Meeting of Grassroots to Discuss our Strategy re GPA

[LaurelEye]

You're going to stop following your county team because the government is giving the players a small grant??

Tubberman, I have better things to do with my time (and better things on which to waste petrol) than to travel up to Newry or down to Wexford next spring to get wet and cold looking at a collection of individuals who are only willing to play for the county if they're getting paid.

You say yourself elsewhere that the chief executive of the GPA is "an arrogant, greedy man". But, with the solitary exception of Colm Bradley, not one current inter-county player publicly criticised the behaviour of the GPA leadership or publicly disagreed with the course of action being taken during this dispute. We have to assume therefore that their stance and behaviour was supported (or at least acquiesced in) by the vast majority of inter-county players.

[FTJC]

Darbyo...you just seem to be sticking your head in the sand and refusing to accept that this is the beginning.

Rule 11 has been diluted and is not worth the paper it is written on after that decisiion at the weekend

[Treasurer]

GPA can survive if they expand their portfolio


By Eugene McGee
Monday December 10 2007


The high-profile members of the GPA must feel that all their Christmases have come together with the Central Council ratification of the now infamous government grant scheme on Saturday.


Getting the deal with the Government, Sports Council and GAA through all the various hoops was an achievement in itself but to have Central Council in effect copper-fasten it against the protesters that came out of the woodwork last week was the icing on the cake.

But despite undoubted success on this issue, the future role of that organisation within the overall GAA scheme of things is not by any means clear. As far as the GAA public is concerned, the GPA has so far been a single issue body concerned only with the government grant scheme.

With this put to bed, many are asking what the GPA will now focus on? As the events of last week show, clearly there is a huge range of emotions about inter-county players in the wider GAA family and it is obvious that one of the strongest is jealousy. I have always maintained, and last week's outbursts have strengthened my view, that many GAA officials have little or no time for inter-county players.

These people regard themselves as the people who really matter in the GAA having convinced themselves they are martyrs to the GAA cause, and generally give the impression the GAA could not survive without them. They see the popular county players as rivals for the public's attention and indeed county team managers are often regarded in that light too. Last week gave them the chance to screw the county stars and boy did they revel in doing so.

The venom that emerged in speeches and on internet sites towards county players in recent weeks has been really shocking even by GAA standards. This is amazing when one considers how popular the great inter-county stars are in their own localities, and it just shows how a tiny minority can use modern communication methods to spread venom, hatred and defamation against county players, usually anonymously. Is this really the GAA we all know and love?

Bitterness

Therein lies one of the greatest challenges for the GPA. As the organisation representing these players, it has become the focal point for all the bitterness and derisory comment. The use of the strike threat turned thousands of GAA people away from the GPA. Now there is great hostility to the organisation and how the GPA will set about addressing that will define its future role.

Obviously the GPA will seek to gain official recognition from the GAA which is a necessity if the GPA is to become acceptable to rank-and-file GAA people. But it will not be easy and the GAA is sure to strike a very hard bargain for such recognition with terms that the GPA will find difficult to swallow, such as operating strictly according to the GAA Official Guide. That would rule out any future strikes, for example.

But the GPA needs to do a lot more if it wants to win the hearts and minds of ordinary GAA members. There is a substantial anti-GPA lobby, particularly in the 'Six Counties,' which will be merciless in its efforts to insult and destroy the body.

The GPA needs to start playing an active role in many other areas of GAA activity such as coaching, demanding a better deal for club players with regard to fixtures, making submissions about controversial matters -- such as playing rule changes -- and how competitions are run.

At its AGM last month, the GPA did pass motions to make representations to the GAA on four items: setting up a twinning system, whereby stronger and weaker hurling counties are paired for the purpose of promoting hurling; asking the Munster Council to reverse its recent decision about seeding its football championship; to ask the Hurling Development Committee to review the recently adapted hurling championship structures; to make representations on behalf of the Division 4 teams who have been excluded from the All-Ireland qualifiers.

This is the sort of thing the GPA needs to get more actively involved in on a day-to-day basis. Has the GPA a view, for example, on the proposed abolition of the Minor and U-21 grades and replacing them with a new U-19 competition?

Uncaring

The GPA should be in a position to ballot its members on matters like these and inform us what the players think. GAA people would regard that as a useful exercise.

Obviously the arrival of a player welfare officer in Croker has undermined the GPA's role in that regard but there is plenty of scope for both. From my experience, there are many forms of abuse and neglect which players at all levels are subjected to by uncaring officials and they all need to have recourse to somebody. I was interested to note that some of the most virulent anti-GPA comments last week came from those people who played key roles in the neglect of players in recent years.

The GPA's biggest challenge is to show the same level of interest in club players as county stars. That, in the long term, will be the ultimate test and unless they do that they will always be called elitist, which seems to have become the strongest term of abuse one can use in the GAA. Of course, county players are elite because by definition they are the best players in each county.

It is that very fact that has played a major part in the GAA being what it is today. The county players fill the stadiums, excite thousands of fans, attract mass media coverage and are pivotal in bringing in millions in gate receipts to the GAA each year. If that's elitism then county players are elite alright.

It is time to stop talking about county players getting money because many of those talking are hypocrites as they come from clubs who illegally pay managers large fees.

