Time to take on the Cusack "Stand".

[Lone Shark]

This article was inspired by some of Donal Óg Cusack's recent statements, and how the GPA appears to be stepping up it's push for pay for play. As per usual it certainly is a bit lengthy, but even so, all thoughts would be appreciated, either in agreement or otherwise!!




“Peace in our time” - the famous four words used by Neville Chamberlain upon conclusion of the Munich Agreement in 1938. Unfortunately as we all know, history worked out rather differently, and it ended up meaning nothing of the sort. Of course hindsight is 20/20, and revisionists can have great fun looking back and scoffing at the naivety of it all, that the elected leader of one of the world’s great powers felt so sure that war would be averted by what was always likely to be a doomed agreement.

Nowadays revisionists are getting in there spoke a lot earlier and yours truly would like to join their ranks, put my cards on the table and say that our very own Seán Kelly is in grave danger of being the GAA’s very own Neville Chamberlain. Nicky Brennan’s era is fast approaching and with Croke Park officially opened to foreign sports, Kelly has achieved the main goal he set his sights on upon entering office, and is now clearly winding down and looking to his next move - possibly towards the position of hurling director he himself created. The “Open Croke Park” debate had been the big battlefield between traditionalists and the “enlightened” minds of our nation’s media, but now that Tony O’Reilly and co. have won that particular battle, we have secured anything but peace in our time – instead the goalposts have shifted and we are now fighting the battle that will determine whether or not our association can continue as we know and love it, or whether it will be forced to morph into some soul-less commercial entity, the roots and fabric of it available to trade like some invisible commodity.

Throughout our history the Irish people have always been big on symbolism and in many ways we still are. We wear our county colours when abroad because our pride increases exponentially the further we are from home. A spin down either the Ormeau or Falls Road in Belfast will leave you under no illusion as to how important flags and logos are to both communities there. And so it is with Croke Park - it symbolises everything we are fiercely proud of within our association. Self made and financed, despite what several bar stool experts would have you believe, it is a testament to the foresight and decisiveness of the men at the helm of the GAA. This strong symbolism was and is a double edged sword, because it made it all the more difficult for some to stomach the notion of allowing other sports to play there for an economic rent, even if for some people it was the correct and judicious call.

That particular debate has been done to death, and we won’t revisit it here and now, except to say that the democratic will of the members has been done and time will tell if it was the correct decision. However in that case, the debate was about a symbol. Now the battle has moved on to the actual heart and soul of our organisation – the players.

The next four or five years will see player welfare and renumeration debated to death, and once again the storm clouds are gathering as Tony O’Reilly and his media empire look to further dictate the GAA’s agenda. That this is going to be the case should be no surprise to anyone familiar with the workings of the media in this country. I can see it now - with great regularity, Liam Hayes will snipe in the Sunday Indo about the ineptitude of county boards and how the players deserve to be paid for all their “sacrifices”. Vincent Hogan will tug at the heartstrings by picking out individual hard luck cases without making the slightest effort to contextualise, presuming instead that his flowery prose will be enough to win over his readers. Martin Breheny will bombard us with a plethora of irrelevant statistics, all of which will prove whatever he wants them to prove, at least in his own head. The red top publications will come up with snappy headlines because making puns based on words like “cash” and “pay” and putting pictures of Colm Cooper and Damien Duff beside each other is a hell of a lot easier than actually doing some real research and writing a thought provoking story. TV3 will focus on the pay for play aspect the whole time, because they have no rights to any games, so it makes more sense to run down the association all the time and try and convince the nation not to waste their time watching such shenanigans when they could be at home watching the Champions League, or Emmerdale, or whatever else is also on ITV three seconds later. RTE radio will continue to give air time to Sky Sports-subscribing barstool pundits who will phone into Joe Duffy about how the games are too violent, the Grab all Association has loads of money stashed away in boxes in clubhouses all over the country, and the poor player is being taken advantage of. The grotesque Adrian Kennedy and Chris Barry phone shows in Dublin will no doubt allow even more moronic individuals a soap box on which they can loudly display their ignorance of the situation and win over other like minded listeners who know even less. The main difference being that on these shows all the callers can be easily categorised as the kind of people who “aren’t racist, but …..” However much like Hitler’s German forces in the 1930’s, the enemy legions who would turn the GAA championships into the Eircom League are still not yet prepared for all out war. For now, the ninth column that is the nation’s media will continue to pick away at the mind of Joe Public, all the while waiting for the SS force to truly be ready for battle – the SS in this case being led by Commander Dessie Farrell, with Field Marshalls O’Connor and McGeeney by his side, all of whom are ever so slowly preparing for the battle for the souls of GAA players across the land. This is not to forget the Minister for Propaganda, Donal Óg Cusack, who in recent months has been taking an ever more vociferous stand in favour of monetary recompense for players, going so far as to even criticise those volunteers that we all know and love at our clubs, the kind of people who make the GAA great.

