McGill questions stance on training ban rules

GAA director of player, club and games administration Feargal McGill accepts the organisation find it difficult to impose the training ban when they make exceptions to break it.

Between the Wild Geese game in Sydney and the Super 11s in Boston this month, six of the 10 Liam MacCarthy Cup counties were involved in activity prior to the official collective training start dates.

As the GAA is set to punish Armagh and Laois footballers and Waterford’s hurlers for breaching training camp rules, McGill agrees the GAA’s authority is under scrutiny when they deviate from their own rulebook.

“It certainly doesn’t help, I have to accept that. I could give you all kinds of arguments that teams aren’t training for Sydney or whatever and that we have a promotional responsibility to the Irish in Australia and so on but on the surface it doesn’t help.

“It’s something I have spoken to the Uachtarán about and I know it’s something he’s concerned about, that whole area of what we do abroad and when we do it.”

Although they are not bending any rules, McGill is not agreeable with Leinster and Munster’s decision to begin their pre-season competitions before Christmas.

“Wearing the player welfare hat, I would be strongly of the opinion that there shouldn’t be any inter-county games in December. I don’t think the provincial competitions should start until January. But then again it is easy for me to say that; I’m not trying to fit the competition into the window the provinces have to fit it into so we have to take that on board.”

McGill was speaking at the launch of the 2019 master fixtures yesterday afternoon before the release of the Club Players Association’s (CPA) statement, which has castigated Central Council for not backing Roscommon’s motion to adopt a blank canvas approach to organising the fixtures calendar.

In a strongly-worded press release, Roscommon CPA representative Tommy Kenoy claims GAA director general Tom Ryan did not send the motion to county secretaries and therefore the vast majority of Saturday’s Central Council delegates were not mandated by their clubs when they voted on the motion, which was defeated.

The CPA are now looking for an urgent meeting with Ryan and GAA president John Horan and Kenoy says: “We are utterly disgusted and disappointed at what we believe is a clear sign of contempt by our main governing body for a motion deliberated, discussed and passed by the clubs of Roscommon at a time of great concern over the GAA’s fixtures crises.

“We can only draw the conclusion that those who lead the organisation have lost touch with the Association’s grassroots members who want a games schedule that will bring regularity and certainty to GAA fixtures at both club and inter-county levels.”

Secretary of the Central Competitions Control Committee McGill, who also points out the CPA have been involved in a fixtures review which began in August, says: “The Uachtarán has been very clear with the CPA and others that the main analysis of this three-year period will probably begin next August and that has been known for a period of time.”

McGill spoke to Brian Cody before his impassioned public plea for more balance in the fixtures calendar and he argues the GAA are moving in that direction.

“We have created more free weekends for clubs and that’s a fact. Have people started using those correctly yet? I would absolutely say, ‘no, they haven’t’.”

“I had a long discussion with Brian Cody down in Nowlan Park a couple of months ago. There are issues he’s particularly familiar with, and there’s just a broad experience around this. Some countries will tell you, ‘this is going great, why didn’t we make this change earlier’. Others just haven’t got their heads around it.”

The Division 1 hurling quarter-finals will remain in place next year and there is a potential clash between the Sigerson Cup and All-Ireland senior club football semi-finals in mid-February.

“Time will tell on that but we’ll certainly be able to avoid teams playing on the same day. But that’s not to say they won’t end up playing 24 hours later,” says McGill. We can’t prejudge that.”

Meanwhile, a new regulation has been introduced to encourage teams to provide their match-day panels before Allianz League games. Counties must not submit their 15 starting players and 11 substitutes to the referee no later than 20 minutes before throw-in. Teams will be fined €500 for each individual breach and/or the manager in question will lose his sideline privileges for one game.