If Bohs were a GAA club, I bet the new Dalymount Park would have been built by now.
The GAA are embedded in our political system, some might say they are the political system.
They have the know-how to work the system in their favour. And that’s the difficulty for League of Ireland clubs.
As long as we’re fighting the good fight as individual entities there will always be a cap on what we can achieve.
I’m not pretending to be an expert on the complicated process of getting a stadium redeveloped. Far from it.
The people at Bohs and Shels deserve huge credit for galvanising interest in their respective fights on Dalymount and Tolka Park.
They forced the issue into the public consciousness. At Shels, the ‘Save Tolka Park’ campaign was more than just a bunch of fans getting together for a protest.
It was run by clever individuals who know the political system and who were well organised.
They too got their message into the public consciousness and onto the Dublin City Council order of business, which is a difficult thing to do.
So Bohs and Shels know only too well about political culture and how hard it is to get something done.
It was only a few years ago when Niall Quinn and Kieran Lucid, the man driving the All-Island League proposals, were opening people’s eyes.
It was the first time I’ve seen real Government interest in the game here. But unfortunately Quinn and Lucid weren’t in it for the long haul.
There’s a big political game to play and we need to play it together because it takes specific skill sets to lobby in the right way.
We’ve been talking about redeveloping Dalymount for years but there’s a reason these matters are dragged out.
Firstly, the Council has to operate in an open and transparent manner as it’s public money involved so it’s a painstaking process to ensure everything is done by the book.
Secondly, in my view anyway, it’s purposely designed to be drawn out so there’s always scope to pull the plug if needed.
Costs have spiralled and plans have been revised to spruce up what’s already there at Dalymount, rather than starting from ground zero.
And Bohs should do better out of it, with a 10,000 capacity ground rather than 6,000. Tallaght Stadium is the model and it’s going to be 10,000 soon. Building a 6,000 seater was just ridiculous.
It’s hard to know if Irish football is moving forward at all because everything around it is moving at such a pace.
But the Dalymount process has taught us plenty about what’s needed to get stuff done.
Take the Irish film industry and how the Government was lobbied to invest in it. What happened? It flourished.
Irish football can’t fight these fights as single entities.
Like the GAA, we need a powerful collective knocking on doors at the very top of the political tree if we’re to force change.
It's all 'Well and good, but....
We when St Pat’s and Sligo Rovers were all scratching our heads together crashed out of the FAI Cup.
How can two teams who played so well in Europe that week and the week before, just fold like that?
Firstly, credit where it’s due because whatever about Shamrock Rovers, St Pat’s and Sligo have done well to get to the third qualifying round.
But it begs the question why they can’t do it in the league?
Their respective league campaigns highlight the point I made before that some teams are just happy to plod along and secure Europe.
You could look at it another way of course, that their European form shows how competitive the league should be, if only they played to their potential.
It boggles the mind
Disjointed league structure
Where have you gone, O League of Ireland season?I hardly knew ye.
Looking at the Premier Division table yesterday, and realising that most teams only have 12 games left, was a shock to the system.
Where has the season gone!
For me, it’s divided into three parts and I love the first one – that start of the season, feel good factor where everyone is full of hope and optimism.
European football takes charge in the middle part and as much as I enjoy this time of year, the coverage around it is still lacking.
And forget about the league at this time of year, it’s a total afterthought with all sorts of postponements and rescheduling.
It’s hard to know what league games are even on.
Consistency is everything. Once you have that, people can plan and supporting a team becomes part of their daily habit.
But right now, it’s so fragmented that supporters don’t know if they’re coming or going.
Throw in the next few rounds of the FAI Cup and we’ll only be back on track with the league when it’s about to wrap up!
Talent drain could increase after England win
There’s a lot of commentary about how England’s European Championship success can have a positive effect on the women’s game in Ireland.
Well, I’m not convinced about that and I’d actually be very worried about it.
We know what the men’s game in England did to football in this country – it left it on its knees.
So we should be careful what we wish for as attempts to grow the women’s game here could be hampered in the same way.
Backed by big investment womens football is England was already thriving and it’s going to kick on again after their win.
How is that a positive for women’s football in Ireland when our best players will be snapped up and compensation remains a pittance.
You see Jamie McGrath moving back to Scotland after a nightmare spell at Wigan. Jack Byrne hit stumbling blocks too when he was away.
Ireland is a good country to live in and build a career. It’s just a shame that we can’t get it right when it comes to football.
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