Irony of Brennan's Parnell Park appeal not lost in Donegal

But his old team-mate Cosgrove sees the logic

Dublin manager Ger Brennan after the win over Cavan in Kingspan Breffni Park. Pic: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Mick McGrath didn’t want to make it personal but that’s how it became with Dublin.

In 2018, the first year of the Super 8s, the opening round games took place in Croke Park and there Dublin completed a five-point win over Donegal. In the third round, Dublin’s home game, they crushed Roscommon by 14 points at the venue.

Donegal missed out on the All-Ireland semi-finals and McGrath’s belief was Dublin had an advantage over their three group opponents playing two of their games in Croke Park.

So he and the Donegal executive formulated a motion. That no team, i.e. Dublin, could designate Croke Park as a home venue in the Super 8s. It had the association talking but ultimately failed, receiving just 36% support.

Dublin took offence and they had sympathy but Donegal had planted a seed. By 2019, the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) switched the Croke Park games to Round 2. Before the pandemic struck, the plan for 2020 was a phased quarter-final format where the provincial champions would only have home advantage in the opening round.

“The bit of unfairness is why we brought it to Congress,” said then Donegal chairman McGrath. “A lot of counties said afterwards that they would have backed it had they known this, that and the other. Counties lobbied for a change in 2019 but rather than embarrass Dublin the GAA moved the goalposts and changed the Super 8s and that solved it.” 

McGrath smiled wryly when he heard that Dublin manager Ger Brennan was in favour of Parnell Park hosting their upcoming All-Ireland Round 3 match. “It’s pretty ironic that Dublin don’t have adequate grounds of their own or a centre of excellence. They have the place in DCU and they’re working on a couple of places but right now all they have is the two goalposts in Croke Park and that’s the bottom line. Like, when was the last time they played a championship game there in Parnell Park?” 

Ray Cosgrove came off the bench for Dublin against London when they previously staged a SFC fixture there, 22 years ago. He could perfectly understand why his old team-mate proposed the game being arranged for there. The jungle drums would beat louder in Parnell than Croke Park.

“I could see where Ger was coming from without a shadow of a doubt. To take whatever small advantage he could. The attendance for the Louth game was only 16,000 in Croke Park, so you can certainly understand where he was coming from. Nobody wants to be playing in a quarter, half-full or whatever Croke Park.”

Brennan appears to have been overruled by the Dublin County Board executive. “I'm sure that the decision ultimately was taken out of Ger’s hands, by the county board,” says Cosgrove. “I think it was a commercial decision made above Ger’s head, unfortunately. Let’s call a spade a spade – it could be Dublin's last outing of the year, so from a revenue perspective it is a decision people will understand.” 

McGrath says “it would have been crazy” to play this effective All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final in Parnell Park. Around 30,000, over three times the capacity of the Donnycarney venue, are expected to attend Sunday’s clash.

“There will be good Donegal support but 1.15pm isn’t a great time for people coming to Dublin. It’s okay for the people like myself in the south of the county but it’s challenging.” 

A hard case makes bad law but Cosgrove would dearly like to see a mid-sized stadium in the capital. Spawell, close to where he lives, and Hollystown are being developed as centres of participation on both sides of the Liffey.

“Most players want to be playing where the atmosphere is in around them, as opposed to 16,000 in Croke Park, which can be bleak enough. Put that crowd in a 20,000 stadium and it’s becoming something different.” 

It’s possible next year’s championship will see Round 3 games played at neutral venues. McGrath sees the format as “being close to perfect but nothing is ever completely right at the start of a new one”.

In the democratisation of Gaelic football, he wonders how the great Dublin team would fare against stronger teams. “They don’t have that unique bunch of players and I have to add there wasn’t as good opposition around when they were winning those six or seven All-Irelands as there is now. You could say the same with Kerry when they won several ones.” 

As for the Dublin County Board not ceding to Brennan’s “’Neller or Nowhere” request, Cosgrove doesn’t expect it will have any impact on Sunday. “I don’t think Ger will be too rattled by it. I can’t see how his nose will be put too much out of joint.

“He’s a guy who sees the bigger picture for Dublin and why this has happened. He’s a lot more pressing issues like building a game-plan to try and beat Donegal.”