GPA exceptionalism

[Duine Inteacht Eile]

I don't disagree with you but the volunteer county Treasurer has had his sleep problems made 10 times worse in recent times with expenditure on management "teams" without you or anyone else giving a single fcuk so it could be suggested that your concern there isn't particularly genuine.
Volunteerism is huge in the GAA but we have allowed it to be undermined and it is thinning out at the elite level. This is just the next step and it is coming whether we like it or not. I don't btw.

[tiempo]

I don't disagree with you but the volunteer county Treasurer has had his sleep problems made 10 times worse in recent times with expenditure on management "teams" without you or anyone else giving a single fcuk so it could be suggested that your concern there isn't particularly genuine.
Volunteerism is huge in the GAA but we have allowed it to be undermined and it is thinning out at the elite level. This is just the next step and it is coming whether we like it or not. I don't btw.

Dont worry about my faux concern then, but Derek Kent Leinster GAA Chairman has outlined those precise concerns and I'm sure he gives more than a single f**k

Where does gombeen end and elite begin, Lory Meagher players in Britain who are GPA members and funded to the same tune - mileage and gear expenses, nutritional allowance - are they elite? Ironically at that level you're allowed to buy in ringers from Ireland to up the standard, by definition admitting its not elite. A mid rank club team in a hurling county would wipe the floor with a Lory Meagher team, but the club players aren't elite. Cuala would dispense of a few NFL D4 teams, but the D4 teams are elite

The reality is, remove the junket and the county teams would still field, the grounds would still be filled, this is because of the foundation-history-legacy of the GAA, not anything to do with the GPA, peddling a narrative that the 'elites' bring more than the underlings is elite level gaslighting

The GPA being cut in on a commercial deal for sponsorship of the Croke museum is a disgrace to the millions of volunteers and the hundreds of millions of volunteer hours given to create that history

[Duine Inteacht Eile]

I agree but we should be strong on calling out everyone who is a threat to volunteerism in the GAA. That's the large sums of money going to managers, coaches, stats men, fcukin life coaches, players who spend 4 weeks in America every summer.

But we don't. We accept it, facilitate it, encourage it. And then we go to town on players who are misinterpreting the blurred lines and believe that it is open season because.....it bloody well looks like open season!

[APM]

I agree but we should be strong on calling out everyone who is a threat to volunteerism in the GAA. That's the large sums of money going to managers, coaches, stats men, fcukin life coaches, players who spend 4 weeks in America every summer.

But we don't. We accept it, facilitate it, encourage it. And then we go to town on players who are misinterpreting the blurred lines and believe that it is open season because.....it bloody well looks like open season!

Spot on

[tiempo]

I agree but we should be strong on calling out everyone who is a threat to volunteerism in the GAA. That's the large sums of money going to managers, coaches, stats men, fcukin life coaches, players who spend 4 weeks in America every summer.

But we don't. We accept it, facilitate it, encourage it. And then we go to town on players who are misinterpreting the blurred lines and believe that it is open season because.....it bloody well looks like open season!

Might one challenge 50+ elites globetrotting on a vanity trip to plant trees in Kenya AND tackle the other issues simultaneously?

Control the controllables, limit the uncontrollables

[Captain Scarlet]

As I said already. They claim their players are losing out on overtime and much more because of the demands of the GAA.

They should be screaming about training out of season. Screaming about the demands put on their members by managers. But no, let's blame 'The GAA' for all this.

Also, who gets paid what in their operation?

The Gaelic Players Association (GPA) turned over more than €7.5m in revenue in 2019 and the average salary for its 10 employees is just under €65,000, their annual report shows.

The GPA's Player Development Programmes / Player Welfare programmes (€2,604,632) accounted for 81% of total expenditure.

Player development inckludes those leadership days where they watch a few slides.

