Ulster Senior Football Championship 2020

[M18]

Dublin really really good. Never lose ball and rarely hit wides

I think that when county football is so uncompetitive we should be promoting the club game more.

eventually a team will challenge this Dublin team, or they will all retire with heavy pockets

until that point I think the promotion of the sport would be better if we highlighted club games instead of 20 point wins
Dublin need more money for more population and will always have the population. But they’ve gone through barren times as well

 

[niall1980]

Dublin are fantastic. Best team I’ve ever seen and they just get better and better. However, as Bernard brogan claimed, they are not a once in a generation team. They have a conveyor belt of talent and replace stars with stars. I don’t see an end to their dominance for quite some time

 

[bcb1]

Dublin are fantastic. Best team I’ve ever seen and they just get better and better. However, as Bernard brogan claimed, they are not a once in a generation team. They have a conveyor belt of talent and replace stars with stars. I don’t see an end to their dominance for quite some time

Absolutely. They will dominate for the foreseeable future. This is not because of a group of players, this is because of a system within the county that is creating excellence and the way to do this has to be funded. @Big Jim the money that is invested in the actual senior team is not the key money. The money that is invested in the schools, the underage systems and the development squads is what is making this happen. By the time they get to the senior squad you have a carbon copy player attuned to how to play the game who will seamlessly slot into the senior team. 2-3 every year into the squad, in the team. There are generational players that will be hard to replace, Cluxton, Fenton and Kilkenny being a few, but they don’t need to be like for like as the overall quality is so strong and the strength of the group far outweighs the individual strength.

We missed a trick in Armagh in 2002 as we could have built a great system. We lost that for a variety of reasons and now we will be playing catch up for the next while.

 

[Throwball]

Back door, super 8, open draw, knockout football. The choice of which system is used for championship doesnt seem to matter at the minute. Dublin win and it's getting boring. Armagh had the same problem for quite a while. The difference though is Cross didnt - and dont - have a population and enormous financial advantage. The GAA have created a monster and football is in serious trouble. A competitive final will not change that. Tinkering with championship formats will not change that. As an example my wife says I will watch any gaelic match. For the most part she is right. Last night i watched the soccer.

 

[niall1980]

Back door, super 8, open draw, knockout football. The choice of which system is used for championship doesnt seem to matter at the minute. Dublin win and it's getting boring. Armagh had the same problem for quite a while. The difference though is Cross didnt - and dont - have a population and enormous financial advantage. The GAA have created a monster and football is in serious trouble. A competitive final will not change that. Tinkering with championship formats will not change that. As an example my wife says I will watch any gaelic match. For the most part she is right. Last night i watched the soccer.

Last night I turned the game off with 15 mins to go. I’ve never done that before. Not a slight on either team, it was just boring. Not even the majesty of the Dubs football could make me watch to the end. At the moment I prefer hurling

 

[Too Long Ref]

The money that is invested in the schools, the underage systems and the development squads is what is making this happen

Totally agree with BCB1.

I would question what do we do with the money we get in Armagh and are we getting value for the money we are spending.

Do we get enough out of the schools coaching? Do we need to invest a lot more here? Is the schools coaching creating any value?

The spending on the development squads - are we getting enough of a return? Does there need a bigger spend to get real value or could the money we do spend be used better somewhere else?

Could we do more to improve club coaching? Could money be used here? What does our county contribute here?

What way is our centre of football going in Portadown? Will this add value? When will it be finished?

What is our Games Manager (Denis Hollywood) role? Are we getting enough value in this role at underage or schools?

I know I have posted a lot of questions but my gut feeling is that we are not using the money we do get from Croke Park well enough and are not using some of the other money we generate from sponsors, fundraising etc on things that could make a long term difference.

 

[PatMustard]

I think the whole country is switching off to be honest, not just @niall1980 and @Throwball

I stopped watching the Meath match at HT, although I did watch all last night. No, I don’t know why either.

I’ll probably watch the final. Mayo (if they beat Tipp) might put it up to them more. I’m really hoping Mayo can win Sam after so long but part of me wants a stuffing session. No disrespect to Mayo, but only more massive Dublin wins will make people wake up and say, this can’t go on. We really have to do something here.

 

[ShiftYa]

Source - Irish Mirror

Amount given to each county based on number or registered players (2007-2018)
Dublin €270.70 per player
Mayo €22.30
Tyrone €21
Kerry €19

2019 Coaching Grants from Croke Park for this year's All-Ireland semi-finalists
Dublin €1,337,620 = €652.82 each for 2,049 registered youth teams (RYT)
Cavan £183,006 = €646.65 each for 283 RYTs
Mayo €168,219 =£320.41 each for 525 RYTs
Tipperary €226,800 =€214,97 each for 1,005 RYTs
GAA funding between 2007 and 2019. Dublin received over 35% of the €54.6m allocated to counties
1 Dublin €19.2m
2 Cork €2.4m
3 Tyrone €828,716

Not to mention Dublin can generate far more money than any other county internally and through sponsorship deal, the question has to be asked is this a level playing field?

