Can Dubs win ANYTHING in sport ?

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redstar

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A bad weekend for Dublin sport - first Bernard Dunne gets the hunky dorys beaten out of him by some upstart Spaniard, and next the Dubs fail to get past the All-Ireland semis (again !) at the last hurdle.

With a population as big as Dublin, you'd think they could produce some sporting winners !
 
redstar said:
With a population as big as Dublin, you'd think they could produce some sporting winners !
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As a GAA fan myself (and an admirer, if not a fan, of the Dubs) I think that this is precisely the problem. Its an absolute joke that the city with 25% of the country's population is represented by only one team. Far from making it easier for Dublin to experience success, I think it makes it far more difficult for them. To get a sense of how ludicrous the current situation is, imagine if there was only one Premiership soccer club in London, and the stick they would get if they happened to get beaten by a team representing a much smaller town such as Wigan. And compare this to the fact that Dublin's last manager, Tommy Lyons, was abused and ultimately hounded out of his job because his team failed to beat Westmeath in a vital championship game.
 
shanegl said:
Some Shels and Bohs fans might take issue with that!
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Fans of Padraig Harrington, Ken Doherty, Eamonn Coughlan, Michael Carrruth, Stephen Roche etc etc also!!

We will forget about Michelle Smith and Cian O Connor (is he from Dublin??)
 
ClubMan said:
Does it matter since he was stripped of his Olympic gold and got a three month ban?
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It does because we are talking about people from Dublin. (I also said we would forget about him) Michelle Smith wasn't stripped of her medals but certainly don't want to include her in any list of Dubs sporting success also
 
I agree with the "but what about ....." replies. However, in recent times, Dublin has become undoubtly the wealthiest part of the island of Ireland, and arguably one of the wealthiest cities in Europe, why is this not proportionately reflected in sport ?

Currently, Drogheda Utd head the Premiership, Shels are languishing mid-table in the First Div which is led by Cobh Ramblers.

Maybe, in Celtic Tiger Dublin, sport is lower down the scale of priorities ?

Just an observation; 'Sunny' refers to Dub winners - notice they are all individuals, no teams/clubs ?
 
All the "thrash talking" engaged in by Da Dubs (goading your opponent) and a certain midfielders constant unpunished indiscretions make me a bit less sympathetic to them that I would otherwise be.

I've no attachment to the dubs but you'd have to feel sorry for them trying their best for 3 long hard years but coming up short at the same hurdle every time.

Having a big population isnt a guarntee of anything, its playing population (among other things) that count. On a straight population basis China and India would win loads and Oz wouldnt win much.

In reality GAA in Dublin is only 1 of a number of sports (for those that participate at all) whereas in Kerry football is a religion (as it is in a lot of the country) and every man woman or child with any bit of ability is likely to play and keep playing. Hyperbole aside I think this is largely the case.

So maybe people get a kick (no pun intended) in rubbing it into the Dubs for their cockiness and their meejah bandwagon, but its a bit unfair to label Dublin GAA as total wasters by using a few simplistic assertions.
 
Betsy Og said:
All the "thrash talking" engaged in by Da Dubs (goading your opponent) and a certain midfielders constant unpunished indiscretions make me a bit less sympathetic to them that I would otherwise be.

I've no attachment to the dubs but you'd have to feel sorry for them trying their best for 3 long hard years but coming up short at the same hurdle every time.

Having a big population isnt a guarntee of anything, its playing population (among other things) that count. On a straight population basis China and India would win loads and Oz wouldnt win much.

In reality GAA in Dublin is only 1 of a number of sports (for those that participate at all) whereas in Kerry football is a religion (as it is in a lot of the country) and every man woman or child with any bit of ability is likely to play and keep playing. Hyperbole aside I think this is largely the case.

