Philly: Stop complaining and just try to beat the Dubs

PHILLY McMAHON has called on Dublin’s rivals to find a way to beat Jim Gavin’s five-in-a-row-chasing side rather than “complain” about the advantages Dublin enjoy.

The level Dublin are funded centrally, their population advantage, and the home comforts afforded to them in Croke Park have been debated recently but McMahon reckons that sort of talk “sends the wrong message”.

“I understand where it comes from – I understand that it’s just the way sport goes,” said McMahon, speaking at yesterday’s launch of the Coca-Cola HBC #YouthEmpowered Programme 2019.

“There’s a successful team; there’s always people out there that will look at ways to try and change the success of whoever is successful. And I think it sends the wrong message out for the next generation.

“So what we’re saying is, ‘right, if we have a team that’s successful, let’s complain. Let’s complain about the rules, let’s complain about the money, let’s complain about the population’ ... instead of saying, ‘let’s actually beat them when they have all that.’ And that needs to be the message.

“I don’t think you can go to any top team in this country and say to them, ‘Which would you want to win, an All-Ireland that changes the rules, that complains about this, this and this – or beat Dublin with all of these things?’

“The person I am, I would like to win against all of this stuff… I think that’s a much better sense of an All-Ireland than complaining.”

Dublin will be afforded two games in the ‘Super 8s’ in Croke Park this year but McMahon would have no issue playing any game outside of HQ.

“I honestly wouldn’t care if you put four jumpers on a piece of grass and you told me to play Donegal. I wouldn’t care if you took it out of Croke Park and played it in Parnell Park.”