And yet, though we can all see this coming, the GAA continues to play into the hands of these people by putting their hands over their eyes and hoping it will all go away. There will always be elements of the GAA who continue to wish we could return to the days of De Valera, and that time would stand still and reform would never be needed. But this debate is coming whether they and we like it or not and now is the time for the GAA to go on the offensive, while the GPA remains disorganised and ad hoc in its strategies. They pick their battles at random, they appear to have no overall plan, and at no stage do they deal with any of the obvious fall out issues that would arise from any of their beliefs being implemented. Their agenda, at least according to http://www.gaelicplayers.com, their own website, is a combination of trite soundbites that have no real meaning, and simple highly supportable goals that are already being put in place, but we never hear anyone talking about because they don’t make headlines. To go through their aims one by one:

- To improve, through collective mechanisms, the welfare of the individual intercounty athlete within those guidelines established by the GAA
The guidelines say that all GAA games are amateur games, so if they are operating within those guidelines then surely there can be no argument?

- To establish a third level scholarship scheme that will encourage prominent young players to maintain their involvement with gaelic games.
Most colleges in this country have such arrangements in place anyway.

- To offer commercial entities appropriate opportunities through a relationship with the GPA, and to manage those relationships professionally and in the best interests of both parties.
It has been made very clear by the GAA that in this day and age players are free to negotiate whatever personal endorsements they can, as long as they don’t conflict with the ethos of the association, for example by way of ambush marketing the likes of which was engaged in by both a beer manufacturer and a bookmaker in recent summers. Indeed from a player’s perspective, I’d be concerned that the above statement implies that my representatives would be looking out for the interests of both parties rather than just my own.

- To participate, take responsibility for, and play an active role in the development and marketing of gaelic games in Ireland and abroad.
It’s hard to see what they’re actually doing in this regard, so in truth this seems to be one of those trite soundbites.

- To actively recruit and encourage participation in gaelic games through the adoption of a player driven marketing strategy for children
This appears to be another one of those aims that is suffering from falling down the priority list.

- To promote greater exposure for players and inherently improve the player/fan relationship through increased accessibility and familiarity.
This aim is simply baffling. It reads like they would like to have open nights where you can come and meet your local intercounty player. Or they would like to make players all the more accessible to members of local and national media. It’s questionable whether most players would actually want this, but then it’s not as if any of it is happening, so it all seems rather moot.

- Where appropriate, to provide constructive and professionally managed input to Croke Park on player opinion with respect to developmental issues.
Now here it gets interesting. Again, taken literally, they would like to be the channel that is used to put forward the feeling on the ground as it were when it comes to administration and development debates within the corridors of power in Croke Park. But equally, it says nothing about taking part in those debates, merely to input the opinion. On the other hand, if we assume they actually want to take part, then they stress that they would like to be constructive. If this is the case, this article will in due course bring into play a series of questions which they would do well to answer.

- To increase awareness of, and acknowledgement for, the global family which supports the culture of gaelic games worldwide.
Ah, bless. No idea what this actually entails, but it sounds all warm and fuzzy.

