EXTREME MEASURES
GAA have to play hardball if their restart plan is to work, insists Briody
A complete split season has to be considered
MICHEÁL BRIODY is asked if there are lessons to be learned from the Covid-19 crisis. If the way the country reacted to the Government roadmap can be applied in a sporting environment.
The chairman of the Club Players Association clearly thinks so.
‘It should. It certainly should. It shows that when you have strong leadership and you put in a rule or policy that is for the benefit of everyone, people will follow. People crave strong leadership – and fairness. That’s all. It’s quite simple.’
In plenty of ways, the GAA have shown that leadership. Backing the grassroots with their own return to play roadmap with clubs getting the summer window and counties not being allowed to train until September 14 ahead of an October 17 resumption of intercounty competition, be that any outstanding National League fixtures or All-Ireland championship.
Without the threat of proper sanction though, Briody says that the GAA’s return to play roadmap is being fundamentally undermined. That it’s not good enough to turn a blind eye to what is actually happening on the ground, with counties blithely ignoring the ban on collective training. That the Gaelic Players Association has asked for the player injury scheme to be reactivated is a simple reflection of the reality.
‘You can see it now with the over-lapping periods with club and county. What the GPA are looking for. They’re looking to be insured to go back training in a club period when it’s expressly a club period. So that’s kinda like, “it’s a club period – but it’s actually not”. You shouldn’t be training. The same way a lot of them are back training at the moment.
‘It’s not just one — they’re all back. It’s going to be really interesting when you get into the back end of the club scene and inter-county managers are going to be looking for those players – and so are clubs.
I don’t think it’s going to work — unless we have a very strong rule-making body in Croke Park — and we do not. They don’t seem to have the desire or the wherewithal to put the rules in place that are required.’
Hence he restates his call for the ultimate sanction of counties being barred from All-Ireland competition if they don’t abide by the roadmap, and for county managers who are organising the sessions to be banned.
‘We would feel that it’s fine putting in a rule but your sanction has to be appropriate. And the only sanction that is going to ensure teams and managers comply, is to be thrown out of the competition.
‘They have it in other sports. You see it with Man City and the Champions League – whatever it was with transfers or whatever, they were punished. If you were to fine them a million euro, in Man City’s case, it wouldn’t make a difference. They would continue to do it. It’s the ultimate punishment to be thrown out of a competition.
‘The same here. If inter-county managers or are requesting players outside of a window well then they are banned from training an inter-county team for a period of time. That’s the strong rules that are needed. At the moment, there are so many overlaps that it’s left to all these individual counties. And they all have different viewpoints. Some are strong on hurling; some are strong on football. Some are really strong on club. You just have this mish-mash of an unlevel playing field.’
And what about the counter argument? That there is too much time, energy, effort, and expense involved at inter-county level to expect players to rock up a week after club finals and play a vital county game, that having just five weeks preparation is simply not realistic or fair?
‘That depends on where you want the organisation to go. Are you prepared to sit back and go, “We’re more or less professional now. Just let county teams be professional in everything but name.” And have an imprint on more or less 10 months of the calendar. If that’s what you want and where you want the organisation to go, all right. If you don’t, you either put in strong sanctions or you put in strong calendar segregations.
‘But seeing as they are not going to do that, or don’t seem to be going to do that, then their only option is a complete split season.
‘County players are going have to realise that they are club players as well. Equally, too, the GPA are going to have to realise that all of their members are club players and have a responsibility to their clubs, as well as to their county.’
In the absence of proper sanctions, and with a club versus county tug of war already underway, he admits that a complete split season where inter-county is compressed into the first half of the year, and club the second, has to be reconsidered. That means All-Ireland finals in July.
‘Personally, I think it’s the only way. That might not be the overall feeling on our exec but it was tabled as one of the earlier options on the (fixtures)taskforce. But it was scrapped. Because the thought was it wouldn’t work, for the main reason that for it to happen, the All-Irelands would be brought forward and played too early. It was all to do with the promotional end to it. Kids at schools. September being this ideal month for an All-Ireland. ‘I think if you could have them at the end of July. Frees up then August, September, October, November, December for your club championships. Right through to your club AllIreland. The clubs then could run leagues from March/April through to June/July. ‘Back in my playing days, I would have been very happy with that. But it’s amazing how many counties are welded to the idea of the league being tied up with their championship. Especially Ulster counties.
‘There is a great opportunity here for both club and county, for the year that’s in it, to try something new.’
The CPA was established to represent grassroots GAA members and try and redress the imbalance between club and county, quickly gaining over 25,000 members.
‘Fix the fixtures’ has been its mantra all along. In that respect, nothing has changed says Briody who thinks Covid-19 has shown how the traditional calendar can be completely changed when circumstances dictate and the will is there.
‘There’s never been anything taken out of the calendar. From the qualifiers through to the Super 8s through to the round robin. All landed in; nothing being taken out.
‘Go back to the blank canvas approach and not trying to keep the exact same competition structures and find dates — that’s the problem.
That’s where the [Fixtures] Task Force fell down.’