CPA chairman: ‘Sometimes you have to slaughter a few sacred cows’
Duffy’s proposals to end replays, bring forward the All-Ireland finals, tighten up the duration of the inter-county season and introduce a calendar year season are all endorsed by the CPA.
However, Duffy’s fellow Monaghan man and CPA secretary Declan Brennan says the recommendation to add more games in August for the last eight teams in the All-Ireland SFC is a financial exercise. It’s also Brennan’s belief that the senior finals should be played on the August Bank Holiday weekend “at least”.
He said: “We don’t think it (Duffy’s paper) goes far enough and we really, really think there needs to be radical changes. I can see where Páraic Duffy is coming from, step by step and make small changes and the extra-time and no replays and things like that, that’s all positive.
“But at the end of the day there’s a lot of monetary interests here and they’re trying to create a buzz around the August weekend to bring in money for the association. Our club games are as entertaining and need to be brought to the forefront at a better time of year. During the summer months when you have guys out pucking and kicking around in their garden they should be out playing games instead.”
Chairman Micheál Briody yesterday read out the CPA’s mission statement in which he declared: “There are a lot of sacred cows in the GAA but sometimes you have to slaughter a few sacred cows. If it means shifting dates that are there for historical reasons so be it. If provincial competitions can be shortened, and they can, let’s do it. Let’s have parity of esteem for our competitions.”
Brennan revealed the CPA have a 100-day plan part of which is their official recognition at Congress next month where a motion to that effect is put forward by the Wexford County Board. The CPA are confident it will be passed.Brennan was keen to stress that executive members are all volunteering with nobody claiming expenses.
He stressed there would be “no job for the boys” and “no salaries”.
On the GPA he said: “The GPA represents 1% of players. We represent everyone else.”
He claimed the GPA’s growth and influence had been a “disaster” for the adult club scene because “it is crushed at the minute, it is suffocated. What have they (the GPA) done for the inter-county player? They have made their life a lot easier and they deserve the things they’re getting but it’s now ‘stop’.”
Giving his perspective as manager of his native Kilcar, former Donegal star Martin McHugh underlined the need for the CPA. “I’ve always said, ‘Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg’ and we’re definitely killing the goose because club football is in a bad state. If you take the club championship in Donegal, we played our first game in May and then we hadn’t a game for three months. You prepare, you get ready and you play that match and then wait. Let’s have more games and that will help everybody, it will get more people playing the game. But people don’t know what they’re doing and where they’re at from a club point of view.”
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