GPA (we are not seeking pay for play ??/)

[Bud Wiser]

Seems like Dessie needs a few bob for the upkeep of the offices.

http://www.herald.ie/sport/gaelic-football/latest-gpa-deal-signals-a-new-departure-1533639.html

[youngfella]

thats spices things up a bit

[Square Ball]

jesus H, where is it going to end? I think it could be time to batten down the hatches for a stormy ride ahead

[Bud Wiser]

There are two ways of reading this article, one, the GPA have not enough money to pay their executives and keep them in nice cars and offices. Or, they have enough money for that but their trigger fingers are itchy and they intend to prove they have not gone away by taking on Croke Park big time next year mid championship.

What they should do is fade into the background quietly and disappear.  Half the country, or at least half the countries gaels are split over the GPA issue and I am not on my own wishing they would just go away.  For that reason I fail to see how any large company would get involved in sponsorship of the Great Pretenders Association or would risk being associated with sponsorship of any group where there is under currents or disputes when there are other more attractive targets out there.  The country is in recession for jaysus sake, there are old men in every club down the country trying to keep their own fires lit along with patching up hurls to try and field juvenile and junior teams.  Y'ed think be jaysus that the GPA were in charge of the Oxford & Cambridge boat race, not what these old fellas are about.  

Here is my prediction for next year:  If the GPA do not go away, and stay away, and, if there is one more strike, or, if there are going to be a number of disputes like what is going on in Cork right now, and if, as I perceive from the article, the GPA are going to get sponsorship that will allow them take on Croke Park, then I am finished with the GAA.  There are not one but at least three schools in my area where they can not turn on the heating or pay the water rates, and now is the wrong time to be blowing their trumpet about having signed a deal that will get them enough money to carry on being a thorn in the sides of Croke Park.

[orangeman]

According to Farrell, this strategy will offer support to inter-county players in areas such as employment and further education opportunities; financial planning; counselling and psychological support; and post-retirement medical issues such as knee or hip replacements.


I've said it before - the GPA want to set themselves up on the model of the PFA in England - where they have plush offices, full time staff, chief executives, Public relations department etc etc etc administering on behalf of full time professional players.

That's it in a nutshell !

[magpie seanie]

The leadership of the GAA would want to strap on a pair of balls and deal with this rubbish for once and for all.

[bennydorano]

Dessie has a full page response in today's Irish News in response to Paddy Heaney's 'Against the Breeze' Cloumn yesterday.  Two good and conflicting articles, maybe someone could post them.  One paragraph in Dessie's response certainly caught my eye:

"There are indeed many inconvienient truths in the issue of player-official relations at the moment, but none moreso than the fact that the GAA is going to have to fund the GPA"  

Surely a departure from pervious positions?  My mild support for the GPA came from the fact that any funding they got was from the Government or private sources, certainly not the GAA.  I actually think that it is enshrined in the document signed with the GAA that the GAA will not provide funding??

[Malone Aristocrat]

Am i reading this totally wrong or are they not looking funding for their third level grants, benevolant funds and insurance schemes?

[dubinhell]

Surely a departure from pervious positions?  My mild support for the GPA came from the fact that any funding they got was from the Government or private sources, certainly not the GAA.  I actually think that it is enshrined in the document signed with the GAA that the GAA will not provide funding??

I think he means the GAA will have to fund the GPA itself (services for players, admin etc), not the player's grants.

When they signed the agreement for the player's grants they agreed that the GAA would not be asked to fund it in the event the Goverment backed out. We'll see how long that lasts

[Rossfan]

The usual posters will be breaking out in rashes all over Ulster at the mere mention of those 3 letters --


G P A

[tbrick18]

IMO Paddy Heaney's article summed things up pretty well. The GPA should be ignored by the GAA hierarchy, let them say and do what they want. Let players strike if they want. There will always be 15 men, women and children from every county in every code willing to pull on the county jersey without the say so of the GPA.

It seems to me the GPA want to be sitting there on a par with the GAA and that they should dictate how things are done and indeed if players should even be playing at all. They hold this threat over the GAA in that give us our way or we will get the players to strike.

