Shooting from the hip
FOR all the talk about the government grants, player burn-out, the club/county debate and the state of hurling, Sean Fogarty doesn’t go beyond his own club, Moyne-Templetuohy to highlight what he sees as the main problem confronting the GAA.
However, far from being parochial, he identifies an issue which other leaders have expressed concern over, namely ‘the imbalance in population’ in the country. It’s something he believes has implications for society at large.
“No doubt about it,” he emphasises. “Rural clubs are struggling and my own club is a classic example. For the first time this year we had to amalgamate to field a minor hurling team, we just wouldn’t have enough players. We played the first round of the under-21 last Sunday morning — and we had just 15.
“If you look further, into Thurles, they are not able to cater for the number of players they have with the best will in the world. So, they are catering for quality and here we are out the country struggling. We’re going to have to do something.”
However, he feels that the GAA can’t tackle the problem on their own, that they must engage with government departments and local authorities. Otherwise, ‘the whole parish ethos’ will disappear, along with ‘pride of place.’
He makes no secret of his opposition to the payment of government grants to inter-county players, saying quite bluntly: “I don’t like them. And while the new format is slightly more acceptable, we’re yet only playing around with words — because the same amount of money that was presented the first time is still there. The only way it would be fully acceptable to me would be if the players agreed to put it into a team fund for a specific purpose like an outing or a training weekend, whatever they wish.
“I think this has the potential to create jealousy within squads.
“On the GPA themselves, I think they are too elitist. I have no problem with a players’ body provided they represent all the players. Surely the players who played in Croke Park on St. Patrick’s Day are entitled to representation the same as some of the players from the lesser counties.”
And, he takes another swipe at the players body in the area of drug-testing, saying that ‘it’s an accident waiting to happen.’
“Someone’s career can be destroyed, let it be a Garda or a teacher, if he is found guilty of taking some substance which might only be a cure for a cough. We saw where someone from another sport was suspended last week because he took some nasal thing. The GPA should be protecting its players by insisting on a full education programme on what’s allowed and what’s not.”
By agreeing to the grants, he fears the Association is ‘going down a dangerous road’ and while in a professional era, they might survive at top level, it could be devastating for clubs and undermine the volunteer ethos which underpins the Association.
Likewise, he is critical of the current disciplinary system, going so far to describe it as ‘a shambles.’ In particular, he is opposed to the operation of the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) — disagreeing with Nickey Brennan that the system is working well.
“The President bases his assumption (on the fact) that we had less disciplinary cases this year than last year, but I don’t think that’s a result of anything the DRA had to do,’’ he says.
“It’s how they deal with the ones that come before them that I would be worried about. There’s no way that a player should get away on a technicality and we had the example in Longford where the name of the club was not written in Irish. We need a common sense interpretation.
“The most despicable thing I see is when a player is put off, the manager goes half way out the field to meet him and clap him on the back. And if you were to go into that dressing room, I’m sure you’d hear the manager saying, ‘don’t worry, we’ll find a loophole to get you off,’ instead of saying, ‘you did wrong, be a man, take your punishment’.”
When it was put to him that the establishment of the DRA had stopped people resorting to the courts to seek redress, he recalled that Tipperary were involved in the first case of a player going to the High Court and gaining an injunction. Speaking generally, his view would be that the GAA should seek full hearings in any such cases and that the prospect of players or clubs being hit by a huge legal bill would discourage them from taking action in the first place.
Nor is he happy with the way funds are disbursed in the area of hurling development, commenting: “The Government has been very good over the past couple of years in allocating over €3 million for the development of hurling and the Association is adding to that. I think dividing the money by 32 is the soft option. We need to prioritise and we have the opportunity to set the barometer through the Christy Ring and Nickey Rackard Cups.
“We can see what’s happening there and we would give money to the counties which seem to be making a big effort.We need to maintain hurling and try to develop it on a par with the counties who really want to get to the top. Paudie Butler is doing great work, but there is no one man who could tackle that in the 32 counties.”
He is supportive of the policy in relation to opening up Croke Park, saying that ‘in principle’ he’s happy that the GAA did the right thing. And, while he supported the opening of Croke Park, he has a problem about the stadium not being available for ‘their own games’ because of remedial work on the pitch.
Specifically, wearing his hat as Chairman of the national Post Primary Schools body, he wasn’t happy that the finals of the All-Ireland colleges and vocational schools competitions could not be played there.
And he takes a swipe at the IRFU for ‘forbidding’ players on youth development squads from playing Gaelic games with their clubs. “That is happening,” he commented. “It has happened here in our own county and may possibly have cost the Tipperary champions Moyle Rovers a famous victory over Nemo Rangers — where two of their players were not allowed play because they were on a Munster rugby development squad. We need to use the lever (of allowing rugby) in Croke Park to say, ‘stop this.’
Meanwhile, with the Association benefiting to the tune of €13.5m. from renting out the stadium for rugby and soccer, Fogarty says it’s time for a reality check as to where the money is going.
“Is it going into huge stadiums that we don’t need?” he asks. “Are we building monuments to ourselves? Will they be white elephants? We had two very attractive hurling (quarter-final) games last Sunday and the total attendance for the two was about 11,000. I think we have peaked with our attendances — and if we have, it’s smaller stadiums that we need.”
While acknowledging the difficulty of finding a balance between club and inter-county activity, he’s not so sure that the actual structure of the games is the cause of the problem. As far as he is concerned, ‘the power’ of managers is one of the root causes. “It’s the ‘free’ Sundays — this is what’s causing the problem,” he says, adding that it’s time for county boards ‘to take ownership’ of their own affairs.
At the same time he sees the need to address the ‘them and us’ attitude, explaining: “there’s a bit of ill-feeling from clubs towards county panels and a bit of a devil-may-care attitude of county panels towards clubs.”
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