RAY COSGROVE HAS viewed both sides of the inter-county football game.
He served his time as a Dublin footballer and was in Croke Park cheering on his native county last Saturday against Donegal.
For the past two seasons he has witnessed first-hand life in the lower tiers, as a selector with Wicklow alongside his ex-Dublin teammate Johnny Magee.
Family commitments mean Cosgrove won’t be back in 2017 but he has enough experience to appreciate the gulf in class that exists and after scrutinising Pauric Duffy’s new football championship proposal last week, he doesn’t believe it is a solution for the downtrodden in the Gaelic football world.
“I don’t see a massive benefit it’s going to be for the Division 4 teams. It’s not sexy, there’s no real benefit in the current structure for being a Wicklow senior footballer.
“It’s got so professional that guys are saying, ‘I’m going to put in as many hours travelling to and from Dublin’, for the next four or five nights a week, for what? Two championship games?
“That’s what I can see from the two years that I’ve been there and I don’t see it changing in the current format. Division 4 teams, they don’t seem to be getting a fair crack of the whip.”
“We’ve played two (Leinster) championship games (in 2015 and 2016), both away from home against teams that are two leagues ahead of us.
“There’s no sense in that, you’re trying to bring on weaker counties. There was obviously a carrot if we had beaten Laois to play Dublin in Nowlan Park, but again let’s be realistic.
“If we had got the trip down to Kilkenny, you are playing a machine like that and I don’t think ultimately that would have done Wicklow football any favours. It’s something that the GAA need to certainly look at.
“As a Wicklow footballer, (you need) something to look forward to, if you could get in front of a number of thousand people in Croke Park, that’d be a carrot to dangle.”
Cosgrove reckons Wicklow were without over 20 players for a variety of reasons this year but admits halting the ‘Dublin juggernaut’ is daunting.
“That Dublin juggernaut, Wicklow are so far behind from a developmental perspective, underage and the academies
“I did read where the GAA are ploughing 1.5million into the Leinster region outside of Dublin and that will certainly help. The number of GDA’s that are in Wicklow you could count on one hand.
“How are the games supposed to prosper in big towns like Bray, Arklow or Greystones without GDA’s that are going to encourage kids and get them practicing basic skills?”
And the 2002 All-Star believes the Leinster championship is deeply flawed.
“As far as I’m concerned the Leinster championship has kind of taken a back seat the last couple of years.
“Dublin being so dominant, averaging winning games by 16-17 points a game in Leinster just hasn’t worked and supporters aren’t showing up.
“I was in there Saturday evening, I want to go and watch good games. I wouldn’t have been lured into Croke Park to watch any of the games in the Leinster championship. I think top quality games at this time of the year is what supporters want.
“I think this (Duffy’s proposal) is the first step towards group stages in the championship because I believe this year’s championship hasn’t taken off, it’s proven by the attendances.
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