TELL ON THEM!
Ryan: GAA need anonymous tips to enforce rules
FORMER Limerick hurling manager Tom Ryan yesterday called on Croke Park to use ‘whistleblowers’ to ensure the inter-county roadmap is observed.
Amid ongoing confusion over whether Wexford hurler Liam Ryan sustained a foot injury while training with the county or his club Rapparees, the former Treaty boss said that while clubs remain reluctant to inform against their own players, Croke Park should establish a unit that would receive information from anonymous members and gather the evidence independently.
‘The whole concept of whistleblowing has worked well in Irish public life by shining a light in some very dark places and it can do the same for the GAA,’ Ryan said.
‘All it would take is for Croke Park to set up an internal unit that would receive this information and could then independently act on it by travelling to wherever this training is taking place and gather first-hand, independent evidence.
‘The first time they act in such a manner it would strike terror into all the other counties.’
FORMER Limerick hurling manager Tom Ryan has claimed that GAA clubs would have to display courage to ensure access to their players.
The club-county crisis took another twist yesterday when confusion arose over Wexford hurler Liam Ryan’s foot injury.
Speaking in a video preview for the county championship, Padge Walsh, Ryan’s club manager at Rapparees, revealed that the fullback sustained a hairline fracture to his foot ‘while doing something with the county’.
Inter-county teams are not due to return to training until September. However, a spokesman for the Wexford County Board denied that Ryan had sustained the injury with the Leinster champions, saying the board was ‘adamant’ the injury had been sustained at his club.
Players who get injured while training with their county teams prior to September 14 are not covered by the GAA’s player insurance scheme.
The confusion around the source of Ryan’s injury will do little to quell fears that GAA clubs, despite being invited this week to make a formal complaint in the event of their players being asked to report for county training, will not inform Croke Park on any breach of the regulation.
But Tom Ryan (below), who is also a columnist for this paper, insisted that clubs had been presented with an opportunity to ‘do the right thing’.
‘This has been the biggest issue facing clubs for the past 20 years and now they have finally been given the chance to do something about it,’ said Ryan yesterday.
‘I know that it can be a very difficult thing for a club to report against its own player and its own county, but this issue has been allowed to fester.
‘Clubs have a responsibility to do what is right for all their players and they should not waste this opportunity. This is a time for courage,’ insisted the former Limerick manager. However, there has been strong anecdotal evidence that clubs will not take up either option of making a formal complaint to their county chairperson, or to Croke Park, in the event of further breaches of the September 14 return. Former Donegal chairman John McConnell claimed yesterday that the rule is ‘putting clubs in an impossible position’.
‘In reality, no clubs are going to turn on their own players and get them into trouble,’ he said.
But Ryan believes if Croke Park is serious on acting on any breaches, it would facilitate ‘whistleblowers’ who would be protected with anonymity.
‘I have sympathy for any individual or club who, even though they would be doing the right thing, run the risk of being ostracised as a result,’ said Ryan.
‘The reality is that if you want to find out the truth, then you have to provide some degree of protection as there has to be some recognition of the sensitivities involved.
‘The whole concept of whistleblowing has worked well in Irish public life by shining a light in some very dark places and it can do the same for the GAA.
‘All it would take is for Croke Park to set up an internal unit that would receive this information and could then independently act on it by travelling to wherever this training is taking place and gather the first-hand independent evidence to make the charge stick.
‘It is not as if they will have to travel all over the country, because the first time they would act in such a manner it would strike terror into all the other counties that are in breach of the rule and it would stop,’ added Ryan.
However, given the GAA leadership appeared to have been pressurised into making a U-turn in the first instance, imposing sanctions seems unlikely.
Ryan claims that the GAA’s ‘mixed messaging’ means there is ‘confusion’ as to how serious they are in dealing with any breaches.
‘It is a bit like how the Government dealt with the face mask issue. First we were told that they were not necessary. Then we were told that they were, which explains why there has been such poor levels of compliance.
‘It was the same with Croke Park on this issue. If they insisted they were not going to put sanctions in place in the first instance, how determined are they really about imposing these sanctions?
‘I don’t think a lot of county managers are too fearful as a result,’ said Ryan, who also said the current crisis should serve as a watershed moment in controlling the annual spend on intercounty team preparations.
‘I have been saying for an age that a cottage industry mentality is driving this crisis.
‘There are people getting paid and, as a result, the commitment demanded from players and the financial supports demanded from county boards has become unsustainable.
‘The truth is that financially — as a country and an association — the financial consequence of the pandemic is still ahead of us.
‘The reality is that counties will no longer be able to sustain that level of investment, which means that capped budgets will have to be imposed
‘But when that happens, you will see even greater challenges trying to impose it.
‘However, the rewards of addressing that issue would have a huge impact in releasing pressure on time and fixtures
‘If the money is not there to sustain these intensive and unnecessary levels of preparation, you might find the appetite for those driving this in the first place to not be as big,’ said Ryan.
‘This has been the big issue facing clubs for 20 years’
‘Cap budgets, counties can’t sustain the investment’