Tomás Ó Sé reckons a lot of counties are using Dublin's greater financial and playing resources as an excuse for their own lack of success.

In his Irish Independent column today, the Kerry great doesn't subscribe to the view that money and sponsorship has suddenly made Dublin and the other successful counties stronger. He recalls how nearly 40 years ago, his famous uncle Páidí was dining on steak three times a week at the expense of the Kerry county board.

"When my uncle, Páidí, was a garda stationed in Limerick, the Kerry county board used to pay for him to have a steak three times a week," he wrote.

"A simple arrangement. The few bob handed across at training with a blunt proviso 'Get the good stuff into you this week Páidí, no garbage!' We're talking about the seventies here, an era that in some eyes seemed to amount to little more than a time of footballers running endless laps and sculling pints.

"You'd think the game had no relationship with personal responsibility, that the heroes of the time all lived some kind of Brendan Behan existence, their talent straining desperately to survive the severity of hectic social lives.

"The truth is that Kerry and Dublin stretched away from the rest of football in that era by coming to roughly the same conclusion. Mick O'Dwyer and Kevin Heffernan both deduced that a good, fit team would always get the better of a good, half-fit team. So they got their players to train accordingly.

"And I suppose Páidí getting sponsored steaks was the equivalent of what Kerry do now, laying out a big buffet of food after Tuesday night training and supplying the players with containers into which they are to place their lunches for the following day.

"I bring this up because I've been hearing all manner of stories about what it is that Dublin do, from home deliveries of pre-cooked meals to players' houses, to personal chef demonstrations of how to cook healthily, to booking each player a three-week course down with Darina Allen in Ballymaloe. Actually, I made that last bit up. But you'll get my drift.

"Dublin have changed the face of the GAA apparently. They've gone vaulting off into the distance with the rest just swallowing their dust like fellas still doing their homework by candlelight. And all I can hear is whining. Someone even used the expression 'financial doping' and it seemed to me that one of the greatest problems we face in a GAA life is the curse of short memories.

"Lord God, suddenly it's breaking news that Dublin have more players than the rest, more coaches and more money. Well, please tell me when life was any different. Please tell me of a time when they couldn't attract bigger sponsors or generate greater revenue, when their whole financial reality didn't dwarf those they were competing against. Just don't go back beyond Heffernan's early management years when you do so, because anything before '74 doesn't really count in my book.

"And when you've failed that test, then solve one small riddle for me. Explain how between 1983 and 2011, Dublin only managed to win the Sam Maguire once. That's one All-Ireland in 28 years.

"Something that Dublin are doing better than most today is they're putting the right people in charge of the right teams. This, in my view, is helping them keep other sports at bay, something that's not too big of an issue where I come from in West Kerry.

"There's far too much whining coming out of certain counties, counties who should be more concerned with getting their own houses in order rather than giving out about someone else's. If other counties feel they don't have enough resources, then come up with a plan for how to get them."

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