Retired GAA stars, Coman Goggins and Owen Mulligan have both denied that Dublin’s recent dominance is down to money.
The Dubs have now collected six of the last eight All-Ireland titles, and in the last four years have looked completely unstoppable. Throughout this spell, Mayo in 2016 & 2017 have looked like the only team capable of beating them.
In light of their recent success many people have pinned the reason down to financial issues, citing that Dublin GAA get more funding than any other county.
Speaking at yesterday’s launch of 2018’s Dublin Sports Fest, Coman Goggins conceded that the funding issues needs to be looked at, but it cannot go down as the reason Dublin are winning.
“Dublin’s a big county so you’re going to need money in terms of developing clubs. There’s a lot of areas in Dublin that don’t have GAA, and don’t have very many sporting facilities. So if GAA can reach in there or help those areas to try and grow, then obviously the money has to be spent in that respect.
“In terms of this core group of footballers, i’m not sure how the money has influenced them to be as resilient and as skilful and as good as they are.” He added.
Goggins believes that not enough credit is given to the people who have invested time in the players from a young age, the backbone of this Dublin team is made up of players who have come up through the underage ranks together, at a time when Dublin were not the force they are today.
“Where I would see the difference being at the moment for Dublin is; Jack McCaffrey, Eric Lownes, Ciaran Kilkenny, all these guys have been coached by men who’ve invested time in them for the last 10 or 12 years.”
“Dessie Farrell, Jim Gavin, Declan Darcy. These guys who have been at the top level, have played at the top level, brought in great teams around them to try and better develop these guys and to try and get them as skilful as they can.”
He continued “So I’m not sure money has influenced those guys to step in and take development squad roles, they stepped in for a love of Dublin GAA and to try and take Dublin GAA to where it is today.”
Paddy Power brand ambassador Owen Mulligan had some similar insights into this Dublin teams success. He believes that talk of financial gain should be scrapped and we should be appreciating Dublin’s desire to be great.
“All the talk about Dublin’s success is connected to their financial situation and it’s suggested the county should be split in two. That’s complete nonsense in my opinion.”
“What it all boils down to is the fact that these are a group of individuals that have the burning desire to make their county an unstoppable force.”
“It’s not Dublin’s fault that they’ve gone so far ahead of the chasing pack. Their motivation is to strive for greatness.”
Mulligan believes that Dublin can be stopped, but in order to do so teams need to change their mind-set. He feels most teams are happy to keep it tight against the Dubs and go down by six or seven points and this needs to stop.
Mulligan said that any dominant team that was taken down was as a result of players who ‘died in their boots for the full 70 minutes plus’.
According the Goggins, the funding argument is very much relevant, but it would be unfair to dismiss everything else that has went alongside these Dublin players.
“I get the money argument, and maybe that takes place separately to a Dublin football team meeting. I would say the benefit of the team is that these guys have coached and developed them to where they are and they are constantly growing and learning, through Jim and others to make them better day on day, year on year.”
“The funding piece certainly is an argument that needs to be had, but at a different level than being aimed at this team and the success they are having.”
The money aspect is undeniable in that the facts and figures are out there to prove that Dublin do indeed receive more money in funding than every other team. In fact they receive more funding than the rest of Leinster combined.
However, to dismiss these players achievements as purely down to money would be unfair to them as athletes who strive to be the very best in their sport.
Coman Goggins pictured at the launch of the Inaugural Dublin Sportsfest 4/9/2018 Dublin City Council and Dublin City Sport; Wellbeing Partnership to launch the inaugural Dublin Sportsfest, a week-long celebration of sport throughout the City of Dublin which will take place from 23rd – 30th September.
