Read his article yesterday and I must say he is not following the flow and like some of the media and a lot of posters on here who share the view that nobody will beat Dublin this year.
Mind you as he does say they are beatable, the thing is will they be beat ?
He states that Mayo Kerry Donegal and possibly Tyrone have thewherewithal to beat Dublin this summer.
By his article he seems to think that Mayo are best placed but can they rise to the occasion.
He doesn't think that there will be much change in the provinces
Now he says a fair bit about Cork and indeed they are a team I think will surprise. Whatever they lack it's not the players as they , in my book have a lot of talent
Maybe they should listen to what T o Shea said about Dublin ( scumbag thing) and add a bit of steel to theirselves
He goes for Mayo inConnaught and Leinster is at the mercy of Dublin
In his opinion Donegal have the best pound for pound as regards players in Ulster
He is not too sure of Tyrone , my opinion of Tyrone is they will come through the back door as I doubt if they wil win in Celtic park on Sunday week. If they do win I'd expect them to make a massive challenge for Ulster.
Also what he said about Donegal and 2014 and Monaghan beating them in the Div2 final.
The mood in the county was very subdued with very little hope of success in the summer. But within the camp the mood was a lot different.
I hope we are in the same boat this year. So watch out Dublin

SamOnErrigal (Donegal) - Posts: 1427 - 11/05/2016 09:55:35    1853855

a big difference between "Dublin can be beaten" and Dublin will be beaten". I agree with the first one but for this year I'd be more than surprised if the second one happened. If Jimmy was still managing a county it could've possibly happened this year, unfortunately most counties just aren't anywhere near as organised as Dublin are at present.

As for Tyrone at Celtic Park, I can't see them losing that one. Derry have lost several key players and were less than impressive throughout the league and the vibe from the manager is that of frustration. Tyrone will have too much quality for them I think.

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2385 - 11/05/2016 10:17:23    1853865

Yea i fancy Tyrone to win Ulster this year.I was very impressed with them against Cavan.Their possession play was excellent - lots of good passing and rarely gave the ball away cheaply.Their defensive set up is very hard to breach.Cavan didn't look like scoring a goal.Micky has another nice looking Tyrone team and i think there could be an All Ire in them over the next few years.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 11/05/2016 10:27:50    1853869

Dublin 'absolutely are beatable' - Jim McGuinness

Of course they are.

Only fools would say otherwise.

Most media I've seen are saying the exact same as Jimmy though. Dublin are more vulnerable this year than last year in my opinion having lost two standout defenders.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13707 - 11/05/2016 10:38:38    1853875

Exactly mes.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 11/05/2016 10:41:40    1853879

of course we are!!!! Mayo had us bet last year and bottled it
Dublin could be beaten on a given day by either of Mayo or Kerry
No disrespect to Donegal or Tyrone but I dont think they could beat us, but, on a given day, could we get our arses handed to us by Kerry or in particular, Mayo?
Yes, we absolutely could. And odds of 5/4, in my opinion are ludicrous.

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 11/05/2016 10:57:29    1853895

Reports that Meath beat Donegal last week putting 5 goals past them in the process. Meath for Leinster

11jm11 (Kildare) - Posts: 365 - 11/05/2016 10:57:56    1853896

He said last year that he thought we were unbeatable I wonder what's changed his mind this year? Do posters honestly believe that players like Michael Murphy or Aidan O Shea or James o Donoghue believe that Dublin are unbeatable? Not at all.

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts:7407 - 11/05/2016 10:24:27 1853867

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts: 9926 - 11/05/2016 11:12:19    1853902

Where did u see that report ; Were you reading the Funny Pages?

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 11/05/2016 11:17:00    1853906

A case of stating the obvious IMO.
Down two of the best players in the country and going for back to back titles. If anything I think it will be extremely difficult to win Sam this year.
Jim isn't exactly Nostradamus on this one.

Dubh_linn (Dublin) - Posts: 2312 - 11/05/2016 11:26:12    1853907

On any given day.....any team are beatable. Dublin are currently the team to beat and put up on a perch (rightly so).
Few factor....the loss of O'Carroll and Jack McCaffrey may be a factor...nobody will know until Dublin meet a formidable team in August.
When you are number 1, everyone raises their game against you and the media and focus is all on you...it's tough. I am not saying this gets to an experienced and excellent team like Dublin but in the white heat of battle....and I go back to any given day...something can happen.

