Danny Lynch: "Gaa should drop Scór, handball, rounders"

[Sportacus]

My club does Scor every year and is all the better for it.  A great way to put in the winter nights and lots of kids and older people and ladies get involved who otherwise would never be seen near the place.

Every time I go to a Scor the place is packed and the standard gets better every year imo.  He's entitled to his opinion but is out of touch as far as I'm concerned.

[Graviko]

In our county, the profits from Scor is a useful source of revenue for one at least of our divisional boards helping to finance the underage GAA field games
Scor has also popularised set dancing all over Ireland with people of all ages  taking part, not necessarily to compete in the actual competitions.
Most Scor committees run themselves taking advice from the county boards when needed, and  in many cases the organisational ability of the  individuals who came into the GAA through has Scor proved so good that went on to be very useful members of County Boards.
We don't all have the gift to be wonderful footballers or hurlers, and Scor has given those who are smart enough to know that they're useless on the football field another opportunity to contribute something to the organisation we love.

[irunthev]

I approached Danny Lynch man moons ago about getting hold of a team picture taken in Croke Park and he was about as useful as a bra on a bullock and he was supposed to be in charge of commnication and publicity. Waste of space

[Hardy]

That's the ironic thing about this outburst. For the decade or more when he was the official, paid voice of the GAA, he was almost completely silent - nothing to say about anything, no initiative of any sort that I can remember at all. The only time you ever heard from him was when he was dragged out by Joe Duffy to defend the latest referee-bashing to the outraged mothers of Dublin 4. Now, he can't be shut up.

His successor, by the way, seems to have learned the job well from Danny. Does anyone know who it is? Has anyone ever heard him say anything?

PR me arse.

[Dubh driocht]

Hardy, I think you will find that 'him' is a woman called Lisa Clancy. And the point of having PROs is to create news/publicity, not make it themselves. That's the mistake that a lot of PROs/Journalists make - they are there to report the stories/publicise the games , not make the stories themselves- there are many examples ( North and South) of people who lose the run of themselves and think they are equal billing to the players who have the talent, skill and dedication.
Danny Lynch was a complete bollox IMO.From his recent comments it seems that little has changed.No surprise that he didn't facilitate irunthev and I heard many other stories in a similar vein. The fact that Lisa Clancy has kept under the radar while promoting the association and Croke Park in a professional light might suggest she is doing alright.

[Hardy]

Fair enough, I suppose. I'm no PR expert. It seems I don't really understand what Lisa Clancy does. What does she do?

[magpie seanie]

Don't agree with anything he says in that article bar the bit about alcohol sponsorship. I find the other points downright weird to tell you the truth.

[Dubh driocht]

Her title is Director of Communication and your question , Hardy, is a fair one.As an ordinary punter I think that communication has improved although there may be room for improvement. Has anyone here had any dealings with Croke Park communications or any knowledge of good or bad things they have done ? With an amateur organisation based on the volunteer spirit there is probably always going to be some tension with well paid full-time employees, but compared to the IFA/FAI, or indeed the IRFU, I think the GAA is not bad in communication.

[irunthev]

I have been researching for a book and approached Croke Park about getting some results and team line ups from years gone by .........  They don't  keep records of Nat League games or team sheets or anything like that. They gave me the name of some bloke who might have the records as he did it for a bit of a hobby. Thiis is the history of the game we are talking abut here and they are relying on some bloke who does it for a hobby to keep the records

[heffo]

Dangerous thing upsetting the GAA Board's Purity Corner 
Those crew don't want any one tainted by Croke Park life or who received money from the GAA to open their gobs at all.
For the record I disagree with Mr.Lynch's views on this matter.

Didn't know the PRO was a paid position.

There are now two people in that position - Lisa Clancy, Director of communications and Alan Milton, Communications manager - the latter deals with most media queries and press releases etc.

[Bogball XV]

Dangerous thing upsetting the GAA Board's Purity Corner 
Those crew don't want any one tainted by Croke Park life or who received money from the GAA to open their gobs at all.
For the record I disagree with Mr.Lynch's views on this matter.

Didn't know the PRO was a paid position.

There are now two people in that position - Lisa Clancy, Director of communications and Alan Milton, Communications manager - the latter deals with most media queries and press releases etc.

With all these PR professionals on board, you'd have thought that the gaa could have realised that haivng an up to date website with features such as live in-running scoring might be a good way of communicating?  It also seems that it's a revenue generator as poster gaapunter seems to be finding out with his excellent site www.sportsnewsireland.com - but the gaa had ample years to get in there before him.

As for Danny's views, bizarre, he's maybe been off on some sort of an MBA since he retired and is learning american business speak.  Focus on key competencies and all that malarkey, suits the gaa though, in a lot of the top paid positions they tend to talk about such things as revenue maximisation, how to increase marginal revenue per customer etc, I'm not sure if they're aware, but another way to increase profitability is to cut costs.

[HiMucker]

Don't agree with anything he says in that article bar the bit about alcohol sponsorship. I find the other points downright weird to tell you the truth.

I found it weird also.  I  am now looking over my shoulder at the ones who do scor in the club thinking that its some free masons plot to over throw the football!

[Keyser soze]

I've a lock of oul medals at the football. Won a scor medal this year and i'm as proud of it as i am of any of the others. my club puts an enormous effort into scor and it's a really rewarding experience for all involved.

Hearing shite like that makes me think of the Christy Moore song Quiet Desperation.

[neilthemac]

the IRFU and their provincial PROs are brilliant at keeping their sport in the news

everyday there is some bit of useless info about injuries, team selection, fixtures two months away or suspensions.

and it is repeated all day on the sports bulletins. The GAA could learn a lot from them

[Eamonnca1]

I have been researching for a book and approached Croke Park about getting some results and team line ups from years gone by .........  They don't  keep records of Nat League games or team sheets or anything like that. They gave me the name of some bloke who might have the records as he did it for a bit of a hobby. Thiis is the history of the game we are talking abut here and they are relying on some bloke who does it for a hobby to keep the records

Probably the fella who ran that old Gaelic Gazette website. Such an underrated resource that was. Was probably the most comprehensive listing of GAA records I've ever seen anywhere, even better than Wikipedia. He had a family bereavement and took it down shortly after, the poor fella.