GAA out, GPA in

Just as Croke Park is distancing itself (that shouldn't be too hard with most of them Down Under right now!) from the now annual feud in Cork, the GPA, has the Speedos and goggles on, and wants to dive in at the deep end.

Dessie reckons the GPA has a role to represent the players in the dispute and that likewise, Croke Park, could represent the County Board. And hey presto, we could avoid this type of situation. Dessie's using the quarrel, once again, as an opportunity to call on the GAA to recognise the GPA. Is Donal Og in cohoots with Dessie and engineering the whole thing so this could happen? 

That's a bit far fetched even for the biggest conspiracy theory fans, but it is jarring to see Dessie jump in and claim that the players are free to walk away "as ultimately it is volunteering and done on an amateur ethos". That's totally out of kilter with Dessie's usual spin that the county players are enslaved on the county teams and therefore deserving of money to compensate them for being so badly exploited. 

GAA Club Maps

Almost all of Ireland's GAA clubs have now been marked on Google maps. Want to find your way to Kiltoom to watch an Inter-provincial match. Maybe not. More likely you're heading down the country to play a friendly against another club to fill time the six to ten weeks that usually divides championship matches in the GAA and want to know where it's located. Now it's easy to find. 

Well done Milford GAA!!

Player power in the GAA

As Hurling Blog says, the "prima donnas" in Cork are at it again. And as he rightly calls it, it's all about player power. Gerald McCarthy makes that clear in his statement. The players are abusing their high public status and forgetting how they got to be inter-county stars. 

No matter what the truth behind how McCarthy's appointment was handled it's hard to argue with his position on what he considers the nub of the problem:

"The fundamental issue here is whether players have a right to effectively appoint their own managers or veto the appointment of managers. I don't believe they should. It is undesirable, unworkable and untenable. It is a basic truth in sport that managers manage and players play. For Cork hurling to capitulate to a demand that would not be entertained in any other sport would be massively damaging to hurling here".

Consult them by all means, but that should be the limit to their involvement. Makes sense.

The problem in Cork is that the players, with their rancorous relationship with the County Board, clearly no longer respect the County Board as a legitimate authority to make these decisions. 

All GAA is local

Looks like an interesting series on the GAA to be broadcast on Setanta from Sunday onwards. I'll have to ask the relations in Dublin to set the video recorder as am particularly interested to see Setanta's take on the fourth and final episode "All GAA is local". The caption is intriguing "All GAA is local" examines the contrast between the glamour of Gaelic Games at an inter-county level and the ethos of amateurism and volunteerism that continues to sustain the GAA at local level".