NYC, I wouldn't pay too much attention to the league. The Cork performance last Sunday bore no resemblance to earlier performances & Kerry are cute hoors at the worst of times. Take nothing for granted.

As for Donegal's scoring rate, it is true that they struggle to score against other defensive teams. Against teams who come at them they are a completely different proposition & Dublin will do just that. I agree that an injury to Murphy would be bad news for Donegal but you could say the same for Connolly, David Moran, Aidan O'Shea & others.

You may well be right & Dublin may well sweep all before them but I think there are still enough potential hiccups along the way to keep things interesting & not put chez Muckrosshead on the line.

MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 09/07/2015 16:51:02    1750607

if dublin lose connolly or brogan or whoever, they have so many ready made replacements. donegal do not.

my point is if dublin meet donegal or kerry, they will be priced around 1/5. in my eyes mayo or cork have absolutly no hope against dublin, therefore 11/10 is a big price on beating donegal and/or kerry.

NYCcavanman (USA) - Posts: 204 - 09/07/2015 17:21:33    1750629

Nyccavanman, I really hope we get to play Dublin especially at odds of 5/1 as you suggest, not as attractive as last years at 10/1 but I would still be having loads of it at 5/1

RD, seems to know as much about Dublin football as he does Meath football as his predictions for both teams in the last few years have crashed and burned...... Enjoy the trip to Omagh in any case....

ben1977 (Donegal) - Posts: 364 - 09/07/2015 18:04:12    1750650

NYCcavanman
County: USA
Posts: 30

1750629
if dublin lose connolly or brogan or whoever, they have so many ready made replacements. donegal do not.

Dublin have nobody on the subs bench remotely close to Connolly. He is, in my view, the best player of his type in Ireland & I would give a fortune to have him in a Donegal shirt. When the going gets tough, as it will, Dublin will look to Connolly to lead the attack.

He was magnificent in the semi last year. When the Brogans, McManaman, O'Gara and the rest of them disappeared from view, Connolly single handedly kept Dublin in the game.

A priceless & irreplaceable player.

MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 09/07/2015 20:14:20    1750693

On what basis have Mayo no hope against Dublin. 2012 beat them, 2013 lost to them by 1 point.

peile (Mayo) - Posts: 180 - 09/07/2015 20:22:22    1750696

I didn't say on the bench. you're right he is their best forward but look at all of their forwards, brogans, kilkenny, flynn, rock, even andrews, costello, mcmanaman. outside of murphy and mcbrearty i fear donegal have no attacking threat. Ok Oreilly and mcniallais have done well but the depth dublin have is outrageous. to be fair kerry have it too with gooch, osullivan and walsh on the bench sunday.

NYCcavanman (USA) - Posts: 204 - 09/07/2015 20:22:27    1750697

Agree Muckross ; it's an insult to Dublin GAA to claim that there are suitable replacements for Connolly : there is not .

TheRightStuff (Donegal) - Posts: 1688 - 09/07/2015 21:05:31    1750718

Mayo ,Donegal or Kerry could beat Dublin if they are on their game. Equally Dublin could beat either of those 3 if focussed and playing well. Dublin or Kerry mightnt be as affected if a forward gets injured, but really after that its who has the best 15 on the pitch in the important game that matters. Donegal dont need anyone to replace Murphy or mc Brearty because they will start and finish games. Last 5 years has shown that no team has stood head and shoulders above anyone. Early matches in championship every year reveal very little as to who will get their hands on Sam. Depending on draw its from last 8 onwards that counts. its going to be who has their influential players fit and in good form with a good game plan on the day who will win .
So its as they say its still all to play for.

