JUST THREE COUNTIES have won 6 successive Leinster senior football championships.
Wexford did it from 1913-1918 and Kildare followed up by matching that feat between 1926 and 1931.
It was Dublin’s turn next (1974-1979) and they’ll become the first county in Leinster to do 6-in-a-row twice when they lift the Delaney Cup on July 17.
There’s nobody out there even remotely capable of putting it up to Jim Gavin’s charges.
Recent history, form and statistics all point to just one, familiar outcome.
They’ve won ten of the last eleven Leinster senior football championships on offer, the only blip coming in 2010 when they were crushed by goal-hungry Meath at the semi-final stage.
Since then, Dublin’s shadow over the Eastern province has lengthened quite considerably.
In 2011, they beat Wexford by three points in the Leinster final and the same margin separated them from Meath a year later.
In 2013, Dublin beat Meath by seven points but smashed them by 16 a year later.
Last year, Dublin hammered Longford by 27 points, Kildare by 19 and Westmeath by 13 en route to yet another trouble-free provincial romp.
Gavin would love a greater test but the truth is that the championship begins for Dublin at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage.
There’s simply nobody good enough to compete with Dublin in Leinster and that shows no signs of changing any time soon.
Gavin’s men are professional now in all but name. Serious, serious footballers heavily backed by their own county board and with a machine-like backroom team attending to their every need.
Off the pitch, many Dublin players are doing well from commercial activities and when the Premier League bandwagon rolls out of town, Gaelic Football becomes the summer attraction for the Hill 16 hordes.
Dublin football is box-office in the capital and there’s no finer sight in Gaelic Games from a live perspective than Hill 16 in full flow.
Dublin’s fans bring colour, humour and despite the brickbats fired at them from time time to time, genuine support.
And contrary to what some might have you believe, they like to travel too.
They’ll relish the prospect of hopping down to Nowlan Park to face Laois or Wicklow.
It will freshen them up ahead of their return to Croke Park for the quarter-finals and beyond, when it will be very much business as usual.
The bookies don’t often get it wrong. Dublin are 16-1 ON for the Leinster title. Their perceived nearest challengers, Kildare, are a 14-1 shot.
Kildare v Dublin is the most likely Leinster final but if that happens, it’s difficult to see the Lilywhites raising a gallop.
There’s simply no way that the 19-point gap that existed between the counties last year will be made up in 12 months.
If Kildare want to be considered genuine Leinster championship contenders, there’s no way they should be losing to Clare at Croke Park in a national final, and no disrespect whatsoever is meant to the Banner County when we say that.
Kildare boss Cian O’Neill is renowned as a meticulous planner. He’s been around the block previously with the Tipperary hurlers, and the Kerry and Mayo footballers, but even with a gameplan designed to stifle the Dubs, Gavin’s charges will have too much power and pace for the Lilywhites.
So, if you want to spend €16 to make back €1, fire ahead. You’ll need a stack of cash to get rich at those odds. One thing’s for sure, though. It’s the banker of the summer.
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