Colm O'Rourke says he can see Dublin’s dominance continuing “indefinitely”.
Although retirements are expected, and possibly even the departure of Jim Gavin as manager, in the aftermath of clinching the coveted five-in-a-row last weekend, the former Meath star doesn’t see the Dubs tapering off any time soon.
He points to a core group of players like Brian Fenton, Brian Howard, Jack McCaffrey, Con O’Callaghan, Paul Mannion and Ciaran Kilkenny who are only moving into their prime now to underline his point.
He said: “I think it’s not going to stop. I think they’ll do six in-a-row next year because they are supremely motivated. People say, ‘Sure they’ll get fed up of winning’ but there’s no sign of that.
“I would know quite a few of them very well and I’m amazed by the motivation. If there was another game next Sunday they’d just love to play, I think they have that love of the game.
“People say, ‘Why do you play football?’ You play for enjoyment and Dublin are not going to stop playing just because they’re winning, in fact that may increase their motivation to win because they enjoy it so much.
“They are great role models, they are modest and they have a degree of humility about them which comes from Jim Gavin and Stephen Cluxton. They are a sort of model team who could keep on going indefinitely.”
Dublin’s dominance of Leinster has long become total and his own county haven’t been able to challenge them for a long time now.
“Dublin have huge quality, we don’t have as good a players. I don’t know if I ever saw as good as some of those fellas ever playing before.
“I don’t think I ever saw a player with the work rate of Ciaran Kilkenny. We are talking outside about John Egan as a corner-forward, and he plays like Con O’Callaghan, gets the ball and attacks his man. What do you do with a fella so strong and fit and skillful?
“What we’re seeing it is phenomenal, a perfect storm in a way. But Meath have been poor, we have been asleep at the wheel for 10 years. We should be better.
“Meath is a big county, great clubs, big population, no real competition from other sports, we should be a lot better.
“I always said Kerry of the west, and Meath should be similar in the east, because we have similar populations and a good structure.
“But the big problem is that Dublin is a discouragement to an awful lot of counties. A lot of people will start off training in a couple of months and say, ‘Have we any chance of ever catching Dublin?’
“The reality is, most will say, ‘No’. But Meath should be a lot better, Kildare should be a lot better, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t compete against Dublin.”
O’Rourke has long been an advocate of splitting Dublin in two for inter-county purposes and he emphasised that once again yesterday as he was inducted in the Hall of Fame at the GAA Museum in Croke Park.
He added: “The only other way, if they are not going to divide Dublin at some time in the future, is that there has to be some way where a lot of the very good club footballers in Dublin are either encouraged to go and play with other counties with parental rules and things like that, or some type of transfer system.”
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