GAA in France

Seems only appropriate that as my last post on this blog a few years ago was about the GAA in France, then my next post should address the same subject.

Recently, the France GAA team played Ireland in Paris, with the Irish team made-up of Irish players living in France from clubs such as Paris Gaels, Toulouse and Rennes.

France are hoping to send a team to the inaugural GAA World Games which will take place in Dublin in 2016 to coincide with the 1916 commemorations.

Based on their performance it looks like they'll be sending a strong team to Ireland next year; it took the last kick of the game from Ireland to level the scores at 3-10 to 3-10.

Enjoy some of the highlights.

Carr says anti-Ulster agenda inspired changes

Ross Carr agrees:

Carr believes that overuse of the handpass leads to scrum-type situations on the field and he stated: "It's the handpass that needs to be looked at. The amount of handpassing is creating the problems and the one thing we can't do is take the physical confrontation out of Gaelic football.

Full story.

All-Ireland fixture change will leave teams facing five games in month

You know what this means for club footballers--if their county progresses in the qualifiers they can kiss playing football in the summer goodbye yet again. Croke Park likes to say it's forcing action on "meaningful programme of games" for club footballers but they don't really mean it. It's just blah, blah for the annual report and strategy documents.

A change to the timing of the All-Ireland football quarter-finals, combined with the return of Division 4 teams to the qualifiers, could leave some counties facing an unprecedented fixtures congestion problem this summer.

A county that progresses from the first round of the qualifiers to the All-Ireland quarter-finals will face five games in a month, between July 4 and the first weekend in August.

Full article.

Meath v Cork: Not a dirty game and well refereed

Maybe the Meath team of the '80's weren't such a dirty team afterall! What Gaelic football really needs is a rule limiting the number of consecutive handpasses not messing around with yellow cards.

FOR A GAME that gained a reputation for being ill-tempered, both McEnaney and Reilly agreed - while there was a certain amount of niggle - it was far from dirty. Indeed, aside from the aforementioned bookings, half of the starting 30 players emerged without so much as a ticking.

The free count at full-time was 57 - one every 72 seconds. Because frees were all taken from the ground, this slowed the game down a great deal. Every time a foul was committed it would take around 10 seconds at least before the match was under way again.
It's worth bearing in mind that 43 frees were awarded in the 2008 final, but 58 in 2007...

Aside from the disciplinary aspect of the match, there was one glaring difference between the style of football then and now. In the 2008 All-Ireland final, Tyrone and Kerry between them hand-passed the ball 205 times - a quite astonishing tally. Tyrone accounted for 110 of this total, but Kerry, known for a direct style, came not far behind on 95.

Contrast this to 1988, when Meath and Cork used the fisted pass a grand total of 73 times, with Meath - as if to underline their catch-and-kick approach - accounting for just 23 of that total. It's an amazing comparison and an interesting insight into the way the game has changed over the years.

Full article.

Fears allayed as new rules get thumbs-up

Surely it's too early to pass any judgement. Was there still physical contact? If these new rules result in the elimination of physical strength and a good hard shoulder then Gaelic Games will be the poorer for it.

DESPITE the 80 yellow cards that were flashed on the first weekend of the season, GAA officials yesterday declared the introduction of their experimental new disciplinary rules as a great success.

Full story.

Coney quits Swans

The traffic is not all one way!

OPPONENTS of the International Rules series were given a major boost last night when Tyrone teenage sensation Kyle Coney confirmed he was turning down a two-year contract with Sydney Swans...

"It was a once in a lifetime offer to travel to Australia and I had to go and see what it was like but the lure of coming back to play for Ardboe and Tyrone was just too much in the end."

Full Story

More nonsense from "Down Under"

Kevin Sheedy, who along with Jim Stynes, has probably done more damage to the International Rules series than any of the on field barbarism, has the shamelessness to preach fair play, honesty and integrity AND call Sean Boylan a leprechaun in the same breath. 

