Dublin chief executive John Costello is perturbed by calls to curtail the capital's success by hamstringing them financially.

In his annual report, Costello argues that the Dubs should not be punished financially simply because they have got their house in order:

"Let me set the record straight, the Dublin County Committee has no issue with Croke Park offering additional financial support to help so-called weaker counties in their quest to keep pace with the stronger units," he writes. "But let me be equally blunt, this should not come at a direct monetary cost to Dublin.

"It can be galling to hear some prominent GAA people decry the growth of this Dublin 'dynasty' while insisting that our capital's flagship football team should be divided in two (why stop there, you could hang, draw and quarter us?) and that all central funding of GAA activity in the capital must cease forthwith because of our allegedly endless sponsorship booty.

"Remember, it's not so long ago since equally prominent GAA people were decrying the absence of any football or hurling presence in large tracts of the city. A concerted, focused effort was launched to rectify this.

"Now when Dublin gets its house in order and success starts to flow, most notably at U-21 and senior football level, the inference is that we should stop doing the right things or even be handicapped from doing so.

"During the summer on several occasions turning on sports programmes on the radio and scanning the sports pages of several papers, it was like a national focus group had been formed in order to, as it was termed on radio, "halt the Dublin juggernaut".

"All sorts of measures to 'hamstring' Dublin were suggested with contributors just stopping short of suggesting the 'The King Herod Solution' which would put a cap on the number of young males allowed in any household!"

Tweet

Most Read Stories