CON ARTISTS ‘17 TEAMS BROKE THE RULE - ONLY THREE WERE SANCTIONED’ ‘GIGS SUCH AS THE SUPER 11s IN BOSTON CAN BE SEEN AS A BREACH’

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LEARN the rules like a pro,’ once intoned Pablo Picasso, ‘so you can break them like an artist.’

With that philosophy had he the good fortune to be born Pól Ó Cathasaigh, his ability to deliver surreal brush strokes on a blank canvas would have been put to far better use over here and made him a county board treasurer in the process.

Because there is nothing more GAA rule makers love than finding ways past the very rules they are charged with upholding.

As far as some of us are concerned, the highlight reel of last year’s Championships featured a queue of rule book artists painting up a comedic storm, rather than anything witnessed on a field of play.

Some county boards were caught in the horns of a dilemma – forced on one hand to serve the needs of their core constituents with April designated exclusively for club fixtures while, on the other, facilitating the

needs of county management teams who must always be heeded.

To make the job easier, they had the full backing of the GAA rule book, specifically Rule 6.22 (b) which states: ‘senior intercounty panels shall not be permitted to go on training weekends, or training of longer duration, after the final of their respective League having been played, except during the 10 days period prior to a senior Championship game, or during the 17 days prior to an All-Ireland senior final.’

It would have been easier if they were in the business of taking care of club business. But the reality is that the rule was an obstruction for some when it came to facilitating the pre-Championship preparation of their county teams.

What to do then? Why, of course, they summoned their inner artist and painted up works that Del Boy Trotter would have been proud to exhibit on the walls of Nelson Mandela House.

It was estimated that 17 counties breached rule 6.22 (b), but just three – Armagh and Laois footballers as well as the Waterford hurlers – were sanctioned and forced to forfeit home advantage in one round of this year’s Allianz League.

Their only crime was that they admitted to it. They did not bother with the paint while the other’s slapped on their beret and overalls, mounted their canvas on an easel which had been set up to have the best possible view of the rule book.

Their impressionist take of it reduced the weighty tome to a mere comic.

The Dublin footballers headed to France in unison, packing history books instead of training bibs, as they surveyed the battle of the Somme before returning home to massacre Wicklow.

The Wexford hurlers headed to the Algarve with the official line that a couple of boys thought that a bit of sun, sea, sand and sangria was the only way to warm up for

the Leinster Championship and before they knew it the whole panel had travelled with them.

And while they were there who did they bump into in a karaoke bar but only manager Davy Fitzgerald, and he belting out My Lovely Rose of Clare.

You could not make it up, which is exactly what they told the GAA’s investigating committee when their county board successfully contested the Central Competition Control Committee’s (CCCC) sanction. And without proof to the contrary, Croke Park could do little but swallow hard.

Armagh, even though bitten last year, are back at it – heading to Portugal this week for a training camp.

Then again the sanction would hardly invite fear – their forfeit of home advantage was softened when their League game against Clare was fixed for Páirc Esler in Newry, which actually straddles the Armagh county bounds and is located closer to the football heartlands in the south of the county than their own Athletic Grounds.

In any case, this time they actually received permission from Croke Park after rule 6.45 was amended at this year’s Congress, making it mandatory for counties to receive permission from the CCCC to undertake extended training camps either at home or abroad.

Permission is granted once counties guarantee to keep four weekends free for club fixtures between the end of the National League and the start of the Championship.

You can view that as either a sensible compromise or a dilution of the rule, but given that the latter was painted over last year, does it make any difference?

However, Croke Park – and let’s be clear it is not the GAA leadership at fault for the failure of county boards to protect clubs – is expected to have another go at this next year by beefing up the rule book, with reports this week that it intends to introduce a blanket ban on all overseas training camps, with a limit of three days to be imposed on home-based camps.

Again, while it is well intended it is also likely to be an invite to county boards to exercise their artistic nature once again.

The dilemma for Croke Park is that if it imposes a ban on overseas training camps to protect clubs, it may need to reduce its own carbon footprint when it comes to overseas trips in the autumn.

Gigs such as the GPA-inspired but now GAA-backed Super 11 (above) in Boston could be seen as a breach of the GAA’s winter trainNational

ing rule, enacted to protect intercounty players.

‘Some teams were using it as a close out to the season but we used it as a way to start the season. We inadvertently stumbled across a training camp for ourselves just to kickstart the whole season,’ said Clare’s joint manager Gerry O’Connor last summer, recalling his team’s excursion to Boston the previous year.

Add in the International Rules Series – a troubled and, many would argue, pointless concept – which is scheduled right at the business end of the club season and there is a strong argument for Croke Park to take the lead by scrapping overseas trips that conflict with its own rules.

Of course, it will be argued that such jaunts are priceless opportunities to promote hurling and provide an international outlet for GAA players.

But that feels more like another brushstroke of convenience than a portrait of the truth.