"There is no way this Kilkenny team should be going for three-in-a-row." - Ger Loughnane.

Dublin 'absolutely are beatable' - Jim McGuinness.

Were both Loughnane and McGuinness more or less making the same point?

In hurling while the current Kilkenny team are good, they don't have the quality of previous teams that made a push for 3-in-a-row. Loughnane was rightly trying to light the fire in the bellies of their opponents.

McGuinness meanwhile was more diplomatic but he was subtly making a similar point in football. There's an obsession with the capital. As McGuinness points out, they are absolutely beatable.

They are not better than they were in '05 to '09. Our crowd that won in '14 weren't near the quality and level of our '04 to '09 great team. They got to the final last year in defence of their title. Only great teams usually win back to backs. It's no surprise they came up short.

With the capital keeping their level from '05 and no great team since '09, there's every possibility they can achieve the back-to-back. They can only take on the opposition in front of them in fairness. We're hindered, and it's our own fault, by neglecting our youth in the 00's. There was no way our side should have been going for back-to-back titles last year. The same applies to the capital this year.

Our crowd will be under pressure. They know the currency on which they are judged. Mayo with many years of hurt, They've lost to the eventual champions 4 years in-a-row. Is it their year. In hurling, will it be Tipperary or Galway to stop a good but not great Kilkenny team?

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7811 - 06/08/2016 21:27:36    1896918

cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts: 5009 - 06/08/2016 21:40:29    1896940

Dubin are an absolute country mile better than they were between 05 and 09.

Anyone who says otherwise is living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

How many players from the Pillar Caffrey era teams (that haven't played a big part this decade) that would have gotten into the Dublin team since Jim Gavin has taken over? 1 or 2 at most. Ciaran Whelan (and to be honest after that I'm struggling).

uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 06/08/2016 21:48:59    1896949

uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 06/08/2016 21:51:40    1896953

To say that this Dublin team are no better than '05 is just staggeringly wrongheaded. I've got no idea what you're basing it on. And neither do you, I suspect

Gavvygavgav (Dublin) - Posts: 382 - 06/08/2016 21:55:33    1896958

Loughnane was being deliberately controversial.

McGuinness was trying to bring a bit of perspective when it comes to Dublin and all the hyperbole that was written about them.

Dublin, Kerry, Tyrone, Donegal and Mayo are as good a group of main contenders as I remember in my lifetime.

Dublin definitely the best but Kerry and Mayo will both give them a game.

For some Dublin were crowned champions after the league final, very premature.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4195 - 06/08/2016 22:03:59    1896961

McGuiness did not and never has said that Dublin are not a great team. He said they are beatable only because his job as a journalist and instinct as a manager makes him constantly think that way. He has gone in the record by saying that they are a great team BTW. Get your facts straight before putting words in someone else's mouth. The dubs rock. They are as good a team I have ever seen that includes anything from the 80s on. Good luck to them going forward and to hell with the begrudgers

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 06/08/2016 22:13:24    1896971

cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts: 5009 - 06/08/2016 22:16:20    1896976

Agree with Whammo.

There are more serious competitors now than in the 2000. very few people in Cork would have expected to win an All Ireland in 2007 (we were a division 2 side) yet somehow we ended up in a final.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 06/08/2016 22:30:08    1896990

They're starting to sound like Giles and Brady. Grumpy auld lads who begrudge the success of 'modern' footballers. The current Dublin team could go toe-to-toe with any of the great football teams. But that's not the point. The point is that it's absolute stupidity to compare teams from different eras. They'll never be a game between them. Praise what we have for now, the present, and analyse games between the current teams. Instead of talking tripe.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7326 - 06/08/2016 23:35:55    1897026

i think the current dublin side is exceptional but as a whole i do think its been a poor era...jim mcguinness brought a huge amount of positive things and excitement to the championship but he also brought negative things such as teams poorly imitating his style.....who are dublins main rival mayo?..a team lacking a top forward of note...its been an era where you are waiting for a strong team like maybe a tyrone to come but it hasnt happened sadly....maybe kerry will prove everybody wrong but i think this has been a poor era compared with kerry and tyrone 2003-2009 where u could also throw in armagh during that era and also cork for a year or 2 and a relatively exciting albeit tactically poor dublin side

alano12 (Dublin) - Posts: 2208 - 07/08/2016 01:35:15    1897086

Not sure about Dublin. They've always had natural and very gifted players it's just they're now the fittest and strongest aswell.

Killkenny on the other hand are definitely not the team they once were but besides tipp and Galway most other teams have gotten a lot worse. Waterford the only possible exception, they're definitely on the up.

But tipp and Galway definitely shouldn't have let Killkenny go for this 3 in a row. even in 2011 Galway bottled it.

I think it's mental more then anything for tipp and Galway. but hopefully someone beats them. Make the hurling interesting again

Jack_Goff (Meath) - Posts: 2920 - 07/08/2016 02:02:43    1897094

I don't see what's controversial about the McGuinness statement though. Of course Dublin are beatable. Everyone is. They are a great team and it will take something special to beat them on the day, but they are beatable. We can acknowledge their greatness while also being realistic.

ZeitChrist (UK) - Posts: 154 - 07/08/2016 02:11:18    1897099

Gavvygavgav (Dublin) - Posts: 382 - 07/08/2016 03:05:01    1897107

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Many seem aware that Kerry were not great in '11 but threw away the final as much as the capital seized the day.

Our '13 team was coming from an even lower base, the '13 semi-final was an incredible shootout. Again though I didn't see anything great in the capital and I was surprised Mayo didn't seize the '13 final.

I congratulated the winners after last year's final and I'm sure they wintered well. Our '14 team were not great. Back-to-back titles was never going to happen. There seemed to have been something wrong internally in Mayo. There was no other challenger of note. It is a poor era. We have to accept our failing in neglecting our youth in the 00's. Galway, Meath, Mayo, Tyrone and Cork also have to take responsibility for this poor era. Donegal have done their best in fairness. The capital can only take on the opponents in front of them.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7811 - 07/08/2016 09:53:51    1897163

uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 07/08/2016 10:24:22    1897182

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4195 - 07/08/2016 10:42:54    1897196

That's only oul waffle from lads who see everything as an opportunity to grab a headine. They are in the media now and that's the game. JmcG while doing a fine job for Donegal when he was in charge is in the paper everyday now with some other pearl of wisdom and none of it amounts to much at the end of the day.
Same with Loughnane,mad for attention and always trying to be controversial.

Dubh_linn (Dublin) - Posts: 2312 - 07/08/2016 10:45:51    1897199

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13703 - 07/08/2016 10:51:14    1897202

The comparison between of any Footballing eras mentioned is pointless to say the least. It's worse than comparing apples and oranges, it's comparing chicken to grapefruit.

Any, and I mean ANY of the current top five or six sides would OBLITERATE the pick of a 70's footballing team. They would just have no answer to the level of fitness, conditioning, or the tactical setup of a modern era team. The game would be over as a contest by half time, while the 70's lads had a fag to recover despondently in the tunnel. It's a fish-out-of-water scenario.

You could say of the same of any team up to about the mid-90's. In my opinion, team comparisons can only really be valid going back at most 15 years 2001 or so. Anything before that is just not at the same level. We have to judge what has gone before in the context of when it happened. The four in a row Kerry team - comparatively one of best teams ever to take to a Gaelic pitch, would struggle to make the quarters of this years championship.

Jaden (Dublin) - Posts: 139 - 07/08/2016 11:05:10    1897215