Kerry, Dublin would be favourites for 2015, but I am still confused why Dublin are touted as having the better chance to win than Kerry? The Kerry boys have better footballers, regardless of how deep the Dub squad is they can only play 15 a side ! Armagh & Galway will put a scare in people, Cork are not being mentioned therefore they will be a threat to some. Mayo can still win it all if their inner belief can be pushed to the next level. MeaTH , Donegal, Cavan, Kildare, Derry, Tyrone (no), since I mention some of these teams do not discount Tipperary, are teams that will put it up to the top tier. Maybe it is time for a second level in the championship considering that half our counties will not get near the Hogan Stand come late SeptembeR? How about a combination of league/Championship with the top four teams in division one getting a bye to a quarterfinal stage, and the top two teaMS IN DIVISIONS 2. 3 & 4 GO INTO A PLAYOFF WITH THE 5TH & 6TH PLACE TEAMS OF DIVISION 1, OR SOMETHING TO THAT EFFECT?

lostintime (USA) - Posts: 533 - 04/01/2015 14:32:19    1680352

iT WOULD BE MIGHTY IF A NEW TEAM WON sAM IN 2015, NOT THE USual suspect.

lostintime (USA) - Posts: 533 - 04/01/2015 14:46:00    1680353

New York could do well if they come out of connacht

Miler (Mayo) - Posts: 1015 - 04/01/2015 15:47:18    1680365

Yo Miler, on that thought-New York should not be the automatic choice to represent our American cousins in Connacht. I imagine that Boston is as good if not better than NY at the moment. Put the Yanks in Leinster, that is an even weaker slot.

lostintime (USA) - Posts: 533 - 04/01/2015 16:36:44    1680383

All Ireland final OF 2015 will be contested by Cork and Mayo. Cannot predict the winner of that close encounter.
I might be wrong and uninformed as I have been living outside Ireland for years, but that is where my money is going.
Hurling All Ireland will be won by Tipperary.

Rockies (Cork) - Posts: 947 - 04/01/2015 18:39:23    1680427

Id say Paddy Power will have many sleep nights awaiting your huge payout rockie.Nostradamus wasnt as exact with his predictions.Any chance you could predict the first goalscore in Cork v Mayo football final?

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 04/01/2015 19:00:34    1680433

Mayo 14 points Cork 2-10
Paddy Power was good to me last year, and should be again.
He quoted generous odds for some games last year.1-10 on Monaghan for All Ireland Quarter;1-7 on Donegal for an All Ireland Semi. Incredible.

Rockies (Cork) - Posts: 947 - 04/01/2015 20:04:07    1680465

Kerry's to lose. The back to back is a frightfully difficult thing to pull off in football in the modern era. Even getting to the stage of contesting back to back finals is a a tall order for any side. The only county with a proven track record of doing so is the Kingdom. We are the only county to win Back to Back titles in a generation (a point many people on here chose to ignore). We also contested 6 All Ireland finals in a row between 04-09, another one in 2011 and 2014. In fact Kerry have failed to make it it to the Semi final stage only twice since 2000. So if any county had the pedigree and talent to retain Sam in 2015 its us.

This fella from Clondalkin calls us 'average', a team that won the All Ireland by beating 3 of the top 5 teams in the country (Cork, Mayo, Donegal) with the best midfield and forward line in Ireland that also carries the likes of Marc O'Shea, Aidan O'Mahony and Paul Murphy in its defence. Take of the Sky Blue tinted glasses there lad!!

Gooch will be like a new player coming back and Walsh will make a massive impact. What a lot of you also don't realise is that Austin Stack's great run has also unearthed some excellent young players that have made an undeniable case to be involved in the county panel this season.

Cork will test us in Munster, I don't fear anything coming out of Ulster and I think Dublin will flop again, as they usually do. Think it could be a Mayo v Kerry decider with Kerry to win if Mayo can survive and deal with the trauma of another year coming up short. And that is a massive IF.

TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 05/01/2015 13:49:10    1680616

Average kerry team last year got so lucky it was ridiculous we will see this year how good yous are surely with these great players back no one will touch yous. Now your team of the 00's was outstanding but this team is so average it's scary.

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts: 9926 - 05/01/2015 14:55:54    1680651

clondalkindub

I'd take "Average" as opposed to "over-hyped" any day...

Horsebox77 (Kerry) - Posts: 5491 - 05/01/2015 15:09:34    1680657

Clondalkin
You are right to be afraid of us kid, I mean if we can win the all Ireland with a so called average team imagine what we'll do with a settled team that's not in transision :-) as for being lucky well the harder you train the luckier you get , I mean we won the allireland beating two div1 teams and the poor old dubs melted when when they met the first decent div2 team and that's a fact. Now Dublin have a fine athletic football team and I'm sure ye'l probably get to the semifinal this year .

KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 05/01/2015 15:18:53    1680660

Kerrymen are all in fine fettle I see & who can blame them after the year they had last year!!

But surely event they can't deny that all the sporting gods were with them in the semi final against a better Mayo team where only for the referee & Horan's ineptitude they would have been beaten.

