Dublin’s Croke Park advantage always irked me

IT HAS become an issue now even though it was one that always passed over my head when I was playing.

Dublin’s Croke Park advantage – and the fact that they will most likely get to play two games there in the Super 8s – has enraged a lot of folk this week, not least in Donegal who will end up playing two games on the road.

In the end I looked at Croke Park as a home away from home, but it is easy for me to say that given that I had frequent access to the place and for most of my career Dublin were not ramming their superiority down my throat.

But if was a young Kerry player now, I may take a different view and wonder why should Dublin have exclusive access to a national stadium – even in my own times it irked a little that they always had their own dressing room while we were moved around – which ensures they have home field advantage even on AllIreland final day.

So I get exactly where Donegal were coming from this week, but finding a resolution to a problem of Dublin and the GAA’s making has to be a long-term issue.

I think the first step has to be to move their regular round League games out of Croke Park and into Parnell Park.

And if the latter can’t cope with that, then Dublin will have the incentive to go along with their obvious resources to develop a stadium which is fit for purpose.

Otherwise the real discontent that they are playing on a skewed pitch will only fester.