Dubs close on pro prophecy
It was Dessie Farrell’s more considered approach that eventually saw the players body recognised officially. But, shortly after his departure, O’Neill made a prediction: if a players’ union wasn’t going to guide the GAA towards professionalism, a team would.
In 2008, he told this writer: “Player associations either become all-powerful like the PFA in England or else they end up as a functional body working within a bigger structure. That’s fairly mundane stuff but powerful player associations have acquired TV revenue and if the GPA doesn’t get that in the next 10 to 15 years then it’ll be an entity that has been sucked in. If they allow that to happen it’ll come down to one team who will possess the power to change the face of the association completely.”
