Replying To Joxer:  "Yeah it's funny that the core of this panel came together in 2011 and were developed as footballers well before that and before the big money started flowing from Sean Kelly yet apparently these players came about because of money. Incredible ignorance and a disservice to these great players."

Replying To tom84:  "Funding isn't the problem. The problem is that football is poor in country at the minute. Apart from Dublin every other team is bad. The Dublin team is a very good team and while they are beating every other team it is not because they are invincible supermen or funding its because every other team is poor. Kerry Galway armagh tyrone meath cork donegal are not as good as they were 10 20 years ago when they beat Dublin. All are going through transition periods the players will come again but the county boards need to get their house in order to facilitate them.
Funding talk is smokescreen to hide the fact that County boards are doing their job.
Having watched the all ireland yesterday that Dublin team while been good are nothing special"

Replying To annoyedplayer:  "The core of this panel started playing adult footballcat 2011. Before that they were all on underage intercounty teams in Dublin. Where as underagers they had access to yhe best facilities and best training from contracted competent individuals whl stuidied sports training not a former inter county player volunteering his time. Now there was former dublin players acting as selectors but they were all backed up by people professionally qualified S&C coaches, by nutritionists. 90% of other countes cannot pay for these luxuries.

The last 3 Dublin teams (2008-2011, 2011-2018 & 2018-Present) did not just come together in 2011."

Replying To annoyedplayer:  "The core of this panel started playing adult footballcat 2011. Before that they were all on underage intercounty teams in Dublin. Where as underagers they had access to yhe best facilities and best training from contracted competent individuals whl stuidied sports training not a former inter county player volunteering his time. Now there was former dublin players acting as selectors but they were all backed up by people professionally qualified S&C coaches, by nutritionists. 90% of other countes cannot pay for these luxuries.

The last 3 Dublin teams (2008-2011, 2011-2018 & 2018-Present) did not just come together in 2011."

Replying To essmac:  "The standard excuse/apology is that this Dublin team is just a "once in a generation" team, same as any other once in a generation team in other counties, such as Kerry 70s and 80s, and Tyrone noughties.

That is, it's just another great team that comes along every now and then..  They'll run their course, so no need for people in other counties to be too concerned.  Blah blah.

The problem with this narrative is that it's nonsense.

For instance, for a while, Kerry struggled to replace Bomber, Moran, Spillane, Sheehy, O'Shea et al (those surnames still are like poetry to me!); and Tyrone are still struggling to replace Canavan, O'Neill, Dooher et al.  Both those teams, like any other great team, struggled once a core group of key players retired.

But the same does not apply to Dublin.  The core of the Dublin team that won their first of the 6 in a row has already been replaced several times over, and Dublin are looking stronger than ever.  

This Dublin team is not a once in a generation team; it's a once in a lifetime conveyor belt.  

Naturally, truly great teams do not happen all the time. So either something miraculous has happened to the Dublin DNA in the last decade, or else you need to look at other factor$. Go figur€ folks.

You know the main reason why Dublin won yesterday?  Nothing to do with god-like geniuses on the pitch.  They won because of superior conditioning that allowed them to pull away in the last quarter.

It's the difference between having a full-time, top-class, professional S&C coach, and either a part-timer, or none at all, or "some local lad who may or may not know a bit about the weights".

Any of us can do basic S&C by ourselves and you'll soon be a lot better than your neighbour who sits on the sofa with the remote and a slab of beers.  

But, left to our own devices, our training soon becomes unbalanced.  Your development becomes uneven.  You end up with (typically) big guns and weak back and core muscles.  Etc.

To optimise your physical development for the precise demands of a particular sport calls for far more than just an enthusiastic part-timer giving you a photocopied page with a few routines on it. You need consistent, personalised attention. A trainer can do a lot more with 40-50 guaranteed weekly hours than he can with a couple of hours on a Wednesday night.

Full time, high quality conditioning counts in the end.  At the end of a game, a well prepared enthusiastic amateur is starting to gas out.  You can still drive yourself to peg it in a straight line, sure.  But your agility goes.  And your decision making skills falter.  You need to be very fit to have your mind still clear and sharp after huge exertion.

