GAA tramples on ‘special moments’
In ‘tidying up’ the presentation of cups, the association is denying a much cherished opportunity to showcase a sense of community
IT WASN’T something that had been planned but, in the giddiness of the moment, Vinny McCann knew it was the right thing to do. As a crowd swelled around the front of the Healy Park Stand to see Stephen McNally lift the O’Neill Cup after Coalisland’s 2018 Tyrone county final win over Killyclogher, McNally’s eye was drawn to one of his club’s biggest supporters, Shane Corr.
‘The previous time we had won it in 2010, Shane went up and picked up the cup along with Plunkett Kane,’ recalled McCann.
‘So I was standing at the bottom of the steps and Shane looked at me and I just said to him, “go on, head away up”.
‘Shane would never get the opportunity to do that there and I would safely say that would mean more to Shane and to his family than it did to Stephen.’
Shane has Down Syndrome. When last week’s GAA Congress approved a motion declaring: ‘It shall be the privilege of the captain (joint captains are not permitted) of a winning team to accept the trophy on behalf of the team’, the photograph of Shane lifting the cup attracted huge attention on social media. Damian Harvey, a member
‘PROTOCOL CAN’T COME IN THE WAY OF DOING THE RIGHT THING’
of the Tyrone executive, tweeted a damning caption: ‘a decision was taken today at GAA Congress to ensure that a photo like this will never be replicated again. Progress?’.
Adding insult to injury, delegates did not even have the opportunity to vote on it, having been informed that it was merely on the agenda for ‘noting’ purposes as the decision had already been made by Central Council in an effort to tidy up the protocols around cup presentations.
It is a decision that has not been received well with the grassroots, where sometimes a cup presentation doubles as an opportunity to acclaim an individual, the injured captain who led the dressing room, the veteran player whose team finally got over the line in perfect timing with his own race having been run, or just a much-loved club member.
And it has also made an appearance in the inter-county game, particularly in Kerry and Kilkenny where, due to an archaic process of selecting their official on-field leader, the concept of a non-playing captain is a common occurrence and sometimes needs to be recognised.
But, on rare occasions, there is poignancy too, as a display of care and love for a member of the community in need of support.
When Vanessa McGarry, wife of Kilkenny goalkeeper James, was killed in a car accident in 2007, the couple’s son Darragh, hoisted in the arms of his father, joined Henry Shefflin at the podium on the Hogan Stand to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
And in a moment that will be etched in memories long after the game has been forgotten, Dr Crokes captain Johnny Buckley was joined by 10-year-old cancer sufferer Amy O’Connor to lift the Andy Merrigan Cup in 2017.
Amy passed away less than a year later, but the importance of that moment was reflected in the gratitude of the O’Connor family who thanked their club for giving her that moment.
‘When you’re dealing with cancer, a daily dose of inspiration can make a big difference in your outlook on life during your cancer journey,’ posted the Amy’s family after the presentation.
‘Being around people who inspire, challenge, and make you feel better helps bring perspective and optimism to the situation.
‘So thanks to all at Dr Crokes for making Amy feel so special on such a big day for the club.’
The unintended consequence of a motion being ratified at last weekend’s Congress is that opportunity has now been removed.
‘We have been told that they are looking to “tidy it up”. What are they trying to tidy up? Two people lifting a cup?’ asked McCann, secretary of Coalisland Na Fianna.
‘It does not happen too often but when you get a chance to make someone’s life a little easier, offering a moment of joy they will never forget, something that will live in their memory for ever and a day, you should take it.
‘I could not believe it when I heard it was being proposed and even more shocked it was passed.
‘In one afternoon they managed to bring in the best motion in years with the split season and also brought in the most stupid and needless rule with this. I don’t know what they are thinking but you would really wonder if they are in touch with those of us who live in the real world,’ blasted McCann.
In truth, denying clubs a stage where they can showcase the sense of community that defines them was not what the GAA intended last weekend. However, this was a timely reminder for the association that while protocols may help to deliver order, they should never come in the way of people doing the right thing.
‘I tweeted that photo last weekend and I said in my tweet if a club is denied this opportunity in the future, they should refuse to lift the cup and they should tell whoever is making the presentation that they can bring the cup into the dressing room afterwards.
‘I don’t know how they are going to enforce it because the first time this becomes an issue, you will see a backlash. Every county in the land, if that opportunity arises again, should turn a blind eye to that rule,’ predicted McCann.
In reality, there is no proscribed sanction for a breach of this rule and invoking one would not be a good look for the GAA.
But Croke Park has made a rod for its own back, and it might do well to consider ditching it to avoid any unnecessary hurt.
That photograph of Shane Corr lifting the cup is not even McNally’s favourite snapshot of the day – it is another where the man of the moment is revelling in the anticipation of what is about to happen.
