Itâs time Dublin stopped the failed experiment with hurling. Weâre going up against counties whose kids have twice as much football played by age 18
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Mayo try harder.
Joe Brolly is another one who should be laughed out of town at this stage. Eulogising Dublin for a decade calling Saturdayâs game âan inevitable Dublin victoryâ and then turning around and calling Dublin âa tyranny which must never be repeatedâ.
Didnât Joe write the requiem for Derry football when Rory Gallagher was appointed? He got that one a bit wrong too. Maybe if Gallagher had been appointed five or six years ago Derry would have been up there with Donegal, Tyrone and Monaghan rather than trying to wring some inter county success out of lads the wrong side of 30 with a great future behind them.
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Fitzmaurice obsessed over every Dublin player and spent the off season looking for Kerry players to match up to individual Dublin players instead of just concentrating on Kerryâs style
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I know that. Itâs a disadvantage to development of young players by not having a handful of schools competing at the highest level. If a south dublin school really went for it, and was supported by county board (which they would) they could be a de facto centre of excellence.
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The clubs donât want that though. They want their players as their players I think.
Agreed âŚProbably need it on the north side at this stage âŚ
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It works for Colaiste Eoin, and it works all over the country. The impact on clubs would be minimum.
If players are on dev/county squads, forget about seeing them at club level. I believe Crokes called the county boards bluff recently in refusing to play matches if their lads werenât available - I think they had 6 on the u15 or u16 development squad.
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Yeah I donât disagree - a school like Benildus has a large number of Crokes kids fed in from Lauences. National school where Crokes do lots of work to get kids playing - they would have won Leinster a few years back but itâs often down to the influence of a specific teacher who drives it on as best he can
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Thatâs become the real issue. Making a development squad is a bigger prize than winning a county championship with the club nearly.
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Imagine if all those crokes lads were in the same place. We have a tonne of teachers with serious GAA qualifications in our place but tradition stops us from giving it a right go.
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Lads, the last thing anyone wants is Dublin GAA thriving. Weâve seen the impact of it in the past 7/8 years.
Once Dublin get their house in order, thereâs no competition as the natural resources so outweigh any other single county. Dublin operating at about 20% of the efficiency of Mayo, Kerry, Tyrone, Donegal etc is the only way we get a competitive Championship.
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Whatâs the numbers like for a lad on u15/16 development squad still being involved by u20? Does a player from outside a development squad who blossoms at 18/19 have any chance at getting on u20 squad ?
Mcstay said last night that 100pc of the mayo panel came through the development system
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Itâs tough enough if itâs the same manager throughout from 15 - minor - u20. But using my own club as an example, I would think there are better lads outside the county panel than the ones we have on it but are still there by virtue of the fact the county manager knows them for the last few years.
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Not sure on that but Iâve seen young lads devastated when they are dropped from development squads and some pack it in and lose interest altogether. Parents have a lot to answer for as well.
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Parents are the worst part of it.
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With rural GAA schools and rugby everywhere there has been an overlap between sporting success and academic success. The likes of St. Jarlathâs and St. Flannanâs, St. Colmanâs Newry and St. Patâs Maghera were seen as the schools to go to in every sense. In Dublin, and I think to an extent in Cork and Limerick too, your traditional GAA orientated CBS schools have come to be seen as academic backwaters. Colaiste Eoin is a very academically successful school and one of the few non fee paying schools in Dublin to be seen as being on a par academically with the fee paying rugby schools.
I find it interesting that Cork city hasnât won a Harty Cup since 1994 but I see that CBC, more traditionally known as a rugby school, has contested the last two finals. Are Scoil Ris in Limerick would strike me as a sort of equivalent to Colaiste Eoin.
But North Mon and Limerick CBS fell off a cliff after the early 90s while St. Finbarrâs no longer exists. These were the traditional powerhouses of the competition. This would strike me as sociological phenomenon connected to the rise of fee paying schools.
I find it hard to foresee a situation where Blackrock College or Belvedere etc. ever take GAA seriously. Rugby is too entrenched.
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Must be an awful lot of politics too âŚsmaller clubs looking for representationâŚâthis lad wonât have a chance if heâs left playing just at that level with the club â etc.
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