Demand for player panels leaves managers in a fury
WITH intercounty sides set for a return to training next Monday, concerns have been raised about the GAA already pressing county teams to name playing panels of 32.
In usual circumstances, county boards would process expenses payments to players, management and backroom staff, being reimbursed later through central funds.
In the present circumstances, Croke Park is taking over such payments, but one intercounty manager from Ulster who wished not to be named is incredulous that they feel forced into giving a list of 32 names “as soon as possible.”
He said: “I am just frustrated in Croke Park’s lack of awareness on the demands placed on current intercounty set-ups and the lack of preparation time.
“Four weeks is simply not enough.
“It’s different for me, but I cannot understand how Croke Park expect a manager who may be coming in for his first year with a team to gather up a new squad, or squads that are undergoing significant changes, which is evidenced by the fact they are contacting county treasurers and demanding that 32 names are loaded up onto the system right now.
“They want it good to go from next week, which boggles the mind how they think that is possible.
“To me, it shows a complete disconnect between them thinking four weeks is plenty of time.
“They had ruled that nobody was allowed to meet in the previous several months and yet expecting everybody would be good to go from the first night back at training.
“Even the fact they didn’t give us the weekend of the 17th and 18th, that the resumption is on April 19th — a Monday — that rules out another weekend and you are left with three weekends of preparation for a National League game and to select a panel.”
The manager joins a growing chorus of intercounty bosses who are privately questioning the Gaelic Players Association’s lack of input into the short turnaround of preparation and playing games.
In his annual report to Congress in February, GAA Director General Tom Ryan acknowledged there were lessons to be learned by forcing a return to playing without sufficient lead-in time, stating: “One of the things maybe we didn’t quite get right last year was maybe we rushed back a little bit, in terms of the training effort that went in both club-wise and county-wise to get people back on the field.”
A member of the GAA’S Covid Advisory Group and specialist in sports injuries, Dr Pat O’neill, has said the time needs to be six weeks. With the National Leagues resuming on May 8 and 9 for hurling, that time will not be there.
“Lack of preparation is one of the big contributory factors to injury,” said Dr O’neill.
“Players had their own programmes but it’s still compromised in terms of team sports. In terms of my dealing with injuries, it was about the same (as other years), but that was in a shorter timeframe.”
As to what was the ideal time for preparation?
“About six weeks,” he said. “In an actual contest, you don’t have control of what you’re doing in terms of the input required of you at the pace of the game.”
‘They want it next week, which boggles the mind’