Player silent treatment leaves fans in the dark
As endangered as we are, as much as a thick hide is required, it remains a position of privilege. For several of us, a labour of love. As an occupation, it is what I always wanted to do.
Living the dream? Being paid to sit high in one of the best seats above the Hogan Stand steps every September isn’t too distant a second to walking up them.
So I stress what follows isn’t a rant by any manner or means. What we encounter now aren’t even problems never mind first-world ones.
There are few times when the gig feels like a chore. When it does, it usually involves interviewing a manager or player with a group of colleagues in the sanitised environment of a commercial launch, which outside of games is increasingly becoming the primary access to the men at the coalface.
Pressed for time by handlers and unable to develop a flow of questions unless other journalists are on the same wavelength, the outcome is more often than not unsatisfying.
The last occasion a GAA personality said something interesting in such a situation was Limerick manager John Kiely at the launch of the Allianz Hurling League in early February.
“That day against Cork in the Munster League, there were quite a number of people in the crowd who were extremely abusive and it was not at all appropriate that players be treated like that on the day, given the amount of time and effort and work they put into preparing themselves on the pitch, and off the pitch.”
Kiely was correct but why would ‘supposed’ fans act in such a way? We theorise a breakdown in the relationship between players and the public, which extends far beyond the borders of Limerick.
The growing anonymity of players in the media makes them fairer game.
They may live and work among them but people aren’t as familiar with them as they should be.
Unless they are winning, the chances of empathy are remote. This all vision, no sound policy dehumanises the rapport.
On Sunday, Galway’s victorious hurlers turned down requests for interviews, one suggesting he wasn’t permitted to talk.
That same afternoon, Tipperary players declined to chat with the media after their handsome win over Offaly.
This all came days after Seamus Callanan and Richie Hogan said they were not allowed to speak on hurling matters at the launch of a product they had been paid to help develop.
Louth’s footballers, having gained promotion to Division 2 last Sunday week, were also on shutdown.
Media bans are nothing new to the sport but they have now reached an unprecedented level. A contacts book was once an essential part of a GAA journalist’s kit.
With the exception of Francie Bellew (obviously), I have a phone number for every one of the Armagh’s 2002 All-Ireland winning team. Joe Kernan encouraged his men to talk. He appreciated the value of them talking instead of being talked about.
The more they spoke, the more they became normal. The more they became accepted. As a pioneering team, that was essential.
They shudder at the thought now but there was even a time when the Dublin County Board office in Parnell Park provided the mobile numbers of their footballers. What was 1940 Paris is Fort Knox now.
In truth, leaks from the Dublin camp were commonplace before Pat Gilroy took the helm. It was Gilroy who broke the record in 2011 for the earliest All-Ireland final press conference when he staged the event 16 days prior to the game.
Paul Griffin was available for interview but unavailable to Dublin due to cruciate complications. Several managers have since followed suit and put out players either injured or on the fringes of the first team.
Gilroy, to be fair to him, along with a player chatted to the media prior to almost every league and championship match just as Éamonn Fitzmaurice, although often on his own, attempts to do now.
Jim Gavin’s first interview with the GAA press corps after last year’s success was following the opening league game against Cavan. His appearances have been restricted to post-match.
His players have been virtual ghosts, something which the camp’s supervisors will take great pride in, although so many of them are incredibly articulate men.
Ciarán Kilkenny, in our book, is a future GAA president. Dean Rock is a natural raconteur. Would there be any harm in the public discovering they’re not just great footballers but good people too?
It’s obvious that Dublin, just as Tipperary, in an All-Ireland title-defending year, believe they are in the limelight enough without increasing the glare.
What worked for them before they believe will work for them again. And so be it.
The dispassion of the fourth estate will grow. The more distance is put between the press and players, the easier it will be to criticise. That’s just a human fact.
We’ve come a long way from the time when Donal O’Grady in the mid-2000s attempted to put some control on the Cork hurlers’ media dealings and interview requests had to go through their selector Joe O’Leary or PRO John Motherway.
Kilkenny followed suit with Martin Fogarty and both measures worked well but since his departure they officially don’t make a peep until All-Ireland semi-final time.
If anything, the steady decline in access has encouraged more varied and exclusive coverage of games.
On that count, journalism isn’t losing out. But the public are.
To them, this glittering generation of players are strangers. More’s the pity.
In a Twitter conversation with Irish Examiner columnist Dick Clerkin last month, the former Monaghan midfielder suggested dual counties were a problem: “Dual county argument has to be parked for the greater good.”
Thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case based on the weekend’s results with wins on the double for the likes of Galway, Limerick and Tipperary.
The nature of the promotion securing win for Liam Kearns’ side in Division 3 would have been extra pleasing for the players given how they lost to Armagh in the Athletic Grounds in 2015 but also for the fact they had overcome the delayed Longford game, which mean a run of four matches in 23 days. Armagh’s cheeky #pipthetipp hashtag didn’t find favour among the visitors either.
Then there was being without Emmet Moloney who had to play a club fixture two days previous. Kearns had looked for the Mid-U21 football final between Moloney’s Drom-Inch and JK Brackens to be postponed but his request was denied.
Let’s not forget either that the board voted for the Super 8 against the wishes of the senior football team and management.
Tipperary still has plenty to learn about its dual existence. That decision underlined former senior selector Tommy Toomey’s assertion last year that the football fraternity were “being undermined from within”.
In certain quarters in the county, there are strong beliefs that more success in both codes means more problems when Tipperary GAA, at least at inter-county level, has never been healthier and should be celebrated.
To play God.
David Gough’s summation of what he believes the GAA are asking referees to do when it comes to administering the black card: “They’re very prescriptive and it’s not really left up to the judgement of the referee.
Now we’re getting into the referee trying to play God.” On social media on Sunday, Joe McQuillan was savaged for his decision to issue one to Darren Hughes in Monaghan’s defeat to Dublin almost as much as the GAA for introducing it.
As incensed as Hughes was with the decision, much of observers’ ire was held for the association’s determination to stick with its measures against some cynical play.
There appears to be a growing understanding that referees can’t determine what is and isn’t intentional.
After Niall Sludden’s contentious black card against Mayo the previous week, the GAA must now realise that the controversies which surrounded it at the end of last year’s championship aren’t going to go away.
Video evidence or a second referee could provide a solution but those are roads the powers-that-be in Croke Park are wary of travelling.
Instead, Hughes and Sludden have been blackened and won’t have an opportunity to expunge the cards until such time as a cumulative ban is proposed.
Doubly harsh treatment.
