Shooting ourselves in the foot

IN A FORTNIGHT when we had fantastic games of hurling and football all the publicity for the GAA should have been positive, as our players served up many matches of great skill and sportsmanship.

Instead it was the opposite, as three high-profile self-inflicted wounds dominated the airwaves and column inches — namely, the Paul Galvin affair, the Ring, Rackard and Murphy Cup final fixture controversies and the Munster U21 hurling fiasco.

I was reminded of the words of the President of the GAA, PJ Nolan, during the War of Independence. Nolan urged the members of the GAA to “join the volunteers and learn to shoot straight”.

Judging by the three incidents mentioned above we have certainly followed President Nolan’s advice about learning to shoot straight — shooting ourselves straight in the foot.

I pointed out in this column a month ago that irregularities in the way Paul Galvin was suspended by the CHC was almost inevitably going to lead to a successful appeal by him at the DRA.

That was exactly what happened as the DRA pointed out that procedural irregularities impacted on Galvin’s right to a fair hearing. The matter was sent back to a new CHC to give Galvin that fair hearing and the new CHC reduced the six-month suspension to three months which Galvin and Kerry accepted without complaint.

If the business had been done properly in the first place acres and acres of column inches and hours and hours of radio and TV time could have been avoided. The ironic thing was that Galvin and Kerry County Board were criticised for their audacity in not taking the six-month suspension, even though it was double the minimum and incorrectly administered. I thought the Kerry County Board behaved in a responsible fashion all through.

They at no time condoned Galvin’s misdemeanours, they didn’t criticise the disciplinary system, they didn’t criticise anyone. They merely stated that they thought the six months suspension was excessive and that they were going to avail of the GAA’s own disciplinary system to clarify this for their player.

Any other course of action by the Kerry County Board would have been an abnegation of their duty and the decisions of the DRA and new CHC vindicated their stance.

Galvin too came in for criticism. The line went that because he accepted wrongdoing and apologised, that he should have accepted the six-month suspension. Why blame somebody for not accepting double the minimum suspension especially when that suspension was being proposed arbitrarily, as a matter of policy, without Galvin’s case even being heard? When it’s policy to double the minimum penalty, regardless of the particular circumstances of each case, then double the minimum becomes the minimum and you couldn’t blame any player for challenging that policy.

Three-month suspension is a fair dip for any player in the height of summer, especially for a captain of a team seeking three-in-a-row, but a six-month suspension is very little different to 12 months in practical terms.

Thankfully, the Galvin saga is now over and hopefully, lessons learnt by all sides will ensure we don’t have a similar saga in future.

There was no sign of learning any lessons in controversy number two — the finals of the three secondary competitions. Last year these finals were downgraded from what they were supposed to be and had been in previous years. I expressed my concern in these pages so I was absolutely amazed to see all three finals slotted in for last weekend — and given billings contrary to what was decided during my presidency, when the Murphy, Rackard and Ring Cups were introduced.

It was agreed as part of the package that all three would be played as curtain-raisers to the All-Ireland semi-finals — meaning the game would be played before the major All-Ireland senior hurling game of the day, at 2pm or thereabouts rather than 12 o’clock, and certainly not 7pm on a Friday evening. No wonder Johnny Dooley and Jim Greene were furious.

If something is passed by Central Council, it takes a two-thirds majority to change it.

I am certainly not aware of that happening so Westmeath and Carlow were entirely justified in their obvious disappointment and anger.

When one considers that one of the most important opportunities and challenges for the GAA is to get the top counties in the Christy Ring Cup up to McCarthy Cup standard, one would think that we’d be bending over backwards to upgrade, promote and market the Christy Ring Final.

Unfortunately not. Playing the Christy Ring Cup on a bank holiday in Croke Park was a bad call and totally contrary to what was decided and agreed when the competition was first introduced. The counties were quite right to switch it to Tullamore, even though it’s far from the status it would have if it were played at 2pm, live on prime time TV, as a curtain-raiser to an All-Ireland semi-final in Croke Park.

But it was better than playing it on a Friday night in Croker. You’d have as much atmosphere if you played it at midnight under lights in Glasnevin Cemetery as you would before an empty Croke Park on a Bank Holiday Friday evening.

Hopefully lessons will be learned and those competitions will be given the staging they were supposed to get and that they deserve next year.