Clubs disconnected by changes
So strongly does Seán Walsh feel about it he’s made it his one commitment if elected: “Just because you become president of the GAA doesn’t mean you have to set up a committee to look at the games.”
Both his and Aogán Ó Fearghail’s stance is reflective of the exasperation they have encountered across the country with the raft of changes the sports have faced in recent times.
To quote Patrick Kavanagh, we have tested and tried too much.
Of course, whether it is one of them or Sheamus Howlin who takes up office, they will have to inherit alterations as 2015 is a playing rules year. That means the league could be a guinea pig for perceived means of improving the games. The advantage rule in hurling could be among them.
There’s no doubt there is always room for improvement within football and hurling. For one, the ditched proposal for matches to finish only when the ball goes dead merited more support. It would have prevented situations like Matthew Ruth’s last-gasp successful shot against Waterford last July, which was ruled out as referee James Owens had blown his whistle for full time.
But the accelerated rate of change to the games in recent times has reached an excessive level where the grassroots are now struggling to keep up.
Where once clubs bemoaned a disconnect between themselves and Croke Park, the stronger argument now is inter-county football and hurling have become removed from their own.
The black card — did it have clubs in mind? — delivers the perfect example not only of the divide that exists between the two grades but how the GAA operates its playing rules from the top down rather than the bottom up.
Sunday’s O’Byrne Cup final was the broadcast debut of the new rule. The next two weekends will provide further examples of it in operation. But Gil Scott-Heron’s truism relates here: the revolution will not be televised. There will be no cameras around when hundreds of referees are asked several times over the course of a game to distinguish between what is deliberate and accidental across the three categories of fouls.
With an experienced referees coordinator erring with a black card decision in a schools game last week and having ourselves seen footage of a respected inter-county official glaringly overlook two incidents in an O’Byrne Cup fixture, there are genuine grounds for concern in the months ahead.
When junior teams run out of players because they don’t have enough on the sideline neither RTÉ or TV3 will be reading out tweets on live TV. When the GAA rules in favour of permitting six substitutes when rural sides hardly have five, those at grassroots level must be wondering who cares about them.
Unlike in league and championship at inter-county level, time-based bans continue. Similarly, cumulative black cards don’t apply to clubs, but then they’ve grown to learn the higher profile scene is a world apart.
Hawk-Eye, as welcome as it is to the championship at Croke Park, is not a luxury extended to club level. The financial reasons for that are understandable, but its use at GAA HQ is a remarkable distinction to what they have to endure with partisan umpires. The clock/hooter introduced for this year’s championship, for both football and hurling, will let spectators and TV viewers know precisely what time is remaining in a game. Again, the cost of extending it everywhere is highly prohibitive, yet it further exemplifies the polarisation that exists between the two states.
In fairness, the Football Review Committee attempted to level the playing field so to speak by proposing 70 minute matches across the board at last year’s Congress. Not surprisingly, it was defeated. There are some small comforts clubs, when they get together, are loath to relinquish. Their game, they know, is different to what is cherished and revered, the one that chiefly bankrolls the association. Demarcations are necessary as they are inevitable, but don’t try telling clubs it’s all for their benefit when if they’re not slaves to their fixtures they’re serfs to their rules.
* Email: john.fogarty@examiner.ie
Had Dublin opted not to let Jason Whelan take his medicine, things could have become a lot worse for the All-Ireland champions.
However, a second biting incident in nine months is an alarming record. It hardly undermines the great deeds Jim Gavin achieved in his first season but it wholeheartedly contradicts the message he has conveyed repeatedly since early last year.
The manager has often spoken of Dublin and his desire to play football “in the right way” but when a second of his charges has opposed that philosophy, there are questions to answer.
In the past, Brian Cody has punished unruly behaviour by showing players the door. We’re not saying Whelan should be sent packing but some form of in-house discipline must surely be on the cards.
Yesterday’s launch of the GAA/GPA’s gambling guidelines is a step in the right direction at combating a problem that the two organisations admit they are only beginning to appreciate.
Before Christmas, this column was asked on behalf of an inter-county team management to put them in touch with a well-known gambling counsellor. The manager had concerns about a handful of his player’s betting habits.
From an official point of view, the GAA has relatively little association with bookmakers. As an amateur sport, it should have nothing to do with them. Few bookies support teams so what cost would there be in Croke Park banning all bookmaking sponsorship? It might seem an exercise in good optics but the right signal would be sent out. And, yes, we in the sports print media could do our bit too by discontinuing the carrying of odds in our game previews.
