Tom Gray: Dominance of Dublin not just about funding

Dublin U20 manager Tom Gray has criticised the media for failing to research the real reasons behind the county’s senior domination and for being too quick to link it to financial assistance.

Critics have claimed that Dublin, chasing a five-in-a-row of senior All-Ireland football wins, have been given an unfair advantage with €18m in games development funding poured in by the GAA between 2007 and 2018.

Next up on that funding list is Cork, on around €1.4m, and the two counties will meet in Saturday’s EirGrid All-Ireland U20 final in Portlaoise.

Admitting he has ‘strong views’ on the funding argument, Gray rejected the idea that Dublin’s involvement in the U20 decider is another sign of the county flexing its financial muscle.

“First off, in terms of the Dublin (U20) team, this team lost an All-Ireland minor semi-final two years ago to Derry, got hosed by Kildare last year in a Leinster final,” said Gray. “It’s a different group but a lot of the same players. So I don’t see this Dublin train ramming through everyone. If we were winning competitions year after year after year, I might have a different view.

“As regards the funding thing, naturally it’s a source of annoyance and frustration to someone like me who’s been a lifelong volunteer in the GAA. With the greatest respect to sports journalism in Ireland, I don’t necessarily think it’s been as well researched as it could possibly have been.

“That’s probably about the best way I could put it.

I could demonstrate lots of information which would make it a lot more nuanced topic than perhaps has been demonstrated in print and on social media and on TV over the last 12 to 18 months.

Gray said Dublin’s senior wins this decade are down to a ‘confluence of factors’, one of those being that it is probably the best group of players ever assembled.

“Look, it (coaching funding) is one of a multitude of factors in it,” he said. “I’ll talk about my own club, we produced a social value report. In that report, objective research suggested that in Na Fianna there were over 2,000 volunteer hours a week put in and 40 hours from our Games Promotion Officer.

“So if you want to talk about relative importance of volunteer hours, versus (paid) GPO hours, that’s from objective research. In fact, when you see the participation rates, there’s been a huge increase in participation in hurling and in ladies football at underage level. There’s been only modest increases in participation in football. So it’s a much more nuanced topic than, ‘This amount of money has been invested’ and that report is probably a very good example.

“Also, look at Ballymun Kickhams, arch rivals of Na Fianna, five or six of them on the Dublin team at the moment but that’s down to the work of the people on the ground there, that’s down to the work Paddy Christie does providing the social service he has over the last 10 years or so.”