Dublin GAA chief executive John Costello has hit out at some of the media coverage of the county’s senior footballers this year in his annual report.

Jim Gavin’s side recorded their county’s fourth consecutive All-Ireland SFC success in September with a 2-17 to 1-14 victory over Tyrone at Croke Park.

Speaking on some of the commentary afterwards, Costello was critical of accusations that the players lack personality, describing them as “a crude device to try and devalue achievements”.

"Some of the commentary on our senior footballers and management was eye-catching and I think it would be remiss of me not to let it pass unchallenged," Costello said. 

"Words such as 'robots', 'automatons', 'emotionless' were used by a small group of commentators to describe our management and players on several occasions this summer.

"Concerned by this matter we undertook an examination of the sum of the parts of all involved and (are) glad to report that no microchips, levers, wires, transistors, relays etc were discovered! However, I can exclusively reveal that Paul Mannion and Jack McCaffrey do have a sixth gear!

"On a more serious note, I am not sure what purpose this fulfils for some commentators. When we were less successful, we were ridiculed for being too showy etc - now it's the opposite."

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