Eyebrows were raised this week when Leinster GAA chairperson Derek Kent spoke about the current health of the Leinster Senior Football Championship.
The competition has essentially been a non-event for the best part of two decades, with Dublin having lifted the trophy in 18 of the last 19 seasons. They will be expected to do so handily once again in 2024, with no other team in the province likely to pose a challenge to Dessie Farrell's side.
Despite this, Derek Kent would label the competition as 'alive and kicking'. That certainly seemed like generous characterisation, something at least one former Dublin GAA player would agree with.
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GAA: Dean Rock opens up on Dublin view of Leinster Championship
It has been taken for granted over the last decade or so that Dublin would win the Leinster Championship every year. They have rarely had to play a competitive game at provincial level during this period, with their first real game usually coming in the All-Ireland series.
Neutral GAA fans have largely tuned out of the competition as a result, something that could also be said of the Dublin players themselves.
Speaking to the Irish Times, Dean Rock admitted that the main focus for the Dubs during the provincial competition was keeping their place in the team for later in the summer. In fact, he would reveal that he isn't even sure how many times he had won the competition during his inter-county career.
There was just so much competition within the squad that lads just wanted to go out and perform for themselves, you didn’t want to have a poor performance that was ultimately going to take you out of the team.
But in terms of celebrating Leinster titles, they weren’t in any way celebrated.
It was just an excuse for a night out for a few beers. But when I was younger going to Croke Park to watch games there were pitch invasions at the end of Leinster finals. To be quite honest, I don’t even know how many Leinster Championships I have won, which is obviously not a good thing.
For me, and I am only speaking for me, the Leinster Championship is dead in the water.
If you ever wanted a summary of just how much the Leinster Championship has decayed, there it is.
Dublin have viewed the provincial competition as a formality in recent years, a dynamic that certainly is not healthy. The GAA authorities need to address this issue moving forward, although there may be no easy solution.
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