The analysts on Sky Sports served us with a harsh reality during their discussion about how to narrow the quality gap between counties, arguing that some weaker counties are not working smartly enough, regardless of the amount of resources at their disposal.
Former Tyrone footballer Peter Canavan used his own county as an example, where volunteers took it upon themselves to raise money needed to put the structures needed in place for the county team to achieve success:
Some counties need help. But at the minute some counties could get all the help they need. Some counties could be delivered millions and millions of euro and it wouldn't make one button of difference because the people in charge don't know how to utilise it.
....
We didn't win any All-Irelands until we had the financial backing behind us in the form of Club Tyrone.
Senan Connell argued that although many point the finger at the amount resources Dublin have at their disposal it wasn't until they started to properly appropriate them that the team started to win All-Irelands again, before adding 'The top tier counties are working harder to widen the gap and the chasing counties aren't.'
This is a sentiment shared by Jim McGuinness. While he agreed that more money needs to be given from Central Council to smaller counties, he told Brian Carney:
There is a culture of mediocrity. I firmly believe that. ''[People say] Kerry deserve to win All-Irelands and Dublin deserve to win All-Irelands. We can't compete with that. There's no point competing with that.'' Well if that's your attitude you're never ever ever going to close the gap. While the other teams are going ''Where's the percentages?'
Their full nine minute discussion is definitely worth a watch and offers an interesting perspective. You can watch it on the Sky Sports website here.