So maybe people get a kick (no pun intended) in rubbing it into the Dubs for their cockiness and their meejah bandwagon, but its a bit unfair to label Dublin GAA as total wasters by using a few simplistic assertions.
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Yeah the trash talking is stupid especially when you can't walk the walk along with it! One thing that bugs me is all this talk about a Dublin bandwagon because they don't get 80,000 to every league game. They consistently fill Parnell Park, consistently bring strong travelling supprt with them and when the championship comes around, consistently fill Croke Park. Cork, Kerry, Kilkenny etc fail to fill their own grounds (Can understand why people don't travel to Croke Park) for league games or championship games until final time when nobody can get a ticket and yet Dublin supporters get accused of jumping on a bandwagon.
 
Having lived in Dublin all my life, one thing I've noticed is that Dublin's population has received a healthy boost from those who not only don't hail from Dublin but in fact wouldn't dream of playing for the football team. So this should really be factored into any meaningless % of population figures.

For the record, I don't follow GAA and didn't even see the game yesterday.
 
Dowee said:
Having lived in Dublin all my life, one thing I've noticed is that Dublin's population has received a healthy boost from those who not only don't hail from Dublin and in fact wouldn't dream of playing for the football team. So this should really be factored into any meaningless % of population figures.

For the record, I don't follow GAA and didn't even see the game yesterday.
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quite right, my parents have spent 40 years living in dublin and wouldnt cheer on the dubs if their lives depended on it.

As for bernard dunne, he did actually win something, thats how he became the european champion..... i would expect a limerick fighter to do better but im sure he wouldnt know what to do with gloves on his hands instead of a knife and a few sovereign rings
 
contemporary said:
.. i would expect a limerick fighter to do better but im sure he wouldnt know what to do with gloves on his hands instead of a knife and a few sovereign rings
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Eh? Are you referrring to Limericks Andy Lee who won his fight which was the warm up for Dunne? He looked a stylish boxer and Jimmy McGee was falling over himself telling us how nice a lad he is.
 
Yeah, but what about that Jamaican boxer who's revitalised his career after having both legs amputated at the knee following a car accident.

Ya man, 7 wins now without de feet.
 
Betsy Og said:
certain midfielders constant unpunished indiscretions
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there is one of these in every single County team......

Kerry have a couple, meath have one, every team has one

so lets not start pointing fingers at a should be allstar for 2007.

PS As a true blue well done to Kerry yesterday, class always rises to the top in sport and you have to hand it to them as they have alot of talent and won a hard fought game between two top sides.
 
ClubMan said:
Jimmy thought that Mike Tyson was a gentleman the time he interviewed him by phone call to Tyson's hotel room.
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I seem to remember Jimmy also saying that he considered Michelle Smith be Irelands greatest sports star. He might be full of useless sports trivia but unfortunantly he is also full of something else
 
She's still by far our most successful Olympian and retains her medals regardless of what happened afterwards.
 
ClubMan said:
She's still by far our most successful Olympian and retains her medals regardless of what happened afterwards.
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Don't even go there. She cheated her way to olympic gold and anyone who puts her in the same category as people like Ronnie Delaney and Sonia O'Sullivan needs their head examined. Holding onto a medal doesn't make her a champion and anyone who doesn't think she cheated must be on drugs themselves.
 
redstar said:
A bad weekend for Dublin sport - first Bernard Dunne gets the hunky dorys beaten out of him by some upstart Spaniard, and next the Dubs fail to get past the All-Ireland semis (again !) at the last hurdle.

With a population as big as Dublin, you'd think they could produce some sporting winners !
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First of all overhyped by media would be the description that comes to mind on both occassions.

If you break down Dublin's population, you will find a big chunk of it is due to the culchies having to migrate to Dublin in order to get work. Please don't get me started on the regional development planning of this and other governments :-(
Another big chunk of Dublin's population is actual foreign nationals.

Then if you were to break down the native Dubliners some of them would not touch an O'Neills ball since they consider it boggers football.
IMHO there is a much greater range of sports played in Dublin and also a tendency where people do not mix across sports.

Also as stated by another poster Dublin is now richer than probably ever was in it's history.
This could then mean that Eamon Dunphy's theory that poverty and dictatorship breed good soccer players. This theory could definetly be appplied to great boxers and perhaps to GAA players as well.
BTW Dunphy has a point here, look how many world class players were born with silver spoon in their mouths. I can only think of Baggio?
 
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