JIM IS URGING DUBLIN TO DO ‘RIGHT THING’
JIM McGuinness has urged both Dublin GAA and Croke Park to ‘play it fair’ and ensure that the All-Ireland champions play one of their Super 8s games at a neutral venue.
Jim Gavin’s side are due to play two of their three round robin games at headquarters, their Super 8s opener against Donegal as well as their final match which has been designated as their ‘home’ fixture.
However, McGuinness, who’s Donegal side were the last to beat Dublin in Championship football back in 2014, feels that the GAA need to show they are treating Dublin the same as everyone else.
‘I think it’s an opportunity for Dublin and Croke Park to do the right thing and do the same as for all the other teams,’ McGuinness said at the launch of Now TV yesterday.
‘They are the best team in the country. They are chasing amazing goals season after season. Just play a game at home, play a game away from home and then say “listen, we don’t care where we play. Play the game at a neutral venue.” Do that and everyone will be happy.
‘It helps their own legacy. It helps Jim Gavin’s legacy and it helps the team’s legacy and stops people from being negative. They’ve got the biggest population, the most money, all these things so it’s an opportunity to rise above that and go to a neutral venue and do what they do anyway and that’s win almost every game.’
McGuinness, who returns to the Sky Sports studio as an analyst this weekend, says that Dublin’s record in Croke Park means giving them two games there for Super 8s creates an unfair advantage.
‘The chance of them losing two games in the Super 8s at home in a month when they haven’t lost two games in four years, it is not realistic.
‘The reality is that people from the outside looking in will go “that’s a fix, that’s set up and Dublin are going to progress again”. There’s no question about that. If they have those two home games, they are probably going to win them based on the last four seasons.’
McGuinness, who refused to be drawn on rumours that he recently gave a talk to the current Donegal squad, admitted that Paddy McBrearty’s torn cruciate has cast a pall over the county after winning their ninth Ulster title at the weekend.
‘It’s not the story that people wanted to be waking up to on the back of what has been an incredible season so far, with this fusion of young talent, so it is devastating for him. He will be 25 in August, he’s in his peak. There’s no doubt INPHO that he is one of the best forwards in the country and would have been a nailed-on All-Star for me, maybe he still will be.
‘They’ve embraced the Championship. The younger guys have that medal in their pocket and they’ve experienced what it’s like to win an Ulster Championship and that will stand them in good stead. You’d want everybody available going in to play Dublin in Croke Park. That’s not going to be the case now. As a result, we can see how the players react to this and can they galavanise and just go for it.’
The current controversy over the venue for the Kildare-Mayo qualifier echoed the doubt over Donegal hosting Tyrone for their Championship opener in 2013 although, as McGuinness points out, the county spent a long time working on getting Seán MacCumhaill Park up to scratch.
‘What we did is ask what we needed to do to get the capacity up. And we put a lot of effort in and worked around the clock to make it. Other than that, it wouldn’t have happened because the GAA have got their structures and protocols in place.’