Leinster Council CEO Michael Reynolds has called on other counties to lift their standard as Dublin aim for a 15th Leinster SFC title in 16 years when they take on Meath in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon.
Dublin have also won six of the last eight All-Ireland’s and are going for an unprecedented fifth consecutive All-Ireland title.
The county has benefited massively from lucrative sponsorship deals as well as a landslide advantage in games development funding which has saw the Dublin County board receive over €17 million in games development grants between 2007 and 2018, leading second placed Cork who received just €1.4m.
A special report on Dublin's dominance as the GAA see the county as a blueprint for future, not the present problem https://t.co/DIjvsobrJJ #rtegaa pic.twitter.com/HVziowiLUO
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) June 23, 2019
The huge disparity in funding, as well as commercial success, has turned Dublin into a juggernaut spearheaded by Jim Gavin but Reynolds has called on other counties to rise up to meet Dublin despite operating in a different financial stratosphere to the Jacks.
“The Leinster Championship is quite vibrant outside the Dublin scenario. During the summer, you have some very good matches – the same in the other provinces,” Reynolds told RTE.
“I have no doubt the gap will close. It is not up to Dublin to come back, it’s up to the rest of us to lift.”
GAA President John Horan claimed the success of Dublin is not down to money and added that a lot of the intercounty success has stemmed from volunteer work.
However, Carlow’s Paul Coady disagrees and highlighted the clear gulf in class between the tiers in the GAA.
Coaching grants from croke park 2007-2018. Dublin €17,916,477 and Carlow was €856,897. Let’s talk Per player then and not population (€856,897 / 5,930 = €144.50 cw pp)
(€17,916,477 / 39,197 = €457.09 dub pp).— Paul Coady (@Paul_Coady10) June 13, 2019
