Fogarty Forum: Allow joint captains to stay

There was little logic to the move to ban joint captains

Tue, 15 Feb, 2022 - 07:26

As Saturday’s epic events in Croke Park become memories, the most vivid will obviously be the stunning interventions from Harry Ruddle and Jerome Johnston and the cups being held aloft.

If, as WLR’s Kieran O’Connor suggested during his commentary of the goal, Huddle’s No17 jersey will be framed and placed in Jack Meade’s pub, then you can be sure the photograph of joint captains Barry Coughlan and Philip Mahony together raising the Tommy Moore Cup will be proudly placed in the Ballygunner clubhouse.

Similarly, Kilcoo’s headquarters should soon boast the picture of co-skippers Aidan Branagan and Conor Laverty showing off the Andy Merrigan Cup to their comrades and community. How lovely were the snaps Laverty published of him and his boys with the trophy on the field afterwards and then later asleep with the silverware safely tucked up beside them.

Marking the clubs’ first-ever senior All-Ireland titles, the images of the men lifting the cups are iconic. Yet both presentations were illegal. As the GAA Official Guide would have it, in lifting those cups as joint captains, Coughlan and Mahony and Branagan and Laverty contravened one of the silliest, inconsequential rules to have ever been introduced.

Voted in by Central Council, not Congress last February, Rule 4.15 (a) states: “It shall be the privilege of the captain of a winning team (joint captains are not permitted) to accept the trophy on behalf of the team.” However, nine months later and there was a volte face: “Ard Chomhairle… also approved a Motion to allow another player to join the captain for acceptance of the trophy on behalf of the team.” Wexford, whose senior hurlers in Davy Fitzgerald’s time in charge appointed joint captains, had initially considered putting forward a motion to delete Rule 4.15 (a) although policing of it has been quite relaxed.

Much to the surprise of them and other counties such as Limerick and Longford where co-skippers are common practice, they were never afforded an opportunity to counter the proposal in Congress as it had already been made at Central Council.

According to GAA director general Tom Ryan this time last year, it was “a sentiment to tidy up things around the periphery of match-day presentation … probably around the same theme as incursions into the field and there have been overtures in recent years about maor foirne. So it was not in response to anything specific but just a desire to tidy up presentation around matches.” But what was to tidy up? Did those officials making the presentations not like that they were outnumbered or things were getting too crowded on the rostrums? What exactly does a mischievous maor foirne have in common with a celebration of achievement?

There was little logic to the move, which not only ran against modern initiatives by managers to appoint leadership groups. “I think if individual players received that recognition of being nominated as the co-captain of their team, they should also be afforded the opportunity to lift the cup and all the other acknowledgements that go with that,” said Gaelic Players Association player representation manager Eamonn Murphy before the motion was passed.

While it will be officially revoked at Congress next week, the misstep ignored the unfortunate realism faced by rural clubs who are forced to amalgamate in order to survive. Longford chairman Albert Cooney spoke in this newspaper of why joint representation in leadership was vital to combined clubs. “In that situation, the tradition in the county was a player from each club would be appointed joint-captain and give a sense of ownership to each parish.” The likes of Limerick’s senior footballers and Wexford’s senior hurlers carried on regardless, as did Cork’s successful minor footballers and hurlers and Connacht Club SFC champions Pádraig Pearses. Maybe Cork and Pádraig Pearses have been fined but if so it’s a price worth paying.

If anything, the joint-captains policy adopted by some of those teams and Ballygunner and Kilcoo in particular shows it works. Behind the shared honour is the shared responsibility and in the four men, the two teams had the shoulders to laden that load.

Theirs is a tale of service and endurance. Having moved away from the inter-county game, the ambitions of Coughlan (31), Mahony (31), Branagan (38), and Laverty (36) never waned. After the semi-final win over Slaughtneil, Coughlan spoke of the group’s gathering in the Woodlands Hotel in early 2020 where they spoke openly about an All-Ireland title. In his speech, Laverty recalled meeting up with Mickey Moran three years ago and telling him their ambition was to go all the way.

Joint inaugural winners led by joint captains and in joint custody of dramatic winning scores, the clubs’ symmetry on Saturday couldn’t be sweeter. Even if the cup presentations were sanctionable.