Michael Duignan
It’s high time players were getting a fair cut
ILOST a front tooth on Monday and ended up in a dentist’s chair in awful pain. The knockon effect of an old injury when it was originally broken, went black, and required root canal treatment and a crown, time eventually caught up on it and it cracked and broke for good.
Now I’ve had worse injuries from the game – I still pay €50 a week in physio expenses to try and loosen up a body that has been beset with back problems and damage to disks in my neck that left me in hospital last year – but the pain of Monday got me thinking about players and what goes on when you’re finished.
Thinking of the incredible hurling weekend just past and the feats of the players over the course of two All-Ireland semi-finals that went to extra-time was the one thing that put a smile on my face.
It’s mind boggling really what they are doing. And yet, how quickly it will be forgotten that they are putting their bodies on the line in such a way – and their lives effectively on hold – to bring the game to new heights.
I’m not a fan of everything the Gaelic Players Association does but to the credit of them and the GAA and county boards, the terms and conditions are good for any county player signing up to the cause. There are decent mileage expenses, good medical treatment and scholarships for a lot of young players which help them through college. I do have concerns over the bigger picture and the impact on their careers, particularly in choosing jobs like teaching to fit around playing the game.
But last weekend didn’t happen by accident. It has been such a spectacular summer – the hurling has been simply phenomenal – that it left me thinking after the semi-finals that the players deserve some sort of financial reward. Especially when you see what they are putting themselves through — so many players having to be helped from the field with various belts and injuries or from sheer exhaustion, from Gearóid McInerney and Joe Canning to Daniel Kearney and Seamus Harnedy.
If the players only walked out with €1,000 each after last Sunday, it wouldn’t begin to cover what they are putting into the game.
I know it’s a very contentious issue and any sort of payments to players has to fit with the amateur ideal but maybe it could be sorted through the existing grants scheme which has been undercut from its original allocation. The level of entertainment and excellence this summer is hurling at a level we’ve never seen. When I played with Offaly, you were able to enjoy a bit of a life around the game, whether socially or career-wise. The landscape has changed so dramatically in the 20 years since our last triumph that it’s reaching a tipping point where the players deserve more of a financial cut.
I’ve spoken against the over-commercialisation of various strands of the GAA, and the elitism that has over-shadowed the club scene, but it seems like everyone is getting a cut now bar the players. You have the situation where physios and medical personnel get direct payment and filling Croke Park is such a financial windfall that little thought seems to be given on how many of these brilliant players could be left on the scrap heap in retirement.
I got a big reaction to a previous column when I drew attention to the case of Clare’s Darach Honan (left), crippled by injury to the extent that he announced his retirement at just 27. And he left little doubt as to the impact on his body of playing senior hurling and the intense training that went on in the background.
I know the grants scheme is staggered depending on how far a county progresses. Perhaps a match bonus is the way, starting from the round-robin section because you don’t want it just to be about the players who end up going furthest.
It was interesting to read of the bonus scheme in place for teams in the recent World Cup, the value rising with each stage of the competition, right up to the win bonus for the French players who went all the way.
I’m not advocating elitism but the long-term futures of the players have to be factored in.