Dublin north v Dublin south potential teams

Jack O'Toole

Dublin cruised to a five-point win over Donegal in the opening round of the All-Ireland Quarter-Final Group Stage on Saturday evening.

Goals either side of half-time from Niall Scully set up a commanding lead to start the second-half for Dublin as they held on to their advantage to maintain their unbeaten run in the championship at Croke Park.

The three-time defending All-Ireland champions are aiming for a fourth consecutive title in September after securing their 13 Leinster title from the last 14 seasons earlier this year.

There have been numerous calls to divide Dublin given the amount of success they’ve enjoyed over the last decade with Sunday Game panelist Colm O’Rourke a vocal supporter of the initiative.

“The long-term solution has to be to look at a different model for Dublin,” O’Rourke said last year.

“Two or three or four different teams. Because my idea of the GAA is based on participation, involvement and opportunity.

“And there’s thousands of young Dublin footballers, on the Hill today and watching on television, who would love the chance of playing Dublin.

“And the response to population surges in the city – and I gave the example of Castleknock – has been to create new clubs and Castleknock have been very, very successful.

“We can’t have the population of Dublin being 1.5 or 2 million going forward and just one team. It just does not make sense.”

Former GAA Ard Stiúrthóir, Páraic Duffy, dismissed the possibility of Dublin ever being split and suggested in his annual report last year that those in favour of the idea are suffering from short memories.

“There is no doubt that Dublin enjoys advantages over every other county,” Duffy wrote. “It has the largest population and can access greater financial resources through sponsorship.

“But resources in terms of finance or population are no guarantee of All-Ireland success, as Dublin discovered between 1983 and 2011 when it won just one All-Ireland senior football title.

“That was in 1995, with a one-point victory over Tyrone. In achieving their five All-Ireland titles in the past seven years, the margin of victory was a single point in four finals (one after a replay) and a three-point victory over Kerry in 2015.

“This hardly constitutes evidence of a county steamrolling over all opposition, or proof of the need to divide a county because it is vastly superior to the rest and must be broken up into two or three divisions for inter-county competition.”

The idea has gained significant traction over the last few years, and while there appears to be a genuine reluctance on the GAA’s behalf to entertain the notion, we look at how a potential north Dublin v south Dublin would line up.

North Dublin

Stephen Cluxton (Parnells – captain)
Darren Daly (Fingal Ravens)
Philly McMahon (Ballymun Kickhams)
Eric Lowndes (St. Peregrines)
Brian Howard (Raheny)
Jonny Cooper (Na Fianna)
Jack McCaffrey (Clontarf)
Brian Fenton (Raheny)
James McCarthy (Ballymun Kickhams)
Paul Flynn (Fingallians)
Cormac Costello (Whitehall Colmcille)
Ciaran Kilkenny (Castleknock)
Bernard Brogan (St. Oliver Plunketts/Eoghan Ruadh)
Dean Rock (Ballymun Kickhams)
Paddy Andrews (Saint Brigid’s GAA)

Notable Omissions: Diarmuid Connolly (St Vincent’s), Shane Carthy (St Vincent’s), Paddy Small (Ballymun Kickhams), Conor McHugh (Na Fianna), Eoin Murchan (Na Fianna), Ciaran Reddin (St. Maurs), Evan Comerford (Ballymun Kickhams).

South Dublin