Originally Posted by
dcfcsteve
I'm not giving opinion here - the results speak for themselves.
There are towns and cities in Ireland where football has been pretty much the major sport for years : Athlone, Dundalk, Sligo, Waterford, Belfast, Derry (ironically, mostly garrison towns). Those are towns with a tradition of football - where the game has ben bigger than rugby or GAA since pretty much Day 1. Unsurprisingly, teams from those areas have had periods of success in Irish football over the years, and they've been able to attract big crowds when they are doing well.
Other clubs in the league have been from areas where football is not the main sport - which combines with a small population to make the appeal of those clubs relatively limited. Those clubs rarely get big crowds - even during periods when they are doing well. Think Monaghan, Kilkenny, Kildare, Thurles, Newcastle West etc. There are obviously exceptions to this : Longford had a degree of success, but with hindsight that blip was primarily due to good management. Drogs have just finished a relative period of success, but that blip was due to being financed beyond their income.
The only team I can think of from a small town without a footballing tradition who have had much success in the LOI is Finn Harps. And that success amounted to one FAI Cup and three runners up slots in the league.
The long-term results clubs have in football tend to reflect the potential size of support those clubs have. Two things are key in this : the size of their catchment population, and the appeal of football within that catchment. As with everything in life, there are always exceptions (e.g. Newcastle United in England, who have serial board-room incompetence to blame for their lack of success). But this is a general rule of thumb throughout world football.
To bring this all back to Drogheda - they were competing at a level that nothing bar their artifically inflated bank statements could justify. Hence they were always going to have to return to the relative lack of success they faced for the previous 42 years at some point.
If you don't agree with the above analysis - fine. But give sensible, results-based reasons as to why you believe it is incorrect re Irish football. Telling me to "get over myself.." doesn't alter the history of our league...
