Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PAUL TO PLAY FOR?
Flynn has taken up GPA job, but what role he fulfils with champions is up in air..
PAUL FLYNN is non-committal on his future with Dublin after taking up his role as chief executive of the Gaelic Players Association this week.
The 32-year-old started his new job on Monday last having been announced as Dermot Earley’s successor in June.
Given that the role demands he represent all county players equally, being heavily involved with one particular squad gives rise to potential for conflict of interest, though there would be precedent in that regard with Dessie Farrell’s spell in the job overlapping with the back end of his Dublin playing career.
Flynn said: “I’m a current Dublin footballer from the 2018 season. I haven’t even got a chance to breathe with regards to even reviewing the whole year.
“What I would say is that I haven’t finished a season and been as happy about I played, even though I didn’t play as much as I have played [in previenjoy ous seasons] this year. I got back surgery in February and I was on my back for the whole month of February and the whole month of March and I didn’t know if I was ever going to play again.
“Then you come back and I felt like a free spirit out there again. I just thoroughly enjoyed it going out and playing the football I know I can play. I struggled with that over the last number of years.
“So, that was something I took a lot from and carrying that form now into club Championship and just enjoying that, and trying to it game on game and I suppose I got married last December.
“I’m sure over Christmas when myself and Fiona [his wife] get a bit of time to talk about it, then we’ll just figure it out.”
The GPA also published its financial report for 2017 at Flynn’s unveiling yesterday and it revealed an 18 per cent increase in both revenue and expenditure.
The fundraising income went from €1,152,643 from €679,554 in 2016, partly due to the staging of the ‘super 11s’ hurling games in Boston after a two-year gap last November.
Notably, there was a 13 per cent decrease in staffing costs, a stick the GPA has been beaten with in the past after it emerged that their “key management” salaries increased by €120,000 to €490,000 in 2016.
The players’ body’s staff dropped from 12 to 11 in 2017 and Flynn said he would take stock on how to proceed in terms of personnel as he settles into the job.
“By Christmas time I’ll start to put a plan in place in terms of how the organisation is going to be set up for the future.
“What got us from A to B isn’t necessarily what we need to get us from B to C. For me, it’s about looking at it, understanding in detail what everyone does, what’s their role. We are underresourced at the moment.”
GAA president John Horan has championed the creation of a second tier football Championship, something that the GPA membership has rejected in the past.
Flynn added: “Players can change their minds. We will row in with what our members want.”