Unflattering legacy for Duffy

THE sugared tributes to Páraic Duffy will flow freely over the coming weeks as the Monaghan man steps down from his high office as Director General of the GAA but it is a little too sweet for my state. It is not that I don’t wish him well in retirement but the line is being peddled that he has overseen an extraordinary era of progress, which I find baffling. As he leaves office, we are witnessing a fixture crisis, one which will not be resolved by the latest application of sticking plaster. The free month of April for clubs will count for little while the condensed AllIreland series will provide only minimal relief. The reality is that until the power of county managers, and the docile selfinterested county boards who facilitate them have manners put on them, very little will change. The inability of the club and county games to co-exist throughout the season is an admission that intercounty managers dictate the availability of players. But an association that sought to stand by its club membership would demand that club championship games be played throughout the season and any failure by county boards to schedule fixtures would see them hit with significant fines. And county managers who would put pressure on players to not tog out for their clubs would find that without a county board to protect them, this would be no association for selfish men. That, however, is not the case because the GAA at the highest level has skirted around the issue and that ultimately will be Duffy’s unflattering legacy.