There wasn't much in it yesterday, for much of the game.  But Dublin simply had that little bit more in the tank.  Their conditioning is game-specific, and is a credit to them.  It would be great if all teams had access to similar resources.

In addition of course to having how many youth development officers in Dublin - 70? 80? - funnelling new talent in; and of course being able to play all your championship games at home.  Imagine Donegal playing all their championship games in Ballybofey ...

I wasn't born yesterday folks; spare me all this "it's just a once in a generation team" stuff.  Dean Rock a better player than Mikey Sheehy? Get real. This is systemic structural bias and structural dysfunctionality by the GAA on a national scale.

It's ultimately got nothing to do with Dublin who are only maximising the resources they've been given.  This is an issue for the GAA.  Does it want to administer all counties equally and fairly, or does it want to continue with its whack-a-mole "approach" to county development?

I want to see all counties being the best they can be. So that it's genuinely the players with the most god-given talent that win. I want to be in mortal dread of Fermanagh. I want to be worried about Meath again.

I'm not holding my breath.  It's Ireland, ad hocery rules, we're used to be mucked about; and the county boards are un-touchable (despite being in many cases unfit for purposes and living in the past) 

Nothing will change."

Replying To Black+Blue:  "True tom84 the general standard of a lot of other contenders isnt great at the moment but to expand the previous post about Population of a province....would a team from Ulster ( with a similar population to Dublin ) produce a team that would win 7/8 out of every 10 All-Irelands ?...

Murphy, McManus, McHugh, Morgan, McKenna, etc etc training together 3/4 times a week would surely dominate aswell ?..with a top class set up behind them too ?.... why are we all so shocked and surprised that Dublin are dominating when you think about it in those terms ?"

Replying To DUBJOHN:  "To be fair to you i agree with a lot of what you say but i disagree with your insinuation that mikey sheehy was a better player than Dean Rock !"

Replying To DUBJOHN:  "To be fair to you i agree with a lot of what you say but i disagree with your insinuation that mikey sheehy was a better player than Dean Rock !"

Replying To essmac:  "The standard excuse/apology is that this Dublin team is just a "once in a generation" team, same as any other once in a generation team in other counties, such as Kerry 70s and 80s, and Tyrone noughties.

That is, it's just another great team that comes along every now and then..  They'll run their course, so no need for people in other counties to be too concerned.  Blah blah.

The problem with this narrative is that it's nonsense.

For instance, for a while, Kerry struggled to replace Bomber, Moran, Spillane, Sheehy, O'Shea et al (those surnames still are like poetry to me!); and Tyrone are still struggling to replace Canavan, O'Neill, Dooher et al.  Both those teams, like any other great team, struggled once a core group of key players retired.

But the same does not apply to Dublin.  The core of the Dublin team that won their first of the 6 in a row has already been replaced several times over, and Dublin are looking stronger than ever.  

This Dublin team is not a once in a generation team; it's a once in a lifetime conveyor belt.  

Naturally, truly great teams do not happen all the time. So either something miraculous has happened to the Dublin DNA in the last decade, or else you need to look at other factor$. Go figur€ folks.

You know the main reason why Dublin won yesterday?  Nothing to do with god-like geniuses on the pitch.  They won because of superior conditioning that allowed them to pull away in the last quarter.

It's the difference between having a full-time, top-class, professional S&C coach, and either a part-timer, or none at all, or "some local lad who may or may not know a bit about the weights".

Any of us can do basic S&C by ourselves and you'll soon be a lot better than your neighbour who sits on the sofa with the remote and a slab of beers.  

But, left to our own devices, our training soon becomes unbalanced.  Your development becomes uneven.  You end up with (typically) big guns and weak back and core muscles.  Etc.

To optimise your physical development for the precise demands of a particular sport calls for far more than just an enthusiastic part-timer giving you a photocopied page with a few routines on it. You need consistent, personalised attention. A trainer can do a lot more with 40-50 guaranteed weekly hours than he can with a couple of hours on a Wednesday night.

Full time, high quality conditioning counts in the end.  At the end of a game, a well prepared enthusiastic amateur is starting to gas out.  You can still drive yourself to peg it in a straight line, sure.  But your agility goes.  And your decision making skills falter.  You need to be very fit to have your mind still clear and sharp after huge exertion.

