It’s not healthy to put your career on hold
AT LUNCHTIME on Tuesday, Tom Ryan — the 19th director general of the Gaelic Athletic Association and only the fifth since 1929 — staged his first official press briefing. Afterwards, he sat down with Philip Lanigan to address in-depth some of the far-reaching issues of the day.
In the very same wood-panelled room on Level Five of the Hogan Stand, his predecessor Páraic Duffy staged his own first conference a decade earlier. The Monaghan man’s face now hangs on a wall alongside the roll call of former officials. Back then, Duffy took over against the backdrop of threatened strike action by the Gaelic Players Association and the latest civil war in Cork along with persistent talk of whether a form of semi-professionalism or professionalism was on its way at the elite end of Gaelic games. It’s the first issue Ryan addresses head-on as he outlines his own vision for his seven-year term.
Philip Lanigan: Do you see any form of semi-professionalism or professionalism being a runner in your time?
Tom Ryan: No, I don’t. For a few reasons. Firstly, despite all the talk about finances and money, we are very small. Financially, we are very, very small. Both in terms of other sports or in terms of business. Where you are working or where I was working before [the 48-year-old worked with Brown Thomas before 11 years as GAA director of finance] are far, far bigger than the GAA in financial terms. It is disappointing at times that the conversation turns to that aspect of things as often as it does.
So we are small. We don’t have the international outlet that other sports might have. All we have to generate is what we can manage amongst ourselves. That wouldn’t sustain anything like a professional or semiprofessional sport. It just wouldn’t. You couldn’t pay a semblance of a living wage to enough players to sustain more than a handful of teams. That handful of teams — somebody asked about combining or mixing counties — would you have any interest in looking at or following the fortunes of a team that isn’t your team? I wouldn’t anyway. I would far prefer it’s your own; no matter how well or poorly they are going, at least they are your own.
So from a financial viewpoint it doesn’t work — the model won’t sustain it.
From an ideological point of view, if it ever did end up in that scenario, I don’t know what you’d call it or what it is but it is not the GAA. It’s so far removed from the whole fundamentals of the thing, I honestly don’t believe anybody wants it. If you sat down to think about what it would mean, that doesn’t serve anybody.
PL: So you don’t see any push or desire for it? It’s not something the Gaelic Players Association want?
TR: In fairness, that has been taken off their agenda. In terms of the wider membership, I don’t think there is a willingness to move towards that. Even if there was, the practical capacity isn’t there to deliver it. If it were to be advanced, what we would be left with wouldn’t be the GAA.
PL: Footballers like Karl Lacey, Darran O’Sullivan and Kieran Donaghy have made career choices based around their county career. Wexford hurler Lee Chin is the latest example of a player effectively dedicating himself full-time to the game, to suit the modern demands of the inter-county set-up. Is it a concern?
TR: It’s not a rules thing and I won’t comment on individual lads. The professionalism thing is the county board or ourselves having a contract with someone to play hurling. That’s not what is at issue here. It’s more fundamental than that really.
I wouldn’t be worried about it from a rules perspective, more what it says about Gaelic games — is that where the thing is going? Is that where we want it to go? That in order to be the best footballer or hurler you can be, you think the decision to make is to put on hold your career or education? I think it’s not healthy.
PL: Derek McGrath’s Waterford hurling squad has featured 14 teachers, either qualified or training for the position. The Tipperary hurling squad that played Kilkenny in the League last spring didn’t have a single tradesman. What do you think of the elite level becoming a game for teachers and students with players making career choices purely to fit around the demands, particularly in summer?
TR: That isn’t good. The whole thing is very pressurised, in terms of the demands — and that’s not unrelated to some of the commercial stuff. Managers too. You wonder then too where does the enjoyment come into it? Can players in certain jobs aspire then to doing it anymore? That’s what would stop me in my tracks. Not the professionalism thing. The thing is really to ratchet that down two or three degrees. Now I don’t know if that’s possible to do. PL: Talk of splitting Dublin persists. Is such an idea going to be entertained in light of the county’s dominance with the senior football team under Jim Gavin chasing a four-ina-row?
TR: I don’t see that happening. There are certain things that are so fundamentally ingrained in the DNA of what we are and how we go about things. The Championship structures that we were talking about today, someone said that is only the second time we have changed the Championship structures over the course of history.
If we had been talking 10 or 20 years ago about the same issue and dominance of counties we would have been talking about Kerry. These things do move in cycles. They are determined by more than money really — a lot more goes into the mix of producing 30 senior footballers than money and resources. That’s not to say that it doesn’t pose a problem.
I don’t know what the GAA can actually do about demographics and movement of population. Our job is to make sure the club structure in every part of the country, urban and rural, that there are healthy, active, thriving clubs catering to the playing needs of kids, adults and so on. Be that in Dublin or Kerry. In terms of splitting or amalgamating counties, I don’t really see an appetite for that. I don’t.
PL: But the concern from the outside is that this isn’t a cycle where Dublin are concerned. If it proves to be self-perpetuating, what happens then?
TR: I don’t think it is going to be. If you look back at any particular 10 or 20-year span of Championship results, there are statistics that show Kilkenny have won a minimum of whatever it is All-Irelands in any 10-year period.
