Michael Moynihan: The building blocks of Dublin's demise

For Dublin to truly decline on the Gaelic football field we need a symbolic parallel away from that field

Dejected Dublin duo Ciarán Kilkenny and Brian Fenton following defeat by Mayo 

Because the Dublin footballers were for many years seen as the Gaelic games equivalent of the Black Riders from the Lord of the Rings, their current losing streak is now taken as evidence that their iron grip on the Gaelic football world has weakened and a new age of freedom is about to dawn.

(It’s a curiosity that in the world of Gaelic football counties such as Kerry and Mayo are seen as the harbingers of light and goodness as a result; something for another day, perhaps.)