Eight questions facing the GAA in testing times
The backdrop to Annual Congress is the ongoing exodus of players from the GAA. For example, across Leinster alone the number of adult teams fielded by GAA clubs has fallen by 144 since 2010.
Every single county in Leinster (with the exception of Westmeath which remained static) lost teams. It is inevitable the loss of these teams means the loss of more players from the subs benches of other teams that are actually fielded.
As the GAA historian Mark Duncan pointed out last week, the reasons for this decline cannot be simply attributed to the economic crash or to the ‘decline of rural Ireland’. After all, every single Leinster county actually gained in population in the years in question.
On top of that, Dublin, too, lost some 21 adult teams over those years. So why are so many players leaving the GAA at club level? And why was this not the main issue discussed at Congress?
The agreement last year by which unprecedented wealth was transferred from the Gaelic Athletic Association to the intercounty Gaelic Players Association was made by the GAA hierarchy.
In making this deal, the GAA hierarchy appears to have handed on significant additional costs for meeting this wealth transfer to County Boards. Is this correct? When did County Boards become aware of this? How much are the sums at issue?
The biggest danger associated with the new quarter-finals introduced in the All-Ireland Football Championship is they are considered by the GAA hierarchy to have bought themselves some breathing space after previous proposals failed.
This would be a serious mistake. It is true the new structure has been introduced on a three-year trial – but waiting for the results of the trial before acting further is not an option that can be countenanced by anyone familiar with the reality of life outside the elite.
If the new structure is used to give impetus to the sort of wide-ranging change that is necessary, then the future brightens. If not, then the GAA is on a path to further stagnation and probably to turmoil.
Páraic Duffy made reference to the ‘anger’ manifest in the debate over his proposals in recent weeks. If nothing else it should serve as a signifier (can one really be needed?) of the scale of disaffection with the way the GAA has developed in recent years.
At the core of this disaffection is the ongoing creation of elites – the ultimate manifestation of this is the enduring fixtures crisis at club level. It is almost impossible to see how the new structures do not further fuel the building of elites within the GAA.
The great certainty after Annual Congress is next year there will be a significant redrawing of the All-Ireland SHC. This redrawing will introduce a round-robin element to the business end of the competition.
But what form will it take? And how exactly will it be facilitated without making further inroads into the time allotted to clubs.
As things stand, three matches played by each team in the Super 8s are scheduled to take place in 15 days. This will change. Diarmuid O’Donovan of the Cork County Board raised this point in the most sensible contribution to Congress and, in time, he will be most likely proven correct.
There were very amusing moments at Congress where certain delegates thought to offer advice to the GAA’s club players on the nature of democracy. This revolved around players being advised to go through their clubs should they wish to bring a motion to Congress.
Fair enough: except there are plenty of instances in the past where motions passed by clubs and then by counties did not actually make it onto the clár for Congress. And then there is the peculiar nature of the treatment of the Club Players Association: a motion put on the clár by Tipperary to give formal recognition to that Association saw Tipperary fail to speak on behalf of that motion.
So how exactly did that work? More than that again there was the spectacle of GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail having to plead with delegates – apparently in the interests of balance – to take the microphone and speak against the Super 8 motion.
It was more than a little late for such pleading – perhaps if Ó Fearghail had not, in advance of Congress, deemed it ‘inappropriate’ to give speaking to representatives of the Club Players Association there might have been a more balanced, more meaningful debate at Congress in general.
One of the great mysteries in life is the unending debate about why things happen when they do. Some of these mysteries are greater than others, of course, but the timing of the Gaelic Players Association announcement of their opposition to the Super 8s is pretty inexplicable.
The Super 8s proposal was launched on August 4, 2016 and the GPA announced their opposition to it more than 6 months later. The timing of that announcement was just before Congress – and just after almost every other GAA unit had adopted a position. Now, how would you explain that little accident of timing?
John Horan is a well- regarded man of many abilities. He is to be wished the very best of luck in his new role. Depending on his outlook and his priorities, he will inherit either an unworkable job or a massive opportunity.
That the GAA’s internal structures are not functioning is apparent to anyone who is involved in any club around the country. There has been no willingness among the GAA’s paid officials to grasp this essential truth in recent debates around Congress.
It is no longer going to be enough to pay lip-service to people who give so much of their time and effort voluntarily to an Association that they love. Will John Horan use the next year to put in place a series of initiatives that will allow him to actually deliver meaningful change as soon as he takes office? Or will it just be more of the same?