AthCliath (Dublin) - Posts: 4347 - 09/07/2015 21:06:28    1750720

Terrible odds really, dublin are on par with kerry mayo and donegal, no way are they that far ahead of them! Since 2011, from the semi final stage on all of the dublin games could have gone either way! The dubs have not played a competitive championship game since donegal last year and the last time they won a competitive match in the championship was 2013! No disrespect to their other opponents in between then and now but the leinster championship games can't really carry any weight!

as_ky (Kerry) - Posts: 535 - 09/07/2015 21:29:48    1750742

Forget about Mayo please. If mayo played kildare, there would be 5 points in it.Dublin have these games finished after 10 minutes. Imagine what dublin would have done to galway....

i know i probably sound like a dubs fan here and i completely am not! but i think this year they mean business and are going to win it with a bit to spare. their panel is ridiculous.

NYCcavanman (USA) - Posts: 204 - 09/07/2015 21:46:22    1750758

You can't judge Dublin until they get out of Leinster. They haven't been tested yet and this won't change against Westmeath (who are not even in the top 12 teams in the country).

pdempsey (Mayo) - Posts: 1313 - 10/07/2015 08:16:56    1750778

Very poor value at 11/10 and just look at the results over the last four years I went over all this before, 2011 semi --- beat Donegal by 2, won the final against Kerry by 1
2012 --- lost semi to Mayo.
2013 beat Kerry in the semi by 7 points with the game tied after 68/69 minutes , were probably the better team but still struggled for a big part of the game Then beat Mayo in the Final by I point
Again only for bad defending plus B Brogan Dublin might not have won Some of their young forwards IMO were very poor in that AI , it took the old timer B B to pull the game outa the fire
We all know what happened last year. Plus where was this mighty bench last year when Dublin were in trouble against Donegal. ?
Never thought I'd read this year about how Dublin have improved, especially the way people were talking this time last year. This time last year Dublin were unstoppable , going to win SO MANY IN A ROW or so a lot of people thought
But have Dublin improved from last year , the quarter final might tell us but this year's championship so far tells us nothing. But then again there are not many there to beat them
If we ( Donegal ) get to play them can we beat them ?? Hard to know as it will be a tough ask for Donegal to get to the AI final as that is the most likely stage we'd meet them
Mayo coul beat them in the semi if they meet, I don't think Cork would beat them and The Gooch was the man who kept Kerry in the game in the 2013 semi final and I doubt if he would have the same influence this year. So for me , if we won Ulster we could beat Dublin , otherwise Mayo are the only team I can see beating them But they won't pick Sam up that handy , they will defiantly get tested once if not twice.

SamOnErrigal (Donegal) - Posts: 1427 - 10/07/2015 09:53:30    1750821

NYCcavanman
County: USA
Posts: 32

1750758
Forget about Mayo please. If mayo played kildare, there would be 5 points in it.Dublin have these games finished after 10 minutes. Imagine what dublin would have done to galway....

i know i probably sound like a dubs fan here and i completely am not! but i think this year they mean business and are going to win it with a bit to spare. their panel is ridiculous.


We all know that Dublin destroy average teams where other top teams dont do that, this has been proven over the last number of years. But on each of these occasions when Dublin have gone on to the next game against Kerry, Donegal or Mayo the annihilation in the previous round counts for nothing. Dublin having beaten Kildare after 10 mins Vs Mayo beating them by 5 points means what exactly? Both teams won and progressed to the next round. You cannot read anything into the Dubs performances against the weaker or average teams.

For what its worth I think it is a level playing field between Dublin and Donegal this year, but those odds would not entice me to place a tenner on them!! Mayo are not as strong as previous years, and I feel Kerry have too many (potential) weaknesses. The advantage Donegal may have is that they have been tested before meeting the Dubs, so it may depend on the draw and where they meet eachother. If Dublin can avoid Donegal until semi or final then they may have a good chance.

