Fiery Kerry GAA meeting hears claims of 'player ownership grab’ around inter-county stars
STRETCHED: Kerry's David Clifford could have plenty of football left to play over the winter months with East Kerry and Fossa, in the provincial club IFC. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
MOVES to introduce a ring-fenced four-to-six-week end-of-season break for Kerry's inter-county players was soundly defeated at a Kerry County Board meeting amid delegate claims of a 'player ownership grab' by Kerry football management.
The ongoing crux over inter-county player involved in too many championships in the Kingdom reached a fork in the road as club delegates sought to protect district championships, insisting they were not the cause of Kerry player fatigue and injuries.
The problem isn't just the winter divisional championships. The likes of Fossa, who have the Clifford brothers front and centre, will be involved in Munster Club IFC games towards the end of the year — with both David and Paudie possibly involved in the later stages of the Kerry SFC too with East Kerry. Any 4-6 week break would then ruled them out of inter-county action in January, and the start of the National League.
Frank Coffey, the delegate from Beaufort GAA which provides Mike Breen and Sean O'Brien to the Kerry senior football panel, told the meeting that the report before the meeting recommending a 4-6 week guaranteed break for inter county players was less about player welfare and more a ‘player ownership grab — and a barefaced grab at that'.
"What we are being told here is that our players will be told by this three-person committee...when they can play with their clubs and when they cannot play.”
Mr Coffey added that in his view this was another step on the way to professionalism as Kerry spends €1.6m training Kerry teams.
“This is huge step on the way to ensuring that county managers have control of county players," he maintained.
He also felt that the day was coming when players with have to sign contracts that will mean they play with their clubs when management allow. He called for an independent commission that is rooted in sports science from outside the county who would be tasked to look at Kerry’s entire structures.
"When that is done we might have to drop a competition or two, we might have to do things differently and be more amenable to change because only 2.3% of players play with the county,” he added.
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Kerry GAA secretary/CEO Peter Twiss rejected out of hand the suggestion that this was a move towards professionalism.
“Paul Murphy is on this committee. He calls it as he sees it. When he’s speaking, it’s on behalf of the Kerry players. Does anybody think that the Chairman of the County Board would ring a chairperson of a club and tell him that he cannot play a player, unless he was absolutely sure that there was a problem?
“This works both ways. The 4-6 week break works both ways. If a club is in a district board final that runs late, or in the provincial finals in Munster, the County Board chairman can also ring the Kerry management and say that they're not playing that player against Waterford in pre-season.
“This works on both sides to protect the player. It’s 4-6 weeks of doing nothing."
The report before the meeting presented several recoimmendations around the playing and timeframe of district championships and the wellbeing of Kerry's inter-county players against a backdrop of three different club championships in the county.
A committee was to be established to review the involvement of each Kerry Senior football panelist in their respective District Board Senior Championships, and would comprise of the County Board Chairperson, Head of High Performance for Kerry GAA who is Jason McGahan and a representative from a club/district board in Kerry. This committee is to be proposed and ratified by the County Committee on an annual basis.
The role of this three man committee would to have player welfare as it core priority and that and an appointed person from committee (suggested appointed person being County Head Of High Performance) to review each player’s workload and current injury profile. This information would then be used by the 3-person committee in reaching a recommendation for each player as to whether he could play with his club or not.
However Mr Coffey from Beaufort pointed out: “I refer you to the first page of the report where it says, 'any such policy should have the player’s wellbeing and welfare as it core priority'. Mr Chairman, this report has nothing to do with player wellbeing and welfare. I am as concerned as anyone else about player welfare and wellbeing and my club are. But this has nothing to do with that. If it had, it would dwell on page 4 of the review where it states that the Kerry senior footballers played 17 inter-county games (not including challenge games), with three players involved in all 17 games. Kerry senior footballers had eight in-house games, 70 pitch sessions and four challenge games across the inter-county season.
“That's 99 sessions! Now if this report is serious about player wellbeing and welfare, it would tell us how they managed that and the core principles of sports science would be outlined to us. Everything from injury prevention to rehab and nutrition would be explained. Let me add that this year we had an unprecedented number of players injured on the Kerry squad. All the injuries, bar one, happened in the Kerry sessions," the Beaufort delegate continued, despite attempts from Board chairman Patrick O’Sullivan to inform him that those figures were simply not accurate.
North Kerry Board chairman Eamon Whelan said he didn't believe any club would play an injured Kerry player but since the split season came in, Kerry had not properly addressed their fixtures programme adequately. “We probably are a county of too many competitions; we seem to be adding competitions on but never off. But I do believe if inter-county players are not allowed play in their District Board Championships they might only play as little as three games with the club, and might lose in the first round of district championship which is elite - a lot of club players don’t (even) make that grade.”
Spa delegate John O’Donoghue felt that the pre season competitions are a major problem “Thirteen of our players who lined on against Cork in McGrath Cup final in January played in the All-Ireland Final in July. Sure they should be training in January so I think we should not enter those competitions?
Other speakers included, Sean Barry (Annascaul), Tim Coffey (Mid Kerry), John Joe Carroll (Asdee), Bill O’Riordan (Gneeveguilla) and Matt O’Neill (Dr Crokes) who wanted the motion deferred so that clubs could discuss it. However the vote went ahead and the recommendations re inter-county players was soundly defeated, 52-28.
There was agreement on recommendations around the playing of the District Board championships with the caveats that there would not be extra time in finals that finished level but a replay the following week and seeding should not be compulsory only where agreed. The motion was carried on a 65-4 vote.
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