 

[JoeH]

There has been an ongoing debate within this county about how teams should prepare

Years ago brolly and his cohorts were writing about the county team training 6 times a week

Clubs are back training now and that's without certainty of what's happening next year.
There is still this element - mostly of a certain age group - who don't agree with gyms, teams should train once or twice a year and turn up at matches with just boots, socks and shorts

Sport has moved on so must they

I think the biggest issue in our county is the quality of training our young players are getting
When a young player reaches 14yrs of age, or there abouts, they should be able to accurately kick with both feet, handpass to the chest with both hands, field a ball, be able to shoot and knows how to tackle properly

Most club games I've seen the ability of players to do the above under pressure is shockingly poor
We now reward catching a ball with a free - that's how poor technically we've got
When someone makes a kick pass that reaches its recipient we hear the claims of great kick etc
These are part of our game.
Senior coaches should not have to be coaching the basic skills - this is what should happen at underage.
Yes you need to be fit and gym work is important but you need to be able to play under pressure, be able to play the ball and play the game

The difference last night between Dublin and Cavan was very simple - the skill level was far superior from Dublin. They make it look simple but their skill level is just superb.
With the skill level comes the application through a game plan and fitness
Cavan looked as fit as Dublin - that's something that can be fixed easily

Clubs in our county need to stop "coaches" playing sweeper systems at u12 games
Coaching plans need to be implemented
Coaching seminars need to be attended
Development squads improved
There are a few clubs who don't believe in sending their players to development squads - that needs to stop
The county team like the adult club team is the shop window
We all must work together to up skill all our players
Fitness, gym work, rehab work all comes with that

 

[niall1980]

M

I think the whole country is switching off to be honest, not just @niall1980 and @Throwball

I stopped watching the Meath match at HT, although I did watch all last night. No, I don’t know why either.

I’ll probably watch the final. Mayo (if they beat Tipp) might put it up to them more. I’m really hoping Mayo can win Sam after so long but part of me wants a stuffing session. No disrespect to Mayo, but only more massive Dublin wins will make people wake up and say, this can’t go on. We really have to do something here.

If Mayo win Sam it will top everything else that 2020 has thrown at us

 

[gael_force_orchard]

I could be wrong but the Mayo team this year isn't a patch on the last 5 or 6 years. They are on the decline. I still think that they will have a comfortbale 4 or 5 point win today, but they will be beaten by 2 or 3 points in the final. Its such a foregone conclusion that its almost not worth watching. Be thankful we still have the club game.

 

[PatMustard]

I could be wrong but the Mayo team this year isn't a patch on the last 5 or 6 years. They are on the decline. I still think that they will have a comfortbale 4 or 5 point win today, but they will be beaten by 2 or 3 points in the final. Its such a foregone conclusion that its almost not worth watching. Be thankful we still have the club game.

I think you’re right. Mayo are a couple of years past challenging Dublin now.

If Mayo win today, Dublin will win the final by at least 8 points. Or as much as 20 points.

 

[gael_force_orchard]

I think you’re right. Mayo are a couple of years past challenging Dublin now.

If Mayo win today, Dublin will win the final by at least 8 points. Or as much as 20 points.

I dont think the final will be a complete whitewash. Dublin have only steamrolled one team in a final in thos run and that was Tyrone. That was as big a 6 point mauling as you will see. Take out the first 10 mins and it was a foregone conclusion. Other than that they have done enough in finals. Hence why i think Mayo can keep it respectable. Tipp cant though.

 

[ragingbull]

Tipperary have collapsed

 

[Kem]

The semis are a vidication of the back door. In a normal year the likes of Kerry Tyrone or Donegal would be around at this stage and games would be competitive. Knock out is romantic but not good for the game as a whole.

 

[ShiftYa]

There has been a good bit of discussion on the forum this year about the merits of having divisional teams compete in a club senior championship, with the introduction of tier 2 football around the corner is there a case to be made for having divisional teams compete in inter-county football?

 

[ragingbull]

Mayo's defence is shit plus Killian O'Connor won't have it his own way against the mighty Dubs

 

[JoeH]

There has been a good bit of discussion on the forum this year about the merits of having divisional teams compete in a club senior championship, with the introduction of tier 2 football around the corner is there a case to be made for having divisional teams compete in inter-county football?

Yes there is but it won't be 2021
Problem is at the moment no one seems to know what's happening in 2021, club or county first.

Nothing wrong with taking a look at the merits of that idea.
It may mean junior and intermediate championships played early in the season to allow the teams to prepare for senior.
Certainly room for 4-8 teams to enter senior championship

 

[POINTMAN]

Anyone else notice (and get annoyed with) Ciaran Whelan sniffling when the other analysts were talking?
Could they not have turned of his microphone?

 

[PatMustard]

There has been a good bit of discussion on the forum this year about the merits of having divisional teams compete in a club senior championship, with the introduction of tier 2 football around the corner is there a case to be made for having divisional teams compete in inter-county football?

Are you suggesting amalgamated teams like Fer-gal and Cava-nagh enter the championship?