Gerry McEntee was quite vocal in this article about the GAA's investment in Dublin's back yard. He is also pointing out the annual subvention of €1.4m of taxpayers money that was started in Betie's time and, seemingly, is still continuing not to mention sponsorships etc. in fairness to the Dubs they are now spending this massive financing well and have massive pool of players but you really ask where the GAA is headed and leinster football in particular. Now that's not and excuse for meath, and Kildare underperforming in recent years but must be an issue for the GAA overall.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/only-one-winner-in-12m-campus-lottery-34633671.html

oldsam_newsam (Meath) - Posts: 638 - 18/04/2016 10:00:30    1846628

This is exactly what I have been saying..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 18/04/2016 11:48:50    1846707

How far is Abbotstown from Meath? 50 KM?

I'd say shut up Gerry and start booking it up for Meath football and hurling teams and call someones bluff if its anything else other than a Dublin centre of excellence!

bricktop (Down) - Posts: 2503 - 18/04/2016 12:26:26    1846736

Meath have already developed their own centre of excellence. The article is a well written piece . Gerry McEntee has obviously thought about what he articulated .

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6181 - 18/04/2016 13:17:29    1846769

Galway GAA in the West of Ireland is crying out for investment, so are Roscommon and Leitrim. To me pumping more money into Dublin and Leinster is not warranted. Galway GAA are struggling with poor training facilities and debt.
Surely the Croke park HQ should help out!

galwayford (Galway) - Posts: 2625 - 18/04/2016 13:51:31    1846799

Galway GAA in the West of Ireland is crying out for investment, so are Roscommon and Leitrim. To me pumping more money into Dublin and Leinster is not warranted. Galway GAA are struggling with poor training facilities and debt.
Surely the Croke park HQ should help out!

galwayford (Galway) - Posts: 2625 - 18/04/2016 13:51:32    1846800

More of the usual bitterness from Gerry "burn all hurleys" McEntee. It's never a problem with Meath, it's always the GAA, the Dubs, Hurling that are keeping them down.

fast_forward (Louth) - Posts: 45 - 18/04/2016 14:02:03    1846808

Galway GAA in the West of Ireland is crying out for investment, so are Roscommon and Leitrim. To me pumping more money into Dublin and Leinster is not warranted. Galway GAA are struggling with poor training facilities and debt.
Surely the Croke park HQ should help out!

galwayford (Galway) - Posts:490 - 18/04/2016 13:51:31

http://connachtgaa.ie/connacht-gaa-centre/

CroiGorm (Dublin) - Posts: 1547 - 18/04/2016 14:12:36    1846821

fast forward, I fully expected at least one post like yours when putting this up. I don't think he was saying that and he has actually coached in Dublin in the past but you are of course entitled to dismiss his comments and observations. Coming from Louth yourself do you not feel that some of the money spent would have been of use in your county?

oldsam_newsam (Meath) - Posts: 638 - 18/04/2016 14:15:59    1846825

How far is Abbotstown from Meath? 50 KM?


bricktop (Down) - Posts:1332 - 18/04/2016 12:26:26

The Meath border is about 5km from Abbotstown.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13833 - 18/04/2016 14:18:41    1846829

Louth have their own county centre of excellence up in Darver.

Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 18/04/2016 14:21:39    1846832

Have to say, in the greater scheme of things, I actually find myself agreeing with McEntee and I do think it will favour Dublin more then other counties and I do agree that it is indeed unfair and not in the spirit of equality.
I am not being sarcastic, I genuinely do believe that.
The only thing I would say is, maybe if they spent less on Abbotstown and split the money into 4 along with pulling back from other areas where possible and build 4 smaller versions of Abbotstown, one in each province. It does seem inequitable that these things are always built in Dublin
Altho, anyone who has been to UL lately will tell you the set up they have, which Limerick GAA are free to use, is second to none.

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 18/04/2016 14:28:25    1846840

Sean Boylan's house is a 10 min drive away from this new facility. Meath have their own centre of excellence and now have this facility on their doorstep. Dublin have been doing fine without a centre of excellence over the past number of years so the notion that Dublin using Abbotstown is going to give them a massive advantage is nonsense. Why doesn't Gerry talk about proportional spend statistics? He's happy enough to raise population to whinge about Dublin's resource pool but why not discuss the challenges and cost of running the clubs and promoting the games in the capital. What does Gerry think about the Meath CB? What do supporters think? Are they doing a good job? Are the right personnel steering the ship? It's easy to deflect your problems by blaming them on your bigger neighbour but Meath need to look at themselves. What does he think of the Mayo, Tipp, Tyrone and Kildare U21 football teams? How come these counties are doing it and Meath are not? Is it because Dublin have worked some good sponsorship deals? Is it because Tomas and Costelloe are burning the midnight oil or because Bryan Cullen sketched the gym floorplan in Abbotstown?

