CAN ANYONE STOP Dublin from marching to another Leinster title this summer?
They’re the heaviest of favourites to land an 11th crown in 12 years, having exerted utter dominance on their province in recent years.
But one of the country’s greatest football managers still believes Dublin can be halted.
Sean Boylan’s native Meath were the last county other than Dublin to reign in Leinster when they won in 2010.
And when pressed on the notion of Dublin invincibility and whether anyone can be stopped, Boylan is unequivocal.
“Yeh, yeh, Meath. You have to believe you can do it because there are still only 15 players playing.
And they are not eating any more spuds or anything else than anybody else.
“If you start to believe they are invincible then sure look it, you don’t get involved in sport.
“There is always that chance and you always have to feel you have that chance.
“That’s why it’s very easy to say that if it doesn’t work out for the likes of Mick O’Dowd in the first or second year ‘get rid of him.’
“But if something is coming together then you’ve got to have that patience to go through that and then once you crack it then you’re there.”
Boylan concedes that Meath have been hamstrung by the loss of big figures but insists that cannot be used as an excuse.
“But you can only play with what you have – if you have Kevin Reilly gone, Bryan Menton gone, Stephen Bray gone, Conor Gillespie not fit available to play, they would have been four pillars of the team.
“And when you have that smaller population when you lose one or two it can have a huge impact on it.
“The only thing I’d wish is that we’d stop talking about the lads who are injured and talk about the lads who are playing.
“What you have to do to get the glamour back into Meath again is you’ve got to start winning.
“If the lads were fortunate enough to come up to Division 1 last year, and they were so close to it, every kid in the place would want to be playing football now – that’s human nature.”
I know it is February, I know it is the league, I know it is Offaly
@Fergus McGrath: diff
@Fergus McGrath: different tears in Michael Duignan’s eyes this evening
Limerick surely favourites for Liam this year by the looks of things!
@Paddy: you MUST be a hurling genius
@conor murphy: By god I am, having listened to many a Limerick fan over the years, they have me NEARLY brainwashed
@Paddy: limerick favourites? You mad? A munster final and all ireland semi (even though I think there’s more in this side) I’d be happy with for this year
@David Dooley: Excuse me for not making my sarcasm more clear.
@David Dooley: That would be an amazing season for Limerick, I can’t see it happening though..
I was at the game. Limerick were very poor for long periods in the game. The team still appear to be preoccupied with possession hurling from the back( think man city). Offaly got great success from pressing hard in limerick halfback line and midfield area. Limerick weren’t clever enough to recognise this and see the space behind that press and were regularly turned over. The turning points were a missed penalty, soft sending off and 5 pointable frees by iffy.