Look at Dublin’s final results over the last couple of years — I know they’ve won what they’ve won — but in all cases it has been close, even involving replays. If things had been a little different over the course of the last three or four years we would be having this conversation about Mayo, who have been so unlucky to have been at the standard they are and playing the football they are, not to have actually won. In any other era, against any other opposition, they would have a couple of Celtic Crosses to their name.
It’s not something we should overreact to. I’m confident enough that all of these things in sport, not just our own, are cyclical.
It’s going to be very, very difficult for Dublin to maintain that level of performance. That’s what I think, anyway.
I don’t want to be negative about Dublin because the standard they are achieving is remarkable. It’s a pity the conversation around that is couched in negative terms. And I do understand the reasons for it.
PL: A simple formula to equalise coaching and development funding in the wake of Dublin’s largesse: link the ratio of games development officers to the number of registered players in each county?
TR: It’s not unreasonable. I could counter that and say you have to look at the geographical reach
between clubs but all that would be doing would be defensive. If there is a better way of doing things, then let’s do it.
PL: Is it time to introduce a calendar year season in terms of club competition?
TR: That’s on the horizon. The only thing about that is, what concrete difference would it make? I wouldn’t have opposition to it in principle but what is it going to achieve? You’re talking about a small number of clubs.
PL: What about the Slaughtneil example? Derry’s demise in League terms, falling down the divisions from one to four, dovetails exactly with the club’s first Ulster title in late 2014 with key players unavailable for League campaigns since due to an overlap with the All-Ireland club series.
TR: It is in the mix of the thinking. That happened with Carlow and the Mount Leinster Rangers players. It’s on the radar as a positive solution.
PL: Is there a need to officially recognise the Club Players Association?
TR: I don’t know if it’s a need. I am literally going to be talking to them in two weeks’ time. I do genuinely believe that the stuff that they want is wanted by pretty much everybody. You couldn’t take issue with what they are aspiring to.
I would like to think that it’s about putting the people who can influence change in the one room together and working it out rather than being at our throats about it. That’s the way to achieve things. I don’t like the idea of sectionalising particular interests with one particular agenda. We are all the one.
PL: The CPA have polled its 25,000 membership, asking whether it is time to ‘escalate the situation’ in a bid to secure a better fixtures schedule, the threat of strike action unspoken. How do you feel about that?
TR: I don’t want to see that. It does beg the other question, is that the best way?
PL: Would you like to see a two-tier football Championship come about?
TR: You can see the merits of it. I saw my own county Carlow beating Wexford last year and what it did. I was looking over it: Carlow have only won seven or eight Leinster Championship games in my life. PL: Is that good enough? TR: No. But when you see it, winning one game, it was fantastic. Sometimes you don’t bring that clinical analysis; there is a bit of romance that comes into it too. People do cling to the hope. Okay, so you win one game, what does it mean? But it’s there.
PL: Has the International Rules Series run its course?
TR: The players seem to like it. The audience seem to like it. The only argument really that you might have for calling time on it is if it was interfering or having a negative effect on the core programme of our own games. And you haven’t really seen that.
PL: What about thedisruption of six weeks of trials during a dedicated club window plus the tour itself? You had various players travelling up the country to train the same weekend of crucial club championship games?
TR: It’s up to them. If they don’t feel comfortable… I don’t think it’s a case of being pressurised into doing it or being compromised. A good few lads made the decision not to do it, either at the time of being selected or at the training.
If that were taken out of things I think we’d lose a bit. The players would lose a bit and I’m not sure we’d be gaining a huge amount. PL: Important to address Belfast?
TR: Casement Park has been a blow. It will provide a boost the funding that is going in there [£1 million over five years]. Like with Dublin, the answer is not to curtail but to do the same in other places.
PL: Is there an urgent need to develop a social and recreational game for Gaelic games?
TR: There are a couple. Peil abú. Camán abú. Another concept in its infancy, Super Games Centres. No competitive leagues. The concept is that you just show up, be thrown on to a team, and just play. There is definitely a need.
PL: In the interests of transparency and accountability, is it time to make public the salary of the director general and the directors in Croke Park?
TR: I don’t dictate that. The policy is there. I understand what you’re saying.
PL: Is it time to fully integrate camogie and ladies football?
TR: You know the steps that have been embarked upon. We have it [in Faughs where he is a long-time active member, including the role of treasurer]. Only one chair, one bank account. The place is far, far better for it. We would be far less than the sum of our parts if we were separate. So I would be an advocate of it. PL: Is it something that you would love to see it happening during your TR: aren’t you just as interested If we are trying to move on the conversation more to club, participation and grassroots, it’s families really that underlie all of that. The reason it works that we see is that if your son if playing hurling and your daughter camtime?ogie, in both? Just as involved in both? I see it as a natural progression. There is great energy and commitment to be tapped into on both parts. There is going to be momentum behind that. I don’t want it to be portrayed as against the elite. The elite is your shop window and is what gets people involved and interested — it’s such a spectacle and it’s what everyone gets excited about. But the sustaining part is about the people coming in at the base level. If we were to change that model a little bit, I think there is a huge population and energy to be tapped in to straight away.
The whole thing is very pressurised... you wonder where the enjoyment comes from A lot more than money and resources goes into the mix of producing 30 footballers I do genuinely believe that the stuff the CPA want is wanted by pretty much everybody