Sixty-three Sam Maguires. 36 Liam MacCarthys. Three counties. One concept that is easier said than done.
Dublin and Kerry in the football. Kilkenny in hurling.
All three have it sussed.
In the wake of Pete McGrath’s exit from the Fermanagh camp, the debate reopened on where the responsibility lies when counties under-perform. The blame so often lies with the manager but players are not immune from criticism.
Former Galway footballer Pádraic Joyce suggested that fans should also look at county boards when assessing the form and expectations of sides. Joyce made some interesting comments [from 10:10] on The GAA Hour and one point in particular hit home.
“Players should play, to my eyes,” Joyce began, “and managers should manage.
“They should get the best 30 players in the county available for the team, and that includes the county board, who should row in as well. There are situations where lads are working in Dublin or they’re working wherever. You have to try get lads job locally around the place.
“You look at Kerry and I can’t name one Kerry player working outside of the county. I’ll put it that way.
“There’s no Dublin player working outside Dublin, obviously. Any good teams – the Galway and Kilkenny hurlers. No Kilkenny lads are working outside, apart from one guy that I know who is working in Dublin.
“You have to do what you can for your county players. Keep them around, keep them in employment and keep them there.”
Jobs for the boys. It is something that strikes true but that many fans would never consider.
Look, for example, at the effort involved for someone like Joe Canning and Tiernan McCann to, respectively, get back to Galway and Tyrone for training and matches. McCann told us:
“Most of the time I would try to get away on time for training because it’s a two-hour trek to Garvaghey and then another two-hour trek back up the road.”
It is of course no longer that cut and dry, with the likes of Kerry’s Kieran Donaghy working across the country with PST Sports; Richie Hogan, Kilkenny hurler, doing stints recruiting teachers in the Middle East and Jack McCaffrey likely to be required to travel outside the M50 if he progresses with his training as a doctor.
The realities of modern life and economic necessities to travel for work do place a strain on rural communities – the GAA have done a lot of study on this topic – but you look at the efforts made by individuals in other counties and see that the effort to stay local extends beyond the big three.
You have Michael Murphy and Neil Gallagher opening a sports shop in Letterkenny, Canning starting his own business in Limerick or Darran O’Sullivan’s drastic decision to give up his job as a bank official.
The drive and commitment is not unique to Kerry, Dublin and Kilkenny.