I say we set up a new organisisation called the RGPA (Real GPA) and instead of threatening to withdraw the services of members from gaelic games of the GAA dont do what we want, we will have a membership who promises to play for the county no matter what (nothing else). There should also be a branch of it which represents clubs, schools, company teams and offers information and advice on how to seek funding from the GAA and on how to build a club at grass roots level. Get the county boards to sign up to it so that county players must be a member of the RGPA and must NOT be a member of the GPA. Sack Dessie and Donal Og who will then fade into obscurity, as no-one really cares about a couple of has beens anyway.

The original concept of the GPA was a good idea, but now its just a joke with a number of current and ex-county players who have a jumped up opinion about themselves and dont really have the best interest of the entire organisation at heart. The RGPA idea is a bit of a joke, but if the GAA ever give credibility to the GPA we are left open to anybody setting up any sort of organisation at all which can act as a sort of union for players....this has to be avoided at all costs.

As ever though, this is the opinion of one man....

[RadioGAAGAA]

But Dessie Farrell claimed the GPA has been forced to act because negotiations aimed at achieving official GAA recognition (with resultant central funding) have stalled.

i.e. the GAA told him to f**k off and now he is skint.



The GAA already have a player welfare committee, they have no need for the GPA.

[thebandit]

When the GPA were set up I thought they were supposed to represent club players as well?

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Dessie has a full page response in today's Irish News in response to Paddy Heaney's 'Against the Breeze' Cloumn yesterday.  Two good and conflicting articles, maybe someone could post them.  

Time has come for GPA to stop asking GAA for more
Against the Breeze
By Paddy Heaney
11/11/08

SHOULD the GAA be in a permanent state of gratitude to the players who provide us with entertainment every year? Or should the gratitude be the other way round?

The Gaelic Players' Association is in no doubt about where the appreciation should reside. In a speech he delivered at the Gala Banquet for the players' body on Friday night, chief executive Dessie Farrell revealed his stance on the issue.

While reprimanding the GAA for failing to make any reference to the GPA or county players in a strategic document, Farrell reminded Croke Park of why they are able to enjoy such huge gates and record-breaking advertising revenue.

"No mention of the players on whose backs the multi-million euro deals are struck; no mention of the players on whose backs the
television contracts are signed; no mention of the players on whose backs the very funding which breathes life into the GAA is
generated. No mention of the players at all." It's inflammatory language as Farrell depicts the players as beasts of burden, while the suits in Croke Park are the greedy fat cats.

It is, of course, a total misconception, and it's an argument which the GPA would be best advised not to pursue.The simple truth of the matter is that supporters do not pay to watch players.They pay to watch teams. To be more precise, they pay to watch their teams. If fans were obsessed with savouring talent, then the Railway Cup would be a roaring success.

Last year's Railway Cup finals are a prime example. They were held on Saturday night in Croke Park. The GAA spent E100,000 promoting the games. They gave away thousands of tickets – yet 82 per cent of those who received such a freebie still preferred to stay at home. Bear in mind that the football and hurling finals featured some of the country's most outstanding players, yet fewer than 10,000 went through the turnstiles.

Dessie Farrell has done a superb job representing the rights of the inter-county footballers. Securing the players' grants scheme was an incredible achievement and nothing short of a minor miracle. However, Farrell must reconsider his negotiating policy. A change of tack is required. The old tried and trusted strategy of presenting the players as being maltreated is not going to wash anymore.

Thanks largely to the GPA, things have changed, and, as a result, the public mood has also changed. The days when players had to beg for expenses and felt lucky if they received a pair of boots are long gone. The players are treated like professionals. MRI scans costing £800 are done without hesitation. There are meals after training. There is free gear. Players are receiving advice from psychologists, strength and conditioning coaches, and dieticians. Injured players conduct their rehabilitation under the medical care of a team of experts.

Earlier this year I interviewed Alan Simpson, the Linfield goalkeeping coach, who was part of Ross Carr's backroom team. The Irish League coach was overwhelmed by how well Down's county footballers were treated and hugely impressed by the way no expense was spared in meeting their needs. More importantly again, the GAA's leadership has finally realised that it no longer has to tiptoe around the GPA. Nickey Brennan's announcement that Croke Park will be making no intervention to solve the dispute in Cork is highly significant. The message behind this statement is clear. If the Cork hurlers want to withdraw their services, then fine, so be it. The games will go on without them.