There wasn't much in it yesterday, for much of the game.  But Dublin simply had that little bit more in the tank.  Their conditioning is game-specific, and is a credit to them.  It would be great if all teams had access to similar resources.

In addition of course to having how many youth development officers in Dublin - 70? 80? - funnelling new talent in; and of course being able to play all your championship games at home.  Imagine Donegal playing all their championship games in Ballybofey ...

I wasn't born yesterday folks; spare me all this "it's just a once in a generation team" stuff.  Dean Rock a better player than Mikey Sheehy? Get real. This is systemic structural bias and structural dysfunctionality by the GAA on a national scale.

It's ultimately got nothing to do with Dublin who are only maximising the resources they've been given.  This is an issue for the GAA.  Does it want to administer all counties equally and fairly, or does it want to continue with its whack-a-mole "approach" to county development?

I want to see all counties being the best they can be. So that it's genuinely the players with the most god-given talent that win. I want to be in mortal dread of Fermanagh. I want to be worried about Meath again.

I'm not holding my breath.  It's Ireland, ad hocery rules, we're used to be mucked about; and the county boards are un-touchable (despite being in many cases unfit for purposes and living in the past) 

Nothing will change."

Replying To arock:  "GAA wont alliw Dublin build a stadium, how many times do we have to say it around here?"

Replying To CiarraiMick:  "Of course as a Kerryman I'm bound to be biased but for me Sheehy better than Rock. Dean is a fine player but for me Sheehy oozed class. Sheehy was picked on both team of the century and team of millennium. I don't know if you saw much of Sheehy John but I had the privilege of seeing him many times in club matches and loads of munster finals and league games that were nt televised. I have great time for Rock but for me Mikey Sheehy top man."

Replying To Ulsterchamps_32:  "It's hard to disagree with the points made in this. There was an article last week in the Irish news with the Donegal S&C coach. He's leaving after a number of years involvement and it's an interesting read. He can't realistically compete with a full dedicated coach and Donegal county board are not able to employ him full time. Though without being able to employ him or someone like him full time will Donegal be able to develop their players to the level of Dublin?

It looks like a few counties have that such as Tyrone, maybe Kerry and Mayo. Having full time paid coaches for a county team is also a bit contradictory to what is meant to be an amateur game. It's also not realistic for every county to have professional coaches so do you ban counties from having full time professional coaches linked to a county set up. That just drives it underground so what do you do. Maybe counties pool resources for the professional coaches required.
For other teams to compete with Dublin they need all this right and Tyrone, Kerry, Mayo and maybe Donegal and galway need to working with their players now on all the s&c and nutrition work and if they are not they won't be competing. There is a risk that if hope is not provided soon that players will get disenfranchised and not properly commit anymore."

Replying To avonali:  "I saw Sheehy many times Mick and thought he was class Mick. He was a step ahead of everybody around him - but he lacked pace."

Replying To arock:  "GAA wont alliw Dublin build a stadium, how many times do we have to say it around here?"

Replying To essmac:  "The standard excuse/apology is that this Dublin team is just a "once in a generation" team, same as any other once in a generation team in other counties, such as Kerry 70s and 80s, and Tyrone noughties.

That is, it's just another great team that comes along every now and then..  They'll run their course, so no need for people in other counties to be too concerned.  Blah blah.

The problem with this narrative is that it's nonsense.

For instance, for a while, Kerry struggled to replace Bomber, Moran, Spillane, Sheehy, O'Shea et al (those surnames still are like poetry to me!); and Tyrone are still struggling to replace Canavan, O'Neill, Dooher et al.  Both those teams, like any other great team, struggled once a core group of key players retired.

But the same does not apply to Dublin.  The core of the Dublin team that won their first of the 6 in a row has already been replaced several times over, and Dublin are looking stronger than ever.  

This Dublin team is not a once in a generation team; it's a once in a lifetime conveyor belt.  

Naturally, truly great teams do not happen all the time. So either something miraculous has happened to the Dublin DNA in the last decade, or else you need to look at other factor$. Go figur€ folks.

You know the main reason why Dublin won yesterday?  Nothing to do with god-like geniuses on the pitch.  They won because of superior conditioning that allowed them to pull away in the last quarter.

