Páraic Duffy speaks out!

[Logan]

Actually one other thing ...

I have no issue with managers getting paid.
I do have an issue with them denying it
Open up be honest and we'd have more respect for it

I would strongly encourage the GAA to pay trainers at least
This way we might have some more educated coaches and better and intelligent training

[Carbery]

If Mr Duffy has evidence for making this allegation which tars all recent managers of the nine counties in Ulster then he should name him.
If not then he should consider his postion as a full-time top official of the Association.

[neilthemac]

i agree 100% with his remarks

money being given to managers could be used to fund full time/part time coaches to ensure kids in schools get to play GAA games

[aroundincircles]

would i be right in saying 99 per cent of outside club managers are getting "expense" of some sort??

[Zulu]

i agree 100% with his remarks

money being given to managers could be used to fund full time/part time coaches to ensure kids in schools get to play GAA games

No it wouldn't and that is the type of lazy argument put up by some, anyway successful clubs and counties are as big a recruitment tool as coaches working in schools.

[Main Street]

i agree 100% with his remarks

money being given to managers could be used to fund full time/part time coaches to ensure kids in schools get to play GAA games

You agree 100% with  "the biggest, the single most difficult issue we face are under-the-counter payments to football manager"?

[Zulu]

It is up to each club to decide if they need to get an outside coach, if they want to pay him and if they can pay him. If by doing so they have to leave other important aspects of the club under financed then that is their own fault, personally I can't see how any coach is worth 30K or more but if there are counties or clubs willing and able to pay that then that is their decision. I personally have never even got expenses for any coaching job I have done but I would be willing to accept money for coaching if it was offered to me by a club with whom I had no connection. Why? because it is very demanding job and I feel I'm bringing an level of expertise (if that's the right term) to the set up, just like the physio they have to treat injuries. There are undoubtedly cowboys out there that have taken far more from clubs than they were ever worth but good, qualified, hardworking coaches are a lot more difficult to find than a physio and they play a far more important role in any subsequent success so I believe that they warrant some level of renumeration.

[orangeman]

Peter Quinn when president organised a task force to investigate under the table payments to managers. He reported back that they couldn't find the tables let alone the money !!!   


There are club managers who are getting damn near to € 30k.

[Zulu]

Who's getting shafted? I'd say, and I'm open to correction, that any coach getting the €30K type stuff is getting paid by a wealthy businessman involved with the club rather than the club itself and that other areas of the club are being well looked after still. These rules weren't put in place to protect the clubs from themselves and they won't serve that purpose anyway, the GAA can't stop this type of thing and all GAA clubs are run by adults so the committee of each club has to decide if it wants to and can afford to pay a coach. There are things the GAA can improve, develop and change and it is these we should be spending our time and energy on, not chasing ghosts that will only end up finding some other way to get back in. Other sports are paying coaches too and in many cases far more than the GAA are paying theirs, we need good coaches and if that means paying them then so be it, we have to live in the real world whether we like it or not. The only thing I'd like to see and the GAA are bringing this in, is that all coaches will have to have attained a coaching qualification in line with the standard of team they wish to coach.

[Lar Naparka]

In the course of his talk, Prof Ó Tuathaigh said he felt the GAA had lost out by encouraging schools committed to the GAA to accommodate other sports. This had not be reciprocated in schools devoted to rugby and soccer. He attributed this to "a residual element of snobbery".

From my (admittedly) limited experience I just cannot agree with Ó Tuathaigh on this point. I know very little about strong soccer schools and only a little bit more about the devoted rugby ones but I know that some of those, in Dublin anyway, have introduced Gaelic football into the school curriculum.
Some years back, the rugby gamesmaster at Blackrock College told me that an internal Gaelic league had been set up in that school and the sports authorities were assessing the situation. If the demand was there, they would undoubtedly respond and develop the game further.
He told me it was part of the school ethos to encourage the pupils to partake in as wide a range of sports as possible. I asked if he could ever see the day when the school would field a GAA team in schools' competitions and I was told that it would indeed- if the interest warranted it. At that time, I believe Marian College had done the same and other elitist schools were actively contemplating following the same course.
I would imagine that in most of such schools, soccer would be considered to lower the tone of the place more so than Gaelic. Yet, in the last decade or so, both Blackrock and Marian have started fielding soccer teams because of the interest shown by sufficient numbers of students. There probably are many others.
I am led to believe that in most cases the authorities' attitude is that if the interest is shown to be there, every effort will be made to accommodate it, even if this means bringing in outsiders to manage affairs.

[Zulu]

I'd imagine the game would be very strong in south Dublin at this stage so they (Blackrock etc.) should have little difficulty fielding a reasonable no?

[ExiledGael]

Peter Quinn when president organised a task force to investigate under the table payments to managers. He reported back that they couldn't find the tables let alone the money !!!   


There are club managers who are getting damn near to € 30k.

It might turn out Quinn should have looked closer to home.

[Pangurban]

I am sick to death listening to rumours and unsubstantiated allegations about under the counter paymentsm and to hear them repeated by a leading official beggars belief. Duffy should provide evidence or consider his position, he cant have it both ways.

[Logan]

OK - here's a very simple question for Paraic Duffy


- Is Martin McElkennon taking home over over £3,000 per month for training Monaghan?


Adb  - If he cares to elaboarte
Has Martin McElkennon been the first fulltime paid coach of a county team over the past 2 years?


Maybe since he's a neighbour of his and trainer of his own county team he can answer that?

[muppet]

i agree 100% with his remarks

money being given to managers could be used to fund full time/part time coaches to ensure kids in schools get to play GAA games

I don't often agree with Rossies but I do on this issue.

It is hypocrisy in the extreme to argue that managers nowadays can't be expected to do it for nothing and then attack players for looking for money. What's good for the goose is good for the manager.

This is very simple. Gaelic games are either amateur or they are not.

IMHO managers should not be paid while the game remains amateur.