The challenge is to encourage greater respect

GAA players have always had to contend with criticism and even abuse, but Sean Potts, the Gaelic Players’ Association’s head of communications, explains the need to keep things in perspective in the age of social media

You have always had a phenomenon whereby people feel the need to abuse, but what we are seeing now with social media is that it gives people a public platform. It is an area where people get the chance to bully.

Abuse exists in all sports, but there is often a more irate commentary coming from people who feel ownership of the GAA: ‘I am a county person and my county has let me down so I am going to give off in this way because my pride has been hurt so much’.

So, what makes the GAA so vibrant can be abused in this instance.

It is important to make a distinction between abusive comments and criticism. Nobody likes criticism, whether constructive or not, but it is an occupational hazard. It goes with the territory and players accept that.

The media, by and large, is responsible in this regard in how it measures its criticism.

We have our systems in place to support those who might feel overwhelmed by abuse or very heavy criticism and the pressure they endure. The GPA’s recent ‘We Wear More’ campaign was mostly focused on our own players so they understand that they are more than just players and that there are avenues they can pursue to get support, like our confidential counselling services.

The irony of the abuse that some Cork players experienced following the Munster football final is that it came after we had launched this campaign publicly. The ongoing challenge for us and everybody involved in the GAA is to encourage more respect. You understand things are said during the white heat of battle that might be regretted. This is more insidious, more sinister, that somebody feels the need to abuse after the dust has settled.

It’s beneath contempt the sort of abuse we witnessed after the Munster final. We have guidelines for players and social media, like moratoriums after games. You hear older people ask why they don’t just leave it, but it is so integral to how they operate that they can’t detach themselves from it. It is how they live their lives. The challenge for us is to keep exposing abuse for what it is when it occurs.

Most players cope well but, with such a large playing body, there could be one or two who have other issues going on and for whom this sort of thing could be a tipping point.

They need to be respected, like any other human being, for what they do. They should not be subjected to bullying, abuse or harassment because that is what it constitutes.

Our counselling service is in place since 2010. Engagement was understandably slow at first, but we are now heading towards a situation where 200 people have engaged with various aspects of it, be it a phone call where someone’s worries are put to rest right up to support for someone in residential care for addiction treatment. What we found was that none of our services tend to work in isolation. They are all interconnected — your career, your personal development, your mental health — particularly as an elite athlete. They call it counselling with a small ‘c’ in the States.

There are so many things that we don’t see on a Sunday afternoon. It only takes a couple of triggers: the exams may not go well, the girlfriend might break up with them and then they have a problem. Everybody has those problems, but not everyone has to balance it with life as an elite amateur inter-county player and that’s why the proliferation of social media can be so disturbing.

It has always been open season for some people, but the scale has changed. It is easy to be flippant about this, to say ‘get over it’. There is an element that people need to cope and understand that these people are idiots, but there will always be vulnerable people and it is our duty to look out for our players.