Behind the smiles and headlines there is real frustration in the GAA
AS THE most effective administrator in Gaelic games, John Costello must draw upon a number of talents. We now know that comedy musings are not among them. In his secretary’s report for the county convention, he had a cut off Dublin’s critics that is becoming customary.
He also raised apparent criticism of the county’s senior footballers playing in a robotic fashion.
‘Concerned by this matter,’ he writes, ‘we undertook an examination of the sum of the parts of all involved and am glad to report that no microchips, levers, wires, transistors, relays etc were discovered!
‘However, I can exclusively reveal that we did discover that Paul Mannion and Jack McCaffrey do have a sixth gear!’ Maybe you’ll have to be there. There was more diverting material included, such as Costello’s cautious, conditional support for a two-tier Championship, the relationship between Dublin’s housing shortage and the availability of land, and a suggested tweak of the Super 8s format (on the latter point, though, he persisted in the fantasy that Croke Park is somehow a neutral venue when the country knows it’s Dublin’s home).
Reading the report summoned two thoughts. One, it would be interesting if John Costello shared his take on modern Gaelic games publicly more than once a year.
It was argued in these pages that as the most capable figure in the sport, he was the best candidate to succeed Páraic Duffy as director general earlier this year. That opinion has not been challenged by events since.
And the second thought was this: what on earth is the value of convention reports in the modern world?
In a time of pervasive and ceaseless communication, the tradition of one end-of-year address is quaint. Yet the coming weeks will be clogged with reports from around the county as GAA administrators busy themselves hammering critics and listing the achievements of their teams over the preceding 12 months.
There are more efficient ways for counties to communicate with the world now. And in the case of a figure as influential as Costello, the value in hearing his views on the many issues congregating around Gaelic games is obvious.
But secretaries in counties all over the island largely confine their public engagement with problems that are year-round to written reports issued in the month of December.
This speaks to a problem affecting the GAA more generally – a dire absence of audible leadership.
Since Tom Ryan succeeded Duffy, he has done his work with few interruptions for public comment.
John Horan, the president, has been similarly low-key. This matters in a time of unprecedented stresses on the Association.
Last week, Ryan did make himself available for interview on the occasion of hurling being taken into the protective embrace of UNESCO.
And he recognised then that there is an issue with how those heading the GAA are perceived. The fusillade of criticism from the Club Players Association in Roscommon that accused the leadership of having ‘lost touch’ was only the latest evidence.
More pronounced were the controversies over ‘Newbridge or Nowhere’ and Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
In the latter case, the GAA were deserving of a great deal of sympathy, with the matter grotesquely inflated by social media outrage. Yet the slowness of the GAA reaction didn’t help.
The Newbridge case was another matter entirely, exposing as it did the dislocation between the leadership and the wider membership.
Then there is the matter of violence at matches, which was eventually addressed by Horan in a newsletter. It should have been treated much more urgently.
Being seen to address these problems must be understood as part of the search for solutions. This is a point the GAA seem unable or unwilling to grasp.
The tradition of convention reports does not address this deficit, either.
Counties are entitled to wrap up their year’s work and present it to the world, but it should not be mistaken for insight or meaningful interaction with the outside world.
A good portion of many of them are taken up with score-settling and grumbling, and a controversial line is guaranteed a day or two of coverage at a quiet time of the year.
They are quickly forgotten, but the frustration is when an official raises interesting points or makes insightful suggestions.
They are forgotten, too, and a new year rolls around and everyone does what they always did.
The problem is that frustration is blistering the GAA. Beyond the headlines there is enormous anger.
It must be addressed. New ideas are desperately required.
And a new way of sharing them is needed, too.