Fair play to the Gaelic Players' Association (GPA)for finally getting their act together with their recent Extraordinary General Meeting. Presumably some heavy canvassing and arm twisting were involved in packing the event out, but they certainly have thrown down the gauntlet to the powers that be in this great assooosheeaation of ours. The jersey-and-socks protest at the National Hurling League final may have been a bit petty, but An Moltóir has always felt that the measures imposed by Croke Park to “improve the presentation of games” was itself rather petty, an irritant to the players and of no import to the vast majority of spectators. More than anything else they demonstrated, once again, that those in command had priorities which are completely marginal to the real issues surrounding the development of gaelic games.

Perhaps the emergence of the GPA as a real force will finally force the heads at Ceannárus to face up to these issues. The GAA must, sooner rather than later, decide whether to press ahead and turn the championships into major summer-long competitions which give the top players a proper platform to show their stuff. We are talking here of, say, the top ten counties in both codes playing each other in a round-robin series, with football and hurling on alternate weekends and the top four in each code proceeding to the All-Ireland semi-finals. This would generate massive public interest and huge crowds which would, as a by-product, generate the revenue to compensate the players and leave plenty over to plough into the promotion of the games at local level.

The alternative, inevitably, will be a much-reduced traditional-type championship as players increasingly refuse to participate in the intensive training regimes which have become the norm in recent years. The guarantee of two championship games which the qualifier series provides is simply not enough. The inevitable move to league-based championships and professionalism will mean a virtual divorce of the top county players from their clubs, as is already more or less the case with rugby. But if the GAA can exploit properly the hype and public interest which the new format would generate, then the games as a whole should benefit.

However, while the “meeja” have been focusing on the stars of the GAA firmament articulating their demands for better conditions, An Moltóir would like to direct some attention to the plight of the lesser lights scratching for survival in the outer reaches of gaelic games. Think of the Kildare hurlers, battling to keep the game going in a football-mad county, and dismissed from the senior championship before the April showers had given way to the balmy summer breeze. Last year their manager, Morgan Lawlor, was at least able to guarantee his players three championship games and the prospect, if things went well, of a tilt against one of the big guns of Leinster. This year the best he could offer them, in return for slogging their way through the February cold and the March mud, was a single game against Westmeath which, if things went wrong on the day, could lead to a possible B championship game against Roscommon sometime in June or July. Progress?

Nicky Brennan’s dismissive response to Lawlor’s protestations was arrogant beyond belief. The calendar is already too full to facilitate extra games, says Nicky. A round robin series between the four counties involved in the Leinster qualifier would have required just three extra games. Surely Nicky could find a couple of vacant pitches and idle referees somewhere over the next few weeks to accommodate these. A round robin series might even require midweek games, according to Nicky. So? Did Nicky ask any of the counties concerned if they would mind playing in midweek?

Also spare a thought for the Waterford minor hurlers. After two titanic struggles against All-Ireland champions Cork they find themselves edged out by a single point. So these young hurlers who have trained hard since Christmas and made remarkable progress are now told to put away their hurleys rather than further develop their potential. Contrast this with the situation with the county’s minor footballers, who played five championship games in March and April, one against each of the other Munster counties. They may still take it for granted in the Déise that the best players will always opt for hurling. But the minor footballers have been making significant progress in recent years, assisted in no small measure by the round robin system. The hurlers haven’t won a match in six years. The county’s many dual players are being offered the option of at least five games in football and a good prospect of a Munster semi-final or final place, or alternatively the likely prospect of a single game of hurling. For youngsters who just want to play games, the choice is obvious.

The GAA has its priorities wrong at all levels. There is too much concern with the presentation of games, with restricting team managers trying to communicate with players amid the deafening din of big matches, with keeping sister sports at arm’s length rather than uniting in a common cause, with keeping players in their place, with building huge and needless hulks of stadia, with getting All-Ireland tickets. Too little concern is given to facilitating families attending big games, to providing adequate toilet facilities for women, to giving priority to regular supporters in the allocation of big match tickets, to treasuring the star players whose exploits keep the whole shebang ticking over and, above all, to providing as many players as want to play the game with plenty of games to play.

For too long, the GAA has regarded itself as some sort of semi-mystical institution deserving the unquestioning loyalty of the players and the fans. It is a tribute to the sheer quality of the games themselves that they have survived despite the people charged with running them. Depending on which way it goes, the emergence of the GPA could provide the association with the wake-up call it needs, or it could lead to the destruction of the very foundations which have given gaelic games their essential quality. If the latter turns out to be the case, the GAA will only have itself to blame.

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