What really defines social class in the modern era is the way a place looks. Maynooth, Celbridge and Leixlip are all very âproperâ looking. Itâs all trees and grass verges and well kept gardens. You have Carton House, you have Intel, you have The Orchard garden centre and cafe, a sort of Avoca type place where aspirational types go, you have private hospitals and fee paying schools nearby, you have tidy main streets, you have train stations, you have C bus routes, you have a motorway. These are places where aspiration rules. The Pet Shop Boys could have written a song about these places.
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and they would be right to be
I though there was a very good Laois attendance at Croke Park yesterday MBB
Well outnumbered the Kildare support
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There was, Shur we thought weâd just to go up and pick it up. The boys on the hill were hopping
Is is stretching things a bit to say, Laois had as big a representation as anyone on the Hill yesterday?
Nah but Shur what were we up against
Whats the North/Side divide about?
Id say theyâd be incomparable to a place like malahide or greystones or even skerries. A few rungs down from them. Maynooth is fairly posh alright. Leixlip is a bit of a kip by comparison.
Maynooths not bad, but its choked by traffic on its one street
Great insight there
Some variety in the Joe McDonagh winners since its inception in 2018. Carlow, Antrim, Westmeath, Laois, Offaly and Kildare have all won titles with Kerry appearing in a couple of finals too. Whoâll be the next first time winner though? Wexford?
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After a bit of reflection Iâve come to the conclusion this Joe Mc was the weakest since its inception.
Kerry were a rabble under new mgmt and had nowhere near their best 15 available.
Down are a yoyo team between Ring/Joe Mc
Saoirise Bluffin made WM underperform by about 50%. A good team which Joe Fortune showed. However the âdoppleganger Davyâ was such a woeful apoointment.
Laois were probably on backfoot from the word go with the late appointment of TF. League form showed that. However I think Laois are still back in 2015. I donât think the players are committed to the âextrasâ needed for the modern game such as S+C, Nutrition and video analysis. Iâd be confident TF is the man there for the job and will be a success in time.
Carlow were probably the best team in the competition and definately had the best forwards. However a mixture of complacence vs Kildare in the group game and bad luck vs Laois done for them. A lot of their main men have a lot of miles on the clock. Unlike a few other Joe Mc teams they have done nothing at underage in years. Mgmt have been there 5/6 years too. Theyâve done a good job, but maybe a new voice needed.
Kildare were just well organised bu a good mgmt. They have 5/6 very good operators (Boran would possibly play 6 for any Leinster Liam Mc team) but there is a real tail there. More so than any other Joe Mc team they probably maxed out on the âextrasâ needed listed above. They were there to exploit the other teams not at 100%. Thatâs sport and fair play to them. Dublin will open them on Sat.
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Its too early to tell on that one I reckon. This teams best chance is to achieve exactly what they have achieved a few times. Maybe seek to stay in Div 1b but numbers supporting would gradually go if they did.
The county has passion for hurling but its hard to connect without a team to properly follow. Given the youth of this group I think theyâll build a small but incremental fanbase over time.
Football is their biggest challenge in terms of building towards anything else
Most of the other teams in it bar Kildare have had their shot on the merrygoround. Offaly and Antrim who are the two naturally strongest counties among âthe restâ, were both in Leinster this year. Once you go down after being in Leinster, you go down properly.
Iâll be interested to see can Antrim buck that trend next year. They should, but it might depend on whether Davy is still in charge. If heâs not, they could walk back up. If he is, they could even go down again.