The GAA has cottoned on that it is now the poker player with the biggest bundle of chips. It provides players, managers, officials – and even journalists – with a profile that wouldn't be possible in any other sport. The semi-professional sports in this country struggle for audiences and attention. In contrast, the All-Ireland Championships are played to packed houses and command the lion's share of sports coverage in most newspapers from June to August. And everyone wants a slice of the action. Just look at the men clambering to get management jobs. Why? Because there is nothing else like it and it's totally addictive.

Club football doesn't compare. There isn't the same media attention. You can't read your own quotes in five different newspapers on the same day. The crowds are bigger, the stakes are bigger. Everything is bigger. And it's only the GAA which provides this huge window to the public. Most inter-county footballers and hurlers would not make the cut in professional sports. The GAA is the only way they can explore their sporting potential in front of a mass audience. The GAA also provides opportunities and standards of player welfare which far exceed other amateur and semi-professional sports in this country.

For instance, nine Tyrone players picked up cheques for €2,500 at last Friday's GPA awards for being selected on its Team of the Year. Sean Cavanagh drove away in a new Opel Astra as Footballer of the Year. Cavanagh, Enda McGinley, and Justin and Joe McMahon had just spent the previous three weeks in Australia. The Tyrone team will head off on a foreign trip before the end of the year. Another group of Allstars will travel to San Francisco next month.

And it's not just the players from elite counties that benefit. The Antrim footballers who won the Tommy Murphy Cup get a cheque from Croke Park as well. It's not exactly deprivation. This is why it's hard to summon much sympathy when Dessie Farrell claims that the GPA "should not have to go cap in hand to establish basic welfare principles". Players now have much more than a cap in hand. A pair of boots. Gloves. Wet gear. Mileage expenses. A meal after training. These are the 'basic' welfare requirements of an amateur player – and they have been met.

Continually playing the poor mouth is going to backfire on the GPA. They need to formulate a new argument and new bargaining position because the GAA is no longer going to allow the threat of strike action to hang like a guillotine above its head. And anyone who has any doubts about this statement should watch how the latest saga in Cork will unfold. What exactly are the Cork hurlers going to do if they withdraw their services? Join Cork City? Take up basketball? Move to Carlton?

You can only bargain if you can walk away. And for the overwhelming majority of inter-county hurlers and footballers the game is the only thing they've got. The leadership of the GPA hasn't fully grasped this principle yet and their policy of playing bluff with Croke Park is a very dangerous tactic. The bluff worked once (when they threatened to strike over the grants scheme), but they need to consider what will happen if the GAA asks them to show their hand. The hard evidence demonstrates that ordinary players are busting a gut to get into their county squads. A total of 68 junior and intermediate club players in Derry attended trials for the senior squad during the past fortnight.

This is the inconvenient truth that the GPA must accept. While they may feel aggrieved that the GAA is making millions "on the backs'' of the players, those same players are free to walk away at any time they please. And if they do so, they'll find a long line of men only too willing to wear their jersey.

Because, ultimately, it's the jersey and not the player that matters most.

And Dessie's withering riposte...


Players are the GAA's crown jewels says GPA chief Farrell
By Paddy Heaney
12/11/08

The following piece from Gaelic Players' Association chief executive Dessie Farrell is in response to yesterday's Against The Breeze column by Paddy Heaney...

PADDY HEANEY'S personal opinion column yesterday has caused quite a stir among some inter-county players given that it asserted that they have little, if anything, to do with the success of the GAA. Unlike yesterday's callers to the GPA office, however, I will attempt to temper my response.

De-personalising players and their contributions is an age-old GAA negotiating tactic, one which is very prevalent on Leeside and one which was prevalent in many other sports in the past (why aren't the names of our players on the backs of the jerseys? Need I really ask?) However, surprised as I was to see such a view expressed by a writer who has frequent professional interaction with these 'irrelevant' amateur players, what was really most disturbing for me about this piece was the fact that it rather 'conveniently' ignored the central point of my speech to the GPA Gala Night last Friday.

That point was simple: after nearly 10 years in existence, we are now no closer to an agreement with the GAA on formal recognition for the players' body. Despite a decade of campaigning and endless platitudes, the GAA does not formally recognise the GPA and has shown no real desire to engage in meaningful discussions about our future.

