UNTAPPED MARKET IS RIPE FOR GAA
ON THE morning of the All-Ireland senior football final, a r are one - on- one interview with Jim Gavin’s predecessor, Pat Gilroy, appeared in print.
The St Vincent’s man who kickstarted the Dublin revolution by masterminding the breakthrough 2011 success has established the same sort of credentials in business, a free thinker who was the left-field candidate on the shortlist for GAA director general before Páraic Duffy took the top job. In a wide-ranging interview, his thoughts on the globalisation of Gaelic games leapt from the page.
‘The GAA is going global, and it needs to protect its values,’ ran the headline with a more provocative follow- on: ‘Could Gaelic games become the target of a billionaire media tycoon like Australian Kerry Packer, who 40 years ago split the world of cricket and f orced t he game i nto professionalism?’
Gilroy spoke about the next big fight in terms of Gaelic games taking place in the international arena.
‘If UFC can become a 10 million watched thing in three years, then someone i n China can decide, “Jesus, this could become our national sport”. That’s where I think we’ve got our big challenges and for the next 100 years that’s where we need to think: what will we look like as a global organisation. Otherwise that problem will just come flying around the corner and it will be too late if you haven’t a plan to deal with it because it is happening. These games are too good not to be international.’
Yet at the same time, he stressed the need for the association to protect its core values along the way.
That was all before he was appointed as Dublin senior hurling manager and before he found himself being interviewed pitchside last Sunday at baseball’s iconic Boston home, Fenway Park. TG4 were screening live the Fenway Hurling Classic where Dublin were about to take on AllIreland hurling champions Galway in the first game of a threematch tournament that drew nearly 30,000 spectators and saw Clare lift the inaugural Players Champions Cup.
The game itself was thoroughly entertaining. Goals only means it is made for television and there was plenty of crowd interaction. Peter Duggan proved to be an unstoppable goalscoring force and Jason Flynn was another star in a parade of blink-and-youmissed-it skills, tricks, touches and scores, with the odd dust-up thrown in to warm the Boston crowd to the Fightin’ Irish stereotype.
Likewise, the previous day’s decisive second International Rules test i n Perth between Ireland and Australia drew a similar crowd who were also suitably entertained by the pace, athleticism and talent of the players on show.
The thing is, there are no Games Promotion Officers on the streets of Boston this morning, pushing the Super 11s envelope to the next generation. Because, like the International Rules, the game does not actually exist outside of these exhibitions. As Gaelic Players Association chief executive Dermot Earley explained, the Fenway Classic is tied in to the millions needed to finance the GPA and the services it provides.
But is this, as Gilroy might ask, what the GAA is meant to be about?
‘Maybe the GAA needs to think beyond itself as a sport; it has a bigger societal impact,’ he mused back in September.
Last week, this column spoke about the need for the GAA to design a social game for Gaelic football and hurling to rival fivea-side soccer. How the untapped market is not in Perth or Boston, but at home.
The response showed a demand for exactly that. From Belgium to Milwaukee to Scandanavia, mention of co- ed leagues, modified rules, and various forms of social and recreational games rolled in.
The growth of Gaelic games abroad in recent times has been phenomenal and so much of what happens abroad is social and recreational, on modified pitches or with modified equipment. So why not do it right here? That the GAA doesn’t cater properly for those without the time or talent to play competitively is hard to fathom. A noncompetitive recreational league on a Saturday afternoon for example would surely gain huge traction in clubs.
There could be contact and non- contact version depending on skill level and ability with one set of rules to cover men’s and ladies Gaelic football and another to cover hurling and camogie.
Pella is one clever concept perfectly suited to indoor halls where players shoot into what looks like a large inverted basketball hoop. Puc pella is the hurling version. The Leinster Council has included it as part of its games development programmes with Pella leagues organised annually in Carlow, Louth, Longford and Wexford. It’s currently installed in 110 venues around the country and can be custom-fitted for outdoor astro pitches.
This is the sort of homegrown concept t hat needs t o be pushed.
Maybe the Fenway Classic will act as the spark for the GAA and GPA to throw their weight behind an officially codified social and recreational game. If so, then great.
Because there is a ready and willing market there for those who just want to play the games for fun, for a social outlet. Right here, right now. It’s time to tap into it.