It's a bleak time to be a fan of Dublin hurling. After the promise and potential built by Anthony Daly's reign, the Dubs have fallen off a cliff.
Since they won the Leinster Championship in 2013, they've only reached one All-Ireland quarter-final, where they were comfortably beaten by Waterford. On Saturday, they put up 1-19 against All-Ireland champions Tipperary - and were still beaten by double scores.
Manager Ger Cunningham is coming to the end of a three-year contract with Dublin and has taken a lot of blame. Many players who have left the panel in those three years blame Cunningham for them doing so. While he's not the most popular figure, it isn't all his fault.
After protesting that the Tipp game being in Thurles was 'an insult' to Dublin, the county board took some action which seemed petulant. They scheduled a full round of the Dublin hurling leagues for Saturday evening.
Which meant that club teams were weakened by missing county players. It was a double-edged sword - the inter-county team was weakened by a lack of supporters, officials or potential players from 34 club panels.
Tomás Mulcahy appeared on RTE 2fm's Game On show and he was baffled and annoyed at the decision:
I heard that in Thurles on Saturday evening and I was absolutely going mad over it. It was outrageous.
To hear that they put on matches in Dublin. I think it is massive disrespect to Ger Cunningham and the Dublin hurling team.
It was an absolute disgrace. I don't think it would happen anywhere else. That you had matches played when the county game was on in Thurles. It wouldn't happen with the Dublin footballers.
I was really upset and annoyed about it.
While there hasn't been any official confirmation about Cunningham's resignation, it would appear his time is done.
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