Derek Kavanagh warns GAA Congress calls will spark uprising at grassroots level

Former Cork football captain Derek Kavanagh says GAA Congress have shown no consideration for club players and predicts it will spark an uprising at grassroots level.

The decisions in Carlow on Saturday to reject a cut on the potential number of championship replays and bringing the All-Ireland finals forward by two weeks have been interpreted as kicks in the face for club players with Dublin’s Bernard Brogan describing the latter vote as a “stone age” decision.

In 2012, Nemo Rangers man Kavanagh succeeded in convincing Cork to pass a motion calling on the All-Ireland finals to be played one week earlier. However, he was opposed by the top table and was not invited to present the motion at Congress in Derry the following March where it received 26% support.

A second rejection for the proposal could have major repercussions, he says.

“I think this could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back because it looks like there had been a bit of energy building as regards a change because we’ve had the same debates every winter for the last three or four years.

“What’s the point of these competitions like the McGrath Cup?

“What’s the point when clubs could dearly do with that month in their calendar?

“That was a hot topic last year, it was again this year and I think the perception out there was that change was coming.

“Everybody knew my motion three years ago to bring the All-Ireland finals forward, which was laughed at then, had energy behind it just to give a little more to the clubs. I think people realised it wasn’t going to be the final solution but it would give a little bit of leeway.

“But Congress didn’t do that and I think they might pay the price for that. I think there might be a bit of an uprising in the clubs or they might just say ‘enough is enough’.”

Kavanagh has questioned just how representative Congress is of clubs. “I remember one night at a county board meeting hearing that the inter-county scene was the shop window. That’s all I heard. We all know that but 97% of the playing population in the GAA is club.

“The dominance of the inter-county, the amount of money it’s generating, cannot be taken for granted. You’ll never hear a county board delegate or a GAA representative say that but we all know that to be the truth and it’s not to be underestimated because money makes a lot of things happen. I would imagine a lot of clubs would not have the facilities they have only for the money trickling down.

“I still don’t think that’s a good enough trade-off because you have guys 31-32 years of age who have done 10 years of senior hurling or football with their club and now they’re a manager in their job and they have a kid or two and they’re dedicating nine months of useless training to their clubs. That’s the trade-off — guys are retiring at 31-32 years of age when they could carry on for another five years.

“I’m not saying money is a dirty word; it’s a lot more intricate and complicated than saying that. Most of the delegates are amateurs but I don’t think they’re representing club players. Is Congress representing the majority of the GAA? No, it’s not. It can’t be.”

Cork spoke against the motion again (of bringing forward the All-Irelands) on Saturday, which didn’t surprise Kavanagh.

“With Dublin, Cork are the most congested fixtures county in Ireland with the amount of clubs and dual clubs. It doesn’t make sense that Cork would go against it — it stinks, really — but then I did have a hard time getting my motion through. Christy Cooney, Frank Murphy and Bob Ryan all spoke heavily against it.

“I’d say it was a thorn in their side going up to the north with that motion.

“I’d say they were a bit embarrassed.”

Former Down footballer Conor Deegan spoke in January about establishing an association to represents clubs interests and Kavanagh believes there is a gap for such a group.

“It’s not about club versus county because every county player is a club player. It’s hindering the county player too. The club player is the loser here but because of the county schedule the county player is too.”

Meanwhile, former GAA president Seán Kelly says a secondary All-Ireland senior football championship is the only way forward in addressing the inequalities at that level even though one proposal calling for such was withdrawn and another defeated heavily at Congress last Friday.

“It isn’t about just altering the structure of the championship but developing the status a new championship would have. If the final was played on All-Ireland final day and All-Stars trips were involved, counties who entered the secondary competition wouldn’t feel like second-class citizens.

“You look at the profiles of players in match programmes and for some of them alongside ‘honours won’ is none. I met a man in Wicklow last week who won a junior championship in 1959. He didn’t mention it was a junior All-Ireland but an All-Ireland and they had beaten Kerry in the final.

“The celebration of Brosna winning their All-Ireland junior club championship last year was far more meaningful to them than maybe Kerry winning any All-Ireland.

He added: “It’s becoming more difficult for the vast majority of counties to make an impact because of lack of resource and lack of population.”

Kelly called into question the GPA’s stance against the idea of second tier championship. “The players are being asked for something in the unknown with no guarantee of it having a status.

“If you did a survey of any club team and asked them would they prefer to play in Division 1 and the senior county championship, they would say yes. The GPA’s stance is a little bit false in that sense.”