost count of the number of New Zealand v Argentina games I’ve watched where Argentina are the better side for the first hour or so and in front. New Zealand empty the bench with 20 minutes to go, throw on all 8 subs more or less of the same quality as the players coming off. The Argies have nobody to throw on and New Zealand run in 4 or 5 tries to win by 25-30 points.
Straight knock out will heighten the chances of the lesser lights having their day in the sun. Of course its not coming back. The hurling format is probably not too bad. The issue is there should be two weeks between games rather than cramming 20 games into 5 consecutive weekends and then taking 9 weekends to play off last 7 games. Either the league or Walsh Cup/Waterford Crystal should be scrapped to ease calendar congestion and assist clubs.
Cork don’t take Gaelic football anywhere near as seriously as Kerry.
The reason most counties are not doing well is because they don’t take it seriously.
In Ireland, only Dublin, Kerry, Mayo, Tyrone, Donegal, Monaghan and maybe now Galway are taking the game genuinely seriously.
There are then a few counties who take it reasonably seriously, but not as seriously as those previously mentioned. Roscommon, Cavan, Carlow, Fermanagh.
Then there are counties like Meath, Down and Derry who don’t take it seriously at all and can’t understand why they’re getting hockeyed.