Kerry ‘owed a debt of gratitude’ for Tyrone decision, says Tom Ryan

GAA director general Tom Ryan admits he doesn’t know how last year’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final saga would have played out had Kerry not agreed to a second postponement.

GAA director general Tom Ryan admits he doesn’t know how last year’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final saga would have played out had Kerry not agreed to a second postponement.

A Covid outbreak in the Tyrone camp prompted the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) to push the game back by a week. However, Tyrone later announced they wouldn’t be in a position to play the rearranged fixture as they wouldn’t have enough players due to the virus.

It is understood that at the time, the GAA were considering giving Kerry a walkover when the Kingdom expressed their wish for the game to be rearranged once more and the game was eventually staged the following weekend, 13 days after the original semi-final date.

The CCCC have since altered their match regulations so that only All-Ireland finals can be delayed by more than seven days.

Recalling the time, Ryan admitted: “It was a real problem.

“The worry was if it was going to be delayed for longer than a week or two, you were looking at eating into an already truncated period of time for club players.

“If you had to wait until the guarantee of everybody being safe and well, that wasn’t available to us at any stage during the year so there was no certainty with anything.

“So you had to balance up the risks of giving a couple of extra weeks and it being of no benefit because you’re still in the same position. Or what would have happened if you allowed two or three weeks for Tyrone to recover only to find Kerry find themselves in a similar predicament.

“Also, you didn’t want the championship to be finished with an asterisk. The All-Ireland champions were whoever but they didn’t have to play all their matches.

“To be fair to Kerry, that was at the forefront of their thinking as well so it was really just a question of trying to find an accommodation that allowed a sufficient amount of time for enough players to be fit and healthy at the same time not jeopardising the rest of the year and not undermining

“I’m not entirely sure how it would have worked out, to be honest, if Kerry hadn’t taken the route that they did, so the whole association was grateful to them that that’s how it actually played out.”

Meanwhile, as revealed by the Irish Examiner earlier this week, the GAA’s new coaching and games development mechanism will see Dublin lose out.

In 2021, Dublin received €745,278 in games development funding, over 19% of the total given to counties, and have been in receipt of significantly more than others since 2005.

Ryan did not mention the county in yesterday’s annual report press conference but said: “It’s fair to say there will be a dilution of coaching and games funding for at least one county and the overwhelming majority will see a significant increase.”

Funding will be divided into two portions of approximately 75% (base level funding) and 25% (projects).

Of the base level funding, 60% will be based on the proportion of players in each county, 25% on the clubs in each county, and 15% allocated based on participation rates.

Ryan also outlined the new cashless ticketing system will “include a lessened burden for officers in managing cash, and less security risk”.

Speaking afterwards, he stressed it was not intended “to alienate everybody” and the feedback thus far was “OK”.

He added: “Progress can pose challenges for some people. I think the idea that the tickets are still available through the shops should mitigate that a little bit. The last two years, we’ve all been trying to buy stuff remotely.”

A survey of referee numbers is also being conducted at present to ascertain the scale of recruitment and retention issues.

“It is important that all members of the association actively encourage and recruit new referees because without them — again it bears repeating — our games simply cannot take place,” emphasised Ryan, who revealed referees and match officials are one of the three main pillars of the GAA’s new strategic plan 2022-26, Towards One GAA for All.

Ryan's other key remarks

• The GAA will be working to integrate with the Ladies Gaelic Football and Camogie Associations but will not rush the process - “Perhaps the time is approaching when we can build on the progress to date in order that the relationships can evolve to a new level”;

• The split season, while preferable, is “not an open goal” and inter-county players will feel a “significant burden” playing county and club seasons back to back;

• The organisation has a duty to ensure volunteer burnout is avoided - “We must make sure each role is sized properly and that it can be reasonably borne by one person in their spare time… I sometimes worry that we are not doing as well here”;

• The lack of notice from the Government about the GAA losing its Level 5 exemption status at the start of last year “left a bad taste in many quarters”;

• He hopes the green option to change the format of the All-Ireland senior football championship after the provincial stages, which will be voted on at Congress at the end of the month, will be supported to come into operation next year;

• Social media abuse around the commentary of Gaelic games “is simply not acceptable and the need for this to be challenged will increasingly feature in the work that we undertake promoting respect across our Association”;

• There is concern that the delivery of Go Games in recent years has moved “away from the ethos, values and principles initially developed to underpin the programme.”