[Louther]

Was great to see that the reaction to this on social media was on point. GPA getting largely criticised over it. Some small pockets of support including those who seen the €600m figure and believed that was what the games actually generate. One such figure was Joe Sheridan of Meath, for someone who works in Financial services he grasped of figures aren't the best. Too much blows to the head playing "rugby" maybe 

Other comments and some here, largely dismiss the club player or club game not been as committed or at same level cause they don't fill Croke Park twice a year like the county game does.
But i can guarantee you on any given weekend in August through to October, Croke Park would be filled many times over if all those attending club games where totalled up. And ask any county board official where a significant part of their funding now comes from - it's their own club championships and this funds goes toward the county activities. It doesn't filter back to the clubs at all.

Tom Parsons is a very poor leader.  An only imagine the funds that where thrown at this report.

[thewobbler]

It's always been a puzzle to me as to why any amateur sportsperson/hobbyist who chooses to dedicate their life to their pursuits, would expect any financial reward for doing so.

I mean do we really need to put "it's amateur" in shiny neon lights around our facilities? Or will those unwilling to separate hobby world from real world just find another message to vainly ignore.

——

That said, I also would like to see some genuine leadership from the GAA regarding trimming their employment levels, and altering the growth goals of the association.

Because until this happens, then the GPA - much as it frustrates me - kind of have a point.

Why do we need so many full time and part time coaches in the GAA? Why do we need to continually "grow the game"? Why do we need super 12s? Why do we shovel so many games into Croke Park? Why do we need 4 sets of paid provincial officers? Why do we need to benchmark against soccer and rugby, instead of ploughing our own furrow in terms of pricing and marketing? And so on and so on. All nearly summarised as "why have we allowed capitalist concepts to steer a community association?"

The problem inherent in the amateur ethos of Gaelic Games is that over the last 40 years, partly through over commitment to a hobby, and partly due to hustle and bustle, so many people have both inadvertently and knowingly turned voluntary roles of a few hours a week, into full time roles. Of courses players are going to want some of this action. It's only logical. So let's start a rollback.

[tiempo]

IN article

Bizzare how this msn link gets you the Irish News article which has a paywall on the IN site but that aside ...

Players chief Tom Parsons says the GAA is at 'an important juncture' where its amateur status is concerned, suggesting that failure to provide a 'value proposition' for players now could ultimately lead to revolt.

Right so Tom, here's what ye do, way and create a Professional GAA league if thats what you want: the infrastructure, rules/regs, marketing, liabilities, etc. etc. etc. you can be the Turkey Al Sheik of Ireland, no bodger to ye, nothing stopping ya

But in the meantime the GAA funded GPA should absolutely not be issuing soundbites questioning amateur status or invoking revolt

He also responded to criticism from various provincial councils of the GPA's role in having pre-season competitions postponed for 2025, and the issue of some inter-county teams still apparently returning to collective training before the agreed December 7 date.

He said the GPA had 'evidence' of various teams breaching the rules 'but not facts' and that they will 'do a full review after the league'.

On GAA Director General Tom Ryan's remarks last week that there is 'a gathering mood to shuffle the (All-Ireland) finals back by a week or two' into August, Parsons said this would require 'a mandate from players'.

"I think what would be a disaster is reinstating the pre-season competitions, stretching to August, putting more load on players again, taking three steps backwards," he said. "The key stakeholder here has to be the players that are involved in this."

An absolute charlatan talking out of both sides of his mouth

The GPA lobbied for the pre-season competitions to be scrapped from a welfare point of view, teams then didn't adhere to the shutdown and trained away and arranged challenge games, losing the pre-season competitions cost the provincial councils revenue that would have been reinvested at grassroots, but the mileage, gear, medical, nutrition gravy train continues into the pockets of the 'elite' players regardless, welfare is secondary when being a county player is a quasi career choice in itself it seems

[The Trap]

The Wobbler. You summed it all up very well.
The only people who can stop the train are the grassroots.
Central Council, GPA, the gurus and the media are in cahoots to get as much money out of the game as possible.
And in doing so wrecking the best amateur sport in the world.

