Stop movement of managers and the payments stop too
Welcoming the prospect of Cavan’s Seanie Johnston playing for Kildare, McGeeney said: “If he wants to play for Kildare, the same as anybody else who wants to play for Kildare, I’ve an open door policy.
“He can come here, turn up, play, train and I’ve never stopped anybody who has wanted to play for Kildare. He has indicated that he wants to and we’ll take him in with open arms, but he’s going to have his work cut out.”
This, ladies and gentlemen, could be the GAA of tomorrow: a free market enterprise, a sporting organisation where players are commodities.
It’s worthwhile studying McGeeney’s language. Johnston, a native of Cavan, who lives and teaches in Cavan, is “the same as anybody else who wants to play for Kildare”.
Really? There are tens of thousands who would beg to differ. For most GAA members, their club and county are sacrosanct. Players represent their place.
It is this very ideal which provides the greatest distinction between the GAA and professional sports.
If Alex Ferguson needs a new striker, he buys one. It’s like going to Tesco’s for the shopping. GAA managers don’t have that luxury. But all that could change. Twenty years ago, the very idea of a Down man managing Armagh would have been unthinkable. If that river can be crossed, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility to suggest in the next 20 years we’ll see Cavan men moving to play for Kildare.
The future direction of the GAA now largely depends on the courage and wisdom which is shown by its current leadership.
According to reports, the county chairmen and secretaries summoned to a meeting in Croke Park at the weekend showed ‘little appetite’ for the game-changing option of paying senior inter-county managers.
Apparently, there was ‘widespread opposition to a proposal that would challenge the GAA’s amateur status’.
But herein lies the crux, if our chairmen think protecting the corrupt status quo, or the introduction of an inflated expenses model is the solution, they are sadly mistaken.
In essence, the preferred course of action chosen by county officials is to do nothing. Allowing managers higher official expenses from county boards doesn’t actually address the culture of illicit payments from third parties, and does nothing to tackle the problem.
It’s the cowardly way out. Some will say it’s an Irish solution to an Irish problem, and there is a great deal of truth in that observation.
In Monday’s Irish Times, columnist Brian O’Connor praised the GAA’s ability to ignore the elephant trampling over its rulebook.
He wrote: “That sort of flexibility used to be at the core of those other former pillars of Irish society, Fianna Fáil and the Catholic Church. But while such ambivalence has ultimately contributed to the fading of the other two, it is central to the GAA’s continuing significance.”
Maybe. But here’s an alternative reason why the Catholic Church and Fianna Fáil imploded.
The Catholic Church had severe internal problems that ran contrary to its expressed ideals and beliefs. It ignored, suppressed and steadfastly avoided its responsibilities.
Fianna Fáil was riddled with accusations of cronyism and rampant self-interest. The party’s refusal to uphold principles that are expected of public servants contributed to its obliteration at the last election.
Recent history tells us a grim future awaits any institution that fails to follow the rules and traditions it was built on.
The GAA should take note. The Irish way of solving problems isn’t necessarily the best way.
So, if the representatives of grassroots GAA are sincere in their opposition to paying managers then they must go the whole hog, and explore how the practice can be stopped, not hidden.
The best option is to make the eligibility criteria for management the same as players. This means managers can only take charge of their native club or county. In one swift stroke this rule destroys the managerial merry-go-round that exists at all levels.
Namby-pambying around with a new expenses scheme is a cop-out. It reeks of leaders who know where the GAA should go, but haven’t the stomach to take the organisation down that path.
Any half-hearted, toe-dipping response to such a longstanding problem will only lead to bigger problems in the years ahead.
If the GAA ducks the issue, then the message it is delivering to rank-and-file members is that it’s okay to recruit managers and pay them from outside sources.
And if that culture continues, and becomes even more embedded in our psyche, the next logical step is that it will be perfectly acceptable to recruit players and pay them from unofficial sources.
Newspaper talk? Scare-mongering? A January column?
Wake up and look around you.
