What - no discussion about the GAA backing pay for play?

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

have to say fellas i think the effort some of the senior club players put in these days is forgotten. the top ones in each county would be damn close in terms of the hours given to county teams. I accept it's not the same standard and they don't draw the crowds- but playing senior club football for a top club team is like a full-ime job in itself and i can't imagine it's a milion miles off the time put in by cunty players. I'm not suggesting club players getting anything- but i don't like this payment of players for one reason- the price always goes up -it's 5m this year -what will it be next year. I'm all for players getting all the expenses required. but i think most county teams overtrain anyway and a s aresult their clubs never see them .This is a dangerous precedent creating an elite band of players distinct from everybody else.

Understand, if it's the thin edge of a wedge (and wodge) it's an abomination.

[Lone Shark]

It says something about how the tail is wagging the dog when you come on to a board like this, made up of GAA members from across the island, and it's hard to find a single person who thinks that any payment over and above reimbursement of expenses incurred is a good idea. We all believe that it will lead to less county teams, over playing, disgruntlement among club players and the general decline of our association, and yet to listen to the media, this was accepted by all as a good thing.

I'm not exactly an ideal member in that my living in Galway now means I'm on my third club in three seasons, but even so I'll be lobbying delegates from each of those clubs to fight this.

[magpie seanie]

I don't think it will succeed but that will bring its own troubles.

[believebelive]

This is my single biggest bug bear in the GAA at the moment and unfortunately it seems that lareg portions of our membership are totally apathetic to the problem.
This started when good GAA men turned a bling eye to the payment of county managers. Soon there was payment to managers and trainers etc etc. It is a simple logic that players would soon want a slice of the pie. The players argue, with some justification, that the amount of effort and time that it takes to play county football is serious. Our club game is completely dead in the water because county players have no opportunity to train with clubs etc..... This money is not for expenses because it will not be based on loss of earnings. How can a student have the same expenses as a self employed plumber etc.? This is the thin edge of the wedge, if this goes through in ten years time you wil have a situation where county players play for their clubs on the very odd occassion only.
I truly believe that the biggest problem is that the GPA is not representative of the inter county players. Compare their membership numbers when players had to pay their membership fees rather than get free membership to see that most members of the GPA are sheep.
I honestly believed that if the entire inter county playing population were polled and given the following choice you would get an interesting answer.
Would you rather recieve 50 euro a week for a nine month season (average) or have a reduced inter county season that gave you the opportunity to play for your club and have a proper rest.

I would wager that most would choose the second option. Our players are getting burnt out and our clubs sre getting pissed off. But things will never change because the GPA leadership want money and the GAA bosses in Croke Park want a long inter county season. End of story.
Unless the grass roots revolt or a few high profile players revolt then we will lose everything that makes the GAA special in a very short space of time.

[thejuice]

From what ive read about the governments grant system, Inter county players will be getting  €2,500 (£1700) a year. which isnt exactly spoiling them is it. But its something!!

[AZOffaly]

I knew I heard the €2,500 figure somewhere. But what is it supposed to be? Recompense for out of pocket expense, above and beyond the normal expenses already available? That seems to be a shaggy dog story.

In my view it's basically giving players money they WOULDN'T OTHERWISE HAVE, for playing the GAA to a certain standard.

I can't say I like that idea, or the very thick wedge that might be behind the thin point. It'll be hard to argue the principal of pay for play is wrong, now that this 'grant' has been award for people who play GAA at inter-county level. It's a monetary award for reaching a certain standard.

[laoisgaa]

I know nobody knows what's in the document yet, but where does this leave our Northern brethern?

Perhaps the new Executive will look after their "expenses" as well?

Believe it will apply across both jurisdictions equally, i.e., as administered centrally from Dublin.

But surely the Irish government won't be giving grants to Northern Irish taxpayers.

Asked Nickey Brennan about this yesterday and he quickly rubbished my question saying that the GAA is a 32 county organisation. This leads me to believe that the grants won't come in the form of tax credits or such but as something which resembles the current setup re mileage through the GAA.

My article from today's Irish News on the issue is below:

Northern players in line for an Irish grant 
Gaelic Games 
By Coilin Duffy 

GAA players in the six counties will benefit from any grants system implemented by the Irish Government, Association President Nickey Brennan has confirmed.

Although the funding will come from the government in Dublin, this will not hamper players based in the north according to Brennan.

It had been believed that the grants may come in the form of tax relief, but now this seems unlikely following Brennan's comments.

"The GAA is a 32-county organisation as far as we are concerned, and any grants scheme will apply to county teams on the whole island, the border is not relevant in this case," Brennan said.

"The government of the south will supply the money for the whole 32 counties, it is not relevant to the administration in the north," he added.

The GAA and GPA each issued statements yesterday that both sides have submitted a proposal to the government in relation to player grants, and Brennan is satisfied with the progress that has been made.

"There have been discussions between the two bodies over a number of months now, and the proposals have now ended with a submission to the government in the next 24 hours.

"I'm happy it has got to this stage now and we now need to give time to the minister and his officials to clear the matter," Brennan said.