sligoNo1 (Sligo) - Posts: 45 - 10/07/2015 09:53:46    1750824

SamOnErrigal
County: Donegal
Posts: 739

1750821 Very poor value at 11/10 and just look at the results over the last four years I went over all this before, 2011 semi --- beat Donegal by 2, won the final against Kerry by 1
2012 --- lost semi to Mayo.
2013 beat Kerry in the semi by 7 points with the game tied after 68/69 minutes , were probably the better team but still struggled for a big part of the game Then beat Mayo in the Final by I point
Again only for bad defending plus B Brogan Dublin might not have won Some of their young forwards IMO were very poor in that AI , it took the old timer B B to pull the game outa the fire
We all know what happened last year. Plus where was this mighty bench last year when Dublin were in trouble against Donegal. ?
Never thought I'd read this year about how Dublin have improved, especially the way people were talking this time last year. This time last year Dublin were unstoppable , going to win SO MANY IN A ROW or so a lot of people thought
But have Dublin improved from last year , the quarter final might tell us but this year's championship so far tells us nothing. But then again there are not many there to beat them
If we ( Donegal ) get to play them can we beat them ?? Hard to know as it will be a tough ask for Donegal to get to the AI final as that is the most likely stage we'd meet them
Mayo coul beat them in the semi if they meet, I don't think Cork would beat them and The Gooch was the man who kept Kerry in the game in the 2013 semi final and I doubt if he would have the same influence this year. So for me , if we won Ulster we could beat Dublin , otherwise Mayo are the only team I can see beating them But they won't pick Sam up that handy , they will defiantly get tested once if not twice.

+1 totally agree

ConnollyDub (Dublin) - Posts: 2007 - 10/07/2015 09:57:30    1750828

Just because mayo would beat kildare by 5 points does not mean that they would struggle against dublin. You cant compare results, especially imaginary scenarios like this.

What you can look at is recent form. Mayo were thrashed in the league at home by dublin. But they won the previous year i think. They also beat dublin in 2012 and lost the final narrowly in 2013 to them. So there is nothing really in it between the 2. I think that mayo are a very strong team and impossible to beat when they click. Unfortunately not in finals, but anything up to it, and they meet dublin, they will be an awful team to try and get passed.

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 10/07/2015 11:01:53    1750880

Posters any of the top 4/5 can beat each other on any given day now is there much point in going around in circles about old results and why Dublin can be beaten by the other 4?

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts: 9926 - 10/07/2015 11:15:55    1750890

Its a virtual certainty

Donegal are very reliant on Murphy, if he is kept relatively quiet they dont have around him to pick up the slack. Also they dont have a strong bench only used 20 players from start of league till now.

Mayo too reliant on COC up and AOS as well a dodgy FB line

Cork psychologically damaged by the last massive few defeats to them.

Kerry no chance, we saw last Sunday that there will be no AI repeat. HF Line no creativity, lack of pace in the middle sector and extremely dodgy FB line lack of depth also a factor.


The thing with the blue juggernaut is they could lose 5/6 players to injury and they wouldn't even blink whereas if any of the other 'contenders' lose 1 critical player (just see how poor Kerry are without Moran - last Sunday) and the ship will inevitably go down.

KYTitletown (Kerry) - Posts: 816 - 10/07/2015 13:16:05    1750990

2012, 2013 and 2014 the team the beat Mayo won the All Ireland. Won't be any different this year.

Mayo V Dublin semi will be where Dublin will be stopped. If not, they wont be beaten in the final.

tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1109 - 10/07/2015 13:16:59    1750991

Dublin are miles ahead now but they could retain their current level without improving further and the likes of kerry, Cork, donegal and mayo could get closer to them and peak by the time the semi's roll around.

Like donegal last year or mayo in 2012.

Jack_Goff (Meath) - Posts: 2920 - 10/07/2015 15:25:52    1751084

TheRightStuff
County: Donegal
Posts: 753

1750718
Agree Muckross ; it's an insult to Dublin GAA to claim that there are suitable replacements for Connolly : there is not .

----
Agree. In fact no suitable replacement in the country I would say. Best half-forward, if not forward, in the game. Akin to Donegal losing Murphy I would say. That Dublin half-forward line is tasty though, especially with Alan chomping at the bit to get in there.

Joxer (Dublin) - Posts: 4700 - 10/07/2015 19:21:48    1751203