And then there's the naive hope that sitting the lads down for a bit of tucker together before the game will help to keep proceedings between the teams civil. 

Bradley's bang on: Scrap Aussie nonsense

Colm Bradley usually has something sensible to say. This week is no different. 

"It is time to bin the International Rules Series. It does nothing to enhance or promote Gaelic Games or culture and is of zero benefit, except in monetary terms, to the GAA."

Hear, hear.

Look at all the disruption it causes.

GAA International

How often have we heard the Compromise Rules series defended as the only international outlet for our beloved national games? Merde, if you'll pardon my French. 

When one thinks of GAA played abroad it's natural to think of the UK, the USA or Australia and the strong Irish diaspora living there. 

Well, not anymore.  It's time to broaden your mind. Take for example a French woman playing Gaelic football for Paris Gaels who first learned how to play GAA in Shanghai. Yes, Shanghai. China. Globalisation went that deep it also touched the GAA. 

Despite their number across the city ten years ago in Madrid it wasn't possible to find an Irish bar that showed GAA. Now there's even a team in Pamplona. In the last ten years in Europe GAA seeds have taken flight across the continent and numerous clubs from Brest to Budapest have taken sprout:

• Spain - Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Pamplona 
  
• France - Brest, Rennes, Paris, Lyons
  
• The Netherlands - The Hague, Amsterdam, Maastricht
  
• Belgium - Brussels
  
• Austria - Vienna
  
• Denmark - Copehagen
  
• Germany - Munich, Dusseldorf
  
• Sweden - Gotenburg
  
• Luxembourg
  
• Hungary - Budapest
  

While it is true that some of these clubs rely on the Irish community living abroad for their existence the game is also taking root in some parts through the efforts and gra for the game of the locals. In Rennes there's only one Irish person permanently involved in the game and yet Rennes will host 20 teams from across Europe next weekend for the European Gaelic Football Shield and Championship semi-finals. Not only have the local GAA enthusiasts planned and organised the tournament, but they've also succeeded in promoting and developing the GAA in schools in Brittany. And so, for the first time two schools from Rennes and Vannes will participate in the tournament. (There's more details here in the European Irish.)

The GAA is involved and has put some structure in place to promote Gaelic games in Europe. Still, one can't help wondering, instead of spending lots of money to send GAA players long distances to play a bastardised game that's not even GAA, would it not be better to spend a bit more money on those who want to play Gaelic games instead?

From Brest to Budapest

The fascination of football (soccer)

The GAA may have its problems, but at least, as Kevin Myers reminded us this week, we don't have to loathe ourselves for our interest in Gaelic games. Boggers, culchies, whatever we may be, we don't feel sordid or seamy because of our fascination with the GAA. 

Kevin Myers: "I despise the entire modern obsession with soccer, with its flash, overpaid, oafish stars, and their brainless shopaholic molls; and, worst of all, their cretinous tribes of supporters. And that's the real measure of the power of soccer in modern culture. Even the unwilling are drawn to take sides. We cannot resist experiencing powerful feelings over contests in which we logically should have no emotional or intellectual interest." 

What struck me is how Myers' opinion of modern football resonates with Michel Platini's. Remember him? Socks rolled down to his ankles, shirt untucked, almost ambling about the pitch--the antithesis of today's athletic, brylcreem-sponsored, diamond-studded footballers. 

Platini's irreverent style on the pitch has now been transformed, as President of UEFA, into displeasure for what he considers the perversion of football. There's something wrong, he says, with modern football's relationship with money and he wants to change that. Platini knows that football will not survive if it continues with its commercial indulgence and extravagance at the expense of the grassroots. Platini wants to salvage "the game" and "let the fascination of sport prevail over the fascination for money". 

There's not much razzle dazzle in GAA. There's no fraud. Nobody feels compelled to watch it. And the GAA is all the better for it.

GAA: for the love of the game

Listening to Dessie Farrell and Donal Og Cusack talking about the "modern" players' commitment to playing GAA you would think that GAA players before their time, had simply nothing better to do, but turn-up from time to time without much training to play a game.

