THE RIGHT TO CRY FREEDOM

Retired Paddy O’Rourke has been attacked for breaking GAA code in his attempt to simply give players a voice

PADDY O’Rourke might reflect this week on the wisdom of whatever know-it-all came up with the line that it is better to be slapped by the truth than kissed by a lie.

The former Meath goalkeeper, who has revealed that his decision to retire from the inter-county game has not left the kind of void in his life where he is locked away in a room with his DVD collection of the O’Byrne Cup’s Golden Years, has created quite the stir for having the audacity to declare that his life is all the better for leaving the game behind.

To be fair, the inter-county community has not become such a begrudging shower that it is not happy because Paddy is happy, it is just that it would be a lot happier if he did not insist sharing his happiness with the outside world.

All he had to do was thank the county for the privilege of wearing the jersey, tip the hat to all who he played with and wish his teammates the best in the future. Just a little white lie for old times’ sake.

But, no, instead last week he reminded us once more that rather becoming infected by melancholy now that he has come to end of the road; he is instead filled by doubt as to whether it was one worth travelling in the first instance.

He questioned whether reason is in play when asking young men to effectively give over huge chunks of their lives to an amateur sport where the only payback is glory.

Oh, and that dividend is only payable to a select few while the ‘glory’ for the rest comes packaged in the knowledge they were part of the chain gang in a great production.

‘All that training and commitment for one or two big Championship games, so many other players must also be hating it,’ O’Rourke told an online blog last week.

His candour has not been appreciated, particularly not in the constituency where his grim message would most likely resonate.

Offaly manager Stephen Wallace articulated that contempt with some passion.

‘Don’t stick your two fingers up to the rest of your teammates; they don’t need to be hearing that. If you want to walk away, then walk away, but don’t beat the guys who are still at it with a stick. It is a nasty business,’ blasted Wallace.

But what’s ‘nasty’ about one man’s truth? Of course, it is a matter of choice and for many inter-county players, they play because they love it. Where some like O’Rourke — and he is far from alone given the testimonies from other recently retired players such as Brendan Bugler, Kieran Bergin and the very much still active Shane Dowling — see it in hindsight as a punishing slog on the treadmill, others see an environment that provides structure to young lives.

But just because the majority don’t complain in an environment where media coaching takes precedent over ball skills, silence should not necessarily be confused for willing compliance, or, more importantly, best practice.

The team culture is such that players, in an insidious way, not least through a dressing-room code of contact culture, are seen to be raising the bar themselves when the reality is that the individual is gagged by the premise that there is no ‘I’ in team.

But the truth has its own way of coming out. We see it in all shapes and forms. In his first 18 months as Galway manager, Kevin Walsh counted 52 players who had either declined a trial, an invite to join or had dropped off his squad. The Longford manager Denis Connerton spoke of a 40 per cent rejection rate from players who declined the ‘honour’ of having a shot at playing for their county when he first tried to draw up a panel.

Players don’t just retire now; they take ‘time out’ sometimes for a full season, more times indefinitely. For pity’s sake, we have reached a stage where the GAA set aside over €6m annually, much of which is used to fund schemes to address issues which in part are generated by the excessive demands placed on inter-county players.

Reports have been published, admittedly to back up the GPA’s argument for funding, that intercounty players’ career opportunities suffer because of their

commitment to an amateur sport.

Far more seriously, inter-county players may be more susceptible to mental health and gambling addiction issues as a result of the social exclusion that is a byproduct of living in a bubble.

We seek to address this by throwing money at addressing the symptoms, when logic and humanity demands that we address the cause.

None of this is new and yet when a former player questions whether the sacrifices involved are beyond reason he is pilloried for giving the ‘two fingers’ to those who he last left behind.

He has been accused of being ‘arrogant’ –— Carlow star Brendan Murphy fired that insult as a result of O’Rourke suggesting the GAA, in opting for an elitist Championship format, is offering nothing to counties like Carlow or Leitrim.

For the record neither, of those counties has made it to the last eight since the advent of the All-Ireland quarter-finals in 2001, and if by some act of freakery they make it to the Super 8s they are likely to find it a brutish rather than illuminating experience.

As ever it is easier to shoot the messenger, but in shining a light on a culture that asks too much from too many for too high a cost, O’Rourke has not given the ‘two fingers’ to those left behind.

Instead, he has merely sought to direct them into having a conversation in which others should feel free to have their voice heard too.