Criticism over Grants Scheme Continues

Three articles below Critical of the Grants Scheme

The following article was taken from a discussion forum on the An Fear Rua web site and was NOT
written by An Fear Rua.

As a great Galway GAA man I would ask you to consider the following before you cast any vote on the GPA grant sat the upcoming Central Council meeting. The GAA is being presented with pay-for-play, however it’s being dressed up and the Association’s amateur status must be sacrosanct. Therefore planned decisions on the proposals at this weekend’s meeting of Central Council should be deferred and a full consultation on the proposals across all levels and units of the GAA needs to be facilitated.

GAA players are respected for the honourable place and central role they have in the Association and proper player representation needs to be urgently looked at.
There must however be no change other than properly mandated via Congress to the GAA`s amateur status as presented in its Rule 11: the current proposals fly in the face of that amateur status and Rule 11 by asking county boards to distribute payments to players. The discussion of the current proposals planned for the forthcoming Management and Central Council meetings should be deferred and a full and proper discussion of these issues should take place across the GAA to allow people to use their own Club and County channels to voice their opposition to the current proposals.

Before the GAA Central Council discuss any grant the following questions need to be answered by the GPA:
(1) Will the GPA assure the GAA membership that they have no interest in ever taking any money off the GAA other than legitimately incurred
expenses? What form of reassurances will they give that when the Government pulls away this grant – as happens with all such subsidies eventually – that they will not ask the GAA to make up the shortfall?
(2 ) Why, when the GPA was given the great privilege of a seat on
Central Council in order to represent player viewpoints on key issues, does their representative – i.e. Dessie Farrell – have the worst attendance record of any member of that council, despite arguably living closer to Croke
Park than any other member? Why if he cannot make the attendance does he not resign his position and let someone else take over?
(3 ) . With the GPA grant system the level of the grant paid is contingent on progression. Should Wexford`s Mattie Forde choose to transfer to Kerry in order to secure a greater likelihood of a larger grant, as EU law
would dictate that he must be allowed, how can the GPA ensure us that this
will not happen? Ditto the 31st best hurler in Kilkenny or Tipperary moving to Wicklow for the same reasons? Once money is involved no GAA rule can prevent this – so what is the GPA`s solution, other than ‘it probably won’t happen.
(4 ) . Where does the GPA stand on equivalent grants for ladies football and camogie teams? Either they support them, in which case the current amount of grant aid is grossly inadequate, or else they don’t, in which case I’d be intrigued to know how they possibly could justify that in an age of equality?
(5 .)  If the players are the draw, how does that explain why the most talented teams in the land.  (i.e. Kerry and Kilkenny .) draw some of the lowest attendances, while infinitely less successful teams like Wexford hurlers and Kildare footballers draw on similar population bases but bring much bigger support? Why are the Inter provincial series, a showcase of the best talent in the land, so poorly followed if the quality of the play is what matters? Ditto, why did this years Connacht final have a much bigger attendance than its Munster equivalent, despite one having no All Stars from 2006 or 2007, and the other (Munster) having 12 on display? The reason is people follow the jersey not the player.
(6.) Why should the taxpayer be asked to fund any player to play
inter county GAA when in every county there are hundreds of people for whom
taking that mans place or no payment would be the fulfilment of a lifetime ambition?
Here is the big one. If inter county players are so stretched, why has not one GPA official come out with a proposal to reduce the demands on inter county players? Surely if excessive demands in an amateur game are the issue, then reducing those demands is the first step?

A discussion on all of the above points should have taken place at a forum
like congress before the GAA even agreed to enter talks with the GPA and Government. I hope that you will accommodate the general GAA population and let us have our views heard on this issue. It is by far the most important issue to come before the GAA ever. Bigger than opening Croke Park, bigger than letting PSNI officers play Gaelic Games, this goes right to the
heart of the whole ethos and culture of the association and should not be allowed without a full consultation with the general membership as it requires a rule change to facilitate it.

(1) Intercounty players are not ordinary amateur athletes they are Gaelic athletes. They are a rare and special breed set apart from the ordinary athlete both amateur and professional. The status they have could not be elevated as they enjoy a special status in this country and all over the world. The contribution the players make like the contributions that thousands of other GAA members make is out of  pride, passion and the love of the games. The players command the ultimate respect and admiration as a result of
the spirit in which they play the games.
(2) Dessie Farrell and the GPA have convinced our players that they are being discriminated against yet in fact they enjoy a status and command a respect well above the other amateur athletes. The goodwill that is shown our players is substantially more than the sum of the grant money. The GPA are asking our players to be downgraded to the ranks of the ordinary amateur athlete. The GAA will downgrade the association to that of an ordinary amateur
association if they allow the players to receive this grant.
(3) The GPA does not respect the rules or the ethos of the association and
is only concerned with ‘what about me?’ as opposed to ‘what about us?’ The
players are well looked after and the GPA is no longer a viable organisation. The GPA are now taking it a step further and want to bring us down a road that our rules do not allow and down which our ethos would not survive.