As you can see, if there aims as per their statement were to be taken at face value, it would be hard to find fault and they would probably have the support of most people within the association both playing and non-playing. However as we all know, this is not what we hear when we are subjected to interviews and statements from GPA representatives. Instead we hear about:

(1) How the GPA is not being recognised as the player’s official body by the GAA, despite the fact that it can certainly claim that mandate more than any other body.
(2) This infamous recent survey when it was found that “the vast majority of those surveyed favoured a move to semi professional status”
(3) The failure of the GAA as an organisation to fully support their claim for Sports Grants under the Aosdana Grants for artists scheme currently in place.
(4) How next year GAA stars will share a pitch with soccer and rugby players, all of whom will be getting paid.
(5) In their own words, “the GPA does not endorse pay for play, but the association feels strongly that players should be rewarded adequately to ensure that no individual suffers economic loss due to their participation in gaelic games.”

The first point is a very fair one, and one where they should be supported by most. They may not be perfect, but they represent a large proportion of intercounty players out there, and in the absence of any umbrella body that encompasses both intercounty and club players, they have more of a claim to this role than any others. More importantly, their current status of “outside the tent p***ing in” is hugely detrimental – perhaps if they were invited in, they could be confronted on all the other issues they raise, and the following cogent points raised so that the GAA could determine once and for all where the GPA really stand on the tricky issues of the day. So taking their bugbears one by one….

The Survey First and foremost, let’s call a spade a spade. If you ask anyone, anywhere, would you like to be paid for something you already do for free, what kind of person actually says no? The phrasing of this question was nonsensical to say the least. That said, let’s assume that the question did actually take into account all the pros and cons, rather than just read like something a four year old would ask. To be a professional at something, you get paid for doing it. To be an amateur, you don’t. These are black and white issues. Semi professional has no real meaning as a phrase; it just is another form of professionalism euphemistically said in such a way as to ease the pain. Semi professionalism in the modern day however has come to mean you get paid, but you don’t get enough to live on, so you need another job. However you are still getting paid, just you tend to be paid for part time hours. Now if we break this down – if this were to be put in place, we have 33 senior hurling panels, and 32 senior football panels who take part in both league and championship. Allowing 30 players per panel, that’s 1950 players. If one allows for an average 8 month season, December to July inclusive, at 16 hours per week on average, which is less than the GPA claim is being asked of them, that’s a total of 560 hours per player, or 1.1 million man hours per year. Allowing only the state’s minimum wage is still going to cost €8.35 million, a cost way in excess of what the GAA could afford, even assuming that renting out Croke Park becomes an annual event instead of just an arrangement in place while Lansdowne is being refurbished. Of course, if these panels have to be paid, well then so do all the women’s football and camogie panels, lest the GAA leave itself open to gender discrimination lawsuits, and no doubt with this arrangement in force there would be renewed optimism to play football in Kilkenny. Neither do these numbers include holidays, employer’s PRSI costs, or any of the other administrative costs that would be attached. To put it another way, the overall cost would be over €5000 per GAA club across the country. Let Donal Óg Cusack have a word with the Cloyne GAA club treasurer and see how that discussion goes.

Now let’s tackle that from another angle – when I go to work in the morning, I am paid for the time I’m there, and only that. I don’t get mileage for my commute, as is the case in almost all jobs. So is the GPA looking for wages and mileage? Or would it be happy with wages instead of mileage? If so, I’d wager those players coming from Limerick and Dublin to train in Birr and Croghan with our county teams mightn’t be best pleased with their €20 flat rate for two hours training after making a 150 mile round trip. However overall this is the weakest of the GPA’s arguments, so let’s not dwell on it too long.

