GIVE RESPECT GET RESPECT
Coleman insists controversial plan to keep some counties out of the League ‘needs to disappear’
WHEN it came to selecting a manager of the Ireland team for the recent hurling/shinty international against Scotland, Damien Coleman was handpicked for the job for various reasons. Not just because he is from the hurling hotbed of Portumna and has a career behind him at elite level but as much for a lifetime in coaching and hurling development.
A prerequisite of the Ireland shinty team is that it fosters development and gives players from every county in Ireland the chance to represent their country.
That’s why there is a limit of seven players maximum from the tier one All-Ireland hurling championship that is the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
The majority of the squad is made up of representatives from the other tiers – the Joe McDonagh, Christy Ring, Nicky Rackard and Lory Meagher Cups. Fourteen different counties.
Hence, someone like Fermanagh’s Luca McCusker can rub shoulders with All-Ireland winners like Padraig Walsh of Kilkenny or Peter Duggan of Clare.
Coleman’s career has involved developing the game off-Broadway as much as under the bright lights. As Connacht hurling director for much of the last two decades, he has an intimate understanding of the challenges required to support and foster the game outside his native Galway – in Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo and Leitrim.
So he’s ideally placed to assess the controversial proposal to deny counties with fewer than five clubs a place in the National Hurling League from 2025.
The counties affected would only come together for All-Ireland Championship competition. Put forward by the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) with a view to being voted on at next month’s Central Council meeting, it would impact Leitrim, along with Cavan, Longford, Louth and Fermanagh
‘Very damaging,’ is Coleman’s take on it. ‘Anyone barely surviving needs support, they don’t need another kick.’
In January, Coleman is due to return to a Connacht development role after taking a year’s sabbatical in 2023. One where he found himself being asked to contribute to an Offaly GAA plan by chairman Michael Duignan and then actually coach the Leitrim hurlers. So he has first-hand experience of their commitment to the cause.
He undertook a Master’s Degree in Sport Management at UCD and has been lecturing and immersing himself in sports strategy and development. His view is simple: ‘My own personal opinion is, the way to develop any sport is not to abandon playing opportunities. I think hurling is on a survival thread in those counties. Support is needed. The people who are ambitious will always hurl. I can’t say that Leitrim won’t exist in the Lory Meagher [Cup] because there was no League preparation. I think those guys are intrinsically motivated and their heart and soul is in the hurling and they will turn out for Championship.
‘But the bigger picture for me is that they’re being treated this way. Look at our own GAA values – inclusivity is one of our values. Plus teamwork, community identity. If we are not living by our values of the national governing body of our sport in every county, is that a maverick decision then?’
So will this be quietly shelved in light of widespread, vocal opposition?
‘I think it needs to go away. The players of Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Fermanagh, Cavan, all deserve their inclusivity under the values of the Association. Why would they be treated differently than anybody else?
‘Give respect, get respect. Look we know the words. Sometimes some of the people who come with these arguments to get rid of hurling, they know the words but there is no profound learning. They need to go away and examine their conscience on this. The argument that Leitrim hurlers shouldn’t get a league game or shouldn’t be involved in any National League next year doesn’t stand up. Leitrim footballers haven’t achieved either so should they go as well?
‘Let it be the same for everybody. We are being
very disrespectful here to hurlers who roll up their sleeves and put their shoulder to the wheel and train every bit as hard as their tier one counterpart. Whoever came up with it needs to make it disappear fast. It makes no sense. If we as an Association are trying to make it thrive, survive and flourish, sure we’re totally talking out the two sides of our mouth here.
‘We’re doing the opposite of what we should be doing to make the Association thrive, survive and flourish.’
Galway All-Ireland winner Conor Whelan described the proposal as ‘barbaric’. Neil McManus, who has dedicated his life to the game with club and county in Antrim, joined the chorus of criticism, along with Kilkenny’s Eddie Brennan.
‘You’d have to endorse all those top players who came out,’ says Coleman. ‘You’d have to admire them for looking out for the lower tier player. We’re all colleagues, we’re all comrades, we all work hard to keep the Association at the high level. These decisions don’t help. They are very reactive, not proactive. Very damaging.
‘Why are we putting ourselves up against each other?
‘We need to be more collaborative in our decisions and thoughts and not just dropping bombshells: “Get of Leitrim.” It’s the easy target. Anyone
barely surviving needs support, they don’t need another kick.’
Another reason Coleman is well placed to talk is that he completed a Master’s Degree in Sport Management at UCD in the past year. One of his subject areas was titled: ‘Leadership and People Management’, another ‘Strategy and Operations’.
‘You get common purpose through involving people.
If you want to lead through influence you have got to get collaboration. Where was the collaboration process with the players? The players are telling me that they heard about this in the media? I don’t think they’re telling me untruths. If we are going to be as volcanic as that with the decision, would that not have been a longer consultation process?
‘Who actually dreamt it up? It’s a finance thing for sure.
‘Under inclusivity, teamwork, identity, why didn’t we give Leitrim three years to get to five clubs - and then this would be the action? But this is not very well thought out and I think we’re damaging the Association and the game.
‘Most of my friends, through my work in Connacht, are football people. Are really good people. We don’t need to be put up against each other because one or two have gone on this agenda. And I think it’s an agenda for sure.
‘Whoever called it on needs to call it off. I don’t think it should go through
Central
Council. There is too muchmomentum against it. It’s not fair nor right.’