Duffy leaving a lasting legacy
IN the political world your pledge becomes your problem. Back in 2007, when the former teacher Páraic Duffy accepted the challenge of taking on the leadership of the biggest sporting/ cultural/political association in the country, he nailed his principled colours to the mast.
‘If I do nothing else over the next seven years, I really want the clubs to feel involved again. I want it so that they can say, “Well, maybe he knew nothing about business, that fella, but at least the club scene is better,”’ he vowed, prior to slipping into the chair that Liam Mulvihill had occupied for the previous 28 years.
It is likely that at this February’s Annual Congress, which takes place just prior to his departure from office the following month after an extended 10year stint, a motion on the clár will all but declare his failure to deliver on that pledge.
For the second time inside 12 months, full recognition of the Club Players Association could be on the agenda. It matters not a jot whether it will be passed or not — and should it make to the floor it most certainly won’t — but with a membership well north of 20,000 its existence serves as a reminder that the club scene is anything but ‘better’ 10 years on.
Not only do the clubs not feel ‘involved’ but many grassroots members feel so marginalised that they have joined a second association in the hope the first one might pay heed to them.
And to a point it has. Duffy’s parting gift is a condensed intercounty season completetoug with a clearly defined window in April for club activity, but no one would dare peddle this as some kind of silver bullet.
It is basically unenforceable and is reliant on the conviction of county boards and good will of county team managers to ensure that modest window is kept open.
In many ways, it also underlines the limitations of the office. He is not a CEO or, for those looking through tabloid lenses, ‘a chief’ gifted with executive powers to make things happen with a pounding of his fist.
That is something that should not be forgotten now that in the twilight of Duffy’s term, the framing of his legacy begins.
There is little doubt when all is added up he has left the GAA in a better place.
For all his self-expressed doubts regarding his lack of business acumen, he has steered the Croke Park commercially through the stormy seas of a recession without ever taking water on board.
True, that is also down to the financial nous provided by Peter McKenna, but Duffy has shown a hard-nosed instinct for protecting the GAA’s commercial interests.
After all, it was he who had to front-up to the public fall-out that accompanied the GAA’s decision to put live games behind a Sky Sports paywall in 2014 and while that decision was largely defended on promotional grounds, strategically it was aimed at ensuring that the media rights market, which amounts to close to 20 per cent of the GAA’s total income, was kept honest and healthy. ‘In