Joxer (Dublin) - Posts: 4748 - 18/04/2016 14:39:09    1846846

Was Gerry saying this from a Meath POV? I dont think he was.

And yes, Meath have loads of issues and problems totally separate from the inequitable funding the Dublin are receiving from the (bertie) Sports council and GAA. That is a more general issue.

oldsam_newsam (Meath) - Posts: 638 - 18/04/2016 15:01:32    1846863

Sean Boylan's house is a 10 min drive away from this new facility. Meath have their own centre of excellence and now have this facility on their doorstep. Dublin have been doing fine without a centre of excellence over the past number of years so the notion that Dublin using Abbotstown is going to give them a massive advantage is nonsense. Why doesn't Gerry talk about proportional spend statistics? He's happy enough to raise population to whinge about Dublin's resource pool but why not discuss the challenges and cost of running the clubs and promoting the games in the capital. What does Gerry think about the Meath CB? What do supporters think? Are they doing a good job? Are the right personnel steering the ship? It's easy to deflect your problems by blaming them on your bigger neighbour but Meath need to look at themselves. What does he think of the Mayo, Tipp, Tyrone and Kildare U21 football teams? How come these counties are doing it and Meath are not? Is it because Dublin have worked some good sponsorship deals? Is it because Tomas and Costelloe are burning the midnight oil or because Bryan Cullen sketched the gym floorplan in Abbotstown?

Joxer (Dublin) - Posts:2624 - 18/04/2016 14:39:09

You are focussing on specifics here rather than looking at the article as a whole. Meath do have a centre of excellence, as do Kildare, as do Louth. In Meath's case the development at Dunganny was (and maybe still is) a financial millstone that meant other areas could not be funded eg full time coaching officers, strength and conditioning experts etc.
I'm not making excuses for our county board there as it is a mess, but this is another sign that the GAA is heading down a route that caters to the elite first and foremost.
The old cliche was that the great organisations in Ireland were the church, the GAA and Fianna Fail. The GAA in Meath and, I would suggest, in most counties is dying. The sad part is that it's dying from self inflicted wounds just as the other two did.

Greenfield (Meath) - Posts: 524 - 18/04/2016 15:09:55    1846872

Joxer

To be fair I don't think Gerry mentioned Meath even once in his article, he wasn't blaming Meath woes on Dublin, so the proximity of Sean Boylan's house is pretty irrelevant. The point Gerry was making is that the 'National' Sports Campus is basically really only for Dublin and that it's not practical for far away clubs or counties to use the facilities, no matter what the Gaa tries to spin. Also he's making the point that €12m invested could have been better spent elsewhere, ie basically that other counties are struggling financially and Dublin don't really need this extra shot in the arm.

As for Meath, seen as how you mentioned us, we don't need Abbotstown anyway because we have our own facility in Dunganny which was completed this year, but the process of aquairing the land and starting development began over a decade ago! And also our home ground Pairc Tailteann is a dilapidated kip in desperate need of repair. But that's just us, plenty of other counties are in the same boat and could really use a dig out.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 18/04/2016 15:31:21    1846884

Heard the Meath hurlers are already booked in to use the facilities in Abbotstown...not sure whether they'll have the use of the gym tho! Good move out of Dublin to keep their foot in the door by kitting out the gym.
Really danger I think that we'll be looking back in 10 years discussing how the inter county football game ate itself due to demographic shifts and funding decisions. When you don't have competitive games you don't have a sport and you don't get people through the gate to finance it.

blacknamber (Kerry) - Posts: 267 - 18/04/2016 16:17:23    1846920

12 million works out at about 390k for every county in Ireland surely it would have much more sense to give each county the money instead. Spending 12m on only 5 pitches and without even a gym seems mad. You could say the same about the hurling centre of excellence and the connacht centre of excellence.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 18/04/2016 16:34:01    1846925

If a polish man(with good English ) written Gerry Mcentee article about Abbotstown nobody here would have been crying about meath ..actually i would say everybody would have agreed with the polish man(with good English ) that it was a fine article and makes a lot of sense! Even most Dublin chaps would agree that they didn't need Abbotstown ! But thats the way Gaa is going its as balance as a fat kid hopping around on one leg!

Why would a polish man(with good English ) write a article about Abbotstown ? ..i dont know :/

WhyTheLongFace (Meath) - Posts: 947 - 18/04/2016 18:45:55    1846976

So the point at issue here is not the creation of the Abbotstown complex, which is magnificent, but the land which was free should have been given to the Dublin County Board and they could have got on with the development. The €12m from central funds would have been better spent in giving other county boards a grant to improve their facilities and employing full-time coaches.

I can understand where McEntee is coming from with regards to the 12 million being better spent elsewhere, but can you imagine the uproar there would be if the GAA handed Dublin the land to use for their own purposes. This site would have gone into meltdown...

AHP (Dublin) - Posts: 323 - 18/04/2016 18:46:00    1846977