[Duine Inteacht Eile]

There is no rolling it back. It's only going one way so we need to buckle up.
There is no real appetite from anyone, top to bottom, to stop those milking the game for their own financial gain.
The harrowing thought of a player getting some of the gravy has thrown up the suggestion but there is zero more depth to it than that.
We have a threshold of tolerance of this stuff. It is completely hypocritical. It is completely odd. Our cognitive dissonance is hitting the top level. But, we'll hold on to it tight.
Manager, coach, guru....fill your boots.
Player going to America....fill your boots.

——————————

Player in Ireland.....ungrateful bastid, trying to cash in on the backs of all the wonderful volunteers the length & breadth of the country.

As I say, that line will eventually move. Not for the better but at least we'll be consistent.

[tiempo]

A union of select players is literally calling themselves elite while espousing

- that a unique sporting heritage is contingent on them, but its everyones and not theirs to own
- the importance of retaining elite players, but its a hobby, involvement/retention is a simple matter of choice
- to support rural Ireland (rural Kenya too it seems), but thats in no way relevant

Brian McEvoy and Derek Kent have been very clear in recent weeks of their concern regarding the direction the GPA is headed in, custodians of their ilk won't be around forever, they are at the forefront of challenging issues wholesale, it so happens the GPA are duplicitous in their endeavours

[Milltown Row2]

We want the best sport in the world, run in a professional manner that continues to grow and improve but we want someone  to run those things for nothing or at the very least cut dramatically the paid people doing it, we also want people to go into schools/clubs/communities and carry out top sessions with kids from all backgrounds and different levels and do it because they are passionate about it, doing for the love of the game

We also want our coaches to have the best ammunition to succeed be it at club or county level and we assume that there should be little or no cost for that

We want to know every game that is on and want to watch every game possible and if we can watch it for a cheap as it can be 

There are a mountain of other stuff that goes on also but can't be bothered to post it.

Well its not the 70's anymore, where the club minibus picked ya up twice a week, when local clubs to schools helped with the ferrying around the primary school lads to school games and even used their jersey's to play games in the hope that they would attach themselves to that club. Heading to Croke Park for finals and provincial finals wasn't a clean fortune.

We still have thankfully the people in clubs that do it all for the love of the game, but times have changed and the demands are far greater and people have less time to but in the work, for some clubs never mind counties the extra hours that go into running a club would be nearly as much as their working week.

All that said above my own view is we do need to strike a balance, for me no one should be outta pocket, travel and food and the likes of gear and other stuff for county teams is a bare minimum, but getting paid to play for your county, if you are missing out that much try something else..

As for managers, again, they shouldn't be out of pocket but some of the sums you hear are eye watering

[Duine Inteacht Eile]

A union of select players is literally calling themselves elite while espousing

- that a unique sporting heritage is contingent on them, but its everyones and not theirs to own
- the importance of retaining elite players, but its a hobby, involvement/retention is a simple matter of choice
- to support rural Ireland (rural Kenya too it seems), but thats in no way relevant

Brian McEvoy and Derek Kent have been very clear in recent weeks of their concern regarding the direction the GPA is headed in, custodians of their ilk won't be around forever, they are at the forefront of challenging issues wholesale, it so happens the GPA are duplicitous in their endeavours

Indeed, and has been pointed out, we have made it easy for them to peddle such, and eventually win, through our own inconsistencies in relation to our amateur status.

[thewobbler]

MR2.

I don't know if I'm any more than a single voice of objection to continual progress, but I do expect I've thought about this more than most.

I personally have:

No interest in it being the best sport in the world.

No interest in coaches going into schools.

No interest in creating pathways for anyone to becoming better at coaching.

No issue with the sport not being televised to death.

——

Am I just being controversial? Perhaps.

But deep down I just don't understand this yearning for constant growth. The GAA is a parish based organisation for the people of Ireland. I do not understand the need to be bigger than that.