Dublin did put the right structures in place.

But they got the funds to do that and continue to receive the funds to do that, the same funds that other counties dont get. Its quite simple really. There are 50 plus full time coaches in Dublin alone, Offaly i believe has one! Now this is not the fault of Dublin GAA, they have only used the money thats been made available to them and used it well, they are hardly going to turn it down

Yet the likes of John O Leary just says the likes of Offaly etc should just get on with it. O Learys statement may have well of said "let them eat cake"

Most of the counties in Leinster are making the best use of the resources they have including Dublin. Its not Dublins fault that Leinster football is dead on its feet, neither is it the blame of the individual counties. In simple economics a successful Dublin means more money for the GAA, the GAA have their wish!

tearintom (Wexford) - Posts: 1338 - 31/03/2016 16:03:21    1839724

Beir bua that's fair enough but the reason Dublin receive that amount is because of the size of the playing population in the capital it's loaves and fishes up here! It's not just the number of clubs up here but the amount of juvenile teams within those clubs! I coach an u9 team in my own club with a panel of 30 players and one of our Southside rivals has a few u9 teams totalling something like close on 100 players! So all these factors have to be taken into account before criticising our level of funding received!

DUBJOHN (Dublin) - Posts: 932 - 31/03/2016 16:03:40    1839725

Armagh still could demoted to Div 3, but the 2 poorest sides we have meet this yr where Meath and Laois... they both defeated us, but they made very heavy weather of defeating an understrenght Armagh side

The reality is for most of Leinster is starved of sucess at Club All_Ireland, Schools A or B or C, Minor , U-21 and NFL

We call Kildare a big gun - but when have the last won anything. Meath should be doing better than what they are, but their underage-level has been poor for a while....although Wolfe Tones have brought sucess at JFC and IFC no Meath club has brought any kind of momemtum to the Leinster Senior Club championship in a long time....

cuchulainn35 (Armagh) - Posts: 1676 - 31/03/2016 16:12:13    1839736

Tearintom so you believe if it wasn't for structures Dublin wouldn't have Jack McCaffrey James McCarthy Ciaran Kilkenny Dean Rock Cian O Sullivan Cormac Costello Paul Mannion Emmett O Congaile etc even doh these players mention have massive gaa blood?

This from a county that has the best Rock band In The world

Major winner golfer

Ufc champion

Damien duff Robbie Keane Liam Brady John Giles I could go on night naming great Dublin soccer players

Great actors ,great poets, great films ,great musicians

Yet you think only for structures we wouldn't be anywhere at Gaelic football? Yet for such a small city we've made a massive imprint all over the world

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts: 9926 - 31/03/2016 16:29:08    1839744

So anyone care to explain what 'structure' is needed?

RoyalBadger (Meath) - Posts: 571 - 31/03/2016 16:46:17    1839752

Beir bua that's fair enough but the reason Dublin receive that amount is because of the size of the playing population in the capital it's loaves and fishes up here!
DUBJOHN (Dublin) - Posts:426 - 31/03/2016 16:03:40 18

Those figures are Per Capita though.

beir_bua (Kildare) - Posts: 746 - 31/03/2016 16:48:11    1839754

DUBJOHN

I agree, I may sound like a stuck record to anyone who's already read my posts about the problems with Meath football but it really all does boil down to years of appalling mismanagement by our county boards for last 10-15 years and counting. When you have consistently poor leadership it's basically impossible to get things back on track, we tried a clear out a number of years ago but sadly the new lot aren't looking much better than the old lot.

We've been far too slow to adapt to modern football in Meath (we're only hiring a full time strength and conditioning coach this year for example) and for the life of me I can't understand why, look at the mess it's left us in.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 31/03/2016 16:54:31    1839760

No bother Htaem! It must be frustrating alright to be seeing the fruits of incompetence of your own county board for the last 15 years or so! The club's down there need to step up and get this sorted out and here in Dublin we have the opposite situation where our county have been super successful in doing what they're supposed to be doing but apparently to people from outside the capital it's all down to the funding we receive! You can have all the funding in the world but if you haven't got the right people in place to distribute that funding and make sure it's going into the right areas that need it then it's not going to make a blind bit of difference, of course you also need the raw materials in the form of players and we in Dublin are blessed with the crop of players that we've had over the last 6 or 7 years or so! And that is more important than any level of funding!

DUBJOHN (Dublin) - Posts: 932 - 31/03/2016 17:26:33    1839784

There are 50 plus full time coaches in Dublin alone, Offaly i believe has one!

