Stop trying to circumvent rules, urges GAA’s president-elect

GAA President-Elect Liam O’Neill has called on counties and clubs to stop attempting to find ways around the Association’s rules relating to amateurism.

The Laois native has laid his cards on the table and said the practice of trying to circumvent the rule on payments to managers has to end for the sake of the organisation.

O’Neill was speaking in the wake of yesterday’s report in the Irish Examiner that the Tipperary County Board remain hopeful they will be able to appoint senior manager John Evans as the county’s director of football.

“We’re an amateur organisation and volunteerism binds us together,” said O’Neill. “The GAA is the great leveller. Whether you’re in the highest paid job in the country or the lowest, once you’re in a club you’re a member and you’re an equal. There is pressure in the Association to pay managers but that doesn’t mean you to have to pay managers.

“At the moment there seems to be a movement to find ways of getting around a rule but we should be looking at putting together a method of keeping our rules.”

Speaking to The Irish Examiner Tuesday, Tipperary chairman Barry O’Brien maintained the idea of paying inter-county managers as development officers is a viable option.

O’Brien and his board unsuccessfully attempted to make Evans the county’s director of football last year after Croke Park ruled it was against the Association’s rules.

O’Neill is aware of Tipperary’s super-coach proposal but he questions the viability of it for several reasons.

“I do realise Tipperary have an idea for a solution, but the difficulty is if you can pay a manager by way of a coaching and development role what about the older people?

“How much coaching and development around a county would you expect Mick O’Dwyer to do or the Dublin coach Mickey Whelan?

“I don’t know how practical the idea is. Say if the individual was removed from their position as manager would he lose his coaching job as well? If he did, how would that stack up with the labour laws?

“When I was in Laois we had five changes of manager in the two codes.

“Imagine what difficulties would arise if that amount of managers were also employed as GAA coaches.”

O’Neill also queried the value in the growing number of Dublin clubs who are recruiting players to become coaches, which included a number from his own county.

“I don’t question the practice but I do question the merit of Dublin clubs employing players as coaches. The best players don’t necessarily make the best coaches.

“I’m happy the debate is now out there and open but I believe we should focus on keeping our most defining rules as opposed to attempting to find ways of circumventing them. Amateurism is not just an ordinary plank of our Association. It’s the very foundation. Pull that away and you pull away the house.”