‘There is another picture from that day and it was just of Shane on his own standing with his arms out wide in front of the cup and his absolute joy of being in that moment is really something to behold.
‘You can just see in that moment it meant the world to him and for no-one else to experience that again in the GAA would be an absolute disgrace.’
‘GAA WOULD DO WELL TO CONSIDER DITCHING THE MOTION’
MIKE QUIRKE has to be the only inter-county manager who is popular in Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands right now. Not to mention his native Kerry where he won multiple All-Irelands as a player and formed a go-to partnership on the basketball court with county and Tralee Tigers teammate Kieran Donaghy. The admiration stretches to Laois where he is busy cutting his teeth with the senior football team.
Modern technology means he can track the audience for his own Mike Quirke Podcast, up and running since late January, and has noticed pockets of interest springing up around the globe.
For good reason. Lockdown has left so many looking for different ways to be informed or entertained and anyone with an interest in sport, or coaching, will gain something from the conversations that cross the codes.
Listen to Rus Bradburd, the American basketball coach who became a cult hero in Kerry and learned to play the fiddle along the way.
Or former Waterford hurling manager Derek McGrath in a wonderfully revealing conversation. Who else could hold forth on science versus savagery with references to Karate Kid and Star Wars along the way.
Or Jason Sherlock with an insightful look into the sort of values and culture that have informed his own eclectic sporting career and the pioneering Dublin dressing room. The holistic approach to developing people as much as players. The concept of delayed gratitude in seeing players develop and reach their potential down the line rather than the shortterm prism of success. How the scoreboard can be as terrible a judge as a coach.
There is Bernard Jackman’s journey from amateur to professional rugby, Dave Power’s keen eye for teaching golf, Nick Potter of high-achieving Duke University talking about High Performance. This week , Joe O’Connor – S&C coach for All-Ireland winning hurling sides in Clare (2013) and Limerick (2018) – spoke about ‘oversciencing’ or overcomplicating sport, the lessons of foreign training camps, the priorities for juvenile coaches and what he calls ‘Mount Stupid’, a place related to the impact of social media influencers on the world of fitness and nutrition. And all for a good cause, too. Quirke has linked up with Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin so that anyone who enjoyed the podcast can donate to a cause close to his heart.
So what prompted him to branch out in lockdown? Is this part of a grand plan to hoover up all this wisdom and knowledge, come back and mastermind Laois to a National League, Leinster or AllIreland title?
‘I always would have had a notion to talk to different coaches,’ he explains of a magpie mind, ‘to pick up bits and pieces. No matter if you’re at a wedding and you know they’re coaching something and you’re asking them and trying to take something away from every conversation. You’re trying to share stuff as well. That was the motivation behind it. I had a bit of time on my hands. It coincided with 10 years since one of my own young lads was in Temple Street and I thought, I could record these on Zoom, put them out, and see if I could raise a few bob for Temple Street while still doing that same thing of picking people’s brains, like Derek McGrath and Jayo who have done serious stuff in coaching. And again, a lot of coaches around the place to maybe benefit kids and how people play games and stay active longer.’
Some of the different things that have stuck with him so far?
‘I was fascinated to hear Jason talk about stuff he had done with the Dublin development squads, then on to the Dublin senior team. I know it might sound a bit snowflakey to people but the concept, this idea of treating them as people before players. Trying to develop that idea as opposed to what we can get out of them as a coach or manager. I think that comes out really strongly when he’s talking... when Derek’s talking.
‘Joe O’Connor, the S&C guy with Clare and Limerick in 2018 – it’s the same message. That’s a hugely impactful message. It’s something I would always have believed in but
talking to the lads, it’s reaffirmed it. The best of coaches worry about the route and the fruits of the work takes care of itself.’
Even with the Dublin success story, is it a case that the coaching element sometimes doesn’t get enough credit? ‘Absolutely. Though it would always have got enough credit with me. I would have always recognised that you can have all the talent you want but it’s about putting that kind of environment around them that allows them to flourish. You can see that in their decisionmaking when they’re a man down or a couple of points down with a few minutes to go and they come out with the goalkeeper as cornerback. Starting to think their way through things.
‘That side of the coaching is really important. How you get the players to buy in. Treating players as individuals and people before looking at them as a product. Taking those lessons and letting it filter down to juvenile so that kids can have a really positive experience of sport through physical activity by dealing with coaches who are really interested in them playing sport and being active for the rest of their lives as opposed to worrying about winning an under-13 championship or something that is largely irrelevant in the bigger scheme of things.
‘If we can share those ideas and move down away from any obsession with winning. Keep them playing sport a lot longer.’
