I genuinely donât understand lads saying Dublin are finished. They are a brilliant side.
Filthy though, properly nasty streak, and not in a good way, just plain nasty.
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Theyâre finished as an unbeatable force unless they unearth some new playes. Theyâll still win 3/4 of the next 10 at least Iâd say.
Right now youâd only really rate Kerry ahead of them.
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I donât see it as a case of Dublin regrouping over the winter and coming back with renewed hunger. A rebuild with a bit of a new style/approach probably needed to breathe new life into them. I wouldnât be surprised if they donât win another A/I in next 3 or 4 years.
For footballâs sake, I hope that someone in Leinster can beat them next year and remove the air of invincibility they have in the province.
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Iâd very surprised at that tally myself. The players arenât coming through never mind the generational players.
Outside of Kerry who is better placed for the next 5/6 years though?
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Kerry obviously by a distance. Mayo have this young lot coming through together, Tyrone seem well balanced throughout their squad certainly for the next few years.
There is literally nothing coming through of note for Dublin. The best hope for the next few years realistically is getting Jack and Mannion back
Archer seems to be the best Dublin underage player of the last few years and he was blotted out completely in the U-20 final last December. In fairness that was only one day and Iâve seen him do damage on other days but I wouldnât say heâs a canât miss prospect at senior for them.
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Jack was a massive loss . Ditto Mannion
Both these lads seem career driven ( good luck to them) so unlikely they will be back although both still young .
The 5 in a row was the end of a natural process/cycle and theyâve been phoning it in ever since really.
Its hard to see them come back any better in the next 3 or 4 years. Con/Howard/Murchan will turn into Richie Hogan/TJ Reid type characters in the next 5 or 6 years trying to recreate the golden days of summer they had earlier in their careers.
Doesnât have the pace
Agree with this. I think their style got to them, it must have been boring even for them to play it. I think it must have had something to with players leaving, itâs looked for a while like all the joy was gone out of it. And they were so wedded to this style that sucked the pace out of the game that when they finally needed to go up the gears they discovered they werenât there.
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Who knows, maybe a defeat/ absence for a few years will bring the hunger back. Or more likely a change of management could work wondersâŚ
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The style brings diminishing returns unless you have lads coming off the bench as good as what they are replacing.
Mayo in the second half looked like a team who knew they were bigger an stronger than Dublin and went after them in possession and Dublin simply didnât have enough players with either the composure or strength to hold the ball.
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There will be a wider spread of winners over the next few years. You will probably see the Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone and Mayo contesting most of the All Irelands with Donegal in there or there abouts. We might get a few surprises like a Galway or Monaghan every couple of years.
Nobody would be more surprised than the Galway people by that
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Yeah. Weâll see but I think they have the likes of Fenton, Con, Howard, Byrne, Murchan backboning them for a good 6/7 years still who are all excellent players. They have the likes of Kilkenny (and potentially Mannion and McCaffrey) who should have another few good years left. Potentially Madden could come back in at some point and after that itâs just about adding some quality in there.
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Mayo have always been able to rattle Dublin though, any great team or player can be got at when theyâre torn into, they expect opposition to be standing up admiring them.
Ah they are capable every now and again of producing something.
Kilkenny is still only 28. The Dubs playing style is highly demanding physically, but he surely still has a lot to give.
You underestimate the importance of the hunger of the players has on these things.