The Supporting of the Claim for Sports Grants This is an issue that several GAA players have been particularly vociferous about recently. However the GPA have shot themselves in the foot on this one, because they have put their elitist ideals down on paper. In their own costings for this proposal, visible on their website, they have espoused different rates of grant assistance depending on the success of your county team. The GAA is a democratic organisation, and while they have supported the GPA’s cause in theory on this, they have stayed quiet in general because to be seen to support such an unfair system would be anathema to them, and rightly so. The Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard cups have finally brought some meaning and prominence to the efforts within weaker counties to promote hurling and to suddenly make such a blatant statement reinforcing the perceived gap between them and the elite would be highly counterproductive. Before the GPA can legitimately seek the support of the GAA in lobbying for this, they need to first address this inequality, and then also deal with the other follow on issues that are ineveitable but at the moment are being left in the dark because they don’t suit the Farrell and Cusack agenda. These would include, but are not limited to - what would be done to prevent widespread transferring among players? A club hurler in Kilkenny would in all likelihood make the Cavan intercounty team. If he looks to transfer and is denied, he could legitimately make a Bosman-esque claim under European law for restraint of trade – how is this to be dealt with, in the GPA’s vision? County managers, in this new world, now have a lot of power, and are making big financial decisions as well as selectorial ones. If a good clubmate of a manager is looking to save for a house, there will be a serious pressure on the manager to select him for the county panel, and essentially carry a passenger for the year. Such corruption would be eminently human and forgivable, but measures would have to be put in place to prevent it – what measures have the GPA got in mind? More pertinently, what of the player who wants to be on the county panel so badly, he offers his grant as a bribe? These matters may seem a world away now, but once money comes into play a lot of these issues come to the fore. What of the dual player? Does he receive two grants? What of the team where there are injuries in April, and new players need to be called in – who gets the grant then, the injured player or the replacement? Are we ready for court cases if players claim loss of earnings when they get injured due to a flagrant tackle either in training or at a match? All of these questions and more need to be addressed by the GPA before their claim can truly be taken seriously.

Sharing a pitch with other paid players in other codes This is a very tabloid argument, a spurious one at best, but one that will undoubtedly come to the fore, so let’s address it as such. Firstly, other sports are just that – other sports. Soccer players have long been sharing pitches and indeed dressing rooms with players on grossly different salaries, as will certainly be the case when the Republic of Ireland play when Damien Duff will undoubtedly be on twice the salary of the next biggest wage earner. This was not a legitimate argument when U2 played here, nor should it be now. Equally if the pitch is the marker, then surely this also applies to club players who play there on St. Patrick’s day, to minor teams, and by the same logic it does not apply to county sides who don’t make it to Croke Park. This is a lazy argument and will only be invoked by those who clearly have no grasp of the economic reality that exists.

Players should not be at a loss This argument is a dangerous one, and one which can be read two ways. The first, more obvious way, is that a player should not incur costs to play and train for his county. Most rational people will support this, and the GPA’s contribution towards obtaining a mileage rate of 50c per mile and compulsory gear supply for each team is laudable. In counties where this is not happening, county boards should certainly be taken to task and publicly prompted into rectifying matters and doing so promptly, rather than at the end of the year long after the costs have been incurred and the gear has been bought out of private funds. Equally players should always have full medical cover and the GPA’s insurance scheme is one of a few options out there that players should be educated about, and indeed most right minded folk would be happy to see the GAA pick up the cost of this for their county teams. Loss of income due to injury is another serious issue, and one where the welfare of the player should at all times be looked after. Again, there is not a lot between the GPA and the powers that be on this issue, certainly not so much of a gap that couldn’t be bridged over calm thoughtful negotiations.

On the other hand, the argument that players should be compensated for “loss of earnings” while at training etc. has begun to appear a lot more regularly lately. Loss of overtime is the buzz phrase right now, and this argument should be shot down straight away for the farce that it is. Across the country, players train with their teams because they want to. They go out and kick a ball or hurl a sliothar for fun, because it is fun. It is a game. Everyone would prefer to be training or playing than at work, so the idea that players are “sacrificing” work to train with their county is nonsense. If someone would honestly prefer to be at work than training or playing for their county they should step aside, because there are those who would give vital bodily organs for just such an opportunity, this writer included. They may be one of the best fifteen players of a given code within the county, but it is still a game, and people play games because they want to. We all make choices in life, many of which are about foregoing something that we want in order to make money, or vice versa. We do it every time it comes around to the end of the year and we have a week’s holidays left, we can rest the bones or we can take money in lieu. We do it when the boss asks if we can work overtime on Sunday morning when a big night was planned on Saturday night – we go out and skip the over time or we stay in and get the extra few shillings in the payslip at the end of the month. And certainly we do it in the evenings when we could get more work done and climb the ladder within our organisation, or we could go train with our team, be they county, club or junior B muckers. If players genuinely believe that they are “foregoing” work, then let them go to work and let someone else play in their stead. My gut feeling is that there won’t be a shortage of volunteers.

