All the President’s plans
It’s a fair indication of how policy feeds into planning. There was a knee-jerk reaction calling for fences in Jones Road afterwards, but Cooney isn’t buying into that.
However, it doesn’t alter the fact that pitch invasions pose a huge challenge to Cooney and his fellow administrators.
“Some day, some person is going to get seriously injured,” he says. “The headlines will be ‘young man or woman – or player – seriously injured and why are the GAA doing not something about it!’
Cooney said it was disappointing that the trophy presentation plans they had in place for the All-Ireland hurling final (which were changed for yesterday’s football decider) had to be abandoned.
“We tried to do something in a positive way and we thought we were ‘there’ for the hurling final (before supporters surged on to the field after initially responding to public address announcements to stay off). We got some criticism from the traditionalists but we got a lot of support from people who understand what we are trying to do.
“It’s not about protecting the pitch. It’s about protecting the well-being of everybody that comes to our games and can go home injury-free, satisfied that they have seen a wonderful game – and that there would be no massive surge on the pitch.
“The last thing I want is to see is barriers.
“The last thing I want to see is fencing going up any place.’’
The epic contest between Kilkenny and Tipperary, he says, was ‘the perfect end’ to the senior hurling championship campaign.
“You will always have a situation in hurling where you have some wonderful games and some that are not so evenly contested, but everybody goes out to perform. I thought it was a truly remarkable game, as was the minor final. In addition, the performance of both referees and their officials was absolutely outstanding and the manliness and sportsmanship throughout both games was phenomenal.’’
Despite Kilkenny’s continued dominance, Cooney is upbeat about the overall strength of hurling.
“I think our hurling is going to go from strength to strength. People will say that we have only the stronger teams competing for the Liam MacCarthy Cup, but you could say the same about football.
“I think the progress that is being made in hurling in the weaker counties has been tremendous. We have more players than ever playing the game and participation is the most important thing we can have in our Association.
“Everybody can’t win, but everybody that wants to play and enjoy our games can do so and that’s fundamental to what our Association is about.’’
Agreeing that the entry of Galway and Antrim (for a three-year experimental period) enhanced the Leinster championship, he is confident that the resurgence of Dublin and the progress of counties like Offaly will make it ‘stronger and more vibrant’ in 2010.
“Some people would say Kilkenny are a sure bet for five-in-a-row, but I wouldn’t be sure. I think next year’s championship is going to be keenly contested.”
But, before the draws can be made, a Special Congress will decide in a month’s time on the thorny issue of promotion and relegation.
“Some counties are saying they don’t want it, (but) if we don’t have it within the MacCarthy Cup, what effect would that have on the other tiers? (Christy Ring, Mick Mackey, Lory Meagher),’’ he asks.
A vote in favour of relegation raises the spectre of one of a ‘so-called’ prominent county dropping out of the MacCarthy Cup and the other side of the argument is that it reduces the incentive for counties like Carlow (winners for the past two years) or Kerry (celebrating wins this season in the minor and under-21 ‘B’ championships) to do well in the Christy Ring Cup.
“We need to get it right once and for all. We need to cut out the situation of appealing to the DRA or looking for a Special Congress to re-vamp it. Let’s take the opportunity now to put our hurling championship on a firm footing, move it forward and concentrate on playing and not be worried about events surrounding it. It’s a serious issue and counties are going to have to stand up and respect whatever decision is made.’’
Meanwhile, accepting the validity of the argument that the football championship format is more beneficial to ‘strong’ counties knocked out in earlier rounds, Cooney says they can’t ignore what it has achieved for teams like Sligo, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Tipperary and, most especially, Wicklow this year.
“I was in Baltinglass recently to open a pitch and there’s a great ‘buzz’ around the county, The backdoor system has worked extremely well and I am not looking to change it.
“We must always be open to look at the structure of our championships, but I think that by and large it has come on in leaps and bounds.
“And it has helped enormously to develop football in the weaker counties.’’
He also expressed his satisfaction with the general improvement in discipline, and, linked with that, an improved standard of refereeing.
“It has been a wonderful year with regard to discipline and that’s down to the players.
“The way they have sportingly played our games this year has been fabulous and I’d like to congratulate all of the players on that. It’s not that they haven’t played in a manly way – they have – but the respect for the decision-making of our officials has been outstanding. Of course, we have had a couple of incidents, but we play so many games that if we didn’t it would be abnormal.
“Our disciplinary process has worked extremely well, the committees appointed to manage discipline have done a very good job and thankfully we haven’t had any major issues this year.’’
One issue that is very much to the forefront relates to the process of ‘official recognition’ of the GPA and what level of funding it can hope to receive.
No date has been set for the start of negotiations and Cooney points out that the talks will happen ‘very much under the radar, nice and quietly.
“It’s important for both sides. Hopefully we can come to a conclusion that will be satisfactory for everybody,’’ he says.!
“Whatever we achieve through this process of dialogue, it has to be what’s best for the Association and not in the interest of any individual or any group. We are a strong, voluntary, community-based amateur organisation and that will always continue. That is the wish of our membership and we will continue to make it happen. Of course our players are so important to us. We must ensure that we create the best environment for them to play and that they get the best support they can.’’
HAVING made it clear in several interviews that there is no question of them gifting the GPA a percentage of annual commercial income, Cooney says that while they are prepared to put funding in place for projects that are beneficial to the Association, they are unwilling to hand the GPA a blank cheque.
The process will also include discussions on the introduction of a ‘Players Charter’ (similar to the one currently in place for team managers).
“It is in the interests of everybody that we have a charter in place that will help our players to understand what the Association is trying to do, but also an equal understanding of what the players require – and that we have a mechanism for overcoming any difficulties like the problems that existed in Cork.
“That’s the way forward. We must be prepared to sit down, discuss issues and challenges that face us, do it an open way and come to a satisfactory solution. But at the end of the day the Association has an ethos, with values that it must live by and that ethos cannot change. We need to work within that and I think everybody would recognise that the GPA will openly say that pay-for-play is not an issue.
“What they want to put in place is better supports for inter-county players and we are happy to do that on a joint basis.’’
In terms of how the GAA itself is funded, Cooney accepts that they face a ‘big challenge’ going forward. The revenue derived from sponsorship may reduce, while the state of the economy is impacting directly on counties. And, of course, the opening of the redeveloped Lansdowne Road stadium next year will mean an end to the use of Croke Park for rugby and soccer internationals, which yielded approximately €30m.
“We’ll be going back to re-negotiate with the current organisations that are supporting us and looking at alternatives if they are not available to us in the future. And the same with our TV rights. We recognise that there is a challenging climate there for these companies, but we also recognise that we have a quality product.
“You couldn’t get a better quality product than you saw for the hurling final – and the U21 final. Viewing figures were never higher for our hurling final – it hit a million – so that type of profile is very important to our sponsors. And it’s also important to our games.’’
Interestingly, while pointing out that attendances at games held up extremely well this year, the fact of introducing family ‘packages’ (and the policy of not increasing ticket prices) means that the financial return could be lower than recent years.
“If we have a loss in revenue, we have to cut some of the costs we have within the Association and we are continuously reviewing that,’’ he added.
“But the one thing we want to preserve in a significant way is the continuous development of our games – because that is so important for us.’’
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