(3) Rule 11 clearly states that players cannot be paid in any way. The Association must consider that they will be in breach of this rule if they allow these grants to be paid to players and must examine the legal implications of such a contravention.
(4) The GAA is the success is not due to the current crop of inter county players but because of the remarkable body of men and women who contribute and have contributed down through the years in the same generous spirit. The ethos of the GAAis what makes it remarkable and unique. Allowing players to receive these grants will damage the ethos.
(5) The GAA went into negotiations with the Government, Sports Council and
GPA without first addressing the GAA membership on the issue and ascertaining their views. The entire way the matter was handled was entirely undemocratic and in disregard of the people involved in the GAA.
I am appealing to you as a Gael not to allow this to happen. Let our player
s remain a league of extraordinary gentlemen. We are a rare breed let us not be a dying breed.

Mark Conway is a GAA volunteer from Tyrone who were the second county after Down to voice criticism of the new grant scheme. Tyrone voted 150 –1 against the Grants Scheme. He’s a trustee of this club, Kildress; was a member of the GAA’s Strategic Review Committee; and currently
sits on the GAA’s National Audit Committee. Here, he explains why he vehemently opposes the new grants for county players.

LAST week the first, irrevocable step on the road to destruction was dangled in front of the GAA. That step was the pay-for-play arrangements ‘agreed’
between some GAA people; the GPA; the Irish Sports Council; and the Irish
Government. ‘Destruction’ is a strong, prescriptive word. So let’s look at
what we’re at risk of destroying.
The GAA is totally unique on this planet. It has two driving forces. First,
it’s about place … about where you’re from; who you are; your community;
and its place in the world. Second, it’s about ‘we’ … people working voluntarily for some greater good; for a value; an ethos; for something that’s
worthwhile; for community betterment. A recent ESRI report tells us that 4
3pc of all volunteering in Ireland is delivered by the GAA. Clearly there is something quite brilliant; unique; and totally precious about the GAA dynamic.

Governments, our own included, stumble around trying to energise those two
concepts. As Ireland increasingly comes apart at the social seams, we crave
neighbourhood renewal … community development … community cohesion …
social capital … and regeneration. Government invests hugely in trying,
and largely failing, to create these things and scratches around for disappearing strengths such as citizenship.
All the while, for 123 years now, we’ve had something that’s delivered these in spades, quietly; unassumingly; but unbelievably effectively. That thing is the GAA. Yet, crazily, people now want to deconstruct it. Many of us will oppose the deconstruction of this prize-of-prizes that’s made an immeasurable contribution to Irish life. Because, anachronistic as it might be at
the end of 2007, we actually believe in those things. And we find it bizarre that less than 1pc of our membership should be allowed to undermine the
core principles of over a century.
Why is it that the GAA has become what it is? How come two global professional sports — soccer and rugby — between them couldn’t develop even a small fit-for-purpose stadium in Ireland? How come what we’re told is the global football game — soccer — attracted under 10,000 people to a borrowed show-jumping arena for its showpiece game last weekend? When the GAA attracted over 10,000 to the recent ‘Railway Cup,” people said that was proof it was dead on its feet but hadn’t the wit to lie down. And how come, across all the professional ‘sports’ — trawl through them at will, boxing, soccer,
motor-racing, cricket, athletics, cycling, horse-racing, show-jumping, swimming and so on — we can no longer believe what we see in front of us?

