Money makes the world goes round and it is Dublin who reign supreme in the 2018 GAA rich list.
Dublin’s popularity is reflected in a €1.46million commercial return for the year and can thank three successive three All-Ireland football championships for the majority of that sum.
And former Down forward Danny Hughes believes teams like Offaly have to realise their standing within the game in the aftermath of Stephen Wallace's sacking.
“There’s an opinion out there that people can rise out of the ashes,” Hughes told OTB.
“But the reality is Dublin, Mayo, Galway are coming, Kerry – those are the superpowers. They’re the top four of Gaelic football.
“You might have the odd Carlow experience that’ll come out of Division 4 and celebrate wildly. You’ve still got Brendan Murphy who’ll go to America.
“League football has become the main competition for them. The championship is a bit of a dead fish for Offaly. Down haven’t won an Ulster title since 1994 – a provincial title.
“It is unrealistic for teams such as Down and Cavan to come along out of the blue and say: ‘right, we’re going to win an All-Ireland or we’re going to get to the Super 8s’.
“For starters it costs half a million quid and neither Cavan or Down have the means to throw the money at coaching, strength and conditioning and all the rest of it.
“There’s a huge gulf in funding there with Offaly and Galway – so it’s completely unrealistic.”
Anthony Moyles gave his thoughts on Kerry’s finances after the Irish Independent’s special report.
“Money is great but it’s about how you spend it,” Moyles said.
“You can keep on throwing it into a big black hole and just keep burning it but from a Meath perspective – are they actually utilising it in the right way? I don’t know.
“But I would think the underage stuff is getting a whole lot better and will hopefully start to bear fruit.”
Written by James Hopper
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