Pay provinces to end pre-season competitions, says Gaelic Players Association chief executive

GPA chief executive officer Tom Parsons speaking during a GPA post AGM media briefing at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Dublin Airport, Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

The GAA’s Central Council should financially compensate provincial councils to convince them to abandon pre-season competitions, says Gaelic Players Association (GPA) chief executive Tom Parsons.

At their agm in Portlaoise on Saturday, the GPA again endorsed the disbandment of the likes of the McGrath, McKenna, O’Byrne and Walsh Cups and the Connacht Football and Munster Hurling Leagues that usually take in January.

It has been the official players’ body’s position that the competitions put unnecessary pressure on players when they are upping their training loads for a season which has shifted towards the first half of the year.

Highlighting that the pre-season tournaments had been earmarked for the chopping board prior to the pandemic, Parsons also intimated players may no longer agree to participate in them.

“My opinion is the provincials don’t want to let go of that competition number one,” he said at yesterday’s post-agm press briefing.

“Central Council and the GAA, with their €110 million gross (revenue) at that level, should alleviate that fear and redistribute those funds and allow that transition for the preseason competitions to come to an end.

“There are delegates in the GAA that would agree the pre-season competitions need to go but the challenge here is everybody wants to keep their piece. The provincials, what’s relevant to counties, what’s relevant to Central Council, nobody wants to give so the only group that gets squeezed and should be the only key stakeholders in these decisions is the players.

“Unfortunately, they’re not listening to the players on this matter and that’s the challenge we have. If you continuously don’t listen to the players, the players then start to plan and organise and then the changes happen through conflict so we don’t want to get to that point. Something needs to change.”

GPA Equality, Diversity and inclusion manager Gemma Begley with GPA chief executive officer Tom Parsons, left, and GPA head of finance and operations Ciarán Barr during a GPA post AGM media briefing at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Dublin Airport, Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Parsons, who highlighted he is the most dissenting voice on Central Council, rejected the claim by provinces that some of the pre-season gate receipts accrued go towards player and member hardship funds.

“There’s plenty of reserves there to go towards player welfare. That is an absolute smokescreen of a comment to make. I'm not aware of any of that money being pulled to serve the welfare initiatives. The core welfare initiatives are delivered by the GPA – 4% of the €110m. I think it's just excuses, to be honest.

“The other excuse I received from provincial leadership is ‘you’ve responsibility to tell players to stop training. Train twice a week, play a game at the weekend, that’s protecting player welfare.’ Which just shows how out of touch some in administration are with the inter-county game. People who have played the game or are involved know the need for good contact time to protect players.”

Insisting the GAA are putting no value in players’ time, Parsons continued: “Where I get frustrated is, the GAA, without the GPA, would have players return to training on December 15 to play a competitive game on January 1. (The GAA) see training and the preparation of training as maybe a waste of time.

"Why would they see six weeks of no games or eight weeks of no games as a waste of time? Because it doesn't generate any money. It's costing money.”

Admitting there are teams returning to training before the official November 24 start date, Parsons concurred the extra significance attached to the Allianz Football League is prompting more football teams than hurling to be primed for the secondary competition.

“The consequences of not performing in the football league have been elevated now because of the links to championship so the return to crazy training before November 24 is more prevalent than in hurling. Do some teams think you need a provincial competition to be ready for the first round of the league? I think that’s an outdated mindset.”

Meanwhile, GPA head of finance Ciarán Barr warned there will be action from both male and female inter-county players in 2024 if there is no charter in place for the latter group soon.

“We will be organised and we will be ready to mobilise. We will be organised. We are not going to tell you what we are going to do, but we are preparing ourselves to be organised in any eventuality.”