Like the Olympics the race for All-Ireland glory is rigged

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NOT long after watching Michael Conlon robbed of his Olympic medal dream, I dared to suggest online that sport in its purest form is gone, that even hurling and football All-Irelands can only be won by those counties with deep pockets.

It mightn’t be the same as judges making highly questionable decisions against a backdrop of corruption and back-hand payments in amateur boxing, but in its own way, the race for the Liam MacCarthy and Sam Maguire Cups is rigged.

Just to make the point, I put up a graphic of the county by county spend for 2015.

Top of the list? Dublin on €1,556,075. Tipperary were fourth on the list of five counties topping the million mark on €1,045,916. Compare that to the likes of two midrange counties like Offaly and Laois whose spend was of the order of €600,000. Two counties trying to compete at every level in two different codes.

It’s now such an unlevel playing field. Go back to my time as a player with Offaly and pretty much every county trained three times a week and had a match on a Saturday or Sunday. The game accommodated all sorts of body shapes.

I never felt that any other county had anything on us. There were no foreign training camps and we were always well looked after in terms of being fed after training, gear, travelling expenses. And the 1990s turned out to be the most democratic of eras in terms of All-Ireland hurling titles being shared around.

There was a certain input from psychologists, nutritionists and those sort of add-ons, but always within certain parameters.

Now? Some players in Offaly and other counties must feel that the game is rigged against them.

Cork, Kilkenny and Tipperary were always the big three in hurling, so the fact that Kilkenny have dominated the modern era isn’t exactly new. I had a big reaction from Kilkenny hurling folk who took issue with money playing a part in any All-Ireland success but just look at the figure for what is effectively a one-code county. A figure of €571,212, basically on one sport.

The Kilkenny crowd went mad because they didn’t like the inference. Yet they spent nearly €600,000 alone on hurling. If you’re a dual county, you have to support both codes from development squads at under 14 and 15 right the way up. Then you need double the coaches.

Supporting one sport primarily is a different thing. Kilkenny have loads of ex-players in the schools; their structures from head to toe are perfect. Geoghraphically, they are a small enough county, too, so there is no huge expenditure in getting lads to training.

A simple rule of thumb is take a 30-man panel of senior inter-county players.

If Offaly are spending roughly €600,000 on two sports, then €300,000 breaks down into €10,000 a player. Of course that will be diluted when you work in the minor and U21 squad but, as a guide, Kilkenny players are getting twice as well looked after because they have roughly the same spend – €600,000 – on pretty much the one code.

Again, it’s not a level playing field.

Offaly have a small supporters’ club while the likes of Tipperary have a big one. What about any extras that a county might generate, the sponsored cars and everything else? The official figures aren’t the limit of what is being spent at all in a lot of cases.

There’s a message in every walk of life. If you have amateur administrators taking on basically professional roles, it isn’t easy.

Offaly are going bad at the moment, in part because of limited money, limited resources. Meanwhile, the likes of Dublin are getting off buses like Manchester United players, all 6’2” with strength and conditioning programmes and all the add-ons on their side. They have a great full-time administrator in John Costello but other counties aren’t so lucky.

In this respect, Croke Park needs to take a much more central role.

THEY need to say we’ll cover the full costs of a Centre of Excellence if Offaly are to stand a chance rather than allowing the county to drain finances that are needed elsewhere to keep up.

The GAA’s Central Council and Leinster Council have been brilliant but they’ve left a shortfall of €750,000.

Offaly GAA has already raised €1.2 million for a new stand so it means trying to get financial support from the same group of people again.

The GAA should be able to say: “This is needed – we’ll cover it completely.”

€12 million was spent on the National Games Development Centre in Abbotstown while we are basically going around begging for money for a centre for Offaly.

The GAA is able to build Croke Park and it’s debt free now.

We say we can’t support a professional set-up for players but we seem to be able to support everyone else in a county set-up. Is that what we’re about? The financial divide means the players in the top counties are being subjected to a level of professionalism that players in other counties aren’t.

It’s hard to compete with the big population centres in terms of human resources – that’s coaches, players, administrators, volunteers on the ground - when the money divide is widening the gap.

That’s before you open it up to the successful players in the top counties and their ability to make money in terms of personal endorsements and sponsorship.

Amateur? What does amateur mean?

You’re a volunteer or you’re not. If you’re being paid to be a coach, you’re not an amateur. The GAA is glossing over a whole lot at club and county level.

Players aren’t being paid – but compensated for taking part.

The Olympics are meant to be amateur but how much is a gold medal worth?

Now the question has to be asked: how much is an All-Ireland medal worth?