Heavy blows for GPA and CPA interests

The Gaelic Players Association (GPA) were the biggest losers on Saturday as their call for representation on the Central Competitions Controls Committee (CCCC) for scheduling inter-county games was rejected.

A considerable 85% of delegates opposed the GPA’s proposal with Armagh’s Jarlath Burns arguing they were on enough GAA committees as it was and US GAA’s Paul Keane stating they had vested interests.

The scale of the motion’s defeat was a shock to GAA Director General Tom Ryan although president John Horan had sensed “it was in trouble”.

Ryan remarked: “The sentiment was probably that the CCCC try to reflect the various moving parts. I’d imagine that maybe people were a bit reticent to start having players at the table. Is there another group out there that you need to accommodate?

"Is it in some way an adverse reflection on how they’re doing their job? I don’t think they should feel that. They know what they’re doing… they’re doing a fine job. I was a bit surprised by the extent of the margin.”

After a Congress where just one club/county motion was passed, Ryan expressed hope that the wrong perception wasn’t being sent out.

The spirit and the will is there to make it more accessible for clubs to have direct access to what goes on at Congress. We’re definitely not trying to stifle that type of debate. In fact, it’s the opposite.

As for the central fixtures analysts committee’s recommendation to bring forward the All-Ireland senior club finals from March 17 to early January, both Horan and Ryan said the issue would be a matter for Central Council.

“The only key is to get Leinster to bring forward their football final,” said Horan. “If they did that, there would be very little other change needed. It would only be a matter of slotting in dates in January, maybe Saturday with the hurling and Sunday with the three football finals.”

In his speech to Congress, Horan called on the Club Players Association (CPA) to bring forward their plans for improving the fixtures calendar although this claim was contested by the CPA figures on social media.

“CPA are baffled at the duplicity of the Uachtaran in that statement - it’s in bad faith given the work that is going on behind the scenes. We sent three detailed fixture proposals recently to Tom Ryan on 24th Jan.... Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?”

CPA chairman Micheál Briody, who was in attendance as an observer in Wexford, highlighted that there was little respect shown to GAA central fixtures analysts committee chairman Micheál Martin’s presentation on Saturday.

“Of the 256 delegates, approx 50 left the room and not one question from the remaining delegates or comments from the top table..... tick tock tick tock....”

Horan also addressed indiscipline and elaborated about plans to reduce the size of hearings committees in counties.

“The hearings committees in counties are quite large groupings - you can get on them without necessarily having any training. So we’re going to look at it and see can we streamline it. If we had a smaller group of people we could train them better.”