Dublin chief prefers to curtail Sigerson Cup ahead of under-21s

Dublin CEO John Costello has taken issue with proposals to abolish the under-21 football championship. The idea was most recently floated by GAA Director General, Páraic Duffy in the discussion paper on Player Overtraining and Burnout and the GAA Fixtures Calendar as one of a suite of initiatives.

Costello, in his wide ranging report to Dublin’s county convention next week, says that such a departure would have the support of neither players nor the public and that the Sigerson Cup for third-level institutions should be curtailed instead

“You are an elite young player, just turned 20, and hoping to stake a claim sooner or later for inclusion on your county’s senior football squad. You have an either/or choice: play for your county at under-21 level, or play for your college in the Sigerson Cup … but you can’t do both.

“My suspicion is that a majority - not all but still a strong majority – would opt for under-21. Now conduct a straw poll of GAA supporters in your county. What matches are you more interested in attending - your nearest university or college in the higher education championship, or your own county in under-21 combat?

“The answer to this conundrum is far less a suspicion – it’s an undeniable fact, just look at the attendances. Far more Gaelic football supporters have a deep attachment to U-21 than to the Sigerson Cup.”

Elsewhere he describes as "mean-spirited" and "inflammatory" comments made by Irish Times columnist Darragh Ó Sé about county forward Diarmuid Connolly. Writing back in June Ó Sé focused on how teams deal with outstanding opponents or 'franchise players' as he termed them.

In the course of the piece, dealing with a number of players, the Kerry All-Ireland winner suggested that provoking Connolly – “pulling his tail” – might be an effective way of dealing with him or testing his temperament.

“In my opinion, some of the content was mean-spirited and the choice of language was somewhat inflammatory,” is Costello’s response.

He also advocates some improvements to officiating at matches, principally the trialling of two referees per match and the introduction of a TMO, as in rugby.

“In my 2013 report, I suggested that it might be worth experimenting with two referees in the early-season competitions such as the O’Byrne and Walsh Cups in Leinster and the McKenna Cup, etc. elsewhere. I have seen nothing to alter my stance since then – surely four eyes would be better than two?

“But why not go a step further and introduce a television match official, or TMO? Yes, I appreciate this would pose huge logistical – and perhaps financial – headaches for our association. And it could potentially spawn too many stoppages and prove a turn–off for supporters and some other unforeseen problems might also emerge.

“But we’ll never know without trying and, who knows, the positives could far outweigh the negatives. So why not, purely on an experimental basis for televised league matches, introduce a TMO?”

On another disciplinary topic he is critical though of the influence television has on the GAA’s decisions in this area.

“The GAA has no control over television or the rest of the media but it can control its own disciplinary affairs and not be dictated to by a TV programme trying to fill out time. If the offence warrants it – take whatever tough action is required, but don’t always respond to incidents shown in slow motion, which can distort reality. In others words, be strong when we have to, not when others tell us we have to.”

The Dublin chief executive revisits a theme aired earlier this year when the county board was the marginal under bidder on a property in south Dublin owned by NAMA. He added that he wasn’t aware of any GAA unit which had been allowed to avail of a disposal of property held by the state agency.

“It is well beyond time that NAMA is required to put a line entitled ‘Social Capital’ on its balance sheet and to be held to account in this regard.”

On the subject of championship reform currently before Central Council, Costello states that he favours the idea of a ‘four eights’ structure, as originally put forward by the Football Review Committee’s second report. This would create four eight-team regions in which “fixtures could be streamlined to run off our conferences in a less lopsided and speedier fashion”.

This proposal wasn’t accepted at the time and isn’t among the blueprints under consideration at the moment.

He is critical in the wake of the county’s All-Ireland semi-final replay with Mayo of the amount of money allocated by Croke Park to the Dublin footballers’ holiday fund, contrasting the €15,000 with amounts granted to counties who had featured in drawn All-Ireland finals and wondering whether this was influenced by the Mayo players’ heave against their management.

“We also know that Dublin’s commercial value to the central coffers exceeds any other county by a stretch. In recent years, counties involved in an All-Ireland final replay have received additional holiday grants of €50,000 and the receipts from the semi-final replay would, I estimate, be comparable.

“Perhaps the reason for the reduction is that our opponents were having, what you might term ‘industrial relations issues’ regarding their players/management interface at the end of this summer, that Croke Park were not prepared to grant us any more finances.”