Another often quoted fact about the structures in Dublin football. What a lot of people fail to mention is that all these coaches wages are split 50/50 between the County board and the club they are involved with. If the club can't finance this they don't get a coach. A lot of smaller clubs 'share' a coach who then covers the local schools/ juvenile teams. On top of that the vast majority of these coaches are young lads or girls from the locality with relatively basic qualifications. It's not like every team has a Jim Gavin or Jim Mc Guinness taking the next generation forward. For Dublin it's simply a matter of putting bodies on the ground to get as many kids as possible involved in Gaelic games at an early age before they are lost to rugby/ soccer or whatever other games might be popular in their area.
After that the County operates development squads from U-14 up similar to almost every other county in Ireland, so there is no great secret there except for hard work and dedicated players and coaches,

AHP (Dublin) - Posts: 323 - 31/03/2016 17:51:14    1839799

About the plight of other Leinster teams. Kildare were a bit of a mess after McGeeney. They poured resources into that team with Geezer at the helm. But they also started a focus on their underage teams. Dublin beat them narrowly in the 21's In Navan last year. They are favourites for Saturday's game. And at Minor they beat Dublin well last year. They've an excellent coach in Cian O'Neil who is also a fitness expert. Kildare will be fit come summer, and are looking at a lot of young guys. They are on the right path, do I think they'd turn the Dubs over right now, no...... But if they keep bringing kids through the ranks they'll be challenging soon enough.

Htaem hit the nail on the head about Meath football. Totally mismanaged at county board level, and need to focus on modern football. Even when they aren't great Meath will always put it up to the Dubs. But to get back the dominance they once had they have to overhaul what they are doing and really work on the development side of things.

Jimbo has constantly pointed this out when people are moaning about money. The issues of the GAA are strongly linked to societal changes and demographics. The last few years have been harsh on small communities and many local rural lads had to emigrate or head up to Dublin. This has had a huge effect on the GAA in rural areas. Another issue is Offaly and Wexford are dual counties, and they try put in teams in both codes. This is difficult to do without resources. Carlow are just struggling, but always have. Louth has two huge towns in terms of numbers, but both are massive hubs for soccer. Kilkenny don't play football. Westmeath and Laois are kind of where they have always been.

Look Dublins best players over the last 15 years were Alan Brogan and Cluxton. They weren't on development panels. They didn't have paid coaches coaching them.

JayP (Dublin) - Posts: 1772 - 31/03/2016 17:52:35    1839801

Westmeath and Laois were the two best counties in Leinster a decade ago... Will ya gway saying they're still the same! Westmeath will never get another forward like dessie or a corner back like John Keane. End of! Dublin players were shakin' in their boots facing the maroon and white back then...

XPAC (Westmeath) - Posts: 86 - 31/03/2016 19:09:29    1839834

Clondalkindub ive no idea what relevance all that other stuff has got to do with a thread where the rest of Leinster is getting a lashing for not being up at the standard of Dublin.

And again I never said that dublin wouldn't have brought the same footballers through with funding or no funding. Dublin have always managed to bring top class players through throughout the years.

But the fact is Dublin have vast resources compared to the rest of the counties in Leinster and as a result have a greater advantage to start with. If people wish to ignore that then that's their own perogative. But again none of this is the fault of Dublin gaa in my opinion.

The fact is if you want to dine at the top tables then you have to be able to afford it.

tearintom (Wexford) - Posts: 1338 - 31/03/2016 19:27:05    1839840

Ive asked before and I will ask again Master tell me what you know about development squads , cost of running them , how often they meet , do they have nutrionists and if they do how often do they meet , access to Atheltic development sessions or gym sessions which are different , often does an under 16 squad meet , tell me what's been done differently with these squads to other so called established counties , as this is a discussion on Leinster I will discuss Kildare as an example very little difference for a while Kildare were setting up developement squads one year earlier than Dubs that may have changed , talking to coaches from club Salins to newbridge and lexlip omongst other side there's nothing between these guys , it's from around the 20-22 age bracket that turning those lads into seniors is the problem , another issue is emigration losing lads hand over fist .
You come onto every message board and bring it around to your well versed opinion , you ignore anything that puts you on the back foot , you have an opinion on talent yet have never discussed were you formed that opinion , was it from first hand experience at club , county , level ? Have you any badges to your name ?
You now what they say about opinions there like what ?
Most posters disagree on here and many will admit when there wrong , that's something you just don't get , your arguments are stale week and more than a little predictable , the difference between you and I is that I wouldn't get on a website and discuss underage structures in Mayo because I know fec7 all about them , however I do know a fair bit on Galway hurling structures .
It helps when dishing your propaganda to go with a little more than newspaper cuttings and Google , CKD is right we are good because we are good , and when we lose which will inevitably happen it will be because we are not good enough , a golden generation burst on the scene and are doing it at senior level , if money is everything explain what has happened since the minor teams of the Kilkenneys , MC caffreys , Lowndes etc ?