County board officers, too, should think twice before attacking county players about money since many of these are complicit in breaking Rule 11 as regards payment to county managers. In addition it is well known that for decades many county boards siphoned off money from national league home games before making returns to Croke Park. Glass houses, stones and all that.

The GPA can have a useful future provided it is officially recognised by the GAA and operates according to normal GAA protocol, as defined by the Official Guide.

If that does not happen quickly we will just have more instances of the internal savagery that has afflicted the GAA in recent months, sparked off by the GPA's campaigns. It is time for all sides to learn hard lessons and the quicker we all get back to playing and watching inter-county games the better.

- Eugene McGee

[DMarsden]

Is there a difference between pay for play and pay for train?

[pintsofguinness]

A GOOD friend of mine has already been offered double his grant total if he will turn it down officially and say publicly its because he feels it's against the ethos of the GAA.

[ONeill]

It'll ge great fun looking back on this thread over the next year and see how the dooms-dayers fared over the year - they'll be debating and goiung to inter-county games til it's coming out of their ears. The same as the CP issue.

As for Mark Conway, I've been to many Club Tyrone functions since 2002 and Conway was sounding more and more like a man living in the past, despite his initial vision in '95. I was speaking to a Kildress man recently, a clubman of Conway's, who agreed that the majority of forward thinkers in that area fail to see at least one relevant argument he was coming up with. Thank God, I thought I was going mad.

Club Tyrone exceeded Conway long ago. As a member I see my money going towards youth preparation more than anything. If Conway wants to pull the plug on that for him fair enough.

[Rois]

Club Tyrone exceeded Conway long ago.

How so?  He is a key member of the committee and has driven many of the initiatives this year and I don't doubt in every other year since its existence.  I'm not saying it can't survive without him, but I can imagine some members stopping the standing orders.

By the way, I believe you will not see any of your Club Tyrone money going directly towards youth preparation in the next number of years.

[ONeill]

CT Has been on the go long enough now and has a healthly blanket of organsiers and commitee men. His drive was crucial from 95-03 but it's such as well oiled machine now that he'll not be missed.

Why do you think CT funds will not go to all sections of Tyrone GAA?

[ONeill]

In the short term it may lose. Gradually, when it becomes clear that what happened was simply govn grants provided for top athletes and pittance at that, it'll soon return to something near the norm.

[darbyo]

Darbyo...you just seem to be sticking your head in the sand and refusing to accept that this is the beginning.

Rule 11 has been diluted and is not worth the paper it is written on after that decisiion at the weekend

Ok FTJC, if my head is in the sand, can you explain to me how professionalism can be foisted upon the GAA membership without their approval, and please don't point to this grant as something that went against grassroots opinion. Because there is a world of differnce between a grant of €3k from the government and the GAA paying players a living wage for playing football/hurling. If as you say this is the beginning then you must have some idea as to how it can go forward.

Darbyo, if the grants announced had a top level of around €25,000 instead of around €2,500 would you have a different opinion?

No, I have no problem with the government giving GAA players money whatever the value. My objection to professionalism has nothing to do with elitism, the principle of amateurism or anyother such notions. I just believe that it couldn't be sustainable, hurling would probably die off as genuine sport, county football in 2/3 of the counties would also end and numerous clubs would fold. In addition too few players would be soaking up too much GAA money and as a consequence improving infrastructure, investing in clubs etc. would all suffer. But if the government want to pay them great. Now I've answered your question do you want to have a crack off answering mine?

[Rossfan]

Just for the record I personally have NOT HEARD ONE WORD of opposition in Ros to the grants and I WILL be going to see my County teams as often as I can next year.

[crossfire]

PINTS OF GUINNESS
I am surprised at you condemning grants for players considering that your club, Silverbridge, has been paying senior team managers for years !!!

[pintsofguinness]

PINTS OF GUINNESS
I am surprised at you condemning grants for players considering that your club, Silverbridge, has been paying senior team managers for years !!!

Who?


You're a brave man crossfire, I see you posted that and logged out immediately 

[RadioGAAGAA]

His drive was crucial from 95-03 but it's such as well oiled machine now that he'll not be missed.

You assume that no other cogs will be sickened by this.

[RadioGAAGAA]

Ok FTJC, if my head is in the sand, can you explain to me how professionalism can be foisted upon the GAA membership without their approval, and please don't point to this grant as something that went against grassroots opinion. Because there is a world of differnce between a grant of €3k from the government and the GAA paying players a living wage for playing football/hurling. If as you say this is the beginning then you must have some idea as to how it can go forward.

I know you wrote this after I posted a dictionary definition of professional.

Perhaps your memory is blurred.

Definition of professional:
3. Performed by persons receiving pay: professional football.

So, how exactly are IC players not going to be (semi) professional?


Again, your point regarding where things go from here - I put forward local rugby as an example, perhaps you forgot about it as well.

But if the government want to pay them great.

Do you honestly think that money comes for free? From the big money tree that is the government?


A doctors surgery, hospital beds, gardai, improved roads, more teachers... that is what is being sacrificed to pay these players....

-or-

The government just takes it out of the annual grants it gives to the GAA directly - thus the GAA would be indirectly paying the players.