Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Cash will always be a hot topic
WIN, lose or draw, Johnny Magee reckons the complaints about Dublin’s privileged financial position won’t go away.
The former Dublin centre-back is adamant he can pick all sorts of holes in the criticism but, at this stage, he’s barely bothered.
The typical complaint is that Dublin get too much coaching money from Croke Park or that they shouldn’t be allowed to keep all the sponsorship money they rake in.
And if they etch their names in history by completing the five-ina-row, a debate about funding, population and resources is sure to kick off straight away.
Magee told Irish Sunday Mirror-Sport: “Look, that’s never going to go away. For me, I don’t think it’s ever going to go away. You look at Paul Flynn and these guys, the standards that those guys imposed on the group is there to be seen for the younger lads coming through.
“For me, it’s just another thing for people to write about, to stick it to this group.
“In reality, just look at their skill set; right foot, left foot, right hand, left hand, their decision making, that doesn’t happen by accident.
“That comes with good coaching, application, reading what’s going on with the opposition players... like, you watch the lads, they force the players that they’re marking onto their weaker side, all of that takes time and that was going on when I was finishing up with Dublin.
It was the detail the lads were going into on the opposition. So you knew that was only going to go one way and increase and it did.
“And that’s why they are where they are.”