Meath vs Dublin - 26/06/16

[Lar Naparka]

In fairness, I seem to recollect figures released some years ago showing Mayo spent a huge amount on their teams. Not just Mayo, but other counties as well.

Convenient myth out there that Dublin are the only county spending money on their teams and that all others are penniless.

Mayo must be spending more on its team than they can afford. In this, they have no choice because to compete with the best costs money. 
Add in the cost of meeting loan repayments on McHale Park and Mayo have to be penniless or somewhere damn close it.
It's the same with any county in serious contention for the Sam Maguire.

I believe that there is a total of 34 involved with the Mayo team'.Doctors, physios and s&c coaches like Barry Solan don't come cheap.

Yet if we are to stay in touch with the Dubs, a huge chunk of the annual budget will be spent on the team and the backroom staff. A far higher percentage of the total annual income is being spent on the senior team than is the case with Dublin.

I can't see the situation being any better in Kerry or Tyrone, Monaghan, Donegal or anyone else who take the AI championship seriously. Many don't and you get counties like Longford, Tipp and Galway where county players won't make themselves available for selection. What's the point if the team is going to get nowhere?
The GAA is not in a good place at the moment.

Was it in a better place in the 70s and early 80s where bar the odd interruption Kerry won all before them dishing out major hammerings on the way?

It wasn't really and there were doubts and dire forebodings that Kerry's domination would ruin the game. But there is one thing you should bear in mind and that is that Kerry were first amongst equals- primus inter pares for you classical scholars. The Dubs, Roscommon and Offaly didn't have the consistency of Kerry but were all capable of putting up serious challenge at times.
There were other counties with at least as many players and probably more cash to spend than the kingdom.
Same as with Kilkenny today in hurling; they have less than half the number of senior clubs Cork has.
With Dublin, the problem is that talented players aren't the only reason why they are virtually unbeatable at this stage. We've been through the list of material advantages that Dublin enjoys over its opponents and the gap is going to widen.
I mentioned on a previous thread that the report commissioned by Peter Quinn found that there were five Dublin clubs that fielded more underage players than five counties-all in the northwest. T
hat was back in 1991 (or maybe '92.)

I brought this up recently when chatting with  an individual who is involved with Skerries Harps. He told me his club fielded 70 teams at the weekend if they wished.
There's no other county that can compete with the likes of that.

[Mac2]

Look at the margins of victory for Kerry and Dublin in those periods.
Kerry
1975 7
1978 17
1979 11
1980 3
1981 7
1984 5
1985 4
1986 8

Dublin
2011 1
2013 1
2015 3

When Kerry are winning it's business as usual, just their God-given right, with Dublin it's a crisis.

[Lar Naparka]

Look at the margins of victory for Kerry and Dublin in those periods.
Kerry
1975 7
1978 17
1979 11
1980 3
1981 7
1984 5
1985 4
1986 8

Dublin
2011 1
2013 1
2015 3

When Kerry are winning it's business as usual, just their God-given right, with Dublin it's a crisis.

When Kerry were winning, they were completing on equal terms with all others. That is simply not the case with present day Dublin.

[Zulu]

They weren't though. In terms of preparation, Clare and Waterford are probably a lot closer to Dublin now than they were to Kerry then. There is no way most counties in the 70's were investing the amount of time and money Dublin and Kerry were and I know some of the weaker ones were miles off.

Why weren't lads complaining that it's unfair for Mayo or Kerry to be competing against Leitrim, Longford, Roscommon etc. who have half the populations of the bigger counties? Why was it ok for years that Cork hurlers played Waterford, Offaly etc. with 3 or 4 times their populations?

It's a bit ironic that lads from big counties are complaining they can't compete with a bigger one when they regularly enjoyed the advantages of pick and finance against the majority of the smaller counties and built up plenty of provincial titles against counties who always had to compete against the odds.

[From the Bunker]

They weren't though. In terms of preparation, Clare and Waterford are probably a lot closer to Dublin now than they were to Kerry then. There is no way most counties in the 70's were investing the amount of time and money Dublin and Kerry were and I know some of the weaker ones were miles off.

Why weren't lads complaining that it's unfair for Mayo or Kerry to be competing against Leitrim, Longford, Roscommon etc. who have half the populations of the bigger counties? Why was it ok for years that Cork hurlers played Waterford, Offaly etc. with 3 or 4 times their populations?

It's a bit ironic that lads from big counties are complaining they can't compete with a bigger one when they regularly enjoyed the advantages of pick and finance against the majority of the smaller counties and built up plenty of provincial titles against counties who always had to compete against the odds.

100%

I was travelling to the Replay of Mayo/Dublin on the train last year. Ended up sitting beside a Longford County Board official. His dream was to amalgamate Westmeath and Longford. He seen this as the only alternative to compete with the Big guns. Why shouldn't kids from Longford and Westmeath have big days out like this he asked me?