Equally, how come that despite their mind-boggling financial power, none of
them even attempts to deliver what the GAA does? The reason stares us in the face. It’s the one key difference between them and us: they pay and we don’t. Money corrupts, distracts, shifts the focus, demolishes ‘place’, attacks the value system, fosters greed, replaces ‘we’ with ‘me.’ Once you pay
people to play sport, then whatever else you’ve got, it isn’t sport.
That’s why many GAA people were astounded by the virtual fait accompli presented last Thursday. Senior inter-county GAA players to be given money because they’re senior inter-county players. Where did our Rule 11 go in all this? The GAA, despite all the ‘guarantees’ we heard to the contrary, to be the ‘payers-out’ of the money. But, because it’s now called an ‘award’ (the
word ‘grant’ seems to be out of the frame) we’re assured we’ve ‘copper-fastened’ our amateur status. That really is the spin of spins.
What will be the outcome? Well, it is now clearly in players’ financial interests to hook up with a strong, successful county. Soccer’s ‘Bosman’ proves we won’t have a legal leg to stand on if we try to stop that. ‘Place’ as
a GAA driver will be gone. And it’s in players’ financial interests to be ‘
county-only” at the expense of the club, at a time when there’s constant breast-beating about the need to focus on the club. The most serious blow ever to GAA club playing activity has just been landed.
A clear parallel inference is that only the county player, but no one else
in the Association, is reckoned to make an ‘outstanding contribution.’ There’s absolutely no acknowledgement of the countless thousands who, week-in,
week-out, keep the magnificence that’s the GAA alive and well. It’s ironic
that the GAA is actually rolling out a programme at the moment called ‘Valuing Volunteers.’

Last Thursday(week) makes it very clear who’s valued and who’s not. And it strike
s fatally at the whole brilliant balance that has made the GAA what it is.
Look at what’s happened to volunteerism in any of the professional games. I
t wasn’t valued and it walked. Society pays several prices as a result. It’
s also deigned that voluntary county committee people will manage the new p
ay-for-play process. They’ll carry the very significant associated legal risks and liabilities, plus the flak over who’s in and who’s out of panels. What about backroom teams? Are they out with the rest of us … or will counties be black-guarded into paying them too? There’s a lot of twisted, unethical thinking here. Pay an elite but let the volunteers provide all the sup
port needed and carry all the cans involved. Meanwhile, not a single county
committee, nor any other GAA unit, has been consulted on any of this.

It’s insulting and seriously out of order to use words like ‘sacrifice’ when talking about county players’ input. Have we lost the total run of ourselves in terms of what that word really means? Many people did make real sacrifices for the GAA, sacrifices that were a bit more serious.
Many more non-GAA people continue to make real sacrifices on a daily basis
right across Ireland. And has ‘Ireland PLC’ really reached the point where,
when we can’t diagnose women with cancer, we will put €3.5m into the pockets of GAA players who, after all, are players solely because they choose to be players and because volunteers willingly resourced their choice? We’re told this is all about respect:
Returning to the pay-for-play soccer last Sunday, I believe in the lead-up
some players threatened to strike. Sound familiar? I don’t know their response. But I do know ours in similar circumstances: total; unashamed; and embarrassing capitulation.

The meeting tonight in The Elk in Toome, Co Antrim is about seeing what the
grass-roots feel. If, at the end of this, the view put forward here loses,
then so be it. We’ll know the GAA we were reared with; which reared us; and which we tried to leave in better shape than we found it, is gone.
The GAA, and those who made and maintain it, deserve better. So do Ireland
and its people. To use an old Tyrone phrase, this €3.5m will be ‘de
ar bought.’

Don’t let it happen. If you can, come to The Elk tonight. Or, over the next
few days, visit a web-site called http://www.ofonebelief.org/
Bí linn is cuidigh linn!

A Rugby Players view of the GAA Grants Scheme

I read Mark Conway’s article in the Irish Independent today.  He makes some excellent points. I am not what you would consider a GAA man.  I go to the Limerick games, but I am a rugby player.  What the GAA have done now is what rugby did 10 years ago.

Ten years ago, at twenty years of age, I played in a thriving club scene.  Then clubs started paying players. So players migrated to the clubs that paid the better money.  To compete, other clubs increased the amount they paid and the circle went on until the clubs went bankrupt and every volunteer a club had stopped working for the club. “Why should I do the club draw/mark the pitches/wash the jerseys/man the bar/coach the team/etc for nothing when so-and-so is getting £50 for playing on a Saturday?”

Club rugby is dead in Ireland.  We have an elite of 30 rugby players in Ireland, there are 98 other professionals who fill the gaps.  No-one plays club anymore.  Clubs who fielded 8 adult teams ten years ago, struggle to field 3 now.  There are numerous reasons for this, but one is definitely professionalism.  Most clubs are now two clubs within a club – the paid first team and the rest.  The rest wonder why they bother.

I played on the first team in three clubs (I moved as I moved cities for work). I was offered pay in all.  My parish club in Limerick, whose games I attended since I was old enough to go and watch my dad and for whom my only childhood ambition was to play on the first XV, wanted to pay me for what I loved doing.

I played on a team with my three brothers, for my parish, representing my family and my community.  This is the ‘place’ Mark talks about.  This is sport and there is no greater feeling that this – the feeling you belong and that you are wearing a jersey your father wore, that you are only minding it to pass on to the next generation.

