Carlow matters to Turlough, if not GAA chiefs

CARLOW boss Turlough O’brien was spot on in his comments having seen his side record a rare Championship win against Wexford (left, Shane Clarke). “We matter as much as Dublin and Kerry and Tyrone and Donegal and we want to be in the All-ireland Championship and we’re not going to die down against Dublin, I can guarantee you that,” he said. And yet, he couldn’t have been more wrong. For starters, their next opponents received €1.28m more than them in games development funding centrally in 2016 according to the GAA’S financial statements. It was much the same for years before that and it’ll hardly change much in the coming years either. And then there’s the venue for their meeting on Saturday week O’moore Park in Portlaoise. Since Dublin travelled to Longford in 2006, 60 of their 61 Championship games have taken place in Croke Park. By contrast, Carlow have had 25 Championship matches from 2006 on, with just eight of them at home. Under the terms of the Slattery Report, Carlow’s Netwatch Cullen Park (below) can hold 11,000, which is deemed too small to cater for the crowd, with O’moore Park’s greater seating capacity allowing for all Dublin’s season ticket holders. The reasoning stinks. The Leinster Council is effectively saying that raking in some extra cash and looking after Dublin fans trumps the idea of fairness in how their competitions are run. And if the season ticket scheme dictates where games should be played, then it isn’t fit for purpose.