Leafing through some match programmes I have at home, a nice anecdote caught my eye, which shows that in those days it wasn't all that straightforward to represent your county.

In 1975 Gerry Delaney, of the legendary Stradbally clan from Laois was working as a Garda in Ashbourne county Meath, but continued to play with Stradbally and the Laois U-21 team. Having defeated Kildare in the opening round of the Leinster Championship, Laois faced Meath in the quarter-final in Newbridge.

Living in Meath Gerry had to travel down to the game and the best way of doing so was to get a lift with the Meath lads. Joey Tormey, a member of the local Donaghmore club arranged for him to travel with "Scupps" White, Phil Smyth and Eamon O'Brien. As Gerry recounts "It was faily quiet on the way down...just a small bit of banter".

Against a side which included six Meath seniors Laois played exceptionally well, defeating Meath by 5-5 to 3-9, with Gerry Delaney scoring four of Laois's goals!

Gerry recalls the aftermath "having had something to eat with the Laois team after game, my lift back to Ashbourne with the Laois management didn't materialise so I had to ask the Meath lads if they would oblige. They were happy to do so but only after threatening to leave me stranded in Naas! It wasn't the same mini-bus that I went to the game in and the craic wasn't any better...understandably!"

They dropped him in Dunshaughlin and Gerry had to thumb home to Ashbourne.

Gerry didn't feel abandonned by the GAA. Since then he's given 30 years of service, first as a player and now as a club official -serving as chairman for no fewer than three separate terms- with his adopted club of Donaghmore/Ashbourne.

Latest news on opposing the grant for the GPA

Just to keep you "rumpish malcontents" updated ...a few bits-and-pieces.

God Bless Mayo!
Mayo have now started to lead the way - a 100% County Committee vote against pay-for-play (aka grants/awards/whatever).

They've set a lead.Let's get in behind them!

What Can You Do To Help?

There's a few things you could do to stop pay-for-play:

1. If you know your Central Council delegate, lobby him before Saturday
2. Bring this issue up in your Club
3. Try to get it discussed at your County Convention
4. Talk to people about it: tell them why we think the way we do

Above all, keep your commitment and enthusiasm!

The Future That's Ahead Of Us: An Email From a Limerick Rugby Man
I read Mark Conway's article in the Irish Independent today. He makes some excellent points. I am not what you would consider a GAA man. I go to the Limerick games, but I am a rugby player. What the GAA have done now is what rugby did 10 years ago.

Ten years ago, at twenty years of age, I played in a thriving club scene. Then clubs started paying players. So players migrated to the clubs that paid the better money. To compete, other clubs increased the amount they paid and the circle went on until the clubs went bankrupt and every volunteer a club had stopped working for the club. "Why should I do the club draw/mark the pitches/wash the jerseys/man the bar/coach the team/etc for nothing when so-and-so is getting £50 for playing on a Saturday?"

Club rugby is dead in Ireland. We have an elite of 30 rugby players in Ireland, there are 98 other professionals who fill the gaps. No-one plays club anymore. Clubs who fielded 8 adult teams ten years ago, struggle to field 3 now. There are numerous reasons for this, but one is definitely professionalism. Most clubs are now two clubs within a club - the paid first team and the rest. The rest wonder why they bother.

I played on the first team in three clubs (I moved as I moved cities for work). I was offered pay in all. My parish club in Limerick, whose games I attended since I was old enough to go and watch my dad and for whom my only childhood ambition was to play on the first XV, wanted to pay me for what I loved doing.

I played on a team with my three brothers, for my parish, representing my family and my community. This is the 'place' Mark talks about. This is sport and there is no greater feeling that this - the feeling you belong and that you are wearing a jersey your father wore, that you are only minding it to pass on to the next generation.

My heroes where the guys who played on the first team before me. They coached and supported me now. How could I take pay for play when they didn't? How could I look them in the eye? I couldn't and refused the money.