Lockdown has caused everyone to pause for thought. It has given fresh perspective to so many different elements of life, sport included. ‘None of us have ever gone through what we’ve gone through since March 2020. This pandemic has given everyone a chance to reflect. I was out walking this morning, talking to a man from a club not too far from my own here in Kerins O’Rahillys and he was talking about when we get back. You know what he said, “I’d always be mad about winning this intermediate championship but this year, all I want to see is them back on the field”.
‘I’m sure it will come back, that we’ll be mad to win. But right now, all anyone is worried about is getting back on the field, seeing kids playing.’
He sees the split season as being part of an important rebalancing in the GAA. The adoption in rule at Annual Congress last weekend of a radical calendar change where the All-Ireland finals will be played in July – a bold leap from the traditional September showpiece of just a few years ago – with club activity and club championships to take precedence then uninterrupted for the second half of the year.
‘I think it’s going to be the most progressive thing the GAA has done in my lifetime,’ he predicts. ‘That it’s going to completely rebalance the association. Give everyone such certainty around fixtures and booking holidays and life. I think you’re going to see people playing a bit longer, until they’re a bit older. Because it’s not going to be that arduous shift where you don’t know when you’ll be playing. I think that will be a huge positive.’
But what of the counter-argument of losing the promotional window of All-Irelands, of the danger of shrinking the intercounty season and thus shrinking the GAA as a whole? ‘I wouldn’t subscribe to that view. When the clubs were on TV and you were able to watch TG4 last year it was brilliant and captivating. You’d be thinking, “Oh he plays for that club”. We saw some really good football. It was brilliantly entertaining. I just think we’re going to have more of that.
‘The joy of playing the National League and Championship – it could be more exciting as well, playing meaningful games in good weather. I think it’s win-win.
‘I don’t see with the media stuff or promotional side that you’re going to lose people to other games. I think this is going to be well rewarded and keep players in the game much longer.’
A few years back, he was the guest speaker at the GAA’s annual coaching and games development conference. It was not long after his twins were born and he told a story to illustrate the power of history and tradition in the Kerry success story. How a friend presented the house with a unique gift. ‘We got a little gift shortly after they came home. One of my friends put on a bet that they’d win an All-Ireland. Had it framed in a picture frame to stick up on the wall. It’s somewhere in a safe place.’
As a father to kids involved in sport, he sees huge value in the return to non-contact training activity in line with the return of schools, rather than waiting until the stated date of after the Easter weekend.
‘Once kids are back in school, it should be a priority to get youth sport back. Not necessarily playing games or into competition but just back on the field training, giving them that positive outlet.’
As for the current practicalities of being a Kerry man in charge of Laois? After taking over for the 2020 season, he built on the foundations put in by fellow Kerry coach and manager John Sugrue with Laois retaining their Division 2 status before enduring a pummelling by eventual champions Dublin in a Leinster semi-final, a common experience for any county.
‘It’s very easy now because there is nothing happening. Hopefully by April and everything seems to be looking fairly positive with the numbers. We’re turning into immunologists every day. I never heard of Zoom 12 months ago and now it’s my best friend. I’m just hopeful that the start of April will see us back on the field collectively for training. The exemption meant you could travel outside your 5k.’
He has a clear opinion on the farrago of the Government informing the GAA that the exemption that allowed inter-county players compete in a winter All-Ireland championship no longer applied this spring, long after the GAA had published their proposed calendar for the year and factored in a return to play. A situation appeared to be unfair and unnecessary, given that rugby and League of Ireland soccer has retained elite status.
‘It was very surprising. I thought the GAA were unbelievably prudent
‘IT WILL GIVE PEOPLE SOME CERTAINTY ON FIXTURES AND LIFE’
‘IT SHOULD BE A PRIORITY TO GET KIDS BACK INTO SPORT’
last year in terms of their decisionmaking, in letting people back to training and play. At times they slow-rolled what the Government were suggesting. They said, “No, we’re going to take a couple of extra weeks because we’re not happy with the transmission rates”. I thought they showed great discipline and prudence. Of course then there were issues with cups and celebrations but the Championship then was run off.
‘I couldn’t see why that Level 5 exemption would have been taken away when the behaviour and prudence was at such a high standard. You could have been looking at a situation where if that exemption was still in play, and the numbers keep going the way they are going and they are very positive right now, that the GAA would say, “We’re happy with the way this is going. We’re going to get inter-county teams back training at the end of March, kids out on the field a little bit earlier”.
‘I do think there was a lack of clarity, of communication, a lack of everything – and it didn’t really work and I didn’t understand the reasoning for it. But then, those matters are probably above my pay grade.’
For now, he’ll keep thinking and talking about the game. Maybe in time, he’ll find out just who is listening from an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, from the Seychelles.