McStay: GAA’s tough stance got counties in line
CROKE Park’s decision to get tough with inter-county managers was the key to ‘full compliance’ with the GAA roadmap, Kevin McStay claimed yesterday Earlier this summer, former Roscommon manager McStay was furious when GAA chiefs insisted that they would not be introducing sanctions to protect club’s access to their players, amid anecdotal reports of intercounty teams being in breach of the ban on training until September 14. The GAA was forced into a U-turn as the anger at grassroots level became evident and advised county boards that the chairperson of any offending county would be hit with an eightweek ban. ‘It was a classic GAA approach as in, “There are things we want you to do but there is no sanction”. ‘And the funny thing is once they did take out the whip and introduced a sanction, the issue disappeared. ‘As much as I am aware, and I would have a good sense of what is going on, there has been total compliance with this,’ McStay told
Sunday Sport on RTÉ radio
yesterday. But McStay said he disagreed with Croke Park’s policing of the issue after the GAA put the onus on clubs to report
any breaches. ‘I don’t like the way they went, “You tell us if you see it”. There was an easier way to police that by going through the chairmen in county boards. They know everything that is going on, but either way, it has worked. ‘And that is no surprise because if you bring out a proper sanction, people tend to comply with things and that has been my life experience. I am glad they have given the clubs breathing space,’ said McStay. However, the RTÉ pundit was dismissive of the theory that in-form players could be called up to their county teams for this winter’s Championship, with fitness being the biggest issue he foresees for any players making the step up to intercounty level. ‘That would be a big ask in terms of the conditioning required in a strange Covid-19 year. The conditioning to play at this level is built up over two, three to four years. ‘Some people will see mileage in it, see a good young fella in devastating form and maybe they will go for it. ‘But I would think that the power, pace and physicality of the county game would make it too big an ask. ‘There is just too much to be learned too soon.’