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The Dubs are saying its only a problem now that they are winning? It might be getting a bit more of an airing in the media this year, but I have felt CP has been an advantage to the Dubs for many years, have said so and heard the same amongst many of my friends/aquaintances long before this exceptionally strong current Dublin side came to prominence.
On a related note I have often felt that Kilkenny being in Leinster and playing a big majority of their LSHC in Croker has been an advantage to them during the last decade or so of their dominance, when coming up against Munster opposition in the AI semis or final. They are not at 'home' like the Dubs, and I recall them playing the odd Leinster semi outside of HQ, but they are more familiar with the ground than any hurling team in the country, and that has to be some advantage on AI semi or final day, surely?? As someone else said, its the defacto 'Leinster' ground now and as many double-headers etc as possible seem to be squeezed in there. Not quite right for a 'national' stadium in my opinion.

People are mentioning the likes of dressing rooms and warming up in front of the hill. What about the hill itself? I genuinely have no knowledge of this but who decides who gets tickets for it? You rarely see anything beyond the odd defiant 'away' shirt in it when the Dubs are playing. Do they have dibs on it? Are all tickets for Hill 16 reserved for Dublin fans or do opposition supporters just not bother going there as the perception is 'its Dublin only'?? Genuine question lads, I'm a Rossie so don't get to HQ that often and don't know how it works.

See below taken from Sean Moran's article in todaysIrish Times. Bottom line is Leinster COunties need to be willing to take the financial hit of moving Dublin out of Croke Park or else leave things as they are. They seem to have decided to leave things as they are but seem determined to moan continuosly about the consequences of their own decision.

Big match
He added that the benefit of observing the same routine for each big match is considerable – to which could be added having the support base a short commute away.
Is the advantage decisive? It wouldn't appear so. In the 20 years since the new Croke Park began to become available, Dublin have a 67 per cent success rate in the stadium from 79 championship matches as opposed to 83 per cent on their travels (including their official county ground, Parnell Park) for 12 fixtures.
The one defeat came against Kerry in the first year of the All-Ireland quarter-finals, a replay in Thurles. In Leinster you have to go back 33 years for the last time Dublin were beaten on the road – by Laois in Tullamore.
It's likely that some of the matches would have had a less resounding scoreline had they been played elsewhere but it's hard to imagine that many outcomes being changed. Dublin have been beaten by 10 different counties, from all four provinces in Croke Park over the past 20 years.
Even so, why don't counties in Leinster press for more fixtures requiring Dublin to travel? The answer is they don't appear to want to. There was a suggestion at Leinster Council that the champions' first match of this summer, against the winners of Wicklow and Laois, be played away from Croke Park. It got just two votes.
The reasons are straightforward enough. Firstly, most players and managers want to play in the stadium and secondly there is the financial consequence of moving Dublin, which means smaller and less rewarding gate receipts. In other words what projects or development grants would you like to cut to facilitate the idea

Declan OSullivan was at it on numerous occasions against Dublin in last years semi, ie Kickouts

Are you sure? That sort of thing would not be in a Kerrman's DNA

I noticed that too. The GPA seems to be all about separating the inter-county game and its players from the "little people."

Well Sean Potts manages an u13 team in his own club. Are u13's little enough for you?

Can't beat a bit of casual racism/discrimination on a Friday morning!

Jesus Dinny.The jackdaw that is Dont Matter has made numerous disgraceful comments about Dublin people on here over the last few months and you choose to take offence to the above?

[Every cent will go to the county board and it will be used to fund team preparation at all levels in both codes - no money will be sent to clubs arising out of it.

What about GPO's wages which the County Board pays 50% of/ Would that not count as money going to clubs. That would take well over half he 3.5 million over 5 years considering there is about 35 GPO's

[all]

I think you're missing my point Hound.
You are saying that it should be only in these grounds as they allow 20K+. The reason you're saying that I presume is that a good crowd would come down from Dublin to support their team and enjoy the day out.
My point is that this is what balances out the smaller team v the bigger county team. It's like a FA cup match with Spurs going to play a non league outfit with a small capacity. They make it a hostile atmosphere as not many of the away fans can make attend.
Tyrone went to Donegal last year and McGuinness knew that them holding on to home advantage was a major asset to their mental preparation. They had to pull out all the stops to get the ground ready. It's a brutal place to get in and out of and the talk months before the game was there wouldn't be enough tickets for those Tyrone fans that wanted to go. This belief was absorbed by a lot of fans who didn't even then ask for tickets and so it ended up that their was a huge Donegal crowd that were very hostile and out in force to support their glorious All Ireland winning team. 1-0 to McGuinness even before the game started.

All I'm saying is that in my eyes Dublin, Kerry & Cork don't usually have to worry about such problems. Often their hardest matches are actually away league games as I'd say ye will find next year as reigning AI champs.

