CLUBS THE BEDROCK OUR GAME THRIVES ON
FAR from the public eye but the most significant moment of the GAA year still awaits us. Later this month Croke Park is committed to publishing a master fixtures list which is expected to provide a definitive schedule for all its playing members.
If your only interest in the GAA is through the eyes of a spectator, you might well roll your eyes and think “what’s the big deal?”
In fact, if you are an inter-county player living inside that bubble you will not be kept awake at night wondering as to how this master schedule will roll.
I was like that too for an age. I always remember Dara Ó Cinnéide in my ear complaining about the lot of the club player when I was still playing for Kerry and just thinking that contrariness is part and parcel of the ageing condition.
I know better now. You don’t really truly appreciate the value of your club until you get back to it and what I have found this year is that it has not just served to help fill in the void left by Kerry, but it has provided me with a sense of satisfaction and purpose which I did not think was possible.
It has been better than I could have imagined and immersing myself in the day-to-day running of the team as joint manager with Conall Ó Cruadhlaoich of An Ghaeltacht has been satisfying and eye-opening.
In truth, Kerry probably make a better fist of the fixture issue than most, in the main because county league games are played fairly regularly and it is a competition which gets a lot of respect.
That said, because of the gap between Championship games — we have reached the county intermediate final but we went over two and a half months between rounds at one stage — some players tend to head away for the summer in the knowledge that they won’t miss a Championship game.
What’s the harm in that you ask? Plenty.
Kerins O’Rahilly’s played yesterday in the county semi-final against South Kerry, yet they have had the cloud of being relegated out of the senior Championship hanging over them all season as a result of losing in the first round of the senior Club Championship (a separate competition in Kerry exclusively for clubs).
They are one of the best teams in the county as their county championship campaign has proved and yet they find themselves in this position, in part because they lost over 10 players to the United States during the summer.
Austin Stacks were Munster champions three years ago but they have just been relegated to the second division of the league, again because they have lost so many players during the summer.
When your big clubs are struggling you have a serious issue on your hand, and it is one that has obviously a knock-on effect on the county team.
More importantly if big clubs are struggling because players don’t feel it is worth hanging around during the summer imagine the devastating effect it has on small rural clubs where numbers are always an issue.
A proper coherent fixture schedule which provides meaningful games in peak season would keep a lot of those players at home and that is why the club game is in desperate need of help.
This year the GAA has seen fit to introduce formats with the intention of benefiting the All-Ireland football and hurling championships, but the priority has to be to fix the issue which impacts directly on 98 per cent of the GAA’s playing membership.
In truth, the reform at intercounty level — specifically in condensing the Championship and bringing forward the All-Ireland finals — will help, but more needs to be done.
I don’t have the answers although I do feel that the completion of all competitions in the calendar has to be brought back on the agenda.
I am not sure what the obsession about playing the All-Ireland club finals on St Patrick’s Day is about, but it would be healthier for the club game if it was played in the same year.
Apart from how unfair it is to ask players to pick up the threads of an All-Ireland campaign in midwinter — effectively to play two games in three months — a calendar year schedule would focus minds and demand greater discipline in keeping to a master schedule.
I would be sceptical of the chances of this scheduling blueprint resolving the issue and that scepticism is rooted in the lack of real consultation that has taken place with the grassroots.
Any solution to this crisis has to be led from the bottom up rather than being imposed from the top down.
That is why I find it so hard to understand why the GAA has kept the Club Players Association at arm’s length.
Okay, I know that it meets with the CPA but the GAA’s distrust of the club players’ body was reflected in its refusal to recognise it at Congress earlier this year.
At last count, the CPA had over 20,000 signed up members of which I am proud to say that I am one.
It has no other agenda — and has already made it clear that it has no interest in accessing central funds — other than to ensure that the club player is properly facilitated in terms of welfare and a proper pre-determined playing schedule.
And until that is facilitated, the GAA will be as strong as the fractured foundation stone it is now built upon.
WHEN CLUB PLAYERS ARE STRUGGLING YOU HAVE AN ISSUE