I love the way everyone slags off Leinster football, and this mostly based on the final last year, the best games of football are probably played in Leinster, yes dubs have a fantastic team at the moment, but these things goes in cyclical ways, upto 2002 Meath had a strangle hold on it now its dubs, at least we try to play football in the province

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 16/04/2015 09:33:12    1714690

To suggest that the demise of Leinster football is attributable to the superiority of Dublin over the rest of the province is total non-sense. Why can counties such as Kerry, Mayo, Donegal compete and beat the Dubs while Kildare, Meath and co come up short time and time again in Leinster? I'm going to focus on Meath and Kildare because I believe these are two who should be competing at a higher level. Its not as if a Mayo, Kerry or Donegal have a bigger pick than we do here in Kildare or across the border in Meath. In fact Meath and Kildare have significantly larger picks than the three counties mentioned above and I would ask , of the current Kildare and Meath teams, how many would make the first 15 for a Kerry or Mayo? None I would say with the possible exception of meaths keoghan. So basically the problem with football in the likes of Meath, Kildare is that we just producing large amounts of average footballers with few top quality footballers. And this brings me back to the root of the problem which I believe is the primary schools and the clubs where the underage structures are not properly designed and implemented to ensure that all young kids are coached the skills of our game. I know if I were in charge of Kildare county board I would be pumping at least 70% of resources into the 6-12 year old age groups but we all know that wont happen as the county board knows only too well that once the senior footballers are going well there positions are safe.
Looking to this years LSFC, it all looks very predictable. I expect Kildare to get another hiding from Dublin in the semi unfortunately. Ryan hasn't got the tactical know how or the players to stop the Dubs but a run through the qualifiers to the Quarter final isn't beyond the realms of possibility.
Dublin to beat Meath in the final yet again although it surely will be a tighter game than last years thumping.

11jm11 (Kildare) - Posts: 365 - 16/04/2015 11:00:13    1714719

Leinster is very poor, the only team I can see challenging Dublin this summer is Meath

XPAC (Westmeath) - Posts: 86 - 16/04/2015 11:41:59    1714738

XPAC

Even at that it is a longshot

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 16/04/2015 13:11:08    1714779

Htaem
County: Meath
Posts: 6259

1714565
crikey

Dublin were very strong in the 70s, they won 6 Leinsters in a row but that was sandwiched in between 3 Offaly wins either side plus Meath wasn't too far behind them, like we didn't suffer 16 point Leinster final defeats to them. Dublin are an ever constant threat in Leinster but they haven't had this sort of unchallenged dominance in the east since the early years of the Leinster championship up until 1908.

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That's true. The Dubs won 6 on the bounce from 74-79 when Heffo's team rose in 74 to win Sam against Galway. 80 saw a brilliant Offaly team take back Leinster having won it in 71- 73 I think. So only Offaly and Dublin were Leinster champs in the 70s. But Dublin football only began to rise from 74 and this under Heffo. The original post though was trying to establish what is wrong with Kildare, Meath and the rest from whom historically a surprise package would come each year, Wexford, Louth, Laois, Westmeath etc. Dublin's dominance aside, the poor performance of the Leinster teams in the qualifiers is a cause for concern.

Joxer (Dublin) - Posts: 4700 - 16/04/2015 17:45:12    1714874

Ya at present Meath are probably next after Dublin in Leinster,yet if Meath get to the last 8,it would be seen as an achievement,but really it isn't..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 16/04/2015 17:50:32    1714876

Laois ran Dublin to a point 1-12 to 1-11 in January in the O'Byrne Cup. Actually Dublin won with the last play of the game. Not sure if it is a good indication. Bigger crowd at the match than there was at most of the Laois home games in the league. Port closer to Dublin than Portlaoise. Take Dublin out of Croke Park and teams have a better chance against them. Leinster can still be competitive. Most Leinster teams are not playing blanket defence or incessant fouling.

crikey (Australia) - Posts: 355 - 17/04/2015 11:49:32    1715042

Wexfords fall from grace has be particularly alarming..From all Ireland semi finalists and league finalists to visiting bloody Lemybrien and Aughrim next year!

juniorbsub (Wexford) - Posts: 646 - 17/04/2015 14:13:02    1715088

Joxer

The original post though was trying to establish what is wrong with Kildare, Meath and the rest from whom historically a surprise package would come each year, Wexford, Louth, Laois, Westmeath etc.

Probably just down to coincidence and poor underage structures, sometimes counties can get lucky and a really good squad of players comes along at the same time but generally you need to keep moving with the times and invest in youth. We'd had a number of very poor county boards for a long time so our luck was bound to run out at some stage, can't answer for the other counties in Leinster though.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 17/04/2015 14:29:30    1715093

juniorbsub
County: Wexford
Posts: 636

1715088
Wexfords fall from grace has be particularly alarming..From all Ireland semi finalists and league finalists to visiting bloody Lemybrien and Aughrim next year!

