Faraway hills greener, but too expensive for recession-hit GAA counties

JUST over 20% of intercounty GAA teams went on an overseas holiday after the 2009 championship season and only one county has definite plans to send a team on warm weather training camp in 2010, according to a survey of the 32 GAA county boards in today’s Irish Examiner.

Cash-strapped county boards have deemed such trips unnecessary in the current economic climate as generating monies from fund-raising and securing sponsorship deals becomes increasingly difficult. Foreign holidays and pre-season training camps have been described by county board officials as ‘fads that are a thing of the past’ and ‘mad trips that can create more problems than they fix’.

Seven counties went on trips abroad as reward for performances in the 2009 All-Ireland Championships. Predictably all four All-Ireland finalists, the Kilkenny hurlers (Malaysia), Tipperary hurlers (Los Angeles and San Diego), Kerry footballers (New York and Jamaica) and Cork footballers (Thailand), travelled abroad. In addition the Christy Ring Cup champions Carlow went on holiday to Malta while Nicky Rackard Cup champions Meath jetted off to the Canaries last Friday. The only county to go on an overseas holiday that did not lift silverware in 2009 was Kildare, whose footballers visited San Francisco and New York.

The only inter-county side that has concrete plans at the moment to go on a warm-weather training camp are the Tipperary senior footballers. John Evans has guided the Premier men to successive NFL promotions in the last two seasons and the Division Two side will travel to La Manga next month. The majority of counties have ruled out any plans for such trips in 2010, although counties like Cork, Kerry, Meath and Offaly are considering the possibility of organising a spring training camp abroad.

The overwhelming consensus in the survey was that the impacts of the recession in all four provinces have lead to county boards tightening their belts and cutting foreign trips from their budgets. Clare secretary Pat Fitzgerald insisted that counties “simply have to be more prudent about their spending at the moment” while Roscommon chairman Michael McGuire believes “the focus is on finance at all times and keeping costs down.”

Ulster officials have come out strongest against teams journeying abroad. “They are a fad now and largely a thing of the past,” remarked Armagh PRO Joe Jordan. “People are now realising they should spend extra money they have on promoting the games within the county.”

“Training camps abroad are something we don’t indulge in,” revealed Derry secretary Liam Peoples. “We don’t encourage these mad holidays as they can cause more problems than they fix. Currently we are trying to limit our teams to a budget.”

The majority of counties are intent on holding team-bonding weekends within Ireland this season. Down county board secretary Sean Óg McAteer revealed that his county are pursuing a policy of helping out their sponsors at a local level.

“There are a lot of good facilities within Down operated by people who sponsor our teams. Our attitude is that we should try to spend money in places where we receive it.”

The counties that did go on foreign holidays financed the trips through contributions from county boards, sponsors and fundraising events. Kildare footballers staged a successful boxing fight night amongst the players to raise funds for their trip, in Cork a players fund is established on an annual basis while both Carlow and Meath were aided by grants from Croke Park as a result of their national hurling triumphs.

“The players absolutely deserve it”, says Kildare chairman Padraig Ashe. “It’s great bonding for 30 lads to head off together and they deserve it after the toil throughout the year. Remember, they’re out training in this weather right now.”