Training ban mess has more losers than Cork and Down

Ronan McCarthy and Paddy Tally may be the fall guys for the latest breach of training guidelines, but introspection should go all the way up the GAA

Ronan McCarthy clearly felt Cork were not breaching the pre-season training guidelines. His focus before and after was on Covid protocols. Picture: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

So you reckon the punishments meted out to Cork and Down don’t go far enough? Try telling Ronan McCarthy and Paddy Tally, men of responsibility in the education sector, that 12-week bans don’t feel like teacher is making an example of them.

By taking aim at the individuals, the GAA has made it personal to set down precedent they should have invoked a decade ago when this newspaper reported Cavan flouting the winter training ban on the 3G pitch behind Kingspan Breffni Park.

A word in the ear was Cavan’s sanction back then but when money is too tight to mention and Covid contextualises every gathering, action is required. The GAA may insist the penalties are based purely on the fact that Cork and Down were gathering outside the permitted window but lads, pull the other one.

Since problems last October with club games and post-match gatherings, the GAA has been fighting an uphill PR battle. 

“There is plenty in it to be applied, as required, but this wasn’t just a GAA issue, this was also societal,” said director of communications Alan Milton about the investigations of Cork and Down last month. 

“There was an open letter sent out by the DG (director general Tom Ryan) which clearly underlined the seriousness of it.” 

Only Monday, Ryan and GAA president John Horan were reminding counties to behave. 

“I would like to thank our players and managers for their understanding of the current situation and for cooperating with us in ensuring that collective training does not take place. I also wish to remind counties that all pitches and gyms must remain closed for the time being.” 

As long as the schools stay closed, the GAA wouldn’t dare start the season - Ryan referred to it as “irresponsible” - but there is no legislation stopping them. As an elite sport, inter-county activities are permitted by the authorities both in the Republic of Ireland and the North.

With that, and the fact they weren’t meeting on GAA property, McCarthy and Tally believed it within the rules to start their pre-season prep earlier than January 15. 

McCarthy clearly felt Cork were not breaching the pre-season training guidelines. His focus before and after was on Covid protocols. It is known that he liaised closely with his medical team to ensure the Youghal expedition met all regulations in that regard.

Neither county has been hit with a fine, which is not all that surprising given the general dearth of money washing around in the GAA. There will be a slight financial hit in losing home advantage for one Allianz Division 2 game. Travel costs will increase as a result, and with just three round games this year, both counties could end up playing all three group games away.

Reputationally, of course, it hasn’t been a great few months for Cork, with the much-publicised celebrations that followed Blackrock’s hurling championship final win and the comment around their tie-up with Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct as main sponsor, a deal that will be formally unveiled Thursday.

Of course, Cork and Down weren’t the only ones navigating their way around the ‘training’ moratorium. There is reliable evidence of other senior panels training in preparation for this season even before the 2020 campaigns were done. Nevertheless, Cork and Down’s hiding in plain sight was ill-judged if they believed it would go unnoticed.

Horan and Ryan had to nail the issue as much as the Croke Park sub-committee had convict Cork and Down.

Of the four counties - Armagh and Laois’ footballers, Waterford and Wexford’s hurlers - punished for training ban breaches in 2018, only Laois and Waterford ended up losing home advantage for one of their Allianz League games.

Down manager Paddy Tally believed it within the rules to start pre-season prep earlier than January 15. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Armagh and Wexford’s ability to wriggle off the hook was a source of frustration for Croke Park. However, the GAA’s ambivalence to the winter training ban has been frustrating too. In 2017, Clare’s hurlers used the sanctioned Super 11s in the middle of the supposed closed season to organise a training camp.

In 2018, Galway and Kilkenny’s hurlers played a game in Sydney weeks before they were due to return to collective training. 

“It certainly doesn’t help, I have to accept that,” said GAA director of club, player and games administration Feargal McGill at the time. 

“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 (Horan) about and I know it’s something he’s concerned about, that whole area of what we do abroad and when we do it.” 

Yet the following month, as some did in 2017, provincial councils elected to begin their pre-season competitions, a concern raised by players. 

“The GPA are concerned with the precedent being set in scheduling early-season games in the previous calendar year (this also happened last year),” a statement read. 

“A number of squads have expressed concern to the GPA with the fixtures being played in December.” 

Yet despite threats, Croke Park hasn’t gone after their own constituent bodies. Last July, Horan told county chairpersons the buck would stop with them if their teams were found to have broken the collective training ban. Hence why new Cork chair Marc Sheehan and his Down counterpart Jack Devaney might have been bracing themselves for a spell in the stocks.

The repercussions for both managers could be considerable. Should the suspensions hold up and bearing in mind they won’t commence until collective training returns, there is a chance they might not be present for their teams’ first Championship outings. But it’s been shown before that there are ways and means.

More than McCarthy and Tally are losers. They may be the fall guys for the latest breach of these training guidelines, but introspection should go all the way up the chain as the GAA has for too long overlooked its own rules on this issue.