O’Mahony was documenting Dublin football’s 2024 inter-county season and made his observation in the wake of the recent retirements of Brian Fenton and James McCarthy and the team’s defeat to Galway in the All-Ireland quarter-final stage which left them exiting the championship at the earliest stage since 2009.
“It is not too long ago that the commentary in certain quarters spoke of juggernauts and 10-in-a-row. Talked pejoratively about financial doping and other such nonsense. That talk all seems a bit silly now,” O’Mahony added.
“Ironically the commentary around our current senior team now is that we are in a period of great transition. That many players are in the latter stages of their careers and that Dublin will spend a period in the wilderness. It’s hard to keep up sometimes!”
O’Mahony defended the level of funding received by Dublin which he said was aimed at growing participation and suggests more will be required.
“The funding Dublin received was all about growing participation in our games in the city. It was wisely spent in partnership with our clubs in getting local boys and girls through their gates and instilling a love of Gaelic games in the children. We still have a job of work to do on this. There are still vast areas of our city where the numbers playing our games are very low,” he cautioned.
“Indeed, with so many election promises being made by various parties to fund soccer it is more important than ever that significant investment in our national games continues at grassroots level.”
The removal of the inter-county pre-season competitions from the calendar is “both surprising and disappointing,” O’Mahony noted.
When set in the context of the new playing rules introduced for 2025 at Special Congress last weekend, O’Mahony said the competitions, in football especially, offered an opportunity to familiarise, not just for players and management but for spectators too.
Central Council decided to take out the competitions at its September meeting to shorten the inter-county season.
But there were other reasons to keep the competitions, O’Mahony reasoned.
“(They) presented many players with their first opportunity to wear the county jersey and offered players on the extended county panels a chance to stake a claim for a place in the main competitions.
“The biggest regret is that the various funds for players and ex-players undergoing hardship will no longer benefit from these pre-season games.
“The competitions will be replaced with an increase in behind closed doors challenges, leaving an increase in costs to counties and a reduction in income to provincial councils and depriving supporters of an opportunity to watch these games.”
O’Mahony believes that there should be no more calendar tweaks for three years to allow time for the current fixtures framework to bed in.
“There are now more inter-county games than ever and the window in which they are played has been condensed,” he wrote.
“Dublin inter-county teams, minor, U-20 and senior, played 55 games across 25 weeks. While the increase in games, especially for those at the underage grades has been much needed, we cannot continue to shorten the window and add games.
“It would be best if after Congress this year, we refrain from further tweaks to the calendar for the following three years to allow the full impact of the split season (to) be evident to all. Following this we should again conduct a detailed review on the calendar, in much the same way the FRC (Football Review Committee) have done with the (playing) rules, balancing the needs of club and inter-county players.”
O’Mahony also expressed concern over the national growth level of hurling and welcomes the imminent appointment of a new Director of Hurling.
“Despite great efforts by many, we have struggled to grow the game outside certain traditional pockets. Clearly it is time for a new approach, and I hope that the imminent announcement of a new National Head of Hurling to oversee the strategic development of the game brings fresh direction and impetus to this challenge,” O’Mahony suggested.
