Association has to club together & try to end the exodus

IT’S another big weekend for football – on and off the field of play.

Behind the scenes, negotiations are ongoing with players who are on standby to fly to the US next week if their county team is beaten. Even club players are now availing of a free flight and apartment for a couple of summer months to play for American clubs in Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, New York and beyond.

Many are also getting anything up to €5,000 for their efforts while county players are earning from €10,000 up to €20,000 over there. Indeed, two marquee stars are rumoured to have been offered €30,000.

With the fixture fiasco we have in the GAA right now, who could blame any young player for going for it?

The GAA needs to condense the club championship into a shorter period.

Playing one or two games in April and nothing until August or September is simply suicide as clubs at home are losing top players. When I managed my own club, Mullingar Shamrocks, a number of the lads made the trip and all you can do is wish them the best and hope they return at some stage. Right now four of our players are in America. There are nine Meath footballers that played League or Championship in the last year out there, too, and four men who have played for Dublin in the League or Championship. Indeed, it’s been reported that Diarmuid Connolly will be linking up with Donegal Boston this summer.

Joe Kernan informed me a few years ago that even Crossmaglen had seven of their club players in America at the one time. That never happened before.

Croke Park hasn’t stopped this movement and they probably don’t want to take on the diaspora, given the work being done to develop the game abroad.

All the while, however, the clubs where these players made their name are taking the hit and that’s where the resentment really lies.

I’ve been to clubs in the USA and, more recently, in London and I’ve seen what importing playing and coaching expertise does to improve them and how much these people genuinely love the GAA.

You don’t want to see them being punished but until the GAA sort out a master fixture list that gives players here a definitive way to plan out their year, the clubs at home will suffer.

This situation is only going to get worse as the packages get bigger and better and we’re deluding ourselves if we think otherwise

Michael Murphy has been playing superbly