An Moltóir met an old acquaintance, whom he had not seen for many years, over the Christmas period. The man in question was a star hurler in his time who once played in an All-Ireland final and who lives in the hurling heartland. He both cares about, and fears for, the GAA’s future. He waxed eloquent about the crucial role played by Irish mothers in the continuation of the GAA tradition. These are the people who – either dutifully or enthusiastically – ferry their children to the matches and training sessions, dress their wounds and wash their togs and socks. They are the same people who seethe at the GAA’s failure to accommodate family groups and provide adequate female toilet facilities at big matches, and keep asking themselves why they bother.
But on top of all this, my acquaintance had a more alarming story to relate. He spoke about how shocked many mothers were at the lack of discipline and decent behaviour they encountered at matches and training sessions. Bad language remained unchecked by mentors whose main focus was to exhort their charges to win at all costs and to harass referees at every opportunity. The famous scene from D’Unbelievables was not only believable but the norm.
In these days of greater choice and tolerance, the same kids were being brought to soccer and rugby clubs where they were encountering an entirely different experience. Here, participation was given a higher priority than winning, games were more regular, referees were sacrosanct and foul language was not tolerated. Was it any surprise, my acquaintance enquired rhetorically, that mothers, concerned about proper character formation, were increasingly steering their children away from the GAA and towards these other sports?
The culture of violence and indiscipline within the GAA which my acquaintance was railing against was never more in evidence than in the first reactions by county football mentors to the introduction of the sin bin in last weekend’s games. The common consensus appeared to be that Gaelic football is a man’s game, and that the sin bin should only be used for overt acts of deliberate violence against other players. In other words, pulling and dragging, “innocent” slagging-off of referees and going in hard on players attempting to take possession were seen as harmless infringements which were all part of the game.
In rugby, any player who even looks sideways at the referee or another official will immediately get a yellow card, or worse. Any kind of deliberate foul earns the same punishment. In soccer, dragging down a player anywhere on the pitch merits a yellow card. If the player in question is bearing down on goal, a red card is the general prescription. In the GAA, such offences, which greatly compromise the spectacle of games, are regarded as being innocuous. Pulling down players who break through from midfield or the half forward line is routine, with defenders taking turns at it in order to avoid any one person being yellow carded or sent off.
There is an urgent need for the GAA to undergo a sea change in its attitude to discipline and violence on the field of play. Suspensions should apply to a set number of games rather than a period of time. Players who receive two yellow cards in any competition should be automatically suspended for at least one game. These obvious measures are a more urgent requirement than the sin bin. Linesmen who are qualified referees should be allowed to flag fouls committed along the sidelines. Umpires at big games should also be trained and qualified. In soccer and rugby, referees and linesmen work together to maintain order. In GAA, where pitches are 50 per cent bigger, referees are left to do almost all the work themselves.
The GAA also needs to cop itself on in relation to its attitude to video evidence. Wayne Rooney was caught by the TV cameras raising his hand to an opponent and got a three match suspension. In last year’s Munster football final, a Kerry player clearly and deliberately felled one of his Limerick opponents in TV close-up without being detected by the officials and got off scot free. It wasn’t in the referee’s report, you see. This type of thing has become a regular occurrence, with injured players increasingly inclined to resort to the courts due to the GAA’s recurring failure to face up to the culture of violence which permeates the association’s games. More importantly, the mothers of Ireland are also sitting up and taking notice. They observe the huge chasm between the attitude of the GAA, on the one hand, and soccer and rugby, on the other, to acts of violence and make choices for their children accordingly.
There are many who oppose the opening up of Croke Park to soccer and rugby on the grounds that the GAA is in competition with these sports, and therefore should not facilitate them in any way. Yet frequently these are the same people who do nothing to improve competitive structures at local level, or curb the endemic culture of indiscipline or violence, both of which pose much greater threats to the survival of the GAA than an occasional soccer international at headquarters.
Aithbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise do gach éinne a léann an colún seo. Go mbuadh gach duine agaibh craobh uile Éireann i mbliana!
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