Madam, - It is little wonder that Kerry and Dublin top the list of All-Ireland winners at senior football level. Kerry have had a virtual bye into the quarter-final every year (Munster Final) and Dublin have home advantage and can pick their team from the country's most populous county.
We often argued up here how many All-Irelands Kerry would have if they had to come out of Ulster every year - a strong footballing province, unlike Munster, which is largely a hurling domain.
Year after year Ulster champions have emerged from their province after at least three gruelling games while Kerry had yet to break sweat. Not merely that, but so intense has the Ulster championship been for the past 50 years that new champions emerged almost every year and headed to Croke park with limited experience while Kerry maintained constant access to serious championship football and built easily from year to year. Cork, largely a hurling county, provides serious enough competition to create an annual challenge; but apart from that, the Munster football championship is an annual farce.
Kerry can hardly be blamed for this. They merely play the system which is based on traditional provincial power blocs. Yet this goes on year after year. Croke Park closes a blind eye to the injustice. Nor did the introduction of the so-called "back door" eradicate the problem for the championship is still provincially based. Armagh and Tyrone have played eight championship games to date while Kerry, full of annual freshness, have played half that and are in the All-Ireland final.
During the RTÉ commentary last Sunday Martin Carney mentioned the "freshness" of the Kerry team. But why did such a respected commentator not develop his observation and perhaps point out that Kerry are always fresh, and with good reason? They play from a position of privilege.
Nobody disputes that Kerry has a great footballing tradition and produces outstanding teams in every generation. But the reality is that the primacy of the provincial system has made this possible. Dublin's current problem is one of organisation. The county has not advanced the game since the days of Heffernan and Hanahoe in the 1970s. The rise of Offaly and Meath, and to a lesser extent Kildare and Laois, has challenged Dublin in the past 20 years by raising standards. Dublin has so far not utilised its vast numerical or home advantage to reinvent the game as both Armagh and Tyrone had to do to overcome their provincial disadvantage. - Yours, etc,
PETER MAKEM, Armagh Road, Newry, Co Down.