Carry on jostling as motion to define melee falls short
NOT long after Jason Forde was helping University of Limerick to a Fitzgibbon Cup hurling title in Mallow, the same player was at the heart of a very GAA discussion in Croke Park at the association’s annual Congress.
There was a metaphysical element to the debate to define a ‘melee’ in the rulebook as involving ‘a minimum of five persons’, all prompted by Davy Fitzgerald’s controversial altercation with the Tipperary hurler in last year’s National League semi-final.
Both the Wexford hurling manager and the Silvermines attacker picked up suspensions and at the time Tipperary secretary Tim Floyd spoke in favour of updating the rulebook. As delegates lined up to question the need for any change – ‘we know it when we see it’ – said one of a melee, it was defeated after 69 per cent voted against.
The fallout from the same onpitch incursion did lead to one change, with ‘minor physical interference (e.g. ‘laying a hand on, pushing, pulling or jostling) with an opposing team official either on or off the field of play’ now carrying a one-match ban.
The Under 21 hurling championship has a long and storied tradition but significantly, it has been brought back to U20 from 2019. This is to bring it in line with football and because the minor grade has switched from U18 to U17.
One debate that raised the temperature in the room was the motion from Wexford club St Mary’s, Rosslare, home of Liam Griffin, the Wexford All-Ireland winning manager and Club Players Association fixtures co-ordinator. It proposed that each delegate’s vote on all motions at Congress shall be recorded and published in the minutes thereafter.
Framed by proposer Griffin as a motion for greater accountability and transparency, he said it was ‘the GAA being mature and responsible’ adding: ‘What is there to be afraid of?’
Quite an amount, it seems. Cork chairperson Tracey Kennedy said she found the thrust of it ‘a little disturbing’ while European GAA’s Tony Bass echoed the view that delegates should operate as is on the basis of ‘respect and trust’.
After delegates rounded on the CPA last year when a bid for official recognition was ultimately withdrawn against a chorus of dissent, this CPA-sponsored motion was heavily defeated with 83 per cent against.
New president John Horan later revealed that a National Club Committee is to be established, a body perhaps to take the sting out of the CPA. While playing down talk of a ‘disconnect’ between grassroots and Croke Park, he went on to announced that a National Club Forum will take place.
‘Elitism is a threat to our amateur status,’ he declared in his inaugural address. ‘We won’t preserve the amateur status through rules passed in Croke Park. Amateur status is a value and mindset and the answer is at club and county level.’
He also revealed that a new threeyear Strategic Vision and Action Plan will be unveiled in April.
One motion came with a truly international element: that Central Council would have the power to authorise international units to allow their grounds to be used in the manner of Croke Park – that is, for games other than those controlled by the Association, such as rugby or soccer.
Even though Cork official Frank Murphy spoke against the motion, it was carried by an overwhelming 90 per cent.
It’s a bit bizarre that Ireland is now the anomaly, Central Council only having the power to authorise one stadium – Croke Park – for the use of other sports. Given that other key, strategic stadia were made available by the GAA as part the IRFU’s Rugby World Cup, it’s surely only a matter of time before the rule is relaxed for all GAA units, both at home and abroad.
Given how emotive and divided the debate was before Rule 42 was relaxed in terms of Croke Park, it’s a significant step.
In his own speech, outgoing president Aogán Ó Fearghail defended the Association’s commercial agenda, particularly the controversial pay-per-view element of the latest media rights deal, with three separate counties passing motions against the deal involving Sky Sports and an online petition gathering recent support.
‘We need solid income streams and we work hard to ensure that they exist. For it to be any other way would be us failing our membership and indeed the future direction of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael.
‘Our attendances, sponsorship and media rights help us to do the things we have to do to finance the ongoing growth of the GAA and help us to compete with professional sporting organisations.’
On the subject of fixtures and the scrutiny on club, college and National League competitions all overlapping this weekend, he admitted, ‘It’s a highly complex challenge.’
But one he insisted is improving. ‘We have condensed our intercounty playing season and crucially have challenged the games to training ratio which had spiralled in recent seasons. We will have less replays meaning less interference to our club schedules and the onus is now on our counties to embrace these changes for the betterment of all.’
Yet the fact that the room included Micheál Briody, chairman of the Club Players Association who have gained 25,000 members since pledging to ‘fix the fixtures’, this is one issue that won’t go away.