A SLAP IN THE FACE FOR EQUITY

Dublin are getting the Super 8 ‘hero’ treatment but taking away their home comforts at Croke Park could inject new life into football landscape

DONEGAL’S carbon footprint in making that trip to Dublin this week was justified not in the fudge it produced but in the lie it nailed. They knew they might as well have stayed at home and wailed at the Slieve League cliffs rather than burning diesel on the road to nowhere if they had headed south trying to get their fixture next weekend against Dublin changed out of Croke Park.

That fixture was inked in GAA rule passed at annual Congress.

So instead they settled for the sop which is likely to lead to a review of fixtures which should prevent Dublin playing two home games in the Super 8s next season.

The fudge was the notion that Dublin had not breached rule by nominating Croke Park as its home venue – which is quite true – but it would not be a ‘home’ venue in the first instance had the GAA not handed it over to them.

But the real dividend of Donegal’s intervention is that it nailed the lie which states the GAA’s biggest asset is a shared one and that their house in the city is a family-owned one.

Instead, what it brought back into focus is that one Dublin homeless crisis has at least been resolved even if it is by the crudest of tenancy agreements, the one which bows to the law of squatter rights.

Because a national stadium is no longer a national stadium when the day arrives it is called out as an away ground.

What we really need now is for the GAA to recognise that as a matter of fact rather than hedging behind the false promise that there is a bed for everyone provided Dublin are away for the weekend.

And the reason we should seek that declaration is to ensure no more smoke is blown in the face of the integrity of the Championship which is in their care but, for that to happen, it will take more than limiting Dublin to just one Super 8 game in Croke Park next year.

And we know that they are probably tired of hearing about ‘integrity’ but after what happened last weekend in Newbridge you would like to think everyone is now aware just how precious home advantage is.

Had the GAA’s CCCC its dull-witted way, then Kildare’s Championship would have been shooting up a carpet of daisies going into this weekend.

And the price of a few thousand discommoded fans and reduced gate receipts seems a very insignificant one when compared to the sense of intrigue which Kildare’s victory over Mayo restored to a Championship too predictable and staid for its own good.

Mark Gallagher of this parish totted up the kind of numbers this week that should make eyes water.

Since meeting Cork in the 2011 League opener under lights, Dublin have played 40 League matches at headquarters.

Their record stands at 32 wins, six defeats and two draws.

In the Championship they have played 42 championship games there, won 38, drew two and lost just two.

They are good but they are not that good.

In contrast, just taking this summer’s other provincial winners, since 2015, Galway have played 23 of their 47 games at home (49pc), Kerry 20 out of 48 (42pc) and Donegal 20 out of 51 (39pc)

Dublin have played no game at home in Parnell Park, but 74pc of all their games has been played at the same ‘neutral’ venue.

Not only that, but all of their biggest games will be played there and anyone that knows anything about sport will tell you just how big an advantage that is.

They will be able to tell you that in Donegal too, where they have not lost a home game in Ballybofey since 2010.

Put like that, if Donegal got to play 74pc of their games in Ballybofey, including all of the big ones, then it is likely that Sam would have come calling to the Hills more than once this decade.

In that context, the wonder is not that they did not drive to Croke Park this week, but that they did not walk there to make their protest.

The problem for the GAA is twofold; Dublin’s support base means it provides a stadium too big for purpose with a regular customer base and income. Cutting that off would, to some, be a case of cutting of its nose to spite its face.

The other side, though, is that they have taken their biggest asset, swaddled it with blue ribbons, and gifted it to the most powerful and best resourced county.

As a result that decision, among

IT IS ONLY A ‘HOME’ VENUE BECAUSE IT WAS GIFTED TO THEM BY THE GAA

others, in the way it has prioritised Dublin in terms of funding, is killing Gaelic football softly.

And, if the GAA want to stop it, one of the hard decisions they have to take is moving Jim Gavin’s (left) Dublin out of Croke Park, not just for an extra game in the Super 8s next year, but in the spring – where average attendances are barely over 20,000 – and out into the provinces in the early rounds of the Leinster Championship.

The next generation of Dublin footballers must not look at Croke Park as their home pitch, or this imbalance will be built permanently into the Championship.

Last week in the midst of ‘Newbridge or nowhere’, the off-the-record briefings on the GAA side suggested that the Liliwhites deserved no better for failing to develop St Conleth’s Park.

The irony of course is that the GAA’s wealthiest unit has not lifted a finger or its wallet to develop a home stadium that is fit for their purpose. Then again, they are not being encouraged too because Croke Park is only too happy to play out the role as landlords.

Dublin players were all singing off the one well-prepared hymn sheet this week when that question was raised, suggesting that they ‘paid rent’ to play in Croke Park.

Indeed, they do but it is a rent subsidised by a game which in the absence of fair play, is being bled dry of integrity and intrigue.

And that is just too high a price.