Ultimately for the GPA’s argument, those last 2 sentences epitomise a feeling that they would do well to bear in mind. I and many others have gone to great lengths to support Offaly teams in recent years, and God willing, I’ll get the opportunity to do so again for many years to come. But while I greatly appreciate the efforts of the players that pull on the jersey, I do so because of the reasons that they pull it on. They pull it on because it’s not for money, but because it’s representing their county, their club, their townland. They do it because they were the ones blessed with the talent to play at that level and they put in the hard work so as to bring that talent to its full fruition. The day our senior county teams would rather be elsewhere if it wasn’t for the money is the day I give up following them and instead stick to club and underage matches only. The day the game becomes “semi professional” is the day before the accountants say that there are too many teams, and that some of the smaller counties have to amalgamate, and we become part of some Laois-Offaly hybrid. The day after that is the day there is a court case from some player claiming loss of earnings because he is not being allowed to transfer to another county where he’d get a paid slot. The day after that is the day that a county that loses such a player asks for compensation from the new county for the time and effort training him as an underage player, and on that day we have fully fledged transfers. The day after that is the day JP McManus assembles a Chelsea-esque Limerick team, with John Gardiner, Eoin Kelly and Henry Shefflin all coming on board for large fees, and Limerick win five or six all stars without a single one of them having been born within the boundaries of the treaty county.

The line in the sand has to be drawn, and it has to be drawn now. This battle is coming, and the longer we wait for it, the more prepared the GPA and their cronies in the media will be. Donal Óg Cusack erred greatly recently when he implied that the volunteers that have made our association great will always be there, and that they’d love to see their protégés go on to make a living from the game. It was a serious error of judgement, and it has put him and the GPA on the back foot. Now is the time to shoot their arguments down and to say to all that will listen that we will happily concede symbols, for as long as those symbols will finance the next generation of hurlers and footballers, but the heart and soul of our games are not for sale. We are an amateur and democratic association, where the junior B club player is worth just as much as the county star, and the club legend who trains the under 12’s, marks the pitch, mops out the dressing rooms and sells 200 club lotto tickets a week is worth many times either of them. That is what we stand for, and no amount of Marian Finucane and Joe Duffy phone in shows will ever change that.

[Seán Boyle Ó Rathallaigh]

Well Done excellent article, totally agree with your agruments and overall sentiment.

ps. you should try and get it published, it may be a bit long for a letter to the Sindo but McGee may be interested

[Bord na Mona man]

I'd say Lone Shark would have more chance of getting printed if he wrote into the Herald complaining about "GAA bosses", "exploitation", "Croke Park full houses" and the like.
Very few people have the attention span to read or hear well reasoned arguments on the debate.

Unfortunately I fear agendas are now being driven from the bottom.
Convince enough taxi drivers, bar flies and all round windbags that there is something "up" within the GAA and it perculates upwards.
Eventually more sensible people start to buy into it.
They get a vague feeling that there is something wrong, without having good reasons to back it up.

[TheManFromFerbane]

Savage article LS, I actually thought it was an extract from a paper until you started mentioning Birr etc...

Try and get this published, try a few of the locals first, maybe Trib will be able to help you with that and then some of the national ones. I for one am going to forward this onto the GAA people in my e-mail contacts and would hope everyone here would do the same. If one person reads it through to the end and sends it on it would be worth it.

