Hurling is in much much more trouble. The game is dying out very fast in this professional area. Waterford and Clare will go the same way as Offaly. You’ll be left with four or five teams. All these games we now play just suit the bigger counties. It’s utterly ridiculous And offensive to the grassroots members we’ve two pre season tournaments now. The novelty has very quickly worn off. Attendances will drop sharply. The only thing that can save it for me is if It’s only the top two qualify from each province and winner of each province gets a home semi final v the losing provincial finalist. That’ll at least bring back some edge to the round robins.
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Player vote this year?
This is a football thread
indeed he was , Paul Murphy filled in as captain when Gavin White did not start
White is a good player, but time to end this charade of playing him half forward. He is a half back
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Dublin are ready to be toppled, maybe it won’t happen this year but soon. In two of their wins over mayo they scraped home with the help of some dodgy decisions despite all their advantages. While not finishing the job Kerry showed last year they can be beaten. Can Kerry improve a point or two and might Dublin weaken a point or two? Donegal were also very close and must fancy they can eke out another point or two improvement. With the forwards they have and the shift in emphasis to attacking football Galway could be anything. Dublin’s dominance has taken a lot away from football but many of the meetings between the top teams in the last few years have been incredible games.
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I was taking this seriously until you started on Galway.
There was a big gap last year between Kerry and Dublin in final . Kerry has an extra man for 45 minutes and were hanging on at the end . Dublin were comfortable enough winners in replay and Jack McCaffrey went off at half time . Very hard see that gap narrowed . Mayo have regressed . McCurry is an incalculable loss to Tyrone .
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Hilarious how Galway get rated considering their lack of showing anything to suggest they’re good enough to beat Dublin
I think Galway have a good team if they sorted themselves out
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Tyrone were never even in the conversation in my view. Kerry had a man advantage for a reason, they were cleaning out the Dublin full back line. It’s a shame no other ref had the balls to give Dublin the reds they merited in a few finals down the years. Yes it seems like Mayo have regressed, they still have a core of top players that can get them to a semi but it’s doubtful they can unearth enough new players of the quality needed.
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Simple. Forwards.
How come theres no talk of one of the front runners
Reminds me of the talk about Conor Counihan’s Cork footballers a decade ago. Lads proclaiming that he was holding them back and they would be utterly dominant if they had a different manager.
In the fullness of time Counihan did a fine job making them a very solid team and getting an A/I out of them. Galway may improve for not having Walsh in charge anymore but there is little to suggest at this point that they are bona fide all ireland contenders
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That cork team was the worst to win an AI I can remember, it’s a travesty they won a "foot"ball title while kicking the ball about four times over the course of the championship.
Galway have been competitive enough, but they have the thing needed to win an AI, proper marquee forwards. Tyrone don’t and that’s why Tyrone have no chance.
Galway have not been competitive.
That Cork team won around 3 leagues around that time. They also beat an excellent Tyrone team in the semi final the previous year, before losing to Kerry. There were many players in that team who had been good for the best part of a decade.
It seems that because the final pairing was unorthodox in 2010, that everyone says it was a handy All Ireland. If a poor Kerry team had come through, or Tyrone won it, no one would have batted an eyelid. Down had Marty Clarke that year as well and he was a superb footballer.
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Joe has bigger things to be concerned with these days
Limerick should have knocked them out that year 
Galway should improve, but it will have far more to do with some good underage players coming through than with any great improvement on the line. Last year it fell apart completely as players knew that Walsh was going to carry the blame for all poor performances, and no better lads to take advantage of a handy excuse than a Galway lad. With Comer, Conroy, Daly and Walsh they look like a team who could make more use of the new mark rule than most county sides.
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Kerry should have been knocked out by Sligo and Longford in 2009 but no one is claiming that year was a handy All Ireland.