And whilst we are on sacrifice - I trained six days a week and played two games a week (college and club) - I trained twice a day some days and at least once a day at the time. But it wasn't sacrifice, I loved it. I preferred playing than working in a bar earning pocket money.

If you don't love it, don't do it. Someone else will gladly take your place. If it's money you want, take an extra job. As a first team player (or county player), you are in the most privileged position in your sport. Everyone wants to swap places with you. Everyone wants what you have.

And you are only minding that jersey, hanging onto it as long as you can. Cos a hell of a lot went before you, a hell of a lot more will come after you. It's only the efforts of everyone that has helped put you in that position (starting with your parents and the coaches you had in your club since you started).

I admire the GAA greatly. I'd urge that you don't go down the pay for play route. You have something very special in your organisation.

Keep it.

Why you should oppose the GPA strike - Reason No. 4

Playing for your county is a choice. It requires dedication and commitment above the norm. Nobody is denying that. But, why try to equate this commitment, as the GPA do, in financial terms? Inter-county players, though admittedly not all of them, already "profit" from their talents. As this letter to the Indo points out, "the very ones who are calling for strike action are the ones who are, ironically, reaping the greatest rewards from the sport". There are huge perks for the modern-day GAA player, jobs, endorsements, training camps abroad, holidays in exotic locations (with their wives/girlfriends paid for!), etc.

Comments from Kilkenny hurler Eddie Brennan, are revealing of the GPA's true thinking. He's resentful that his participation in Gaelic games has curbed his earning potential in the Celtic Tiger economy, as he's unable to do 'nixers' in the evening to supplement his income. Eddie's values, and those of the GPA, are clearly socio-economic. Davy Fitz today, confirms this assessment. A former GPA member, he quit because, in his words, "they are all about money". Contrast their attitude with that of Colm McCullagh, who chose to quit paid football with Omagh Town when Mickey Harte selected him for the Tyrone team in 2004. Explaining his decision, he talked about the dreams and emotions of winning and All-Ireland, not money and compensation.

Playing for your county is voluntary in both meanings of the word - optional and unpaid. Let's keep it that way.

Why you should oppose the GPA strike - Reason No. 3

Playing for your county is an honour and a privilege. By striking the players are demonstrating that their loyalty is conditional - conditional on reimbursement. Once they fumble in the greasy till there's no turning back. They're soiled, and from now on, it's just a question of how dirty they can get.

Last year, in a little publicised move, England's footballers pledged to donate all of their match fees - win, lose or draw - to charitable causes. It was suggested that playing for their country should be an honour, rather than a pay packet. Every one of the players agreed. Ok, so they are millionaires, but the point is they wanted to demonstrate their commitment, dedication and their loyalty, by breaking the financial link. They wanted to establish a principle.

Dessie Farrell and the Greedy Players' Association want the opposite to happen. They want that link established once and for all. They want to formalise the connection between representing their county and compensation. They suffer from an inferiority complex and lack respect because they don't get financially rewarded for their commitment. Dessie Farrell claims that the players' assertion of their rights in this manner is just another initiative in the history of the GAA which has moved the organisation closer to professionalism. But, paid administrators, paid coaches, paid support staff for teams, corporate boxes, the advent of sponsorship logos on jerseys, ticket prices, hospitality and broadcasting rights have done what paying the players won't do, advanced the game and the oassociation at all levels. How else could the GAA have competed over the last twenty years with other sports and other leisure activities for the interest of Ireland's youth? What Dessie Farrell and the GPA's supporters are too shortsighted to see, or simply don't want to see, is the Pandora's box of pain that paying compensation to players is going to open up. What was good for the GAA as a whole is now only good for a small minority.

In the 1950s, when the Dublin hurling team enjoyed a period of success, there were many complaints that the Dublin team was full of "culchies", who worked with the Civil Service and lived in Dublin. In years to come, when the born and bred Dubs can't get a place in the Dublin teams because of culchie imports, attracted by the bigger crowds and better wages, we'll look back on this point, and wish we could turn the years again.

