GAA sleepwalking into a major crisis as joy seeps out

THE annual Lennon Cup All-Stars presentation ceremony took place in DkIT last Wednesday evening and having been privileged to be asked to partake in the selection process, the invite to attend included an opportunity to speak.

I must say, it was a really pleasant occasion. Not just one but two attendees asked if it was alright to sit down beside me in the auditorium having clearly not got the memo which Seán Wall, the Drogheda Independent’s Meath GAA correspondent, received prior to the recent Leinster minor championship clash in Hunterstown.

We had agreed a rendez-vous point between the respective dugouts at Páirc Baile Fiach so that we couldn’t miss any subs running in or out. But he suddenly felt compelled to shuffle down a few metres after a minute or so. “I’m just moving away in case a stray bullet hits me,” says Seán who, having been at Elland Road for his beloved Leeds United’s scoreless draw with Sunderland last week, is well used to shooters with a dubious aim.

So it was reassuring to know that at least two of the other dignitaries in DkIT were not wary of the potential for a sniper to be in the building.

Just as I was leaving the seat for the main stage, having been well briefed not to slander anyone by my editor, Paul Gallagher, the St Mary’s College teacher who is also secretary of the Louth secondary schools’ committee, nudged me, saying that he had to collect his wee fella from soccer training.

Hint taken. I was on the road out of DkIT 20 minutes later, primed for a later engagement, only to realise I’d left the phone behind. Back up the Dublin Road, in the door and with all belongings retrieved, primed for the departure gate once again. At which time Paul was still there, standing with a goujon in one hand and mug of tea in the other.

The wee lad’s game must have gone to extra-time and penalties…

THE POINT

I stood at a game recently and was taken aback by the low number of subs kicking about at half-time and asked one of the players where the rest of their panel was. “Won’t commit,” was the reply.

Two clubs that I know of in Division 1 are essentially looking for a five-day commitment per week between matches, training, gym work and analysis sessions. We are in April. More sides have been training since before Christmas than haven’t. You must remember that the league hasn’t even started for some teams yet.

Pre-season will have extended to five months in certain cases, which is both bonkers and unsustainable. “They wouldn’t be at it in the Premier League,” a friend of mine says. He’s right. I’ve used the comparison between a typical GAA pre-season and that of Ballymena United in the Irish Premiership on several occasions.

David Jeffrey, their former manager, spoke one time about having a six-week block from when the players return to training in summer until the first game in the North’s top-flight. You must remember that Ballymena’s players are semi-professional and receiving payment for playing.

In GAA, if you’re not up there with the top teams, the solution is to train harder or start earlier. In Ballymena’s case, they could train like demons and not break into the Premiership elite. Their issue is budget and being incapable of competing financially with Linfield or Larne. Not because they only train for six weeks before kicking off the season.

Elsewhere in this week’s edition, there is a piece with several people who have experience of managing club teams in Louth and elsewhere. Strength and conditioning, and its importance, is a major theme of the study. Without having a focus towards it, you are unlikely to get a club job, one contributor opined. Another, while accepting that it is now a vital part of preparing a team, says that it’s important to not “sicken” lads in terms of the commitment being looked for.

The GAA is sleepwalking into a crisis and while wanting to touch upon it when speaking to the young All-Stars last week, it just didn’t feel like the right time.

Unless the incoming generation of players stand up to the obscene list of requirements being set by paid coaching tickets, who are increasingly turning committees into mere fundraising bodies whose main purpose is to produce cash which sustains the furnace fire, more players will be turned away at an earlier age.

A young lad told me before Christmas, when I spoke to him about all this, that training was all he did outside of work. How is that beneficial or sustainable? It completely blurs the lines between hobby and vocation whereby instead of sport being facilitated around family and work, it is the absorbing, all-encompassing “third place,” as GAA President Jarlath Burns calls it.

Scroll through the endless list of transfers of young people, who are Gaelic footballers, from clubs in Ireland to Canada or Australia or New Zealand. Now, that could be a reflection of Irish society at the moment and how this country, given the economic factors at play, is a very unappealing place to live.

But is it too outlandish to assume that they are so burnt out by a pursuit which, in the past, has kept lads in their 20s and 30s in the locality that hopping on a plane is as much to escape the pressure cooker that is GAA as much as it is through a desire to see the world or further their career?

Especially when the game they are playing is propelled by a culture of ‘ you must do, you cannot do and you have to’ and suited to single males who have evenings and nights off work.

The sport is gone out of Gaelic games. So much so that due to the amount of effort being put in by players, defeat or perceived failure leads to an unhealthy obsession with training even harder or more. The consequence is earlier retirement, lives devoid of much else and, ultimately, regret.

Where is the fun? What is the point?

MORE SIDES HAVE BEEN TRAINING SINCE BEFORE CHRISTMAS THAN HAVEN’T