Gap isn’t just widening, it’s ballooning

This is the 15th year in which we have had qualifiers and an All-Ireland quarter-final stage and results in the last eaight seasons alone combine to paint a very depressing backdrop, writes Brendan O’Brien

Okay people, time to calm down and take stock. We’ve had five days to gather our thoughts and let the toxins from last weekend’s disappointing fare at Croke Park flush from our systems. Maybe now we can look at this thing with clear heads and dispense with the rush to judge Gaelic football as a game where only a privileged few can hope to succeed – no matter how true or not that may be. Let’s instead look at it dispassionately.

It was a depressing old time in the Big House. No doubt about that. Kildare’s embarrassment at the hands of Kerry took the biscuit, obviously, but there were few crumbs of comfort to be found in the other three games. Galway stayed with Donegal for a half and Fermanagh gave us a reason to smile in the last 10 minutes against Dublin. That’s fairly slim pickings. There is, undeniably, a trend across modern sports that is most unwelcome. The influx of money and expertise into the sector worldwide has raised standards in pretty much any sport you would care to mention and there is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest it has promoted the emergence of small elites becoming increasingly untouchable.