Former Offaly footballer Paraic Sullivan has taken aim at his county's critics after his former side lost 6-22 to 10 points in Armagh at the weekend.
The Rhode man played with Offaly for nine years until 2016, and took to Twitter to admonish the current state of the GAA as Offaly received flak from all corners for their humiliation at the Athletic Grounds.
The Faithful trailed 1-7 to no score early in the first half, and ended up following their biggest league defeat to Laois since 1961 with an even worse one up north.
Sullivan, however, said such results should no longer come as a surprise considering the lopsided nature of the resources available to various counties. Offaly's population of 75,000, claimed Sullivan, works against them in the modern era.
Some food for thought of this miserable Monday morning. Change required immediately #gaa pic.twitter.com/Wka5JSY42f
— Mock Media (@MockMediaVideo) March 6, 2017
Sullivan said on Twitter:
In disbelief at some of the comments regarding football results at the weekend.
It’s alarming how many people are shocked by this. The game has changed significantly yet we still expect a competitive competition.
It’s not a level playing field. All teams have different populations, amount of clubs, funding, amenities and previous success.
We are nearing professional standards in regards to time spent training and workload expected from players. Because of this, the teams with the best set-up(s) will prosper. It’s just basic common sense.
Having a professional set-up in which the players train like athletes, recover like athletes and are athletes breeds success. All the rules and parameters have changed yet people’s opinions and expectations remain the same. The game has evolved significantly in a short period and because the majority of the counties do not have the resources, funding or forward thinking, not only are they lagging behind but being embarrassed.
It’s not the players’ fault. I can’t reiterate that enough but unless there is some way of capping the funding or implementing something so that it is somewhat even across the board, we are in danger of seriously losing some teams from competing. That is the stark reality, and it’s really sad to think that might happen.
To our own supporters, please give the guys a break. Offaly has a population of 75,000 people and has eight senior teams. Let’s get real with our expectations. 1971, ’72 and ’81 are gone. No comparisons to today. Serves no purpose.
Players have full-time jobs, long commutes and other commitments. Lay off!
Sullivan later said on Twitter that he'd be more in favour of capping expenditure than a two-tier championship, and said that - even allowing for the relative success of counties like Monaghan (population: 60,000), the top five or six counties are now irretrievably ahead of the chasing pack.