Why you should oppose the GAA strike - Reason No. 2

The amateur ethic of the GAA doubles as a community ethic. Compensation to players will create a divide between the elite and the grassroots. The most fundamental unit of GAA competition is the club side. The local roots feed up to the counties, creating a unity of purpose that makes the association great. The people that make the tea and sandwiches, cut the grass, line the pitch and coach the kids on a Saturday morning have a direct connection to the players that play in Croke Park in front of 80,000 in an All-Ireland. They're one and the same. That's where the strength of the Association lies. Why ruin it?

Compensation to players would break the "virtuous circle" upon which the GAA is built. What do I mean by virtuous circle? Well, think about the cycle of development in the GAA. Coaches, volunteers and supporters play and support their teams at club level. The success of the clubs and the development of talent is taken to the next level by the county teams, where the best players from clubs are invited to display their talents on a bigger stage. The people from the clubs who facilitated their development are happy to pay their hard earned money to attend these games because they played a part in making the players, supporting them and putting in place the stadia. There's a direct link, whether or not you come from the same club as the "Gooch" or any other inter-county player, you played a part in their development. Most importantly, you know that the money you pay to see the inter-county games will be re-invested in all levels of the game, thereby allowing the cycle of development to start anew. It's an unbroken circle. Compensation for players will break the cycle. Compensation for players will mean that the money generated at the top will no longer find its way back to the bottom.

Look what has happened with since rugby turned professional in Ireland. Supposedly, it has produced a "golden generation" of players making the best international team ever, not to mention successful provincial sides, Leinster and Munster. Scrape this veneer (as the performance at the Rugby World Cup demonstrated) and what has professionalism done for the game in Ireland? As Tom McGurk (Rugby pays price of professionalism) writes, rugby in Ireland is now in a terrible state. "The paucity of playing members and the incessant cost demands has hit the clubs hard in the last decade. Many of Ireland's once most famous rugby clubs are a mere shadow of their former selves. Still largely surviving on the goodwill of the golden oldies, many that once put our five or six junior 15s out on a Saturday, can now barely scrape two or three teams together."

Look at the gap between the players and the rest of the community in soccer. Take the Premier League for example. The Premier League works very hard through the Football Foundation to ensure that they are seen to be part of the community and that everyone is benefitting from the team. Why do they do this? Because the natural link between the Premier League's and the communities where they are based has been broken. The money and the benefits of the big clubs don't find their way down to the lower level of the game to the people who support the clubs. It has to be artificially created through a form of corporate social responsibility.

Professional sport creates a dynamic whereby most of the money generated goes toward the professional code of the game which caters for less than 1% of the players. We do not want a situation where a significant and ever-increasing proportion of GAA income goes not to grass roots, clubs, underage support and development, but to pay players. The GAA supports the game at all levels.

There's a difference between the GAA and the sports entertainment business. It's not a business. It's not set up as a business. That's what distinguishes it from other sports. Let's fight to keep it that way.

Gaelic football is a wonderful game, were I an Irishman I'd play Gaelic football till the day I dropped dead - Zinzan Brooke

Not if you were at Parc Tailteann last week for the Meath Senior County Final. Seneschalstown and Navan O'Mahonys played out a draw, in what was rightly reported as "a drab, dull, uninspiring and downright awful final". Despite the presence of All-Star Stephen Bray, and several other players from the Meath team, there was little entertainment and no quality football for the €20 entry fee.

It has to be said it was very poor value for money. But then why does a final always carry with it the expectation that it will be a good game? Perhaps it's the hype. Perhaps it's the occasion. Take the Rugby World Cup final between England and South Africa for example. Official face-value tickets that were priced at £1,023 were offered online for a staggering £25,000! Had they not seen any of England's previous matches? The ballyhoo surrounding the Rugby World Cup obviously got to them and took over their senses. But that's besides the point.

