Oak Leaf chief lashes ‘elitist’ grants

DERRY chairman Seamus McCloy is concerned payment of Government grants to inter-county players will create “a further element of elitism”, and warned it was “a dangerous route” for the GAA to go down.

Speaking at convention, he also hit out at the GPA, saying they should change their name to the CPA — County Players’ Association.

He said: “If grants are to be paid by the GAA, they should be paid to assist the volunteers to provide professional coaching at underage level, to pay for kit and equipment and to develop and market underage activities.

“Volunteers need to be recruited, retained and assisted. Our goal should be to raise their status in our Association. Without these people, there would be no county players. There would be no elitism. They are the source of everything we have, everything we own and everything we hold dear. We can always depend on him or her. For them, it’s never been about grants or money or personal gain. Hopefully, they’ll never threaten to go on strike.”

McCloy was very strong in his criticism of both the BBC and UTV describing their coverage of Derry championship games as “appalling”.

“At best, it could be described as scanty. Both TV stations showed quick clips of the county finals. I estimate that the entire action amounted to less than 30 seconds. Blink and you would have missed it,” he stated.

“For some reason, they both seem perfectly content to show lingering coverage of other games, apparently oblivious to the empty stands so pitifully displayed in the background. They provide minimal services for the thousands who attend Gaelic games.”

He also called for some hard decisions to be taken at the Special Congress at the end of January to improve the situation relating to club fixtures.

“There must be no tinkering. Tough decisions have to be made,” he commented. “Are we going to talk about this indefinitely? Or will we recognise that failure to act is the biggest failure of all? We need to be flexible and imaginative in our thinking. No sensible option should be ruled out. We may have to kill our so-called sacred cows.”