A brilliant win for Mayo yesterday which allows the media to build them up and sell this All-Ireland final as a contest, even though everyone knows it won't be.
Gaelic Football is in a particularly dark place at the minute in my opinion. Dublin are pulling away from the pack at an incredible rate. They will win 9 out of 10 All-Ireland's.
It is possible for this Kerry team next year or the year after to turn them over. But it would need to be at its absolute peak and catch Dublin on an off day. Kerry showed how far they are from Dublin with that defeat to Cork. Dublin would never be caught out like that by a team of Cork's quality. Not in a million years. Similarly, Donegal on their day might give Dublin a game. But Dublin would never be caught out by Cavan like Donegal were.
This Mayo team won't beat Dublin. I'd go as far as to say they can't beat Dublin. In fact, yesterday's result built Mayo up to the point where you can get even money on Dublin -4 or -5 in some places. That's an absolute steal for me. Dublin should beat that comfortably in my opinion.
I also don't want to take anything away from Dublin. They are an incredible team. They are awesome to watch. They have absolutely top class footballers all over the field. Proper footballers too. Not just corner backs who are top class corner backs, they have corner backs who could play anywhere on the field.
What does annoy me though is, how many former Dublin players won't even admit that there is a problem. They've won their All-Ireland medals. If anything, Dublin winning 6 in a row or 9 in 10 or 12 in 15 or whatever they end up doing, will devalue the medals they won. I know, it's your county, and you want to win, but the game as a spectacle is dying. The All-Ireland championship is on the way to becoming the same foregone conclusion that the Leinster championship already is.
I'm from a smaller county in Leinster but when I was growing up in the 90's, winning a Leinster title was a realistic ambition. We only won one in the 90's, but every year, you'd give yourself a chance if you came up against a Dublin, Meath or Kildare. No team was unbeatable. Now, there is no incentive to play for my county. There is nothing to achieve. The gap to Dublin is so insurmountable, that even with massive funding and impressive coaching structures, it would take decades to close the gap and that's if Dublin stood still.
I know, we hear the arguments that Dublin are the benchmark. It's up to other counties to get to that level. But I really think anyone that thinks that's possible is delusional. The advantages Dublin have are so insurmountable, that you effectively have to dis-advantage Dublin now, for the other Leinster counties to catch up. Dublin clubs have at least one (many have more) full time Games Promotion Officer. A fully trained up coach to guide coaching in your club; to up-skill coaches in your club; to coach children in the local schools and promote your club to them; to oversee the coaching going on at all levels of your club and to step in and take sessions with various teams, if they are not already specifically coaching one team/age group.
In my county we have four full time GPO's between 50 odd clubs. The cost of a full time coach is in the region of 30 grand a year. If a club can fund half of that, the GAA will fund the rest. So even aside from all the extra funding, the Dublin clubs with high numbers of members and better sponsorship opportunities are able to fund this. Small country clubs don’t have that 15k. One club in my county has recently set about employing a full time coach. They are a large town team and I think it’s a huge investment for them. But I think it’s a great move. In the last year that coach is in the primary schools every day and leading the coaching structures in the club in the evenings. It’s possible to see the benefits already.
But the reality is, it’s just not possible for most clubs. And that’s just one area where the rest of the country is miles behind the capital.
I also know that this comes across as moaning. But as someone who has been involved with coaching and administration at school, club and county level in my county, it’s so disheartening to see the effort being put in by a lot of really good people but the gap continuing to widen.
Don’t get me wrong, there have been mistakes in my county as a result of politics, incompetency or even people looking after their own interests and it’s important to get your house in order. But even the most orderly house in a smaller county, cannot compete with the current Dublin behemoth. It’s literally impossible in the current climate.
