THE CASE FOR: Tom Humphries argues that the poor state of football in Dublin will only be remedied through a radical revamp built on the insight that, administratively, small is beautiful

Take away the swagger and we Dubs are the most conservative group in the GAA. No small boast. We seldom leave the city and when we do, as in the adventures to Thurles last year, we suspect that the dastardly culchies have somehow gulled us by creating traffic snarl-ups all along the way. Disgraceful. Each new slight contributes to the conventional wisdom in the city "that Dublin never got a thing from the GAA".

Now they are at it again, dividing us that they may conquer us. Any wonder the farming is in such a bad way when all culchies do is sit around all day wondering how to do us down.

It seldom occurs to us that we should ask not what the GAA can do for us but what we can do for the GAA. Why would it? These things are articles of faith for us: "The GAA needs Dublin", "the GAA would be nothing without Dublin", and "Dublin keeps the GAA alive". Come on. Generally Dublin is irrelevant to the GAA. The 1970s rivalry with Kerry was splendid for Dublin and Kerry but it lifted no boats in Monaghan or Tyrone.

The sweet 1995 All-Ireland win didn't set the GAA up for a decade of blithe prosperity. Our happy Dub hubris keeps us insulated, though.

Here's a thought: we Dubs don't own the games, nor do the GAA. We get to administer them in trust. They are part of a culture we have been careless with. Remarkably the games receive no special Government treatment despite competing with professional sports. So on the ground the GAA does what it can. In Dublin the record is one of failure. The schools have all but dried up. Huge areas of the city are lost. Soccer and rugby are rampant.

So what are the arguments against a more rational system? Tradition and history, mainly.

Well what is the "county"? An administrative convenience left by the English. The GAA built something phenomenal there, but in Dublin the "county" is now a more remote concept.

Leave aside your culture shock and fast-forward 15 years to a summer with no provincial championships, rather round-robin leagues which gave way to hugely-popular Final Sixteen knockout phases. Do you really believe that, say, a South Dublin team powered by the big new Tallaght clubs and their local heroes would lack for support?

This is a city where people who have never been to Manchester are passionate about Manchester Bloody United, it is a country where Belfast people have gotten passionate about a new ice hockey team, a world where people get passionate about professional franchises which move for profit reasons. The LA Lakers are from Minnesota, for goodness sake.

The proud history of Dublin which we beg the GAA to leave unmolested is somewhat misleading anyway. From 1884 until the late 1920s the county was generally represented by club teams. Then, until a move by St Vincent's to put Dublin players on Dublin teams we were represented largely by country people. Since then if you subtract the freakishly opulent Heffernan era we have about one All-Ireland every 10 years. It's getting worse. Next year we will be looking at a statistic of one All-Ireland in 20 years.

In Dublin, though, we still have the Messiah Problem. We point to the 1970s and the Heffo boom. We forget that Kevin Heffernan occurred despite ourselves, that in the late '60s we were losing championship games to the likes of Wexford. When Heffernan's genius bulleted the sky like a rare comet it was hopelessly dark below. We can't wait for another Heffernan. The GAA can't. And even if we got one the city is too big now for the tide to be turned.

Wake up. We aren't the envy of the country. Mostly we are irrelevant. Not feared or admired. Our underage record is abysmal. No powerhouse schools. Domestic fixture lists in disarray and chaos most seasons.

The good, capable people (many of them not from Dublin, the GAA has by and large "lost the typical Dub") gather together in a couple of dozen well-run clubs and thus we draw the illusion of well-being. We have a population, however, that should be supporting more than 60 good senior clubs.

I once suggested in a column that the GAA in Dublin reorganise itself into even smaller units than those now proposed, football boards corresponding with Dublin local government divisions. The tone from a scattering of letter writers was scathing. What chance had Fingal or Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown of ever winning a thing? Which was precisely my point. No chance. Two areas with populations bigger than almost any three counties you can aggregate and they are practically lost to us. Suppose, though, they were organised as counties, administering tight structures, milking local sponsorship, putting their best players on development squads and representative teams? Smaller is better.

The best hurling people in the city have produced a radical and necessary blueprint for the future of Dublin hurling. The game was at death's door before we permitted such treatment. Must football decline to the same condition? The Strategic Review has jump-started a necessary debate. Our first question should be: show us the money. After that who cares about which side gets the Hill, it's vanishing in the new Croke Park anyway. Or who gets what colours?

Memorably, Dublin once won a National League final wearing the blue and white of St Vincent's. So the northside argument is settled already . . .