For The Good Of Football, I Hope Dublin Don’t Win

The GAA are trying to make changes and that has to be acknowledged. Sometimes they can be a bit idle. The game was getting boring so some kind of change had to be made.

Changes In The System
The Super 8s is a step forward but it still needs a little bit of work. I do agree with the tiered Championship and I know there’s lesser teams that feel like they’re losing out not playing in the top division but if you give them a window of two years to get themselves in order, it’s their own fault if they don’t get into the top division.

These one-sided matches are no good for football and you can see by the attendances at the games that it’s not working for the crowds. A two-tier playing system would be ideal.

In the Super 8s I think there has to be an advantage for the winner of the provincial championships because really everyone gets a home tie, a neutral venue tie and an away tie so what is the advantage of winning your provincial championship? There is none.

Croke Park needs to be done away with as a neutral venue. There’s only a good atmosphere when the stadium is packed. A half-full stadium doesn’t create a buzz. Croke Park should be a place that you have to earn the right to play in and in turn it will feel more precious when you do get to play there.

Diarmuid & The Dubs
Looking at Dublin so far, you can see small chinks in their armour. Cork put them to it in the last ten minutes of the game last week. But then the news came out straight after the game that Jim Gavin had brought Diarmuid Connolly back into training. The rest of the teams get a glimmer of hope and then that news emerges and puts everyone in a downer. It makes other sides feel that again, there is no chance and that Dublin will ghost home.

The other side of it is, it can go one or two ways. He could upset the rest of the panel or he could make the rest of the team step up and keep them on their toes.

For the good of football, you’d hope that Dublin don’t win it,

…but at this stage, I can see no other outcome.

We don’t actually know what Connolly is going to bring. Obviously, Jim Gavin has seen him playing for his club and a few trial matches, but you’d have to imagine he has the X Factor. Don’t forget he is 32 years old and once you hit the 30 mark in GAA, people start talking about you retiring. That’s not to say that Jim Gavin won’t use him.

The last time he was there, he only got a few minutes on the field for the whole championship. Less than three weeks ago, Connolly was going to America to play football and now he’s stuck in the middle of the greatest GAA team ever. How’s he going to react? If he comes on, he’s going to make the opposing team take notice that’s for sure.

The Kingdom
Kerry still play the traditional style of Kerry football where they kick the ball in and their forwards are great. When you have the likes of David Clifford in there, you can do that. For someone who’s 20 years old, he’s right up there with the best I ever saw playing like Peter Canavan and Colm Cooper. He also has the X Factor.

David Moran was good last week so that gives them a platform in the middle of the field and if they can come out of midfield at a 50/50 percentage, that can only be a good thing for the forwards to make hay on the other side of the field. They will be dangerous and will finish closest to Dublin.