Gaa 2018

[NeverFeltBetter]

The new hurling format is working out well I think, mainly due to the obvious parity between the Munster teams: three draws in two weekends now. Tipp lucked out with the umpires today, but aren't as bad as people make out. Limerick are looking really strong, Cork too, Waterford and Cork really just a small bit behind them.

Leinster a slightly different story in that it's a three-team race with Galway's ascendancy, Wexford continuing good form under Davy and Kilkenny's very welcome regression. Dublin have fallen out of things badly and Offaly are dreadful: that being said, the disparity between relegation structures is dumb, and I doubt Offaly will wind up relegated.

Keeping an eye on the Joe McDonagh too, obviously: neither Westmeath or Carlow would be much worse than Offaly, but their should be a play-off.

I hear there is also a gaelic football tournament happening as well?

[BonnieShels]

I hear there is also a gaelic football tournament happening as well?

Not that you'd know from RTÉ's coverage

[Real ale Madrid]

No one wants to watch football. More hurling please.

[OwlsFan]

My interest has gone with the departure of Waterford

[OwlsFan]

Interesting stat I heard delivered by the commentator in the Ulster Final yesterday as I was surfing to see Arlene Foster stand to Amhrán na bhFiann. Only two counties in Ireland have never won a Provincial Title which are...

Other than the two Munster Finals, they by and large are non-events these days. Time for a rethink ?

[pineapple stu]

Fermanagh and Wicklow?

[NeverFeltBetter]

Not really sure how to fix the quality gap in both codes - tiering and non-tiering both appear equally ineffective. The top 8 counties in hurling are untouchable by those below, and the same is more or less the same in football.

[OwlsFan]

Fermanagh and Wicklow?

Correct. Did you know or did the internet help?

[pineapple stu]

Fermanagh I knew because I think I heard it on the radio.

Wicklow I knew because I go to a few Wicklow games and - well, it would be a shock if they ever won a provincial title ever, having seen them a few times at both codes.

[Real ale Madrid]

Football 11 teams left:

Super 8s

Group A
Kerry
Galway
Fermanagh / Kildare
Laois / Monaghan

Group B
Dublin
Donegal
Tyrone
Roscommon / Armagh

Hurling: 8 teams left.

Preliminary QF's - Carlow v Limerick , Westmeath v Wexford

Probable QF's

Loser Galway / Kilkenny v Limerick
Clare v Wexford

Probable SF's

Cork v L Gal/KK / Lim
W Gal / KK v Clare / Wex

[OwlsFan]

I know a disgruntled Mayo fan who claims Dublin have a huge advantage because they play nearly all their games at home. I suppose he has a point. If all Mayo's games including the finals were played in the West, they would have claimed the Sam Maguire by now.

[NeverFeltBetter]

There's a lot worth looking into in Dublin's case, but I've always thought the home game issue is a smokescreen for the real problems (though, did enjoy Galvin whining about why the GAA needed to put on concerts in Croke Park during the season, when his team had just played in front of 35K).

The issue is financial. The amount of funding Dublin GAA gets is so out of proportion to other counties. Of course that is reflective of population, but the production line that all these "GDA's" are responsible for feeds into a single team in Dublin's case. I read an interesting proposal while they were waltzing through Leinster this year, that the GAA should cut off funding for Dublin in five years, since by then it should be self-financing.

There are other things, but I'm not sure how much stock I would place in them, like the accusations that many of the team train full time and work fake jobs, or whatever, which is closer to conspiracy theory to me. The Super 8's concept was an interesting experiment, but hasn't worked like the hurling group stages, if anything it helps Dublin, but no matter what format you have it won't matter right now. Talk of splitting Dublin into two or three teams is a fantasy.

But we do have to at least consider the possibility that this Dub team is a chance occurrence that crops up in sport occasionally. Dublin don't show the same level of dominance in underage or club levels at the moment. I fully expect this senior Dublin team to win at least seven or eight in a row, but it will come to an end eventually. In the meantime, their dominance is a useful stick to beat the GAA into wider-scale reforms with.

[Real ale Madrid]

Dublin's Record this decade reads:

P70 W64 D2 L4

Under Jim Gavin it reads:

P46 W43 D2 L1

7 out of the last 10 All irelands if they win in a few weeks, 6 of the last 7 and of course: the mythical 5-in-a-row.
1 defeat in Leinster in 15 years!

Kilkenny in thier hurling Pomp never had stats like that, thier regression since points to that team as an outlier ( they are in another final this year you shout) - neither did Kerry in the late 70's early 80's. We are in a different zone now.

Staggering!

[NeverFeltBetter]

Maybe this can be a general GAA thread. Watched Limerick's win today, one of those games where Limerick were the better side pretty clearly, but it took 50 minutes for them to decide to really show it.

I did wonder watching though, does hurling have a problem with, well, how good players have gotten? They were scoring points from crazy distances and angles as a matter of course today, and scoring super quickly in succession: Limerick scored three singular points in 80 seconds at the start of the second half, and any free within 80 yards of goal was scorable. At one point does this start being more of a problem than a benefit?

[SkStu]

This is a great feature on BBC. GAA in Cambodia!!

https://www.bbc.com/sport/gaelic-games/65064562

[culloty82]

Maybe this can be a general GAA thread. Watched Limerick's win today, one of those games where Limerick were the better side pretty clearly, but it took 50 minutes for them to decide to really show it.

I did wonder watching though, does hurling have a problem with, well, how good players have gotten? They were scoring points from crazy distances and angles as a matter of course today, and scoring super quickly in succession: Limerick scored three singular points in 80 seconds at the start of the second half, and any free within 80 yards of goal was scorable. At one point does this start being more of a problem than a benefit?

Certainly an argument for adjusting the weight distribution in the sliotar, much as happened with the javelin previously in athletics. Excellent first weekend for the Football Championship, between New York getting their first ever win, against Leitrim, Clare overturning Cork, and Roscommon upsetting Mayo. Meath, Kildare and even Cork are all potentially in danger of being consigned to the Tailteann Cup this summer.