I believe we (Mayo) are best equipped to give Dublin a game and possible beat them (no doubt this will be re-posed if I am wrong).

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11230 - 11/05/2016 11:37:25    1853914

yew tree
your bang on. I agree 100%
If anyone beats us this year, I would fancy it to be, and like it to be Mayo
Without doubt ye could beat Dublin and ye are in the strongest position to

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 11/05/2016 11:41:53    1853916

The reality is quite simple -

Dublin will win Leinster.

A tough quarter final draw means Dublin have to turn up and perform well in 3 consecutive games (4 if Kildare give them their fill of it in Leinster which is possible). That's not easy to do! I would say they are more likely to do it than say Mayo, but still, there's every chance they can be caught on the hop.

Remember,
- only one team has done back-to-back in the last 25 years!
- Dublin have won 3 of the last 5 All-Ireland's and EACH time, were run to the pin of their collar (2 1-point wins in the final and a replayed semi-final, i.e. the kick of a ball from losing in each of the 3 years)
- Dublin have lost the player of the year and their full-back
- It's sport. . .anything can happen, any given Sunday!

cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts: 5012 - 11/05/2016 11:42:16    1853917

Widely reported cuederocket in these parts

11jm11 (Kildare) - Posts: 365 - 11/05/2016 11:42:40    1853918

The article was in the Irish Times...

Pericles (Mayo) - Posts: 2521 - 11/05/2016 11:56:27    1853929

Where did u see that report ; Were you reading the Funny Pages?

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts:3934 - 11/05/2016 11:17:00

It was one of these "behind closed doors" games that I fail to see the point of in all honesty.

Donegal were missing a lot of players through injury & I must admit to feeling a bit downbeat about our chances in Ulster this year. For whatever reason we are just not firing on all cylinders & I have a feeling that 2017 will see a clean sweep of the squad manager included.

MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 11/05/2016 11:57:59    1853932

Meath did beat donegal in a recent challenge, and did score 5 goals.

Good read, but a bit strange too. I think that it is easy to say that dublin could be beaten, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they will be. It is having the best of both worlds. But ultimately, it is probably the correct assessment. On paper, there are about 5 teams in the country that can beat each other from august on. There may be one surprise before august, but the reality is that the very top teams are not going to be beaten until they play each other and put each other out.

I found it most strange that the article spent so much time on cork, perhaps because they are the single biggest enigma in the gaa. I don't think that they will do a tap this year for the simple reason that they got relegated to division 2 so morale is at a massive low ebb down there.

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 11/05/2016 12:04:28    1853934

Sound lads : putting five goals past Donegal is no mean feat.Wonder had both teams fielded strong line-ups?Yes,no doubt Meath have some quality.Outside of Dublin i would make them best placed to win Leinster.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 11/05/2016 12:07:25    1853936

I read Jim's article as I usually do as I have great respect for what he achieved and the message I got from it is that unless the likes of Mayo,Donegal, Tyrone (main 3 contenders to worry Dublin) throw up something completely different and unexpected against Dublin then they have no chance beating them straight up.

Now unpredictability is great, but the problem is for it to work those teams won't be able to show those tactics in any prior game as Dublin will have people in the stands watching every game and tracking every minute adjustment and thus be ready for it if they meet that particular side later on.

Which means of course any new tactics or adjustments won't have a test run in a competitive match environment as in-house games won't give an accurate gauge as to their effectiveness. And if they don't work it's very hard to go back to Plan A and try and chase this juggernaut down.

Its a real Catch 22 scenario for managements to deal with for sure

KYTitletown (Kerry) - Posts: 816 - 11/05/2016 12:33:44    1853952

I should also add on my any given day speech that Mayo could also be caught out on a given day in Connacht. We should get over London (I still remember 2011 but this Mayo team is alot different to that one that was nearly caught). Then we have Galway at home and get over that a home Connacht final against most likely Roscommon. At this point in time I see no reason why we can't retain a 6th Connacht title on the bounce....prove me wrong fellow Connacht teams....

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11230 - 11/05/2016 12:35:10    1853955