During that period, there has indeed been substantial change in the GAA and a lot of that change has been brought about by the emergence of an active players' association. It has also been brought about by the increasing commitment of the playing body in an environment where coverage, particularly live television coverage, has grown exponentially.However, despite these changes, plus the growth in player disputes and the threat of a strike last year, the GAA really isn't concerned about a formal players' association and the benefits that would bring to the playing body and to the GAA itself. This is reflected, starkly, in the fact that their recent draft strategy briefing failed to mention either players or the relationship with the GPA.

The GPA's understanding of formal recognition would see the players' body funded by the GAA so that it can apply an expanded package of player welfare services, services which are relevant to amateur players performing in a professional environment in the 21st century, services such as career development, employment programmes, health and well-being services, insurance and further education initiatives. Do our amateur players not deserve these services at a time when so many players are losing jobs and others encountering great difficulties with career progression?

The GPA is committed to providing the very best for our players and that means as good as any professional sport, and I mean the best professional sports in the world. In fact, we can safeguard our amateur status by ensuring we achieve excellence in the area of welfare. Government funding for players, for example, was a key stepping stone in this process. To date, the GPA has been completely self-funded but has had to compete with the GAA's growing commercial portfolio for funding.

In the absence of a formal agreement, we have no choice but to increase our own commercial activity to fund our welfare initiatives. This has, of course, the potential to set us on another collision course with the GAA regarding sponsorship, TV and image rights. Disputes will increase between both bodies while there are no formal structures to resolve these issues.

Paddy may believe that the success of the GAA at inter-county level, particularly the growth in sponsorship and live television coverage, has nothing to do with individual players, but I believe he is grossly incorrect in this assumption. Will the number of Wexford football fans, for example, not grow next season? I believe fundamentally, that it is the pursuit of excellence by individual players and managers which has underpinned the growth of the inter-county game. I do not, for one minute, take Gaelic games for granted and assume that it will always be strong just because 'people' identify with their county. We must always strive to improve and, once we enter the commercial arena, compete to make our product the best on the market in the face of stiff opposition from other codes.

Paddy suggests that people pay to watch their teams and not the players. Am I alone here in thinking he is splitting hairs? People may indeed attend games for a variety of reasons but you can be sure, the better a side is, the more talented and the more committed its players, the bigger the attendance. And by promoting the profile of the individuals involved, you are strengthening your sport.

It is the individuals, not the jersey, to which children are first drawn. It is Sean Cavanagh and Henry Shefflin who youngsters try to emulate. There are indeed many inconvenient truths in the issue of player-official relations at the moment, but none more so than the fact that the GAA is going to have to fund the GPA. The player should not be seen as a product on a never-ending conveyor belt. And neither should welfare for players be seen as merely a meal after training or proper shower facilities.

In this day and age, it has to be more than that. In an era where players have signed up to the amateur ethos of the association, surely we can accept and respect that appropriate welfare programmes should be established to assist these men in whatever way we can.

[Hardy]

Dessie and the GPA still don't seem to grasp the fundamental point: the GAA provides THEM with a service, not the other way around. They are provided, effectively free of charge except for their annual club membership fee, with the best facilities available in the world in which to play their chosen sport. Other amateur sports people drool in envy at the quality of facilities, supports and services the GAA provides free gratis so that the players have every opportunity to get the absolute most out of their sport.

Amateur tennis players, cyclists, hockey players ... I could go on ... can only dream of this level of facilities and services.  Even professional soccer and rugby players are envious of the stadiums, training centres, equipment and services the GAA provides for its players.

Of all the amateur sports I can think of, only golf comes close in the quality of facilities it provides for its players. But look at how much it costs to join a golf club and how much you pay every year to stay. And you still buy your own golf clubs. If you want specialist coaching (golf lessons) you pay for that too. And not a sports psychologist in sight, never mind free medical treatment.

Our players get the best stadiums in the country, top class coaching, expenses, free food, travel and accommodation, free equipment, professional training, medical treatment and even sports psychologists and dieticians. Not only that, but the very best players, those represented by the GPA, far from being disadvantaged in this regard, get the very best of all these facilities and services, by comparison with players at lower levels. I'm proud and delighted that we can provide this quality of environment for our players to play in but absolutely puzzled that the GPA interprets all this as the PLAYERS providing a service to the GAA and the elite players providing more than the "ordinary" lads.