[J70]

Irish population by county (yes, we know the northern figures don't necessarily reflect the resources available to the GAA):

1 Dublin 1,273,069
2 Antrim 618,108
3 Down 531,665
4 Cork 519,032
- Fingal 273,991
- South Dublin 265,205
5 Galway 250,541
6 Londonderry 247,132
7 Kildare 210,312
- Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown 206,261
8 Limerick 191,809
9 Meath 184,135
10 Tyrone 179,000
11 Armagh 174,792
12 Donegal 161,137
13 Tipperary 158,754
14 Kerry 145,502
15 Wexford 145,320
16 Wicklow 136,640
17 Mayo 130,638
18 Louth 122,897
19 Clare 117,196
20 Waterford 113,795
21 Kilkenny 95,419
22 Westmeath 86,164
23 Laois 80,559
24 Offaly 76,687
25 Cavan 73,183
26 Sligo 65,393
27 Roscommon 64,065
28 Fermanagh 61,170
29 Monaghan 60,483
30 Carlow 54,612
31 Longford 39,000
32 Leitrim 31,796

[Rossfan]

Would any of the North Eastern folks have any idea if the Nationalist population if those Counties ?
I'd hazard a guess of 33,000 for Fermanagh.

PS " Londonderry" J70....

[Jinxy]

Look at the margins of victory for Kerry and Dublin in those periods.
Kerry
1975 7
1978 17
1979 11
1980 3
1981 7
1984 5
1985 4
1986 8

Dublin
2011 1
2013 1
2015 3

When Kerry are winning it's business as usual, just their God-given right, with Dublin it's a crisis.

When Kerry were winning, they were completing on equal terms with all others. That is simply not the case with present day Dublin.

That Kerry team had quite a few advantages in fairness.



Back then our lads were still using these.



Actually, I think Mickey Burke still uses one of these to wash himself.

[Lar Naparka]

Look at the margins of victory for Kerry and Dublin in those periods.
Kerry
1975 7
1978 17
1979 11
1980 3
1981 7
1984 5
1985 4
1986 8

Dublin
2011 1
2013 1
2015 3

When Kerry are winning it's business as usual, just their God-given right, with Dublin it's a crisis.

When Kerry were winning, they were completing on equal terms with all others. That is simply not the case with present day Dublin.

That Kerry team had quite a few advantages in fairness.



Back then our lads were still using these.



Actually, I think Mickey Burke still uses one of these to wash himself.

Where did you pick that one up?
It's one of the golden oldies alright.
The controversy that photo kicked up took years to subside.

[Lar Naparka]

Would any of the North Eastern folks have any idea if the Nationalist population if those Counties ?
I'd hazard a guess of 33,000 for Fermanagh.

PS " Londonderry" J70....

Reminds me of the quote by Peter McKinnity when he was asked what it was like to play football in Fermanagh.
"Football," sez he, " How can you play football here when half the county is lakes and the other half is Protestants?"

[seafoid]

Dublin are not virtually unbeatable. Mayo were good enough to win an all Ireland but didn't. The margins are wafer thin. 

[Syferus]

The margins are thick as a stack of bibles for Dublin.

[Lar Naparka]

They weren't though. In terms of preparation, Clare and Waterford are probably a lot closer to Dublin now than they were to Kerry then. There is no way most counties in the 70's were investing the amount of time and money Dublin and Kerry were and I know some of the weaker ones were miles off.

Why weren't lads complaining that it's unfair for Mayo or Kerry to be competing against Leitrim, Longford, Roscommon etc. who have half the populations of the bigger counties? Why was it ok for years that Cork hurlers played Waterford, Offaly etc. with 3 or 4 times their populations?

It's a bit ironic that lads from big counties are complaining they can't compete with a bigger one when they regularly enjoyed the advantages of pick and finance against the majority of the smaller counties and built up plenty of provincial titles against counties who always had to compete against the odds.

I really feel your pain, brother and I'd offer to share it with you if only I knew wtf you are on about!

Why weren't lads complaining that it's unfair for Mayo or Kerry to be competing against Leitrim, Longford, Roscommon etc. who have half the populations of the bigger counties?

Why leave it at Mayo and Kerry? Why not include Dublin with over 20 times the population of either Mayo or Kerry?

It's a bit ironic that lads from big counties are complaining they can't compete with a bigger one when they regularly enjoyed the advantages of pick and finance against the majority of the smaller counties and built up plenty of provincial titles against counties who always had to compete against the odds.

Who is worried about provincial titles? Do you think Dublin doesn't "enjoy" the advantages of playing against Leitrim, Longford, Roscommon etc.
You don't have to be a statistician to see that Mayo and Kerry are "counties who always had to compete against the odds" when compared to Dublin.

BTW, the stats posted by J70 don't reveal the full picture.  You have to add in the populations of Fingal, South Dublin and  Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown to get the Dublin GAA's total.

That comes to 2,018,526 almost 14 times that of Kerry (145,502 ) and more than 15 times the population of Mayo (130,638.)

[Rossfan]

Lar, I suspect the 1.2m figure is all of Dublin

[Zulu]

Lar, the point is the GAA has always been unfair, counties with the highest populations dominating but fans from those counties, like Kerry, Mayo, Cork etc. never complained about how unfair it was on the Leitrim's of this world. They are now complaining because Dublin are flexing their muscles more than they ever did before. The bottom line is Dublin's current strength makes no difference to over half of the counties chances of winning an All Ireland, it's zero now and was usually zero before. It's the likes of Mayo, Kerry, Cork, Tyrone etc. who have had their chances of ultimate success slashed from what it was.