It's one thing going to play Wicklow or Carlow away but if you had a first round game v Meath in Navan or Kildare in Newbridge would you be as confident?
Kerry rarely win in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Yes Munster is the way it is but can you understand that for us in Ulster where more teams often play their first round games at home, then its not a fair playing field. It's dog eat dog and so by giving Kerry & Cork another game off helps them in their quest to peak for the late summer. It's one less game for Star not to get sent off or for Gooch not to get injured.

I wonder will we get another battle of Omagh next year?

All the points you make are fair and as a Dub I would have no problem playing Meath in Navan or Kildare in Newbridge. However if for example we played Kildare in Newbridge  only 6000 people could attend the match rather than the 60,000 that would attend in Croke Park. Thats a huge drop in revenue. Leinster Championship attendance money is divided among all Leinster Counties so therefore every Leinster County would suffer. For the above to happen these Leinster Counties would have to vote for it and its very hard to see that happening. This won't stop them moaning about Dublin having an unfair advantage but ultimately the decision to change the system is and always has been in their hands.

Hmm. For what it's worth, the number of six came from one of the players that actually has one of the jobs and it was said to me last year, so either three guys have got new jobs since then or else there's wires crossed somewhere. The 100 was based on a number I saw written in the Indo somewhere, but I'd trust an anonymous poster over that particular national newspaper, which speaks volumes in its own right.

I didn't realise that there were so many that aren't from Dublin taking coaches jobs up there so that too is encouraging.

As for the second point, you're not penalising counties for being prudent - you're penalising spending. On the one hand I agree with the point that counties who have larger budgets should be able to spend appropriately, however if Dublin have twenty times the population of some other counties, that can mean that they have twenty times the need for coaching and development. It does not mean that they should have twenty times the budget to spend on their county panels, when county panels should in theory all cost the same. In fact if anything, the Dublin county panel spend should be less than any other, since very few of their players would be travelling large distances to come to training and matches, and so there would be very little spend on mileage relative to counties down the country where their players are all over the place.

Neither am I talking of the centralised fund being used to help out counties who used to spend large numbers but now can't afford to because they overdid it. I'm talking about being used to fund the running costs of the (more often) hurling teams of counties where the total county board turnover is around €1m or less and where they can't even spend €100k on a team and end up rationing things that other counties take for granted. I'm not talking about it being used so Kildare can keep spending money they don't have, for example.

Basically, I get that Dublin and Cork will always get far more money from sponsorship and other income than a Leitrim or Longford. However Dublin and Cork have a lot of youth and infrastructure to maintain, so if they want to spend it on that, then go ahead, no penalty. However if they want to spend it on a backroom team of twenty people to give their seniors a competitive advantage, then there should be some form of levelling of the playing field, I believe.

Its definitely 3 hurlers and no footballers.

Regarding team spending. Would capping the spend at a reasonable amount not be the simplest and fairest way?

It's in everyone's interests that Dublin remains a single county, no rational GAA person would advocate a split. They've always had way more people, way more clubs, and they've always been successful as a consequence, but the GAA scene would be far weaker for their absence.

On a personal level, I've no problem either with a huge amount of money being spent on coaching and training in the city. Young kids in Dublin deserve the same focus and attention as is given to kids down the country and it benefits everyone if playing underage GAA is seen as an attractive option.

On the other side of the coin, there is one area where Dublin spending massive amounts of money on their development is a very unfair advantage, and one that's easily rectified. Because Dublin have a huge budget for coaching, it means that they can employ players who are struggling for work and keep them in the city. Smaller counties lose players all the time due to emigration, or else they might stay around but can't commit to county football because they work long or awkward hours and simply don't have the spare time to compete with teachers/students/coaches, who have massive amounts of free time for training.

In Offaly, we have one full time coach in football and one in hurling. Dublin have, to my knowledge, at least six members of the county hurling panel employed as coaches, and I can only guess that there are several football panelists similarly employed. I have heard a number that there are over 100 people in total employed by the DCB, which is where the real advantage lies. When a promising young player in Offaly (for example) struggles to find work, they have to head to Australia/US/London. At any given time we've three or four probably starters on foreign shores. Then you have all the self-employed guys who can't train five or six times a week because they work sixty hours, and they pull out too. Dublin gets to give these guys handy jobs.

The answer for me is simple. The same amount should be spent per head on coaching and development everywhere, and county identities should be retained. However all staffing should be centralised, or else there should be a training centre somewhere so that the player from Wicklow or Louth is just as likely to get the job as coach for the greater Blanchardstown area as the player from Dublin.

Equally, there should be a leveling mechanism set up for teams that want to spend huge amounts on team preparation. No matter how lean and mean you run things, you will spend €100k a year on a county adult team. However it shouldn't be the case that some have to work like dogs to earn that, while others can spend half a million and more. If we set a rule that for every €2 you spent over €100k per year, you had to pay another €1 into a centralised fund that could then be spent around the country on teams that don't get the same attention, that could also be another reasonably fair way of balancing things up.

