Kildare v Dublin

This is the most surreal conversation I've ever read on here!!

Fair enough Jim, we can agree to disagree on this one.

This Nigerian lad might fit in if he's a good athlete but not great on the ball, we already have a couple of lads like that playing senior for Kildare.

Breaking news: Nigerian lad drafted into Kildare squad for Monaghan match.

"He looks useful," said Cian O'Neill. "Plus he has more All Ireland medals than our boys."

Ah ffs fone.....

Ohtoohtobe wrote:

Fair enough Jim, we can agree to disagree on this one.

This Nigerian lad might fit in if he's a good athlete but not great on the ball, we already have a couple of lads like that playing senior for Kildare.

It's getting like the rugby debate here all over again! Stander / O'Connor... safe to say Tommy will be flying over to picket St Conleth's if Éanna gets the call!

Glad to see more positivity coming through after the initial disappointment. Seeing what's happening and addressing it against the best team in the land of the past few years, who have been doing what they did to Kildare for 10 minutes at the start of the second half, to better teams, is easier said than done.

There are a lot of things - expectations etc etc. FearBan said it more eloquently than I ever could and have attempted to over the past while. SoI would just say this - Mayo are the team that are put up here most often as maybe the bar, an example of what's possible. Even allowing for them spending twice what Kildare are spending, what I would see as a big thing is that most of the Mayo squad are 30-odd, and went through those types of galling defeats and maulings over and over and over, getting hammered in Croke Park in finals and semi-finals, playing Division 1 all the time, either responding or not, getting harder and harder and more hardened and more hardened. Grizzled.

People think it should happen this year or next year but I think there was so much to like about the performance against Dublin and if they could replicate that every game in the League, it would be enough to stay up. The defence is always a worry, I would definitely have a bit more cover but even at that, I'm always concerned by how a Kildare defender is so easily beaten one-on-one. As for wides, giving the ball away - it's the pressure situations, having the chance to beat the Dubs if I just stick this - those are the situations you need to be in time and again to get accustomed to it. Because they wouldn't miss it in Newbridge. It's pressure on the ball, it's the pressure of the situation, the pressure of what's at stake.

I was never a League man - a Cork hurling upbringing - but now, the League is the most competitive competition and I have no doubt that you will improve by playing Division 1 regularly. To that end, I really do think that's the priority this year and would trump any championship feat unless they were to get to a semi-final or beyond.

Good post Ogie..........hard to argue with any of that!

Even though there was a drop of over €200,000 in the grant which Dublin received towards Games Development last year they still received €1.2m in 2016 with Cork the next bigger recipient at €249,000.

Since the introduction of coaching grants in 2007, Dublin has received more than €16.m in funding directly from Croke Park with Cork the next biggest recipients at just over €1m.


This gives a perspective of what Kildare and up against.

In 11 years Cork didn’t even get 7% of the funds Dublin got.

And the worst part is WE (fans) not just lillies pay to go watch matches.
Something will have to give eventually....

Those figures also don't include the €5m the taxpayer gave Dublin between 2005 and 2009 via the Irish Sports Council nor do they include provincial handouts but that is across the board. However those provincial figures likely widen the gap as, unlike the popular conception, the Leinster Council also fund Dublin games' development. They are the only county mentioned in this category in provincial account with close to a quarter of a million per annum going to the Dublin Coaching Project. After that they also take a chunk of the rest of the games development money although figure is refused to me so far.

What people fail to understand is that given population, smaller counties don't need the same as Dublin to compete, nominally rather than per head they actually need more. I've been saying for years it's not far off a fix when you throw in the home games (two if not three of Super 8s this year unlike one for rest) and am genuinely suggesting to supporters of other counties from Leinster Championship onwards not to go to games against them. You might laugh, and won't make difference, but why give the GAA your money to give to Dublin to humiliate your team and your identity for their amusement. Unless your into BDSM I cannot think of a reason why anyone wouldn't just boycott that one game. Go for a nice meal with the family with the same money.

Can tell you've never met my family, TK.

The flip side is that we are are going to beat them in a Leinster final eventually - it's inevitable, albeit in the sort of one-off scenario outlined above. And do you know what - it will be the ultimate victory and the ultimate humiliation for Dublin. Seriously it will trump all of them - Offaly 1980, Meath 1991, Kildare 2000. All the advantages and we STILL beat them. They'll never live it down tbh. You have to admit that thought does warm the cockles of your heart

Btw, I do think the Dublin split is equally inevitable. But I have a feeling we'll sneak in an unforgettable, Donegal 2014-style ambush before that.

Tommy - re boycotting, it's effectively already happened. Offaly, Westmeath and Laois have given up and they aren't coming back. Meath shit their pants playing us, never mind the Dubs. The Leinster championship is dead and that's why the Dubs split is on the way - I'm afraid the likes of Paraic Duffy are hastening it rather than holding back the tide.

I don't think Croke Park give a flying fuck about people boycotting the Leinster Championship. They get their full houses for the big AI matches and that's all they care about and that's why they've added in all these super 8 games. Until people start boycotting those games, they won't take any notice because it won't have hit their coffers. And it's incredibly unlikely that neutral fans or supporters of Dublin, Mayo, Kerry etc are going to boycott those games because they're generally good quality, exciting games.

From my own POV, unless both the minors and the seniors are playing the same day we would play Dublin in Croke Park, I won't be going in. OTOH I've always attended plenty of quarter finals, semi finals and finals not involving Kildare because they are games worth seeing usually.

I go to every game I can, which is 95% of games. Midweek underage games can be problem sometimes but I always try and make them. But I decided a couple of years back that going to a game involving Dublin would no longer be an option. I refuse to involve myself by giving up time and money when it involves such a financially dopped County.

Pauric Duffy and his cohorts have destroyed Leinster football for the filthy lucre. I'm sure they will spend those 40 pieces of Silver well or more likely just on another Dublin backroom team member.