This news comes a year after the GPA held an emergency EGM in Portlaoise to ballot their members on the issue of player welfare grants.

"Perhaps they will need to seek some clarifications, which is there right if such is the case, and we look forward to dealing with them in relation to this.

"We are certainly not putting any time constraints on the minister. He has a heavy agenda and I'm sure his people will give consideration to this at the earliest possible time."

The president was happy with the negotiations involving all parties, but is keen to stress that at no time was professional status on the agenda.

"We have had a good negotiating team as have had the GPA, and we have to ensure that any issue surrounding grants did not compromise our amateur status, that was very important to us."

"Once the background was established quite quickly, we were able to move along and get an

agreement to submit to the government."

Brennan doesn't foresee that the allocation of player grants, in whatever format they take, will be hard to police, particularly when some players may only appear on county panels as subs in the National League for instance.

"We know life in the GAA is never clear-cut, but it is not beyond the ingenuity and wisdom of various officials to come up with a scheme to accommodate that, and I'm sure it will be the least of our concerns."

"We know we can come up with a scheme that is fair to all participants no matter how long they may or may not be on a county panel."

The news comes on the same day as the new Player Burnout Taskforce met last night at Croke Park under the chairmanship of Dr Pat O'Neill of Dublin.

[thejuice]

Just read that the ladies are looking for an equal deal. Its only right that they get the same deal as everyone else.

[kilkennycat2004]

From what ive read about the governments grant system, Inter county players will be getting  €2,500 (£1700) a year. which isnt exactly spoiling them is it. But its something!!

If this is as well as current inter county expenses, with nothing for those at lesser levels, its certainly the start of something that may well prove impossible to stop.
Would be totaly against it.

[highking]

Saw a preliminary proposal from the GPA a couple of months ago which may have been the proposal sent to O'Donohue. It read something like:

Senior Intercounty Football
E2,500 per player who takes part in the All-Ireland Football Championship = E2,400,000


Senior Intercounty Hurling
E2,500 per player who takes part in the McCarthy Cup = E900,000
E2,000 per player who takes part in the Ring Cup = E720,000
E1,500 per player who takes part in the Rackard Cup = E540,000


Potential problems for this would be players who are with the panel at the start of the season and who are dropped or have long term injuries. The one thing it may do is make managers pick their 30 panelists early in the season and stick with them. Distribution of grants will be coming from the individual boards. I cant see anything wrong with this as long as everything is managed well. As for the club players - it is an insentive for them to try and make a county panel the following season. In relation to students - they are very much so needy of this type of grant, as there time playing for their club, college and county hinders their chance of doing some part time work, which all their friends will be doing. Why would you deny a student E2,500 to help him out? A lot of the students dont have cars and cant claim mileage.

I think Im going to become a dual player next year

[dublinfella]

Whatever about the pro's and cons of paying players and the huge debate that will entail, im outraged that the taxpayer is footing this bill. How can we justify this?

Could you imagine the uproar if the Dept of Sport subsidised LoI or provincial rugby players? And this minister is being abused for being anti-Gaa?

[hmmm]

Just read that the ladies are looking for an equal deal. Its only right that they get the same deal as everyone else.

Too right, I'll be interested to see if the ladies association take this further.

[fearglasmor]

Saw a preliminary proposal from the GPA a couple of months ago which may have been the proposal sent to O'Donohue. It read something like:

Senior Intercounty Football
E2,500 per player who takes part in the All-Ireland Football Championship = E2,400,000


Senior Intercounty Hurling
E2,500 per player who takes part in the McCarthy Cup = E900,000
E2,000 per player who takes part in the Ring Cup = E720,000
E1,500 per player who takes part in the Rackard Cup = E540,000

Nothing for the Tommy Cooper Cup then  !!!!   

[believebelive]

As for the club players - it is an insentive for them to try and make a county panel the following season. P

This line sums up how far the association is gone when people thinking that receiving money to play for your county will act as an incentive. What incentive should you need to play for your county? Sweet mother of fcuk but we have lost the plot.

[Lone Shark]

Whatever about the pro's and cons of paying players and the huge debate that will entail, im outraged that the taxpayer is footing this bill. How can we justify this?

Could you imagine the uproar if the Dept of Sport subsidised LoI or provincial rugby players? And this minister is being abused for being anti-Gaa?

We can't - it's ridiculous. However I would imagine this was just electioneering on the part of O'Donoghue in that he never thought the GAA would agree to the principle. However don't take this for a pro-GAA move - it's anything but. This is a relatively cheap way of getting a load of headlines, bar stool pundits might take it as being a pro GAA move, but in actual fact all it is is just something that's going to leave the GAA no way back from. Then in five years time when this country is in the thrall of a recession, the winds of public opinion will be blowing elsewhere, these grants will be pulled, and the GPA will expect the GAA to carry on where the Government left off. Of course the GAA won't be able to afford it, so voila, you have amalgamated teams.

This is anti-GAA, anti-sense and anti-sport in general. He'll realise this when every half decent road bowler and darts player in the country looks for the same grant. Sadly we'll be too far gone by then.