blockhead wrote:
Put the toothpaste back in the tube was the one EOS used last night on OTB.
Look, its like this everytime we beat them. "We waz robbed" "the ref stiffed us". It's tradition, and they have it down to a fine art at this stage since we beat them so often.
7 wins in the last 8.
17 wins in the last 23, and 5 wins each in "fortress TP" in that period.
In 7 barren seasons for the TPFKAM, we have won 2 Heinos, 1 Challenge cup and 3 Pro12/14s.
As someone who does not
enjoy or (edit: a bit harsh) follow GAA, I would not imagine that the Dublin dominance of the All Ireland is helping the Dublin centric narrative often espoused on here by our (exclusively) Munster compatriots.
We have advantages of... Lansdowne ... road network ... geography...team's feeder schools .... location... population... centrally contracted players...
Importantly though, I believe we have an ethos built on controllables like, planning for the future, respect, effort, team and method. Any given week Leinster put out a team built around a plan and the players selected are there because they are best suited to deliver to the plan. The skills have been practiced and the drills perfected.
And whilst I don't doubt that Munster have an appreciation of all of those things, I think they have come to that reality too late for where the game is currently at. They continue to rely on something extra, something you can't grasp but when it clicks on the pitch it's called passion, in preparation it's a "backs against the wall" mentality. It's like they are owed for the effort, not questioning the inputs and outputs to improve (across the organisation). The biggest problem with this is, that narrative is wholly embraced by the media and every swallow sighted is the return of summer, until it's not, it's a swallow that got lost from the flock and just happened to pass overhead, an anomaly.
The media is where Munster have excelled, the gra for Munster in print/on air is inescapable and it is a credit to them that they have monopolised the translation of loss into some kind of moral armoury for supporters and calls to action for the officials in the game, to protect Munster. Alas, they have become the faith healers of the devout, promising a cure without any real effort, psychic healers using slight of hand to extract chicken gizzards that look like tumours from that body of despair. Once cured of last weeks ailment the "backs against the wall" mentality is back, with a renewed passion.