GAA to make Dublin a 'national priority'

THE GAA must be willing to make Dublin a national priority and be prepared to accept "a disproportionate level" of resources being channelled into the county, says Peter Quinn, Chairman of the GAA's Strategic Review Committee.

"Dublin is so important to us nationally that we have to invest heavily in it," said Mr Quinn at last night's opening session of the Special Congress in the Burlington Hotel.

"And, if we undertake that investment wisely and well, there will be a massive pay back to the entire Association," he said.

With motions on the re-organisation of the city and county deferred, Mr Quinn informed delegates they were hopeful of agreeing structures under which it would be possible to have a major injection of funding.

He also expressed the view the GAA should continue as an amateur organisation, involving volunteers in all activities, while ensuring the special contribution of players should be "adequately recognised" within a broadly amateur ethos.

"Our market research indicated massive support for our amateur ethos, across all sections of society," he added.

One of the basic components of a GAA report on the issue, he pointed out, is to produce a strategy for the GAA to help it develop successfully, to compete more effectively in a more difficult market and face the challenges posed by social, economic, political and demographic change. Secondly, it provides an outline of a suggested structure they believe is necessary to make the strategy work.

"The fact is that without a proper, coherent and consistent strategy we will be rudderless, drifting from issue to issue, making decisions on an ad hoc basis and producing responses and outcomes which are entirely inconsistent and which create the potential not just for ridicule but ultimately for failure," he commented. The reality is that in the recent past they have been asking people to do the impossible, operating without adequate systems, procedures, plans and control. "We all share the blame for that. All of us are guilty."

One main objectives has to be to place the GAA as a "primarily community based" organisation, to promote a sense of community identity and reinforce the "sense of place".

"The Association should be inclusive above all, welcoming to all who accept its ethos and its aims and it should make special efforts to attract those who in the past had shown no reason to be part of it -- because their perceptions of us are no longer valid."

Despite the success of their

inter-county championships, their research uncovered evidence of their loss of position on the ground, of some big established clubs giving walk-overs, of games being cancelled because for frivolous reasons such as stag parties.

"The reality is that we are fast losing the commitment which our players gave to the games in the past and we must address that issue."

He warned that hundred of clubs are currently in difficulty, both from a playing and financial perspective. And, he said the Association was "failing" thousands of players who were not being served by the growth of up to a hundred 'super' clubs in the country.

Peter Quinn made the case for reducing teams to 13 a side for the 2003 and 2004 National Leagues, on the basis that it would make play more 'open' and avoid bunching around midfield.

"We won't always have championships like this year," he commented, adding they had the support of the Players' Committee when they originally framed the motion. Against a background of criticism of the proposal by a number of prominent team managers, it wasn't surprising the proposal was overwhelmingly rejected, with just one delegate supporting it.

*A move to permit six inter change substitutes in senior inter county games (as in the international series) was endorsed by Mayo footballer James Nallen, a member of the SRC. Again, this did not find favour with delegates.