As for the actual argument itself. I would like to see a system where a percentage was taken from the gate and spread equally between all the togged out players. The details could be worked out but at-least that way it won't hurt the association too much and the players will get a reward that is directly related to the amount of people that actually wanted them to see them.

It rewards players who are in the championship longer and the money increases the further they get. You could argue that this means weaker counties' players wouldn't get as much money but I don't see a problem with this, they are not contributing to the income on the day so why should they get the reward.

Thats where my main argument stands, players are contributing, sometimes millions of euros, to the GAA if you can give them a percentage of that money they don't feel like they are being screwed over.

[The Biff]

Sharky, my manager has asked me to look for a Project Code to log the time that it has taken me to read your prose.

Excellent stuff, and worthy of a greater audience. Can I suggest you forward it to the GPA directly and see if you get a response.

To "The ManFromFerbane", a word of advice ...... DUCK !

[Lone Shark]

It's about four times the size of a standard newspaper piece, so I'd say the chances of making any of the local papers might be a bit difficult - I might hop it on to a few of them though and see what results.

As for the GPA, it could prove interesting - they don't have an email address, only a contact form, but I'll fill it in tonight and see what happens. I'd fancy my chances of going down the card on the first day of Cheltenham more than I would of getting a response though.


As for the "percentage of the gate" system, I can only say - God no. (I won't throw anything at you though - no need to duck!!))
Now it's referee's calls who are responsible for a player's livelihood. Think about a dodgy call in an All Ireland semi final, when the percentage gate in the final would be massive? Court cases, lifelong bitterness, even more than there would be now. Also, think of a team like Fermanagh in 2005, who played two games against tough opposition and then went out - Tyrone won the All Ireland playing nine games, if memory serves. While Tyrone might be entitled to more, under this system Tyrone had total attendances probably in the vicinity of 550,000 - Fermanagh 30,000. Yet Tyrone only trained for two months longer - is this worth 18 times more to the players? This would either mean a derisory amount to Fermanagh or an actual salary to Tyrone players.

Now in this situation, how much is it now worth for a player to transfer to Dublin footballers? Think how much money would McManus have turned down all those times he knocked back the overtures of clubs in Dublin if he knew he could transfer permanently and be guaranteed a percentage of 200,000 attendandees in a bad year? I'm not saying he wouldn't have knocked them back even so, in his case I'd imagine he would, but that doesn't change the fact that it creates the problem.

On a smaller scale, this is a system which in theory could operate the whole way down - but county boards would be badly hit as they try to cover costs with a smaller percentage of the gate from big club matches and league games.

Successful players benefit by way of profile and getting endorsements, handy "Rep" jobs, and countless other non-monetary ways. (How many Tyrone footballers do you think went out on the pull in Omagh or Dungannon over the last winter and went home alone?? ) I think the only way forward is to cover costs, insurance and equipment for as many players as you can, and make sure that all expenses are generous to say the least - and that they apply to all players equally. Communist it may be, but I genuinely fear that any move in any other direction will be the first step on a road to somebody somewhere saying there are too many county teams, and poorer counties like our own being amalgamated and lost forever.

[True Red]

Great article.A hurd pity the offaly indo didnt see fit to employ you on a permanent basis................

[Hyper]

Fair one LS, I´ll have top re read it in case I missed some!!!

[TheManFromFerbane]

I myself would prefer to just get the gear and the expenses covered. In fact I'm just back down in Limerick after heading home on the half 5 bus from here, up for training at 8 and then back down with one of the lads, for the club U21. (Couldn't go up with him because I'd miss a lecture that I couldn't afford to) And I have absolutely no problem doing that for nothing.

The only thing I want is to get my ticket covered (which I actually won't get) and the bit of gear (probably won't get that either) and not to have personal attacks on me if I have a stinker of a game (which I probably will get!) but I don’t mind not getting them as much because the club is very much a sacrifice of love.

However when I was on the county teams we did get the gear and the expenses and it was savage, along with the pride of playing for your county! I wouldn't have wanted anything else (other than to win something!)

Basically what I am trying to say is I am firmly on your side LS but I don't think the GAA are going to win this argument out right, there will need to be some compromise and I reckon that it could be the fairest way.

