GPA needs to keep a symbolic distance

PEACE in our time? News that the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) and the GAA have reached an ‘interim arrangement’ which involves the Association recognising the player body broke over the weekend, but there doesn’t appear to have been a George Mitchell-type moment, with someone declaring that the parties have reached agreement to general applause.

Maybe that’s just as well. The GAA’s recognition of the GPA carries some interesting questions along with it – for both sides.

Although anything that reduces friction between players and administrators is broadly welcome, if it’s a matter of delaying inevitable future cataclysms then maybe that welcome should come with a health warning.

The GAA and the GPA have hammered out a fine aspirational blueprint for moving forward, but in both the fine print and the broad brush-strokes some questions remain.

The primary issue is whether a player representative body which is incorporated into the administrative structure governing the games those players are involved in can truly represent them independently and adequately.

Put another way – and believe us, this is in no way a loaded metaphor – can a trade union represent both employees and employers properly?

If that sounds overly confrontational, given the Age of Aquarius which was announced over the weekend, consider how many “player power issues” you can reel off from the last two years alone.

Whether for the right reasons or not, aggressive and determined sportsmen will on occasion cross swords with equally aggressive and determined administrators.

Some clarity on the GPA’s role as a hybrid of the two (half-player, half-desk?) would be welcome.

Also, while GAA President Christy Cooney detailed the funding process through which the player organisation will receive €1.1 million in funding from the GAA itself, there seemed to be little information on the GPA’s role in trying to resolve situations such as the Cork strikes of the last two years, not to mention the ongoing problems in Clare.

It would be unfair to expect all the goodies to be revealed in the press conference announcing the arrangement in the first place (though the GAA can hardly be blamed for wanting to call attention to the fact that they stuck to their guns when it came to providing project-related funding; they said last July that, that was the only basis on which they’d provide funds, and it is).

However, player welfare isn’t just a matter of enabling third-level scholarships and schemes. If hurlers and/or footballers are unhappy with a situation involving county boards/sponsors/championship structures or referees, who will they call on?

To that end it was also notable that at the press briefing which detailed the results of the negotiations, plans were revealed to house the GPA within the environs of Croke Park itself, with Director-General Páraic Duffy saying: “We just can’t do it at the moment for practical reasons, but it is certainly something we would like to do going forward.”

No doubt they would. But moving into Jones Road would be a huge tactical error for the GPA; it would send out a signal to all and sundry that the player organisation had gotten into bed with the administration.

YOUR correspondent has not himself been in the GPA nerve centre in Dublin, but unless it was flooded over the weekend we would suggest the GPA stay there and maintain some kind of distance, however symbolic, from the GAA itself.

Of course, we may be wrong. Last weekend may herald a new dawn of sweetness and light between all parties.

But what happens if some intercounty players aren’t too happy with these developments? It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that some players might feel uncomfortable with sending ballot papers and other correspondence to the same address they receive disciplinary notices from.

Tease that out further: what would happen if those same players decide they’d like a player association that isn’t recognised by headquarters? Given the GAA’s frequent proclamations about democracy within the organisation, would a splinter group representing players have to be recognised? If, for example, the Clare hurlers or the players who have quit the Limerick hurling panel sought to organise themselves into a body to represent their views independently, what would happen? And the most obvious question: what would the GPA’s response be to such a group of players?

You’ll have plenty of GAA conservatives complaining about this over the next few days. We’ll be interested in seeing GAA liberals’ response to it.