‘Trust and transparency go hand in hand’
Griffin, Wexford’s 1996 All-Ireland winning manager, presented a CPA motion on voting transparency at Congress, which had been backed by his St Mary’s, Rosslare club and his county.
Cork chairperson Tracey Kennedy and Europe board chairman Tony Bass spoke against the motion, the latter describing it as “a Trojan horse” which would lead to “witch-hunts”.
In a swipe at the CPA, Bass also declared that the real club players association was the GAA.
The motion received just 17% but its defeat didn’t surprise Briody, who also aimed criticism at Cork secretary Frank Murphy for “thwarting” CPA motions. However, he was most aghast at Bass’ remarks.
“Tracey Kennedy’s argument, she spoke against it and said ‘my club trusts me and they can get rid of me if they don’t trust me’. If she has no problem with trust, she should have no problem with transparency. The two go hand in hand.
“Tony Bass spoke out against the CPA last year as well. He has something against the CPA. We checked and nobody in the executive has ever met Tony. We have no footprint whatsoever in Europe. We haven’t taken on the international scene; we thought it was quite enough to take on domestic one first even though we’ve had enquiries from abroad.
“For somebody from Europe to come out with that language like witch-hunts… believe it or not, he called us a ‘nutty group’. For him, whoever he is, to say that across the floor to Liam Griffin and all that Liam Griffin has put into the GAA and how knowledgeable he is about that and Tony Bass never having met anyone in the CPA or how they operate it’s quite ill-informed and ignorant, actually.”
Cork chief Kennedy, who said that the motion was “disturbing” as she claimed it suggested distrust and “something fundamentally wrong at the heart of the Association”, expanded that it was a proposal that did little or nothing for club players.
“I know from research we have been doing in Cork that players want regular, meaningful fixtures and a programme that’s definite. But organising that around the inter-county scene is difficult and it’s the biggest issue facing the GAA at the moment, I believe.
“I know these issues are true because I hear them all the time but I don’t know what this motion would have done to address the situation. It’s up to clubs to resolve that rather than a motion going to Congress.
“I can say in Cork we vote as our clubs instructed. There would have been a couple of motions in the past I’d like to have opposed but our clubs took a different view and I have spoken for motions I would not have agreed with. If people are not happy with those who represent them they have to power to change that.”
Briody also claimed that the CPA has been thwarted time and again in their bid to progress motions. “Those procedural roadblocks put in to thwart us, we have it all documented. We’ll pull it all together and show it to the wider public that is how you cannot get change through in the GAA and we’re just going to have work and keep knocking on the door but we’re not going away. It clarifies where our path needs to go.”
That the CPA almost had another motion passed through club Doire Colmcille’s, which called for the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final group stages to be completed by mid-July, happened because few knew it was devised by the CPA, Briody believes.
“Nobody spoke for it, nobody spoke against it, and when the floor didn’t realise it was a CPA motion it almost got through, losing 47%-53%. If we had stood up and said it was CPA it would have lost by more.
“We go against the grain that is there. If we have 10 motions going to Congress next year and if they are flagged as CPA there will be different roadblocks put in. We are constantly saying it’s not about who’s right but what’s right.”
Briody is hopeful they can develop a working relationship with new president John Horan and the as-yet-unnamed new director general.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
