Paul Flynn looking to expand GPA services to members

By Brendan O’Brien

Paul Flynn doesn’t see why his newly-acquired responsibilities as CEO of the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) should compromise his ambitions as a player with Dublin, but the Fingallians man will decide on his inter-county future later this year.

Now 32, Flynn only took up the role as GPA boss last Monday and life has been a “whirlwind” ever since.

Yesterday he presented a press briefing and oversaw a meeting of the organisation’s National Executive Committee (NEC). Today’s agenda throws in with an AGM in Portlaoise.

Topping it all off for now is an appointment back up in Skerries at 5pm this evening when the six-time All-Ireland winner lines out for Fingallians against Templeogue Synge Street in a Senior 2 Championship quarter-final.

It is only natural to wonder if something has to give.

“Before even taking on the role, it was something that was obviously discussed: the fact that I’m a current player. But I’ve been on the board and on the NEC while still playing. “You see Seamus (Hickey) and you see Tom (Parsons) and there are a whole host of players committing voluntarily to the organisation.

“I’ve never seen it as being a conflict whatsoever. We were laughing earlier on talking about (how) being in the dressing room, or even very close to the dressing room, just makes a difference: some of the things the younger players are talking about, things like Fortnight and these games (are alien to older players).

“I’ve never seen the actual game. I still don’t know about it. They spend 90 per cent of their time talking about this and it’s different to even the time when I came into the set-up.”

“Things evolve so quickly that it is good to be in touch with the younger players in the team.”

Flynn saw limited time in the Dublin jersey this summer.

Frustrating as that was, he was more than happy with the football he did play when the chances arose, especially so given he had surgery on his back in February and spent much of the next two months off his feet.

There will be little time to put the brogues up for the foreseeable.

The days of the GPA making waves in public may be gone but the body has not gone away. Flynn reported on a 2017 that saw revenue and expenditure both grow by 18% and a calendar year in which 1,500 player welfare programmes were undertaken by almost 1000 members.

There are funding agreements to be renegotiated with both the GAA and the government, an ERSI report on player commitments to be followed up on, key roles within the organisation to be filled and a trip to Boston in November for the Fenway Classic which is a huge source of income.

And so much more besides.

Flynn made a point of highlighting the fact that 77% of the funding received from the GAA went towards player development last year – and that salaries were down 13% - but more income again will be required to keep up with an ever-increasing demand for various services.

“We want to increase the engagement of our squads but we’re working off limited resources and that’s what we have to continually manage. And that’s something that I’ll have to take a look at, to ensure that we are maximising our resources into services.

“We are going into a round of negotiations now in the New Year and I’ll have all the facts and all the data to support ‘why’. It’s not as if we’re just looking for more; it’s because the demands are greater.

“That’s ultimately what it’s all down to, our players, ensuring that we’re supporting them.”

All of which is very worthy but only nipping around the edges of the endemic problem, highlighted in last week’s ERSI report, that has inter-county players committing over 30 hours per week to service their grá for the games.

Bigger nettles need to be grasped, by the GPA and GAA, if a workload most agree to be intolerable is to be pared back or leavened by a greater financial return. Hickey, the GPA’s chairman, believes that solutions can be found within the existing framework of amateurism.

“It is done in other sports in other countries. We’re not entirely unique in having amateurs compete at a professional level. There are learnings that we take from other institutions, from world athletes, AFLPA, Rugby Players Ireland.

“We have a number of things in common with other sports that we try and learn from the whole time. It’s not black and white. We’re constantly working with what we have and then aiming for change when it feels appropriate.”

Meanwhile, Ladies Football chiefs have halved the four-week suspensions handed down to eight Carnacon players by the Connacht Council for bringing the game into disrepute.

It means that that the eight: Cora Staunton, Fiona McHale, Martha Carter, Marie Corbett, Amy Dowling, Doireann Hughes, Sadhbh Larkin and Saoirse Walsh can return to to football at noon on Thursday, October 11.

The All-Ireland club champions now have five days if they wish to lodge an appeal with the LGFA Central Council.