What I'm getting at is that it is more and more rare to see effusive and fulsome praise in the post-match analysis of a Gaelic football match. Mayo v. Dublin last year was an exception. It had every thing and more. There was pre-match shenanigans with both teams warming-up at the Hill 16 end of the pitch, as Mayo imposed themselves on Dublin physically and pyschologically before the ball was thrown in. The tension and intensity never abated from there. There was passion, there was heroism from Ciaran MacDonald and there was euphoria and jubliliation at the end. It was a thrilling game and a great comeback by Mayo. Best of all though-the football was fast paced and free flowing with great scores, points and goals, throughout the game.

That match epitomised everything that is great about the game. As Zinzan Brooke, All Black ruby legend, pointed out in his autobiography Gaelic Football has everything. It's "great for elevation skills, anticipation, kicking off either foot (a must), running, passing by hand or kick-passing". It "demands harp hand-eye co-ordination, ambidextrous skills, kicking for the natural arc off left foot and right". "And the contact! The contact made the blood run whether you were taking it or giving it." So why aren't these qualities translating into great games on a more consistent basis?

Martin Carney believes it's because Traditional Football is Dead - running and handpassing have replaced the catch and kick template impacting on the skill level in the game. Is it because there is too much emphasis on fitness and conditioning at the expense of traditional skills in training? Or is it because players are fitter and the premium is now on a possession game? Should we blame the handpass? Whatever it is, we need more of Zinzan Brooke's conception of Gaelic football.



`If I was Irish I'd play Gaelic' says All Black Zinzan Brooke, Irish Times, 14 November 1997

Playing Gaelic and Aussie Rules added up in a way to the sort of rugby player I am

Rather than charging out of the Lansdowne Road tunnel tomorrow attired in his fearsome All Black kit, imagine for a moment that - by some twist of fate or birth - Zinzan Brooke was an Irishman. Now, what sport do you think he would play?

The answer is Gaelic football, a sport he actually has a strong association with thanks to his days playing club football Down Under with Roskill Rangers in the 1980s. In his autobiography Zinny - The Zinzan Brooke Story, the New Zealand rugby colossus even goes so far as to state: "Were I an Irishman I'd play Gaelic football till the day I dropped dead." Brooke's introduction to GAA came courtesy of another All Black, Bernie McCahill who, back in 1983, enticed him into playing club football during the summer months. In his book, Brooke recalls: "I unashamedly wallowed in the game, great for elevation skills, anticipation, kicking off either foot (a must), running, passing by hand or kick-passing. And the contact! The contact made the blood run whether you were taking it or giving it." One of Brooke's most cherished recollections of his days playing football - he actually played in the Australasian championship for six years - was coming face to face with Jim Stynes, the former Dublin minor and brother of current inter-county star Brian.

"In the Australasian championships we played a team which had a giant named Jimmy Stynes they had caught and caged somewhere in the wilds. They unleashed him every Sunday and pointed him toward the opposition and this day they pointed him at me and said, `Kill, Jimmy, kill.' My head came up to his armpit, which was an area I would not have chosen, but there it was all the same, just above my nose. "`Zinny', I said, `you're not going to play much ball unless you get under this guy and take his legs out'. So with impeccable timing I drove into his legs and on over the touchline and planted him into the Carlaw Park grandstand. He did not die. He got up, shook himself shaggily, grinned amiably, said, `Kill, Jimmy, kill' and came right back into the game.

"It was probably on the strength of that tackle on him that I made the Australasian team, an achievement no one seems especially interested in conveying to the Hall of Fame. Playing Gaelic and Aussie Rules added up in a way to the sort of rugby player I am. In Gaelic, especially, the demands were for sharp hand-eye co-ordination, ambidextrous skills, kicking for the natural arc off left foot and right. Were I an Irishman I'd play Gaelic football till the day I dropped dead." The GAA were actually going to invite Brooke to visit Croke Park today but were informed that he normally rests on the eve of a match. "We'd love to have him as our guest some other time," said the GAA's Pat Daly.

