DUIGNAN: IT’S TIME TO SPEAK OUT ABOUT PAY
GOING back more than 30 years to when I was 19, I got a job in the bank in Dublin. There were plenty of applicants and I know one of the only reasons I got it was because I was an intercounty hurler. Now, I liked the job and worked hard to climb the ladder, but there’s no doubt that back then, doors were opened because you played for your county. Plenty of lads got jobs as sales reps with company cars and so on.
Things have changed. Everyone knows the huge demands on players, and the commitment required. As such, I think that a lot of companies are now reluctant to take on county players. It’s well known about the amount of training that is now required, so employers are fearful of lads needing time off to meet commitments.
That’s having a knock-on effect. Players are staying in college, going back to do a masters and then, maybe, another one. Jamie Barron revealed recently that he went back to do teaching, because it suited his county career – those involved in the teaching profession weren’t too happy with those comments, but it’s a reflection of the current reality.
Best of luck to Lee Chin for his decision to become a fulltime hurler. If he feels he can make enough to survive, fair play to him. And he has to be complimented on his honesty and openness, but what is slightly worrying is that he feels the need to do that, to sacrifice a career to be at his best for Wexford.
He’s not the first player to do it. The likes of Darran O’Sullivan and Richie Hogan have taken time out. Going back a few years, Kieran McGeeney and Tony Browne took career breaks, too. But there should be no need for career breaks, just to progress a sporting passion.
It’s acceptable that Chin believes he can survive — at present. But what happens in seven or eight years’ time, whether he has won an AllIreland with Wexford or not, and his playing days are coming to an end? Where does he go from there?
The short-term gain may result in long-term pain and that’s not the healthiest thing for someone in an amateur association.
There was once a balance of working and getting ahead in a job while playing for your county. But it has got to the stage now where players are choosing to opt out of their professions altogether. Or you hear other players pushing themselves to hold down a job while training four or five nights a week.
But it shouldn’t be about holding down a job. It should be about progressing in a career so when you are finished playing at 33 or 34, you have somewhere to soften the landing. And not every player has the profile of Chin, so not every player will be able to do what he has done.
There’s a deeper issue highlighted here, though. I don’t know the new director-general Tom Ryan, but having the director of finance move to the top job sends a clear message, to me at any rate, that the financial coffers are top of Croke Park’s agenda.
And there is a huge amount of money being generated by the GAA. But those generating this money are the players and they are the ones who believe they can’t work full-time, have to stay in college or take a career break, simply because of the demands on them. Something is not right there.
We are reaching a point where players are going to look for a slice of the pot which has been created by their time and effort. It has to come.
There are a lot of people making an awful lot of money on the back of the players and nobody is standing up and saying this is not right. Look at the size of county backroom teams. From strength and conditioning coaches to physios and psychologists, they are all getting paid for their service. We all know that a lot of club managers, and many county managers, are being paid and a blind eye is turned – and to be honest, I don’t mind the idea of managers being remunerated because it is 24-7 and the demands placed on managers are excessive.
Everyone is making money out of the players, apart from the players themselves.
This summer, we will have more Hurling Championship games than ever before – and it is very exciting. But the massive crowds in Pearse Stadium, Wexford Park and the Gaelic Grounds are generated by the county players. There are 1,800 of them around the country and they are not getting anything.
I think the players should be more vocal about this. They have been strangely silent. It is not like in my day when lads got jobs as company reps or jobs in the bank.
Lee Chin deserves to be commended for his honesty, but the fact that he feels that he can’t juggle a day job with playing for his county shows something has gone badly wrong with the system. It is time for the players to speak up on that.