It's the difference between having a full-time, top-class, professional S&C coach, and either a part-timer, or none at all, or "some local lad who may or may not know a bit about the weights".

Any of us can do basic S&C by ourselves and you'll soon be a lot better than your neighbour who sits on the sofa with the remote and a slab of beers.  

But, left to our own devices, our training soon becomes unbalanced.  Your development becomes uneven.  You end up with (typically) big guns and weak back and core muscles.  Etc.

To optimise your physical development for the precise demands of a particular sport calls for far more than just an enthusiastic part-timer giving you a photocopied page with a few routines on it. You need consistent, personalised attention. A trainer can do a lot more with 40-50 guaranteed weekly hours than he can with a couple of hours on a Wednesday night.

Full time, high quality conditioning counts in the end.  At the end of a game, a well prepared enthusiastic amateur is starting to gas out.  You can still drive yourself to peg it in a straight line, sure.  But your agility goes.  And your decision making skills falter.  You need to be very fit to have your mind still clear and sharp after huge exertion.

There wasn't much in it yesterday, for much of the game.  But Dublin simply had that little bit more in the tank.  Their conditioning is game-specific, and is a credit to them.  It would be great if all teams had access to similar resources.

In addition of course to having how many youth development officers in Dublin - 70? 80? - funnelling new talent in; and of course being able to play all your championship games at home.  Imagine Donegal playing all their championship games in Ballybofey ...

I wasn't born yesterday folks; spare me all this "it's just a once in a generation team" stuff.  Dean Rock a better player than Mikey Sheehy? Get real. This is systemic structural bias and structural dysfunctionality by the GAA on a national scale.

It's ultimately got nothing to do with Dublin who are only maximising the resources they've been given.  This is an issue for the GAA.  Does it want to administer all counties equally and fairly, or does it want to continue with its whack-a-mole "approach" to county development?

I want to see all counties being the best they can be. So that it's genuinely the players with the most god-given talent that win. I want to be in mortal dread of Fermanagh. I want to be worried about Meath again.

I'm not holding my breath.  It's Ireland, ad hocery rules, we're used to be mucked about; and the county boards are un-touchable (despite being in many cases unfit for purposes and living in the past) 

Nothing will change."

Replying To Young_gael:  "Exceptional post essmac. Im with you 100%."

Replying To CiarraiMick:  "Of course as a Kerryman I'm bound to be biased but for me Sheehy better than Rock. Dean is a fine player but for me Sheehy oozed class. Sheehy was picked on both team of the century and team of millennium. I don't know if you saw much of Sheehy John but I had the privilege of seeing him many times in club matches and loads of munster finals and league games that were nt televised. I have great time for Rock but for me Mikey Sheehy top man."

Replying To Joxer:  "Funny thing is, McStay, who is watertight to the Mayo setup, stated that there was nothing between Dublin and Mayo S&C wise. Mayo have access to top class facilities and coaches apparently. If you actually look at the last 15m Mayo are much more energetic than Dublin and doing all the chasing. But of course that doesn't suit the narrative here. Also the Donegal Ballybofey home game comparison is more nonsense. Where do you want LSFC finals, AI semi and finals played if not in HQ and the home of Gaelic games. Again, Dublin don't make these decisions, the officers from the county boards of the begrudgers do. But sure again, what does it matter when it comes to this narrative? Dublin have a pretty good record away from home anyway, whether it be Ballybofey, Castlebar or Omagh. I don't think this team would object to playing any county anywhere to be honest."

Replying To Joxer:  "Funny thing is, McStay, who is watertight to the Mayo setup, stated that there was nothing between Dublin and Mayo S&C wise. Mayo have access to top class facilities and coaches apparently. If you actually look at the last 15m Mayo are much more energetic than Dublin and doing all the chasing. But of course that doesn't suit the narrative here. Also the Donegal Ballybofey home game comparison is more nonsense. Where do you want LSFC finals, AI semi and finals played if not in HQ and the home of Gaelic games. Again, Dublin don't make these decisions, the officers from the county boards of the begrudgers do. But sure again, what does it matter when it comes to this narrative? Dublin have a pretty good record away from home anyway, whether it be Ballybofey, Castlebar or Omagh. I don't think this team would object to playing any county anywhere to be honest."