Winning is certainly part of their DNA & confidence has got to be sky high especially with players coming back but the old back to back hoodoo, which is fast assuming Biddy Early like status, will I think be their undoing.

Mayo to bring her west & if they do I will gladly raise a glass of Jameson to them from the corner seat in O'Garas.

MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 05/01/2015 15:29:40    1680664

Over-hyped? Explain that one to me? Cause right now we are easily the team of the decade; 2 all irelands 3 semi finals 4 leinsters 2 national league titles runner up in league aswell no one comes close but now were over-hyped haha

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts: 9926 - 05/01/2015 16:19:55    1680682

mayo will win the all irealnd in 2015 FACT

antoman (Mayo) - Posts: 140 - 05/01/2015 16:24:25    1680686

I would love to see Mayo do it this year. It would be good for the game, they would be potentially very good and worthy all ireland champs. I can even see them beating the dubs. The only thing that stands in their way is the final hoodoo, and the thing they have about playing kerry. They had them this year, but let them off the hook. I think that they would have beaten us in the final as well, they looked desperate to win it.

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 05/01/2015 17:25:11    1680712

Cool the jets lads.Kerry were worthy winners of last years All Ireland.They put on a masterclass below in Pairc Ui Chaoimh to embarrass the rebels.They showed a never-say-die attitude to come from behind,twice,against a foridable Mayo team.And they did enough to hold off a spirited Donegal come back in the final.All done without their best player- Gooch,and some notable retirements in T O Se and P Galvin.
With the brilliance of J O Donoghue and the return of the Gooch and T Walsh,Kerry will be hard to beat this year.Like they are most years.The way Dublin fell asunder against Donegal has left me with a few doubts about our defence.The wheels certainly came off that day.A little too easily for my liking.Hopefully it was a once off,but the wily old foxes down in the Kingdom will have taken note.I am looking for Dean Rock and Costelloe to stake their claim to a starting spot in the forwards and its good to have Ciaran Kilkenny back on board.I wouldnt write off Cork and Mayo,but i think next years All Ireland will be wintering in either the deep south,or the bright lights of the capital.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 05/01/2015 17:25:47    1680713

clondalkindub
County: Dublin
Posts: 5649

1680682
Over-hyped? Explain that one to me? Cause right now we are easily the team of the decade; 2 all irelands 3 semi finals 4 leinsters 2 national league titles runner up in league aswell no one comes close but now were over-hyped haha

Ah now clondalkin my old friend,

It is only a few short monthas ago since we were reading on this very forum about how Dublin were going to do five in a row. Men who quite literally turned out to have feet of clay were accorded mythical status & if memory serves me right you yourself were cheerleading a countdown of the number of games needed to attain the five in a row crown.
According to all the experts this Dublin team were the dog's wobbly bits. Not alone were they great players but they were playing the game "the right way" or "the way football should be played"
Us simple Donegal folk arrived in Croke Park for the semi final with hearts fluttering, knees knocking & stomachs lurching.

But lo & behold, what happened? Reality happened that's what. What some of us had been trying to tell ye all year happened. Dublin were found out as a team who would steamroll over you if you let them, would embarrass you if you let them, but when faced with a half decent well organised team they folded like a deck of cards.

Over hyped doesn't begin to describe Dublin of 2014.

MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 05/01/2015 17:35:17    1680719

I wouldnt class dublin as being over hyped last year. They were worth every bit of the praise they got. They had one bad game, and it could have been very different if they got that goal in the 1st half. We did very well indeed to beat them, and I wuld wager that the dubs will not be as green when it comes to defense next year. I would say the only difficulty they have is their mid field. If they sort that out, they will be unstoppable.

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 05/01/2015 18:00:08    1680728

from what I seen on Sunday Tyrone are in bother, they have a few to come in but they are a good bit off the pace, Armagh could change there starting 14 apart from the Goalie and they done a bit of a session before the game, I think they will give ulster a really good go, if they win ulster they could go a wee bit further.

But in saying that Dublin Kerry Mayo and Cork are the main All Ireland Contenders and rightly so, this last few years Mayo have been good but a wee bit short I don't think they will be this year, Kerry was lucky last year winning it, Dublin were the best team but not always the best team wins SAM

youngfella27 (Armagh) - Posts: 110 - 06/01/2015 09:34:12    1680820

A few people mentioned Cork. One person even predicted we would win it. I would give us a strong chance if Jimmy McGuinness was training us as the raw materials are certainly there to be successful (he would have to be willing to make his way down here at his own expense and let somebody else pick the team for him though - he probably wouldn't be interested).

However under the current set up, we have no chance (Eoin Cadogan in midfield????!!! - Jaysus Wept!!!). We will definitely/100% certainly be relegated in the league (4 away trips to Ulster). We have a home semi-final against Clare or Limerick. We will come through that narrowly before getting our arses handed to us in Killarney. We may win a 4th round qualifier (depending on the draw) and we will get bate clain out da gate by the Ulster champions in the quarter finals.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 06/01/2015 11:34:37    1680844