We will envelop you in a cocoon of horror.

sponger (Wicklow) - Posts: 2897 - 17/04/2015 14:47:56    1715100

Sponger,
We should get the match switched to the dogtrack in Arklow,it would be a quicker dash to border from there:-)

juniorbsub (Wexford) - Posts: 646 - 17/04/2015 15:15:33    1715103

Htaem
County: Meath
Posts: 6265

1715093
Joxer

The original post though was trying to establish what is wrong with Kildare, Meath and the rest from whom historically a surprise package would come each year, Wexford, Louth, Laois, Westmeath etc.

Probably just down to coincidence and poor underage structures, sometimes counties can get lucky and a really good squad of players comes along at the same time but generally you need to keep moving with the times and invest in youth. We'd had a number of very poor county boards for a long time so our luck was bound to run out at some stage, can't answer for the other counties in Leinster though.

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Spot on regarding underage problems. Attendances are not what they once were and the underage structures need constant attention. Other sports continue to attract the kids. I can see it with my own kid where soccer has caught his eye ahead of GAA and then when you bring him down to the local GAA club (will remain nameless) you find that it's a closed shop - he doesn't go to such and such school, he hasn't been in the 'academy' and he doesn't know John Joe so sorry no room at the inn.

In Leinster we need at least three more counties competing with Dublin. The Leinster Council need to ensure that this happens and not just through funds for Buckingham Palace style club houses but through investment in the youth structures. This includes Dublin too. I find it funny when you see some clubs with 5 star hotel like bar facilities yet on the pitch they have nothing going for them. Priorities are getting mixed up somewhere along the way. This and parish politics has a lot to answer for.

Joxer (Dublin) - Posts: 4700 - 17/04/2015 17:56:37    1715139

Probably just down to coincidence and poor underage structures, sometimes counties can get lucky and a really good squad of players comes along at the same time but generally you need to keep moving with the times and invest in youth. We'd had a number of very poor county boards for a long time so our luck was bound to run out at some stage, can't answer for the other counties in Leinster though.


Agree with you there, it's definitely vital that Counties, and clubs for that matter, focus on developing young players of all standards. Without getting into the whole 'Dublin get loads of money' debate, the one thing that is standing to Dublin now is that successive Chairmen over the last 10 to 12 years have all stuck eith the developement plan for both football and hurling that was brought foeward in the early noughties. At times this wasn't easily done,especially when some were calling for 'investment' in an outside manager for the footballers when we couldn't even win a Leinster title. Thankfully the likes of Bailey, Harrington and Kettle were strong enough to look at the long term picture and thats paying dividends now. Its not just Dublin either, Tipp and Roscommon are proving the value of long term planning, and hopefully more Counties will go down that route instead of chasing the quick fix option.

AHP (Dublin) - Posts: 323 - 17/04/2015 19:19:39    1715155

Htaem is absolutely correct, and we have been saying this for a long time, it now only appears to be getting rectified, we have Sean boylan , Gerry mcentee etc all involved at looking at improvement, but we still have very few full time underage coaching , Seamus Kenny is the only one i know of, they may be others but until we actually fund this post we cam forget about it, we have a team at the moment that may break into the top 8 or even 4 in the next few years, that will help get youngsters involved, but you got to wonder what the hell the cb was doing in the 90s with how well things were going and they didn't tap into the hype of the kids. But what's done is done.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 18/04/2015 09:45:42    1715206

royaldunne I think Queeney is a full time coach aswell, my nephew was at some underage summer camp last year and he was telling me that Queeney was there every day so I presume he is, but either way we need as many as we can get. As for what our county board was doing in the 90s = lapping up all the success and laughing all the way I'd imagine but never once looked over their shoulders to see what was going on around them. Maybe it's harsh but I still maintain we were producing top class players in spite of them rather than because of them, but I'm open to correction on that.

Joxer

You make fair points but you know yourself, parish politics is basically impossible to eradicate, it's been around since the year dot and isn't going away any time soon. Also I agree a lot of money is wasted on top class club facilities when that money could be best spent elsewhere, I can think of plenty of clubs around Meath with great facilities and to be fair it's nice to have them but look at our senior county teams, they're not up to much! Also previous Meath county boards invested a lot of their money in 'top class' training facilities down in Dunganny (where???), which has been going on for years and is only getting finished now (we think) but because of it our home ground (Pairc Tailteann) is in complete disrepair and again it takes money away from our underage.

AHP

Ye I'm never too interested in the 'Dublin gets loads of money' complaint, Dublin always had the biggest population and most potential to generate money to hire coaches etc that never bothered Meath, Kildare, Laois etc when we were doing well so there's no point in crying foul now. We just have to get our acts together the best way we can, if we in Meath could compete and beat Dublin regularly in the 80s and 90s there's no reason why we can't do it now, other counties outside of Leinster are well capable of doing it currently so there really is no excuse.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 18/04/2015 11:05:14    1715218