IMHO the players are "itchy" because they are the ones who generate all this money for the GAA and don't see any of it. So if you say to a player: "Right you can have a small cut of the money we make today" then they can have no issue.

So in summary I am favour of just looking after players, with gear, expenses and insurance cover. And God knows I'm VERY in favour of the "other" benefits they might get. But if it comes to the stage where they demand money I think rewarding them for the money they bring in, and not for the training they do, would be the best way.

[Bogman]

Totally agree with everything you say in your article Lone Shark.

It's good to see such cogent arguments against the whispering campaign and "winning over of hearts and minds" which the GPA is orchestrating with collaborating media cohorts. They're intent on poisoning the well of goodwill and volunteerism which keeps the games going.

Maybe the silent majority will ride the storm out and keep the games as they are, with players representing their own parishes and counties. Let's hope so, I'd really miss supporting the county and club teams. A big part of the strength of the games is that players are representing their own communities!!

[Lone Shark]

The only thing I want is to get my ticket covered (which I actually won't get) and the bit of gear (probably won't get that either) and not to have personal attacks on me if I have a stinker of a game (which I probably will get!) but I don’t mind not getting them as much because the club is very much a sacrifice of love.

My logic from the start has been that players should get all that, and if at all possible they should get it at every level. But if county players get more, then that's less to be spent on club players - because after all it is essentially the same pot of money.

As for the personal attacks, they're bad form at the best of times, but I'd like to think they're still pretty rare. What we can be sure of is that if players start getting paid, and people in the crowd start complaining at what "their" attendance money is paying for, it will increase manifold.

IMHO the players are "itchy" because they are the ones who generate all this money for the GAA and don't see any of it. So if you say to a player: "Right you can have a small cut of the money we make today" then they can have no issue.

To be honest I know your first sentence there is kind of accepted wisdom, but I actually don't buy it. People have gone to see Offaly play intercounty hurling and football for a long time now - and they will continue to do so for as long as our county teams still exist. They do so because of a love of the county - not because of a love for the 30 lads on the panel - though there should be a respect there. No single Offaly player is bringing people through the turnstiles - 120 years of tradition and loyalty is.

Secondly who generates the money - the player, or the people who made the player into what they are? The Offaly hurlers of the eighties won two All Irelands - but if it was to be pinpointed to one man who made all the difference, you'd have to say Healy at the helm. Equally would those Clare hurlers of the nineties have drawn the crowds in if Loughnane hadn't made them into whatever form of half human hybrids they became?

And finally, you say the players don't see a cut of it - but the big question is who is? It's not like the GAA is laden with administrators at every level drawing huge salaries? The cut you're talking about is out of the GAA pot that goes to pay for club administration all across the land. It's out of dressing room refurbishment funds, gear funds, kids hurling helmet funds, and assorted other real expenses. It's not like in soccer where money is being sucked out by agents - the money goes on real things, and the accounts are there to prove that. Nobody gets a "cut" and that's the way it should be.

So in summary I am favour of just looking after players, with gear, expenses and insurance cover. And God knows I'm VERY in favour of the "other" benefits they might get. But if it comes to the stage where they demand money I think rewarding them for the money they bring in, and not for the training they do, would be the best way.

Ask yourself this - have you ever gone to an Offaly game to see a particular player? If you have, then let him have a cut of that fare - if not, then let it go where it goes now .......

[The Biff]

Lone Shark, the latest thread on this subject on GaaBoard.com is linked below. Your little item above addresses many of the points raised. You might consider posting it there yourself.

GaaBoard.com thread "Pay for Play - Vote on Saturday"

Incidentally, the thread title over there is a load of b****x.

[Lone Shark]

I just threw up a link there now. Might be a bit lengthy for some posters on there, but all rational debate is good if it gets something going .......

[TheManFromFerbane]

Ask yourself this - have you ever gone to an Offaly game to see a particular player? If you have, then let him have a cut of that fare - if not, then let it go where it goes now .......