Damothedub (Dublin) - Posts: 5193 - 31/03/2016 19:57:25    1839854

Then a manager like Jim McGuinness comes along , plays in a different way , comes up with a plan with limited resources ( any resources he made himself ) to defeat the best sides and he's slated .

These counties need good gaffers to make them believe .

Yes Dublin have many advantages but there comes a time when others need to up the anti .

TheRightStuff (Donegal) - Posts: 1688 - 31/03/2016 19:59:52    1839855

one of the worrying things i have noticed talking to meath people is a huge sense of apathy, the fans nearly dont want to talk about the demise of meath and im not sure the clubs really care too much anymore about how the meath county team is doing. in fact a few club players i have talked to are delighted when Meath get knocked out of the championship so the club can get going in championship again. does this attitude happen all over among club players, other club players say we should forget about putting money into the senir team and look after underage and ordinary club players. apathy can be a dangerous thing, we could see meaths big support baase dwindle to the likes of laois or offaly who now bring very few supporters to croke park or even home league games. i could actually see meath go the same way as offaly football or cavan did after the mid 1960s. the time is now here where some good club players will not tog out for the county team, we are then just a step away from being a carlow or wicklow in leinster gaa

dickie10 (UK) - Posts: 688 - 31/03/2016 20:29:27    1839875

Andy McEntee is the man I want in charge of Meath.

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 31/03/2016 20:54:52    1839894

Damo the problem is there are lots of myths about Dublin football. The admin didn't post the first third of my post above. I basically said that I didn't get what TheMaster was saying, he was jumping from contradictory opinion to contradictory opinion. He kind of said that its easier to get good people involved in a county board if the team are successful. Mayo were reletively successful over the last few years yet the county board made a mess of their finances. This is not a Dublin Mayo argument. Dublin have good administrators. They got good people involved.

Dublin underage players aren't getting dropped to training in Lamborghini's. They are doing the same things most other development squads are. Senior success is cyclic. What Kerry have mastered is always hanging around the top table.

JayP (Dublin) - Posts: 1772 - 31/03/2016 21:02:30    1839899

To be honest,I think the last 4 years have been the worst I have seen from a Meath team in my lifetime.I honestly don't think the players are that bad.But the manager is incapable of putting any tactical print on the team and this is his fourth year.Honestly you would swear this was his first.He has no idea what his best team is, at this stage you should have some idea.But whats worse than all that,its clear that the players have zero believe in their own ability,but also what they are trying to do as a team.It would be interesting to see another manager at Meath to see if he can get a bit more out of the players,because at the moment we are worse than we were when Mick took over...

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 31/03/2016 21:39:06    1839920

Good luck with that Damo...

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20600 - 01/04/2016 09:25:06    1839944

The current grant is being examined as stated by the GAA

It will take time to put that change in motion - I expect there will be change

Even if a certain % is removed - Dublin will always get the most funding due to it's population. It's that simple.

Dublin are capable of shoring up that shortfall - I envisage an approved sponsorship deal in the coming years as the AIG deal was done as a time of great financial uncertainty in Ireland. So Dublin GAA will be capable of absorbing any loss IMO

So really nothing will change.

If said % is then redirected - and split evenly across the board. I'm applying that idea to the "fairness" argument

Don't expect miracles lads... if all honesty it wont be very much extra coming your way whatsoever.

There are far greater issues facing the GAA over the next 20-30 years

All this talk about money isn't addressing the quite significant issues facing the GAA over that time

Outward migration from rural Ireland is going to run into the 100's of thousands.... Dublin population is set to rise to 2 million

That increase will mostly be made up of Outward migration from rural Ireland

The complete lack of adequate investment in rural Ireland over generations is to blame for this - And the massive disadvantage that exists within the GAA is that our sports mirror those socio-economic problems. It's one and the same. The infrastructure isn't there to hold young people, and that's they key ingredient to success - holding onto and developing talent. Keeping talent within your county.

We have already lost a huge amount of young people since the economic downturn and that has had a huge impact on rural clubs, it's usually young men that leave in larger numbers.

When you properly examine the real issues at play here

All this rubbish about a few extra quid coming your way is not going to make much difference whatsoever, That will become blatantly obvious in time.

Sure cut the current level of investment, Dublin will absorb that decrease and IMO be in a position to cover most, if not all of said decrease, you'll get your extra few quid,

When that has zero impact.... Then what?

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20600 - 01/04/2016 09:52:17    1839959