Shane McGrath’s brilliant new column
The must-read column for all serious sports fans
number of teams competing for very limited funds. Counties sharing stadiums is, in the long-term, a sensible course to follow but resistance will be formidable and as long as construction debts remain piled at committee-room doors there will be practical barriers.
More difficult will be the barriers propped up on tradition. It is easy to imagine the scorn steaming off convention reports in response to such radical proposals. But saying no as a reflex is not now good enough. Fresh ways of thinking are not always easily accommodated in the GAA. There remains a tendency towards defensiveness. This was shown only days ago in response to an ESRI study that found high drop-off rates in the numbers of young adults playing Gaelic games.
This was an interesting finding that raises many questions but the reaction of a GAA spokesperson was prickly, complaining that ‘this is an opportunity missed as we weren’t engaged in the consultative process’.
HE WENT on to suggest that the FRC proposal to lower the minor age-grade to under 17 was an attempt to address the pressures placed on players by competing school and sporting schedules. The FRC proposals generally constitute an instance of an official body coming up with imaginative plans for the future of football.
Yet how many people believe their ideas will ever take flesh? The provincial proposals were cleverly designed but had to
The GAA’s old structures cannot be presumed to work efficiently today
be only because the most sensible option, splitting the 32 counties into four units of eight teams each, wouldn’t stand a chance of being fairly discussed, never mind accepted. In the season of self-regarding secretaries’ reports, the Curran proposal and the ESRI report were vibrant blasts through the same old stale air.
The acceptance of the black card at this year’s Congress showed that meaningful change is possible. Having to bomb-proof exciting ideas against detonations of wizened opinion wastes enormous amounts of useful energy, however.
The summer of 2013 hosted the best hurling championship in memory, and the football standard has been consistently higher in the past half-decade than at any point in 30 years.
At this time of strength, though, the Association needs to be vigilant. Resources, playing and financial, are not inexhaustible. There are voices calling for change outside of sombre halls.