Good effort from the hurlers so far. Just switched it on after the soccer to see us winning 0-6 to 1-0. Lead has since been extended to 1-9 to 1-1 and Dublin are certainly enjoying the lion’s share of possession.
Early to be talking about the result but it’s important to close out as many of these games as we can - there’s been a lot of good performances in defeat in recent years. Time to start racking up the wins.
Anyone want to clarify the relegation situation for the NHL for me? Dublin looked in decent shape after beating Antrim but when Antrim beat Wexford it’s all very open again. A win against Cork yesterday would have had Dublin safe presumably but now they’re in with a real chance of finishing bottom.
So is there a 1A and 1B playoff with a deciding match against the winners of Division 2 or how does it work? And if Offaly finish last do they get saved, but if it’s Dublin, Laois or Antrim do they just get relegated anyway?
I don’t know either but I wouldn’t mind finding out. Wexford vs Dublin is now a pivotal game it would appear and if Dublin can’t beat us both in league and the Leinster semi-final then they can have no excuse.
Ger Brennan has opted out of the Dublin panel for the season. Very strange timing and very disappointing outcome. He’s claimed burnout is the reason why but you think he’d have given it a few more weeks to see how he was going because he’s been playing the last few matches.
Theres talk that some of the younger players getting pissed off that Caffrey is not giving them a chance and will always stick with the tried and trusted players. It was the older players who wanted him to stay on while some of the younger lads wanted a fresh face cos they knew Pillar would never give them a chance.
Yeah read that too but apparently he’s played every game since the Vincent’s thing ended and with Billings on the selection committee he should be looked after. It is weird timing though.
Griffin is coming back 3 weeks early from oz as well
Can’t wait for Dublin to reach the semis so I can jump on the bandwagon.
The Dublin hurlers will beat Wexford.
Of course they will. Up Dublin!
Hey Shan what dya think of this place turning into a glorified GAA forum? Shocking!
The irony of course being you using a GAA thread to highlight this.
I love the GAA sure. I’ve always been a staunch supporter of it when Dublin get to the semis and then end up getting robbed out of it by uncooth bogmonsters
I went to the first round against Meath last year and couldnt get a ticket to the replay so cant be excused of jumping on the bandwaggon.
This is the year for Dublin hurlers to claim their place as undisputed reserve champions of Leinster. They should be able to put Wexford away at this stage, but they need to go and do it. A Leinster Final appearance and not being out of their depth against Kilkenny would be real progress. A scalp then in the back door and they could consider it a good year. They are the kingpins of Leinster hurling underage, they just need it to seep through.
I’d say the reason Dublin cant bring through their underage players is that most of them realise its a waste of time.
As I was saying on the Wexford GAA thread earlier, I still think we have a better team than them. I agree with the points Skippy Ruth and that arrogant fook Pete Finnerty were making on The Sunday Game in that it’ll take a prolonged period of underage success before a really, really good Dublin senior team emerges. You’re realistically only going to get 2, max 3 from each successful underage team so you need some years of progress on top of another before the senior side will reap the benefits. They have the likes of Tomo Brady and McCaffrey from their 2005 Leinster Minor winning team and then these two added to Peadar Carton and some others from last year’s U-21 side. That said they still needed 3 ‘foreigners / lads from Galway’ in their XV last Sunday and the young lads I mentioned aren’t fully established senior stars yet. Wexford to win by 5.
Ger Brennan seems like a big loss to the footballers to me. I’d have had him nailed on to be half back for the championship ahead of Casey for definite.
Don’t think you need all that much success at underage to develop good senior teams. They’ve had successful teams recently but even before then they’ve been competitive at minor level for years so some of that talent should have progressed. A combination of football, misplaced priorities and lack of public interest seems to have held it back. Dublin are capable of beating Wexford but don’t think they will.
Brennan is streets ahead of Casey as a player alright Bandage.
I definitely think concerted underage success follows through to senior (Galway are an obvious exception in terms of senior honours but they still bring lots of youngsters into their senior team on an ongoing basis). One of the main reasons Wexford have fallen so far behind Kilkenny is because we haven’t won a Leinster minor since 1985 as a result of poor underage structures. Dublin may have been respectable in underage back a few years ago but they weren’t really threatening to win provincial titles and given the gap in quality at underage level there was no significant upsurge and progression through to a winning senior team. Since they’ve formulated and implemented their coaching and development plan, they’ve had the likes of Brady, McCaffrey, McCrabbe (who pulled out of the panel this season), Carton and others coming through. That’s one batch but they need another batch to come through next year including lads like McMorrow and Treacy. All of these lads have tasted success against Kilkenny, Offaly and Wexford at underage level and it can only help the senior team if they’re adding to it year-on-year with good quality younger players coming from a background of success and achievement. I just think they’re still 2-3 years away from having enough about them to win consistently against strong senior counties. And Wexford.
Hurling between the ages of 8 - 16 in Dublin have almost doubled in the last five years-from 3,960 in 2003 to 7,250 in 2008. That’s a massive surge and one that will surely bear fruit in the future. Would love to know the comparing numbers in Wexford