Lone Shark I agree with a lot of what you say but there are a number of inaccuracies in your post. 3 of the Dublin Senior Hurling Panel are full time coaches and none of the football panel are. I don't think its really much of an advantage at all. There is nowhere near 100 people employed by Dublin County board. Maybe 50 or 60 max. 30- 35 are coaches. I know that close to half these coaches are NOT from Dublin and I do know of 2 inter county footballers from outside Dublin who are currently employed by DCB.

Regarding the overall spend while I agree it should be capped I would totally disagree with the idea of counties paying into a centralised fund. You would then hae the scenario of counties who have managed their finances prudently being foced to subsidise counties who have squandered their money

Jerome has a video about it

http://www.jeromequinnmedia.com/video/Hurling/All-Stars/Super-11-Hurling-1231

The broght yellow ball is a good idea. Easier follow both at the game and on tv.

]

THIB living in this hellhole of a country where over 60% of even the employed are packing the bags and fecking off out of here away from either the depressing shit on the radio and the elitist shit on the TV  and having Vincent bloody Browne and Missus Bloody Brown to put up with and listening to those rank idiots in the Dail who never worked a proper day in their lives and who don't have the balls to lock up the w**ker bankers who partly caused the mess and I don't have to go on about the church and their carry-on.... a large part of our lives becomes and is the GAA and for Mayo folk it's Mayo GAA. The GAA is the only spiritual and dignified entity left in this godforsaken place. So getting on with life for Mayo is to get on with the football again.


Mighty place to be if your a Dub though, i suppose.

Thats a great response. Fair play to you. I hope you and Mayo have better days soon.

[
Dublin have been disappointed with the free count against them this year but instead of making a song and a dance about it like other managers- we preferred to wait until Sam was secure in our hands. The right way to do it IMO.

I disagree Indiana. I thought Gavin's comments lacked class and were disrespectful to Mayo. Even if he believes  ref's have been hard on us this year (and I don't think they have) he should of kept them to himself. I dread to think what he will come out with when we lose a big match.

[it's not dis ref s fault that yiz are shite since 1961]

Look Sidney, I know well that Dublin football people are as sound as from anywhere but a tanked up hill is a different kettle of fish. I remember back on the old hill when I went in and kept my mouth shut as a neutral there would be fights and stuff among Dubs themselves. Yeah there s a share of Mayo lads that you wouldn t want to be around at a match. I ve has issues with Rossies. Galways and Sligos etc in the past. But the Dublin thing is so enormous. You might think there all decent skins but it can be be iffy enough with kids and all. I shook hands with a few Dubs after the game. They were sound. A middle class couple with lovely kids. One guy was also sound but lost the rag at one stage when a Mayo fan was raging about the obvious foul on Cunniffe that almost led to a McAuley goal and a pointed 45 that gave Dublin another foothold. This guy s reaction left a sour taste ' it's not dis ref s fault that yiz are shite since 1961 @(sic). Look, I come from a place where we know how to rip the piss - but we choose to do it with people we know. Maybe it is that lack of assertivness in our county as a whole that is keeping us in our box. We dont like to offend people we dont know.

Even where I parked there was a protection racket going on- after the match! . Played the game and gave a few hoodlums a few euro -  just to get rid of the f**kers. Did not want to engage them and if I did and reacted then it would have got nasty and God knows what these guys were carrying.  My young lads were raging and probably rightly so but didn t I wan t the hassle. I mean anybody that demands money for that kind of thing, and you overhear telling another driver that his windows will be smashed next time is some chancer. I ve been doing this for years and I ve always been able to drive home.

In fairness Moysider we are meant to be discussing DUblin Football Supporters and Hi 16 here. Bringing lockhards into it is like us blaming Mayo Football Supporters for Beverly Flynn or any other undesireable from your good county.

They're as factual as the 7 million.

Probably the only true statement you have ever made on this board. Good man.

Yeah. Your quoting from the Dublin GAA Strategic Plan released about 10 years ago. Where is 7 million of tax payers money mentioned in it?

Why wouldn't I quote from that? That's when the plan came into place. That's why Dublin have won 2 All Irelands in 3 years.
Most of the money came from Irish citizens, some came from the GAA.

I repeat, where is 7 million of Irish Citizens money mentioned in this plan or anywhere else for that matter?

This is vague unsubstatiated nonsense. The reason you don't have any detail is your making it up. 7 million of taxpayers money my hole!

There was a strategic programme manager appointed with regional development officers, hurling development officers and games promotion officers.
Each club had access to a development officer. They would work in different regional areas, the main aim was to target schools and identify and train elite talent. These people cost money, when you add on payment of coaches, equipment, facilties etc etc you can begin to see what sort of set up we're dealing with.

Yeah. Your quoting from the Dublin GAA Strategic Plan released about 10 years ago. Where is 7 million of tax payers money mentioned in it?