Grounds for concern dominate Congress agenda

Wexford

GAA president John Horan wasn’t “dissatisfied” Donegal’s motion to stop Dublin designating Croke Park as their home venue for Super 8 games was defeated.

In the last motion of Congress in Wexford on Saturday, 66% of delegates voted against the proposal. It followed emotive arguments from both counties during which Donegal’s Seamus Ó Domhnaill took issue with Dublin secretary John Costello’s claim that the motion was “mean-spirited” and “divisive”. Ó Domhnaill asked delegates if the GAA was more interested in finance than fairness.

Horan said the impracticality of Dublin playing their Super 8 home game in Parnell Park was best avoided.

“I have to say and it’s not because I’m from Dublin I wouldn’t be dissatisfied the Donegal motion didn’t go through. I thought it wasn’t thought out properly.

"I can understand some of the sentiment but the solution to the issue they were raising is more complex than just simply bringing a motion forward that, in a real sense, was directed at one particular county.

"It didn’t take on board that the likes of Meath and Kildare might be affected while they are renovating their grounds.

"I took Dublin out of Croke Park in Leinster and Dublin have never had a problem or an issue (with venues). They will always turn up. The reality of playing in Parnell Park as against Croke Park just didn’t make sense.”

Donegal chairman Mick McGrath took some consolation from the motion “getting a good airing”. He added:

There were some points made against it that muddied the waters slightly. 36% mightn’t sound good but there’s quite a lot of support out there for it. I’m sure the CCCC (Central Competitions Control Committee) and indeed the rulemakers will review the imbalance that is there at the moment.

“It’s not our problem and it’s not our difficulty Dublin haven’t built their own county ground. They use Croke Park and they rent it out and they pay for it. At no stage did we say we don’t want Dublin to play in Croke Park - this motion was about the quarter-finals of the football championship and we put that out quite clearly.”

Horan had earlier earmarked two motions as key ones and both passed with flying colours. Those were the decision to empower Central Council to open county grounds for other sports in exceptional cases and the Ladies Gaelic Football and Camogie Associations being represented on the GAA’s Management Committee.

“I felt it was very important to get the Ladies Associations to join us at Central Council and Management level. I also thought the motion on the use of the Association’s property… they were extremely important motions to get through.

"If you turn the clock back four or five years, they might not have passed so it just shows you where we’ve gone as an organisation. They were both carried by huge majorities. I had said to Tom (Ryan) all along they were my two key motions and I did canvass people because they were important for the GAA to keep moving in the right direction.”

Director General Ryan hopes the licence given to Central Council will now avoid situations like the Liam Miller charity game controversy last summer.

Croke Park.

“It has tidied it up. Ironically, when we dug into it last summer, the rule that was there, it was actually more open than we all might have thought.

“The rule wasn’t actually ensuring the principle. Also, it’s probably not a good thing to be completely restricted in all circumstances. You have to have a little bit of discretion and trust Central Council to exercise that discretion. "We will now have a very clear process and a very clearly defined route to look at these things objectively and calmly, which was the bit that was missing last summer.

“The fear that people would have had is about club grounds and local pressure coming on.

"Sometimes it’s easier to ask ourselves (Croke Park) to make a decision rather than to have to bear that burden locally.

“So the idea is that we would talk to the people charged with running those particular sports at governing level, rather than it becoming a local cause célèbre which can distort things.

"That sort of structure wasn’t there last summer. I think we’ll be in a better place now.”

With experimental football rules and other items to be discussed, a Special Congress is in the pipeline for later in the year and if that is the case it will take place in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in the autumn, Horan confirmed.

“If there’s progress made on the elite development squad report and on the tier two championship we may have one. It depends what ground is covered in terms of rules and that.

"The timing of the Special Congress is more conducive to the (good running) of the Association in that if it happens in September changes made can be implemented in the next year but when it happens in February some of your changes have a 10-month time lag. There are pluses to it (Special Congress).”