The GPA's Status Anxiety

Philosopher and author Alain de Botton believes there's something the vast majority of people desire even more than money. Whatever their background or social class, whatever their age or country of origin, what they desperately crave is status". With regard to the Greedy Players' Association it seems he's right.

The organisation fulfills his hypothesis perfectly. The GPA representatives Dessie Farrell, Chief Executive, and Donal Og Cusack, Chairman, whine and moan relentlessly in the newspapers and on the radio that the GAA, or more specifically, the administrators who they refer to as Croke Park, have a complete lack of respect for the players. In line with de Botton's thesis, the motivation driving the creation of the GPA was the desire to be treated with respect. The aim of the formation of the GPA, we were told at the time, was to improve the players' representation and conditions.

Except now, eight years on, the arguments have evolved, the goalposts have changed. Respect is no longer about conditions and representation. When the GPA complains that Croke Park does not value the players properly, it is no longer talking in terms of gear, facilities and mileage expenses. It's now about the money made "off their backs". Respect now means "Show us the money".

The evolution is such that GPA players now equate the resolution of the grant issue, i.e. money in their pockets, as "an acknowledgement of their status as county players". Now they judge their status in terms of financial achievement. A sense of being cared for and thought valuable culturally is not enough. The honour, the 'goodies', the flattery, and the attention earned from being a county player no longer conform to their ideals of dignity and respect. It seems their sense of self-worth and self-esteem has been diminished, because unlike the rugby and soccer players, who they meet at promotions and awards, they are not being financially compensated for participation in their sport.

And they're behaving like "spoilt children" to get their way. Their attitude demonstrates their lack of appreciation for the position they are in and that they have lost touch with the grassroots. Some within their ranks know this and have spoken out. These dissenters know that fans and supporters are fundamentally opposed to strike action (see An Fear Rua) and resent the way the GPA representatives are behaving.

The grassroots want to be inspired not held to ransom. The GPA it seems don't care. They want what Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) in the movie Jerry Maguire, called "the Kwan". "Kwan means love, respect, community... and the dollars too".

Through their fixation on the latter, however, they're fast losing the rest of the package.

Fixtures: Club players deserve better

"You're a club player. You're a committed club player but aware you'll never be a committed county one. You're also going out with someone. It's March and she wants to know when you can go on holidays. You say late August, but only maybe; there's a chance there'll be a championship game but to book it all the same.

She's wondering if you'll be able to get away next weekend but you say no; there's training with the Dublin lads back and the first round of the championship only five weeks away. She's not happy but she books the holiday. Two months later, the county team draw in the first round of the championship. Your own first round is postponed...

The county lose their replay. That means they're in the qualifiers. They win their qualifier. The girlfriend asks about the weekend after next but you say there's training; the club could be out the weekend after that if the county lose. The county don't lose. A few weeks later they do. You finally have your game. In late August.

You don't have a summer holiday but you tell the girlfriend ye'll have an autumn one.

...You wait two weeks for the second round because it took a reply to decide who you'd be playing. You finally play it. Win. The next day too. The county semi-final is set for mid-October. You no longer have an autumn holiday and since it's the second year that's happened, you no longer have a girlfriend either. Play the semi-final in the muck and the rain. Lose semi-final, your fourth championship game having trained for nine months. Call girlfriend about yourselves and that holiday. Not interested.

And now, when it comes to playing next year, neither are you". (Kieran Shannon, Sunday Tribune 06 November 2005)

Sound familiar? Are you a club player who loves his football and/or hurling, who's driven to despair from going weeks without a game, from training for a game that could be played next week or the week after, but then gets postponed time after time?

Despite what the Greedy Players' Association thinks, it's not just the inter-county players who make sacrifices and put their social lives on hold. The club players do too, and for what? - to sit out the best months of the year, June, July and August, and then have their most important games cramped into the months of October and November when pitches are heavier.

