Dublin are not winning because of their money.
This team is a once-in-a-generation side and they’ve been coming through the pipeline long before anyone even gave a second thought to the issues we now love to use to demand that the county be split in two.
But, today, Dublin are winning and they’re winning and winning and it’s scary because the business has followed. And because of that, it’s tougher to see how they’ll come back down again.
The money is not why they got to where they are, but it could be a big part in keeping them there.
Listen, the population issue might be frustrating but it’s the same at all levels, particularly at club. There are huge clubs with huge catchment areas and there are tiny clubs with six people in a whole year of their primary school. But what’s happening with sponsorship is hard to accept in ways.
The Dubs are of course the most attractive prospect for advertisers to throw their money at. They’re in the capital city, they have a massive population that supports them, they’re on TV all the time, they play at Croke bloody Park. It makes sense to want to invest in that product and no-one would be so stupid to tell businesses to go elsewhere. But without the other counties, there is no product there.
Meanwhile though, the others are hamstrung by geography, by demographics, by logic even. They’re just told to work with what they have.
OPINION: It's time intercounty #GAA sponsors were pooled and divided equally https://t.co/LWN6Y5I4I5
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 10, 2016
Then you have a team like Tyrone who have to battle for small margins within their own county. When Mayo’s expenses for the year are breaching 1.6 million, it doesn’t seem right that another player in a different county doing the same amount of work has to fight for mileage claims or something like that.
In a brilliant interview on The GAA Hour, Tyrone’s Sean Cavanagh said that it’s nothing new and nothing he thinks will stop them competing with Dublin, but it just gets harder to see how the other half live.
“You always do get that little bit jealous. Your heads are turned looking at the sponsored cars and hearing about the individual chefs,” Cavanagh told SportsJOE.
“You meet up with a few of the Dublin players at various events and they’re always well looked after nutritionally. They’re always carrying around tupperware boxes of food that has been prepared for them the night before or whatever it is.
“You do have to realise they are on a different level. The level of sponsorship income they’d be taking in is on a different par to any other county. You have to deal with that. Whilst it gives them a small edge in terms of nutrition or conditioning, at the same time, we’re putting in the same amount of hours on the football field or in the gym so it’s not a huge thing.”
Listen to all of Cavanagh’s thoughts on the matter (from 44:50) below.
“As much as anything else, it probably leaves you that little bit jealous but will it be the winning or losing of a game in the All-Ireland? I would say not,” Cavanagh continued.
“And we’re probably no different to any other county outside of Dublin in that there’s always that bit of an ongoing battle in terms of just getting everything right in terms of timing of expenses and administration more than anything else. It’s nothing that’s causing any discontent.
“As the players are working much harder and spending much more hours doing the work on and off the field, they probably do feel that wee bit more hard done by whenever an expenses claim isn’t processed as quick as what it should be.”
So should every county’s sponsorship money be pooled and split evenly?
“I think every county outside of Dublin would be happy enough with that,” the Tyrone legend laughed.
“You have to accept almost that just with the city and the big business in and around the city and with the success they’ve had this last four or five years as well, Dublin are going to be big business.
“Burnley’s never going to get the same sponsorship as Man United.
“Even though it turns your head a little bit, you do realise that the Dublin lads still have to go out and put in the same work and time commitment as we do. It’s a luxury but the most important thing is trying to win football matches and I don’t think it gives them an unbelievable advantage in terms of doing that.”
