Fogarty Forum: Grasping the thorny rose that is amateurism in the GAA

Yes.

Do you think the GAA is safeguarding its core value of amateurism and advancing its position as ‘the leading amateur games organisation in the world?’ 

No.

Please identify in the main way you believe the GAA is not living up to this core value.

A blind eye continues to be turned to the payments of some inter-county and several club managers. A blind eye continues to be turned to the fact that as Corinthian as the GAA is in some counties and other counties claim to be, the demands placed on managers exceed that value and require a form of regulated monetary compensation.

Are there any other ways the GAA is not living up to this core value?

The rule states “expenses paid to all officials, players, and members shall not exceed the standard rates laid down by the Central Council.” The self-auditing process undertaken by counties on foot of Revenue’s risk reviews of Galway, Mayo and Wexford may yet establish that part of the rule has been breached. The rule also states “members of the Association may not participate in full-time training”. There are players who have openly admitted to being full-time athletes albeit without payment.

Outline the key mechanism you think the GAA (at all levels) can implement to protect its Amateur Status.

Encourage clubs and counties to be more self-sufficient and upskill their own to coach their own. The outside manager, often harshly, is seen as the baddie but they are only answering a market. Create incentives for appointing from within and that demand diminishes.

Do you think the creation of a governance and oversight unit to enforce the amateur status rule, monitor its enforcement, and impose sanctions where the rule is broken would be a positive thing for the GAA?

Yes.

Do you think senior inter-county managers should be paid in a manner consistent with that of an employee of the Association, i.e. remuneration in the form of wages or salaries according to an agreed set of KPIs/contract?

No.

What is the main reason why you think senior inter-county managers should not be paid in the manner outlined in the previous question?

Contract is too formal with many connotations and several ramifications. The GAA has enough problems without falling into the nettles of employment law – look at RTÉ for heaven’s sake. As happened this year, an inter-county football manager stepped down before the start of the championship. If contracted, that departure might have not been so straightforward. Looking at their dwindling support for the amateur status, players won’t be long in looking for what managers are getting.

In the absence of paying managers in the manner outlined above, outline the main way you think the GAA can control payments in excess of allowable expenses being made to senior inter-county managers.

As mentioned as an option in a later multi-choice question, provide a stipend to the managers on top of their standard rate expenses. The idea about managers having to participate in an annual development programme to be qualified is a progressive move too. Will that involve committing to not receiving additional monies for their services?

Do you think that the number of collective training sessions that inter-county players are required to attend should be regulated?

Yes but give each county an allocation as per each stage of the season, i.e. start of league, end of league. If they want to train four times in one week, fine but it will have to be deducted from other weeks. The GPA’s contact hours research should assist.

Do you think the GAA should reduce the length of the current inter-county season as a means of reducing the burden on amateur players?

No. Another leading question here. The split season has not yet hit its sweet spot and it’s no surprise players are breaking down when the inter-county period is so intense. If the county board and GPA kept their managers in check, the season wouldn’t feel so long. GAA president Jarlath Burns’s idea about the surveillance of inter-county teams isn’t the craziest idea. County set-ups have shown they can’t be trusted to start when they are supposed to and there has been little or no attempt to police them. If teams were prepared to breach the Government’s pandemic restrictions to train, they are as sure as hell going to gather when they shouldn’t in normal times. That is the rat race. Licence them.

Do you believe the GAA should examine the viability of a Closed Season (at all levels – i.e. including Club) whereby there is no training or game activity allowed?

The Christmas period is already the de facto closed period. The GPA’s zero contact plan for November had little success. Unless there are genuine attempts to deter counties, players will always be on.

john.fogarty@examiner.ie 

Football has hurling looking over its shoulder

Last week, Richie Hogan hailed this month’s Munster final as the best since the 2004 Waterford-Cork all-timer. Hogan was busy with Kilkenny the weekends of the 2022 and ’23 Munster finals but both games would rank higher in quality and entertainment than what Cork and Limerick offered up last Saturday week.

An excellent analyst, Hogan wasn’t alone in claiming the game was something more than it was. Cork’s shot conversion was 58%, Limerick’s 59%. There were almost 100 turnovers. Classic it certainly wasn’t. Absorbing, it certainly was.

Perhaps hurling commentators feel the need to oversell what hasn’t been a brilliant championship in the face of heightened competition from an All-Ireland SFC that is producing crackers by the handful.

On Sunday, Tomás Ó Sé was right to say football has “trumped” hurling. During the league, games were oscillating wildly under the new rules and leads continue to be exchanged like never before.

The introduction of a third tier of scoring has made a remarkable difference– imagine if the value of a point pucked from outside the 65-metre line was doubled in hurling (actually, don’t even think about it).

The fears that teams would be beaten out the gate has yet to come to pass and Jim Gavin and the Football Review Committee (FRC) could be forgiven for thinking they did away with the four-point goal too early.

Their latest amendment to the 50-metre penalty for fouls on the kick-out mark will probably need another adjustment as teams will simply infringe, as Meath manager Robbie Brennan reacted this past weekend.

But it’s already evident the FRC have done the game of football a world of good. To make “the most exciting amateur game in the world to play and watch" was their objective at the outset. Hurling will continue to be that but it can’t help looking over its shoulder.

A good siege mentality can’t be contrived

Elsewhere in these pages today, you will read about how Meath were inspired by being dismissed before they beat Kerry.

On Sunday, Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan spoke of how the county were not fancied to get up to much after he succeeded Vinny Corey. Conor McManus’s retirement only made things worse.

“Let’s call a spade a spade, this team was written off, and that’s not just by the media or by people outside of Monaghan. The reality is that there was very little expectation within Monaghan.

“When I got the job, an awful lot of people were wishing me well saying, ‘You’re a brave man to take it on.’ Because they genuinely thought it was a bad time to be coming in as manager.” 

Topping both of their groups, Monaghan and Meath are talking from positions of strength. On Sunday, Jim McGuinness was doing the same when Donegal beat Mayo to claim their sixth championship win albeit finishing second to Tyrone on the head-to-head differential. However, his claim that somehow the decision to stage the game in Roscommon only happened “because it’s us” was a mite rich. As was his claim that “everybody else had a fair shake this weekend”.

Tell that to Kerry or Galway who also had arduous journeys to make for their final round games in neutral Tullamore and Cavan town against Meath and Armagh respectively.

McGuinness had a point about the travel involved and the amount of games Donegal supporters have attended in this championship, but a good siege mentality is founded on an element of truth. 

His attempt seemed contrived.