A Special Congress is set to take place on 26th January next year to address club fixtures, county fixtures, and player burden. Tomorrow GAA Player Welfare Officer, Padraig Duffy, will present a report to address this dire problem. Eugene McGee today recounts the horror stories and frustration of club players, and the failure of GAA administrations to ensure that fixture programmes are carried out. However, he's pessimistic that the drastic changes, which are so desperately needed, will be brought about: "the only way anything can be done to solve the problem is to take actions that are unpopular and GAA administrators are not in the habit of doing such things...More dates for club games cannot emerge unless there are less inter-county games but the GAA has never shown any desire to remove inter-county games from their calendar."

At Congress 2003, the then President Seán Kelly stressed the importance of the GAA club as the cornerstone of the Association and that the needs of the GAA Club must be addressed. Without the players there would be no clubs. It's time their needs were addressed.

GAA and the money game

The GPA, Greedy Players Association, reminded us again this week (Farrell admits strike action is being considered, Hoganstand.com, 4 October) that strike action is being considered and that feelings are running high within the organisation. Donal Og Cusack, Chairman of the GPA, outlined why (Patience wearing Thin) in a self-serving whinge that should rankle with every genuine GAA fan.

In the piece, Cusack bemoans the lack of progress on the issue of compensation for players and whines against the injustices inflicted on our inter-county stars. He believes GAA players are the "laughing stock of the sporting world" and are not respected by the GAA. His attitude and tone reflect the self-interest of the organisation, showing no consideration whatsoever for the repercussions these measures could have for the future of our traditional games.

But, these arguments aren't new. This is old ground which will no doubt be turned over again and again until the Greedy Players get their way. In response I've dug out a more thoughtful perspective from the letters to the Editor of the Irish Times, in August 2005, which responds to Cusack's gripes.

Madam - ...

"Any proposed change of GAA policy should surely pass two basic tests: Will it help or hinder the long-term survival of our indigenous games? Will it help or hinder the survival of the GAA as a community-based organisation?

Arguments for monetary player compensation-an entirely separate issue from player welfare- fail both tests. Firstly, to simply survive in the face of the media-driven and sponsor-driven saturation promotion of international sports, Gaelic games at club and community "seed-bed" level need every euro the GAA can afford for coaching, promotion and development. GAA revenues really do get redistributed the the grass-roots-no fat cats get a cut. [my comments - but not if the Greedy Players get their way!]

Secondly, and more fundamentally, paying inter-county players would subvert the values and motives that make the GAA work so uniquely at community level. Parish, community and club allegiances are the very heartbeat of the GAA. They would be the first casualties of any monetary compensation regime. Why? Because human nature in any quasi-business regime is very predictable.

Over time, more and more players will change allegiance to follow the best-paying options (probably determined by the deepest sponsor pockets)...

As players begin to change their clubs and counties, the irreplaceable community heartbeat of the GAA will weaken progressively, and resuscitation will not be an option...

What about the "excessive demands" on players' time? The number of games for top players is not the problem - it's the new-era of training regimes. If the GPA and Croke Park make common cause, they can find a way to curtail the vicious circles of excessive training regimes for inter-county players and restoring a better balance between the club and county activity. [my comments - the GPA hasn't shown the slightest interest in this. Why? Player welfare is not their objective, player compensation is.] Real player welfare can be ensured by restructuring and regulation but monetary compensation is never a valid alternative, even from a thinking player's perspective.

Former Derry star Joe Brolly has forcefully made the often overlooked point that "it is the county players who get the most out of the games - the status, the excitement, the glory, the spin-offs". They do serve an important "shop-window" purpose for the games but the requirements of its shop-window should always be secondary to the objectives of an organisation.

The compensation lobby should be faced down with the basic question: where lies the greater long-term good - for the games, for the players of the future and for Irish community life?

Yours, etc, Joe Tuohy

I'm with Joe on this one.