he would like to see his team play in their actual home venue<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe response was triggered by a question about the team being \u201cre-ignited\u201d away from the pressures of Croke Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so,\u201d he replied. \u201cThe evidence speaks for itself and if we are to get a home draw \u2013 I know our senior hurlers have a big game away to Clare on Saturday night \u2013 I\u2019d love to go and play probably on a Sunday in Parnell Park and get out of Croke Park.\u201d <\/p>\n
Full circle for Dublin. From an enduringly unfair advantage to the county, Croke Park has become a pressure on a developing team, who appear to function better in other environments.<\/p>\n
Sunday stands a good chance of being a fourth successive championship defeat at Headquarters: Tyrone in last year\u2019s All-Ireland quarter-final, Westmeath in May\u2019s Leinster final, Louth in round one of the All-Ireland and, barring a big upheaval of form, Donegal in round three.<\/p>\n
Should that happen, it will be the first time Dublin have lost four consecutive championship matches at Croke Park. They have previously managed four-in-a-row without winning but those sequences include draws, such as the famous 1991 saga with Meath.<\/p>\n
If Dublin are happy to travel, whether it be to Donnycarney or farther afield, other counties are equally glad to see them. It has been one of the great innovations of format change this century that home venue for All-Ireland matches has become a practice.<\/p>\n
![\"Alan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/7GVZT2SEQFDC5CKIMNPDVQWJQ4.jpg\")
Alan Brogan lifts the Sam Maguire Cup in front of supporters on Hill 16 following Dublin’s All-Ireland SFC final victory against Kerry in 2015. Photograph: Donall Farmer\/Inpho <\/p>\n
There has been comment on the upcoming round three that it would be fairer to stage these fixtures at neutral venues. Strictly speaking, this is true, but the decor in a last-chance saloon is hardly a priority and counties being able to host important matches is a great promotional tool.<\/p>\n
After all, it is commonplace in provincial championships and was an established part of the old qualifiers.<\/p>\n
As a supporter, I loved trips to championship matches on summer afternoons, the ritual about deciding when to turn around and park the car facing Dublin before locating a pub for pre-hydration.<\/p>\n
In those days, the Holy Hour extended to two on a Sunday and you could never be sure whether a rural pub would observe it or not once two o\u2019clock struck. I remember confidently ordering because I had seen troupes of people get served \u2013 only for the barman to fix me with a cranky gaze and bark: \u201cAre you well?\u201d<\/p>\n
There used to follow the walk up to the ground, absorption in the match and lengthy postmortems on the way home.<\/p>\n
It was possible on Sunday to get a sense of that with Dublin supporters arriving in Breffni Park, not entirely free of apprehension about the match and certainly at half-time, the home following was upbeat about the one-point deficit.<\/p>\n
In the end, they were able to celebrate and swarm Brennan, the Hill\u2019s own Dreyfus.<\/p>\n
Anyway, that\u2019s it. Sunday was the last time as correspondent that I will point the car out of Dublin and head for a provincial venue. We\u2019re among the first to arrive and the last to leave. We beat the traffic on the way in and on the way out, motor along by-now uncongested roads \u2013 unless unlucky, like the other night in Virginia.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a great time of year for driving, night holding off as late as it will ever do and in the rearview mirror, memory of another championship Sunday glowing in the midsummer sunset.<\/p>\n
email: sean.moran@irishtimes.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How times have changed. During Dublin\u2019s dominion, there was a persistent campaign to move their matches from Croke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-504424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Dublin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PSLO2KMC5ZDXLFKWVMYQT3S3MA.jpg\")
Dublin manager Tommy Carr (left) and Kerry counterpart P\u00e1id\u00ed \u00d3 S\u00e9 during the 2001 All-Ireland SFC quarter-final at Semple Stadium, Co Tipperary. Photograph: Billy Stickland\/Inpho <\/p>\n