Will Duignan’s call out force counties into training rethink?

YOU’VE surely have heard or read Michael Duignan’s comments from Monday night when the Offaly County Board chairman called out what he termed the “hypocrisy” and the “dishonest” message being sent out by inter-county managers and their County Boards who are facilitating or will facilitate inter-county training before the September 14 date for such training to resume.

Two questions follow: (a) how many inter-county managers and county board chairpersons squirmed uneasily on hearing Duignan’s comments on Newstalk’s ‘Off The Ball’ programme, and (b) how many county teams will be engaged in collective, unsanctioned training before September 14?

There has been plenty of talk and opinion and disgruntlement since Croke Park set out its Return to Play roadmap and issued its inter-county fixtures calendar for the rest of the year, with the September 14 return to inter-county training the biggest bone of contention for many. The rights and wrongs of barring county panels resume training before September 14 is one thing, but the reality is that Croke Park have designated a 13-week window for club activity followed by a nine-week window for inter-county action. In fact the clubs get just eight weeks for themselves before they see their county men return to the inter-county training scene.

Duignan’s ire seems to derive from the fact that too many inter-county managers appear to be the tail that wags the dog that is the club scene in that county. That’s hardly news to anyone who has seen certain inter-county managers in recent years force the postponement of entire county championships until the county team has finished up for the year, but it is nevertheless refreshing to see and hear a county board chairman bite back.

As a Offaly hurler, Duignan was never afraid to put his head in where it hurts, and as a hurling analyst and pundit he seldom, if ever, pulled his punches either. Having taken over as Chairman of Offaly GAA late last year, it’s obvious that he is bringing that same straight-talking and fearless approach to his new role. It’s also obvious now that neither Michael Fennelly, the Offaly hurling team manager, or John Maughan, the football boss, can expect to convene team training before September 14, even if either man wanted to.

“It is not anti games but there has to be a balance, better than what it is. We had a chance to say community and family comes first, and being with your own people comes first and what we have done is we’ve jumped straight back into the inter-county rat race,” Duignan said. “People have been sick and dying in our communities. We have all been locked up at home and our communities really should be first, our clubs, let them have their players without them looking over their shoulders first.”

The GAA has, rightly, received much kudos during the Covid-19 crisis for coming to the aid of the community at large, by way of offering assistance to vulnerable people through shopping, deliveries, and even just talking to and visiting isolated people.

Duignan is concerned that all that goodwill will vanish overnight if county managers and county boards, and, indeed, the county players themselves, blatantly contravene the rules, even if Croke Park isn’t prepared to issue sanctions against offending parties.

Of course, all it takes is for one county panel to go back earlier than permitted for the next one to break ranks and the next one to do more to catch up and before we know it the whole “rat race”, as Duignan calls it, is up and running out of control again.

Is it naive to think that several county squads won’t be back training collectively well before September 14?

Should county players whose clubs have gone out of all local competition available to them before September 14 be allowed resume inter-county training?

Is it unfair on county players and management teams to have only five weeks together before the deferred National League games start up, or have just eight weeks, in Kerry and Cork’s case, between the start of inter-county training and their first Championship match?

On the first question, the answer is yes, it would be naive to think some county panels won’t be back before September 14.

On the second question, a more nuanced, phased basis might be more favourable, and would be workable with the goodwill of all stakeholders in a county involved.

On the third point, some might say eight weeks should be ample time to prepare a team for what will, in half the counties, be their only Championship game of the year.

The problem is that if the eventual All-Ireland champions in football and hurling are known to have taken a jump-start on some of the others it will lead firstly to anger, and then to regret, and then to the arms race starting even earlier in 2021.

Plus ça change, plus c’est chose... la même