I agree that Dublin should be taken out of croke park more regularly as it is the national stadium of the gaa and not a county ground. However they are the best team in the country and play an attractive brand of football to go with it. I think it's shameful that the gaa are actually considering excluding div 4 teams from the all Ireland series. Being a supporter of a so called weaker county and knowing some of the players opinions this is not the answer to make games and teams more competitive in my opinion. All this will do is cause club players within these counties to be disinterested in playing for their county. The qualifiers were brought in originally to bring on these counties yet it actually gives the competitive sides another crack of the whip if they are caught on the hop. Div 1 and 2 sides should be fixed away against div 3 or 4 sides. This makes it competitive. There are numerous other options open to the gaa to try first before they resign the weaker counties to the scrap heap with proposals like this. However these options could result in a small loss of revenue!!

Longfordbaz (Longford) - Posts:2 - 17/01/2016 17:55:13 1817179i

Well done today ,great result for ye.You're on the money about division 3/4 fixtures also , no argument there and definitely a far better option.

Dubh_linn (Dublin) - Posts: 2312 - 17/01/2016 19:29:22    1817226

Royaldunne your Basing this all on one o byrne cup game in January when Gavin said they only had one training session done before the dcu match and then this week spent the week in the gym.
longford had the very same performance against us in 2008 in Dublin and it took two injury time jayo Sherlock goals to somehow manage to pull off a win for us that night. The same malarkey was being sprouted last year when we lost our first two league games away to cork and Kerry then we went to mayor and hammered them and went to Monaghan who had some big home records and we hammered them too. Funny enough though we played them one week only later in croker and only beat them by a solitary point. I have heard it all before man

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 17/01/2016 20:00:38    1817234

Fair play to Longford, they have always been hard to beat on their own patch and their victory today is a great moral booster for them. Doesn't matter that it's the O'Byrne Cup, doesn't matter that it's January, doesn't matter that the Dibs started with 7 of the All Ireland team, a win over the Dubs at any time of year in any shape or form is always a good win. Longford will be a big test for Meath, they have a decent record against us at underage and club level so they won't fear a trip to Navan whatsoever.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 17/01/2016 20:15:12    1817240

Gavin Out.

Well done Longford though! Fair play!

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13718 - 17/01/2016 20:19:16    1817242

Great win for Longford.Well done to them.Time for us Dubs to turn our minds to retaining our National League title now.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 17/01/2016 20:43:41    1817251

I would expect Longford to beat Meath.

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 17/01/2016 21:01:45    1817259

Congratulations to Longford deserving winners

theduke66 (Dublin) - Posts: 334 - 17/01/2016 21:07:39    1817261

Huge boost for Longford, well done. Nice to beat the champs any time of year.

Brolly (Monaghan) - Posts: 4472 - 18/01/2016 08:43:03    1817271

Yeah I know its done to death, but even this year they fixed it for Nolan park rather than portlaoise , as I said my problem is with the GAA not Dublin, dubs play where they told to play.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 18/01/2016 09:08:36    1817275

On a side note, I would make Longford fav to win, Meath are still very hit and miss, and without Gillespie, McEntee and the rathoath lads they are at a disadvantage. I expect it to be close but Longford to edge it out, their senior champion have dismissed ours with was over last few years including last.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 18/01/2016 09:26:33    1817280

Fair play Longford. Always great to beat the AI champions.

On a side note regarding the ground for the championship opener it's not the dubs fault. Blame lies with Leinster Council.

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 18/01/2016 10:35:41    1817295

The ROC gone and now this? The Dubs are on a slippery slope I'm telling ya ;)

I agree about Dublin traveling away to provincial towns in Leinster. Maybe in the last decade or so it was a financial necessity for the GAA to keep the Dubs playing in Croker. But with the organisation being in rude financial health now it makes sense to shake things up a bit. The pro's definitely outweigh the cons for me. Just off the top of my head:

- competition - as others have mentioned, Dublin will most likely still prevail but the margins of their victories wouldn't be so eye-watering. On a tighter pitch, in front of a vociferous home crowd, surely the scorelines we have become accustomed to will become a thing of the past.

- provincial towns get a great boost. The Dublin fans take a lot of unwarranted stick, but in fairness they do travel in numbers and they would bring a lot of noise and buzz. I could only imagine the craic in Clones on a hot July day with the Dubs supporters in town. I'd imagine it would be similar down the country.

- It actually could be beneficial for the Dublin players also. Instead of the usual cakewalks, they might a few stiffer tests before the All Ireland series begins in August.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9155 - 18/01/2016 10:54:55    1817302

Yep that's it lockjaw. And in fairness vast majority of dubs want to travel, it would be healthy all around, yes money wouldn't be as much, but the boost to towns like portlaoise tullamore etc would be immense, now I know also it is the Leinster council fault for venue setting, but its time hq put its foot down, the Leinster championship will become a thing of the past unless Dublin are taken out of croke park. And Dublin supporters know this and fair play the want to be moved, as does the players themselves.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 18/01/2016 11:01:36    1817303

Was there much of a crowd at this?

dahayeser (Cork) - Posts: 338 - 18/01/2016 13:44:58    1817366

4 thousand was attendance dahayser
apparantly split 50 50 according to eugene mcgee

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 18/01/2016 16:52:45    1817437

Well done Longford savage win. Someone wake me up when it's the August bank holiday weekend YAWN.

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts: 9926 - 19/01/2016 10:48:12    1817557

Well done Longford savage win. Someone wake me up when it's the August bank holiday weekend YAWN.

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts:6964 - 19/01/2016 10:48:12 181755

Yeh maybe by then the ROC might have done a Kilkenny and fly back to the nest :)
But let's not be disrespectful of a very good day for Longford football.

KerryKillers (Dublin) - Posts: 711 - 19/01/2016 12:48:43    1817612

I wasn't being disrespectful to Longford.

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts: 9926 - 20/01/2016 12:21:48    1817906

Fair enough clondalkin

KerryKillers (Dublin) - Posts: 711 - 20/01/2016 16:53:44    1818019

Time to split Longford in two and remove their funding. It's the only sensible way of dealing with this "success".

Donate their funding to Mayo.

JayP (Dublin) - Posts: 1772 - 20/01/2016 17:14:40    1818038