McGarty welcomes establishment of task force

GPA National Development Officer Dara McGarty has welcomed the establishment of a Club/County Task Force by the GAA, which he believes will get a better deal for all concerned.

"It's great to see the GAA doing this under the leadership of Liam O'Neill," McGarty enthused.

"It will make county board and player relationships better and it will hopefully make club and county relationships better also, which can only benefit the club, county and ultimately the player.

"I am certainly happy to be involved in the task force."

The former Sligo footballer is on the task force, which is chaired by Laois man Liam O'Neill, and in his GPA role, McGarty is already seeing improvements in various counties in relation to the streamlining of issues such as fixtures between clubs and county boards.

"I believe that the club has really come to the fore across the whole of the GAA in recent years," he said.

"I have to say, in my own experience of playing club football in Sligo, that there does seem to have been movement by the county board in order to see county players freed up for club games.

"There seems to be a much more structured approach in Sligo. We have already started our club competitions."

Coming off the back of the Burnout Task Force report, McGarty stresses that one of the main issues concerning the Club/County Task Force is also the issue of burnout among inter-county players.

"What we don't want to see is a player being overloaded with having to play too many games - club and county and the issue of burnout creeps in," he said.

McGarty's vision for the charter which has to be presented to Ard Chomhairle in September is that it will address when county and club teams can have access to inter-county players.

"Hopefully this charter will set out when a county is entitled to have access to its players and when a club is entitled to its players.

"So that everyone from the club to the county board, the county management and most importantly the player, that they know when they are available for each team and therefore they can plan training sessions and they won't be overusing their body and leaving them at a risk of burnout."