I like the romanticism and I think people looking at why they react a certain way is another interesting topic. I'm also not going to lie and pretend that I didn't know how certain people were going to react to the original post,or even that a part of me enjoys that reaction. But it was a valid and interesting blog,and I always go out of my way to reiterate how vital the people on the ground are to Dublins success and how it couldn't happen without a highly intelligent system put in place from top to bottom. But no matter how many times I say that and that Dublin have done nothing wrong,the ultra defensiveness still kicks in. It shouldn't be a grenade with those caveats and I don't think its on me that it still is.
Which is why I pointed out the arseholery of it. I admire your honesty there not lying and lets be honest I look no further than myself at the best of times arsehole wise. Leinster is a shambles mate long before this supposed Capital rescue. That's because if you kick a ball bigger than a sliotar in KK your hit with penalty points. If you choose the big ball over the small or egg shaped one in Strawberry land you're exiled to Wicklow who only hit punch bags now thanks to our national treasure. It's the Lilly's and Royals that want a good kick in the hoop. Sure we're all over both counties improving the breed thanks to governments past and present. I'm trying to keep patience but it's running out soon. Only one All Ireland final was a forgone might I add against Mickey Harts boys in 18. I'm starting to wish the hops went the other way in half the other finals so we don't have to put up with this. Annually.
But when it comes to this thread,matewhat are you actually having to put up with at this point? The party line is now nobody has ever said the extra funding hasn't helped Dublins success. From what I can tell,everybody agrees that the success wouldn't have been possible without a brilliant structure from top to bottom and the blood sweat and tears from everybody involved. Everybody agrees Leinster is fucked and that thats a bad thing. Everybody agrees on almost everything. There's probably not a thread on the site where people are in more agreement.
The money pumped in by sponsorship is a massive advantage to Dublin. 4 million over 5 years up to 2023. Again they get the biggest as they are the biggest names but wouldn’t it be fairer to take all the sponsorship money into a pool and divide it out equally. It’s an Amateur organisation after all.
I think I mentioned it on here before but last year I read dub sub confidential, the lad who wrote it was on the Dublin senior panel for a few years up to 2008 so seen first hand what went on, on and off the field. He said about them winning in 2011 "these men had earned it. They had been on the longest, hardest road in gaa and finally won the big one." He met cluxton in Australia a few weeks later and asked him what had changed over the past 3 years. He said "all that shite stopped, all that pricking around in training went. The intensity went up. There was no room for lads acting the bollix. Some of the early morning training had me in an absolute heap afterwards. I was puking, lads were in bits, but it sorted out all the shite. We got rid of the messers and that's what pushed us on." That's what got them over the line and turned them in to the juggernaut they are today, no surprises that clucko is front and center of the whole thing still. Him and the rest of the panel had been through a decade of heartbreak, all Ireland quarter final and semi final defeats, enough was enough.
As a Meath man being miles off is fcuking killing me but this point is key. Our county board ran three house draws and only cleared around €200,000 from it in total. The houses were sponsored by the developer as far as I'm aware. That's only one example I'll use, and to be fair a lot of good stuff is going on in the county now, but based on that type of stuff I'd actually be more concerned at them getting 20 million funding than anything. By all means move the funding elsewhere now but the right people need to be there to implement it.
I haven't said it. Nobody to my knowledge that supports this team has that I know of but because a picture has been painted backed up by sums on a list put up against other counties has now over 4 years in the making become some kind of gospel and supposed fact a explanation needs to be made. Heres the thing, and your going to call it blind head buried sand faith but I've never once joined up funding to Dublins success on the field. Its not a straight line and the dots don't join. I outright called it pure unadulterated culchie bugrudgery because I've already witnessed it when we were shite sure so this is gone a whole new level. Eventually I tried to, unsuccessfully, take my emotion out of it and genuinely try read up on stats, figures and the what the why and the where but still, still it comes down to bugrudgery. You don't bugrudge this team but you've no issue pointing out that its because of a helping hand that this team is where its at because of it based on non coincidental funding. I'm never going to change your mind on this the same way Ewan mckenna is never going to not change the mind of a Hill 16 pass holder. He's built up a fine case backed up by supporters who don't care what he's putting forward because it suits the agenda. It helps them feel better. But its all built on the same sand I bury my head in. Heres a beaut you'll laugh, its a fuckin charade. No fuckin way is this juggernaut not because of funding. No way has this team become this good of its own merit. I've painted a romanticism earlier from my perspective which shows you why I have to, hand on heart, have to believe that this Dublin team accomplished all its done no matter what Sean Kelly did in 2000 whatever. Dublin will always have a big pot of players to choose from. I don't know what else can be said about that except to apologise for this county being a capital. I'll never, ever, see how money going from one account to another, or cold hard cash for that matter makes Stephen Cluxton better than his rivals. Or why Dean Rock can hold his nerve better than most or why Brian Fenton is the Raheny Virgil Van Dijk. I won't patronise you saying its because this once in a generation team came about when the stars aligned because Luke Kelly made it so. There's no valid argument that will ever prove to me that funding a coach to show a group of kids how to hop, solo and hand pass a ball so that in 15 years time they'll rule the world guarantees the success this team has had. Fuck it....define help?
I'll take the shame rather than risk a split in the Dubs supporters camp on Irish Kop. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if that happened
August 2009, the dub$ get their arse handed to them by kerry, 17 point defeat. Kerry go on to win the all Ireland and Dublin senior county football is at an all time low. 2 years later Dublin are beating Kerry to win the all Ireland, the Dublin team have 8 of the players who took to the field 2 years previous, Kerry 9. Hard work and hunger closed the gap and got them over the line, nothing else.