I just want to reiterate that I am not in favour of players getting paid! I understand that the money filtrates down fairly and that right now as an organisation the GAA is very strong.

My point is that If And Only If we have to start rewarding the players in a monetary fashion, I think it is the fairest way to do it.

[ballymanabroad]

I suppose this is another opening gamit. Get your views out there LS. We don't want a biased argument to begin.

"Players suffering for their Hobby"

by Cliona Foley


PLAYING for your county costs you money and the increasing demands on inter-county players are so extreme that they are reaching breaking point, according to one leading footballer.

Responding to critical comments from Leinster Council's chief executive Michael Delaney about the aims of the Gaelic Players' Association (GPA), Kildare star John Doyle said senior inter-county players are reaching breaking point because of the pressures on them.

"I can see a dramatic difference in what we have to put in since I started with Kildare in '99," Doyle said. "The time and effort I'm putting in, and the work (paid) I'm leaving behind me, is an awful lot more now. As a player, I honestly feel something's got to give."

Doyle, a GPA member and Kildare captain last season, said playing inter-county football puts additional pressure on players' careers.

"I'm on the road, servicing catering equipment, and probably lucky that most of my work is around Leinster but there's nights after training that I'll have eight or 10 missed calls on my phone. I definitely lose money through missing over-time," he added. "We'd be on call one weekend out of six but because I have training on Saturday or a match I have to give that work away."

He is getting married in three weeks' time and, even though he is getting married on a Thursday, is delaying his honeymoon to the following Monday to line out in a key NFL game against Meath.

"I'm lucky to be getting a week away because John Crofton (Kildare manager) has been very understanding. There's a lot of players who haven't been able to get away after their weddings," he added.

Swap shifts

"But in our squad we have players who regularly have to swap shifts or lose money, that's the reality in every county. So I think it's a bit much to hear officials say they don't know what the GPA's agenda is, six years after it was set up. It's not exactly rocket science!

"As a GPA member, I feel it is the one organisation putting us first, trying to help us to sort out these problems and find some way to compensate us."

Leinster boss Michael Delaney insisted any change in amateur status would be detrimental, describing Gaelic games still as "the hobbies of all our players" but Doyle said he is wrong.

"The notion that Junior C players are as important to the GAA as All Stars, I absolutely agree with that," Doyle said. "But thinking that it's a hobby for all players alike is a bit old hat!" he argued. "If a Junior C or club player decides he's not feeling great or can't make training, he'll skip it. You just don't do that at inter-county level!"

As Kildare's freetaker, Doyle puts in additional training hours on top of his three nights-a-week county practice. He said the argument that wearing the county jersey should be reward enough for players is no longer as relevant as it once was.

"Don't get me wrong, every day I pull on the white jersey is massive for me and playing for Leinster is a huge honour too. Running out in front of 50,000 or 60,000 and hearing the Kildare fans behind you, there's nothing to beat that feeling.

"There's no one putting a gun to our heads and all I honestly want to do, like any other player, is help Kildare win another Leinster and bring home Sam Maguire. But the reality is that Ireland is moving at a different pace these days," he stressed. "Players are all under different pressures in our jobs and also being asked to give more and more to the game so it's getting more difficult every year.

Walk away

"I definitely see good young players who see what's needed and say 'I can't afford to do that' and walk away from it. As players, we're not trying to bring down the GAA. It's not like we're looking for big money like soccer players. I don't believe the GAA could cope with that.

"But if I was a boxer or an athlete I'd be getting a grant, which might go some way to compensating me. Right now we're looking for the GAA to support the GPA in helping to get us grants from the Government and that would definitely be a step in the right direction."

Doyle was replying to Delaney's criticisms of the GPA. The Leinster official said he was confused about their agenda, that he had never seen its constitution and that 'pay-for-play' seemed to be their goal.

But Dessie Farrell, CEO of the GPA, said yesterday that the organisation has a constitution set up by its founders, that is available on request.

Asked why it is not on their website, he said "we've never been asked for it. But it is freely available, there is no dark secret or mystery about it."