My heroes where the guys who played on the first team before me.  They coached and supported me now.  How could I take pay for play when they didn’t?  How could I look them in the eye?  I couldn’t and refused the money.

And whilst we are on sacrifice – I trained six days a week and played two games a week (college and club) – I trained twice a day some days and at least once a day at the time.  But it wasn’t sacrifice, I loved it. I preferred playing than working in a bar earning pocket money.

If you don’t love it, don’t do it.  Someone else will gladly take your place. If it’s money you want, take an extra job.  As a first team player (or county player), you are in the most privileged position in your sport.  Everyone wants to swap places with you.  Everyone wants what you have.

And you are only minding that jersey, hanging onto it as long as you can.  Cos a hell of a lot went before you, a hell of a lot more will come after you. It’s only the efforts of everyone that has helped put you in that position (starting with your parents and the coaches you had in your club since you started).

I admire the GAA greatly.  I’d urge that you don’t go down the pay for play route.  You have something very special in your organisation.

Keep it.

Coaches Corner

Keeping the kick-out straight and true
A goalkeeper with a senior club writes in, “I have a good kickout but have trouble maintaining consistency during a game. Have you any suggestions?”

Well-known goalkeeping coach – and netminder when Cavan won the Ulster title in 1997 – Paul O’Dowd (www.goalkeeping.ie) replies:

“Develop a routine for your kickouts. You can finely hone in advance what you intend to do in a match as it is a set play. Practice over and over again so the kick becomes second nature.

Here is a sample eight-part routine I often used:

1. Place the ball. Face it in the direction you want to kick. Ensure you have a focal point facing towards you e.g. a certain letter or letters on the ball.

2. Place standing foot beside the ball. Choose the spot where you want your standing foot to be before kicking the ball and put your foot there. All steps on the subsequent run-up are leading to this spot

3. Take a uniform amount of steps back. Always take the same amount of steps back. For some keepers this can be as few as three steps, for others it could be up to fifteen. Choose what you are comfortable with.

4. Step to the side. Usually I would take two steps to the side.

5. Look where you want to kick the ball.  At this point, before you begin your run-up, choose where you intend to kick the ball.

6. Eye on the ball. Focus on the ball. Once you start the run-up don’t lift your head. Fully focus your eyes on the object you are about to strike.

7. Standing foot solid. Ensure that you have a solid platform before striking the ball. Your standing foot should be flat on the ground about twelve inches to the side of the ball

8. Strike through the ball. Remember not to confuse follow through with running pass the spot where the ball was placed. Ensure your kicking leg follows through the ball.”

The changing world of the pre-match stretch
“Theories on stretching seem to be changing – what are the most up-to-date recommendations?,” asks a senior club hurling manager.

Coaches Corner will return in March

GAA Quotes

We’ve won one All-Ireland in a row’ — Wexford Fan in 1996.

The toughest match I ever heard off was the 1935 All-Ireland Semi-Final. After 6 minutes the ball ricocheted off a post and went into the stand. The pulling continued relentlessly and it was 22 minutes before any of the players noticed the ball was missing’ — Michael Smith.

‘Sylvie Linnane would start a riot in a graveyard’ — Tipp fan on the Galway legend.

I’m not giving away any secrets like that to Tipperary. If I had my way I wouldn’t even tell them the time of the throw-in’ — Ger Loughnane.

Whenever a team loses there’s always a row at half time but when they win it’s an inspirational speech’ — John O’Mahony.

There are 2 things in Ireland that would drive you to drink. GAA referees would drive you to drink and the price of drink would drive you to drink’ — Sligo Fan after 2002 Connaught final.

I used to think it was great being a wee nippy corner forward but its better now being a big fat one. — Ollie Murphy

He’ll regret this to his dying day if he lives that long. — Dublin fan after Charlie Redmond missed a penalty in the 1994 All-Ireland final.

Now listen lads, I’m not happy with our tackling. We’re hurting them but they keep getting up. — John B.Keane ventures into coaching

He wouldn’t see a foul in a henhouse. — Frustrated Sligo fan’s judgement of the ref after the 2002 Connacht final.

 The first half was even the second half was even worse. — Pat Spillane reflects on an Ulster Championship clash.

Meath players like to get their retaliation in first. — Cork fan in 1988.

Meath make football a colourful game – you get all black and blue. — Another Cork fan.

 Conversations Overheard

During the safety demonstration on board a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Leeds, there’s two real Dubs are overheard. The cabin crew get to the bit about the life jacket and
one fella turns to his friend and says:

‘why the f**k do they give ya a life jacket on a pl, a, ne, f**k sake thats like given ya a bleeden parachute on a boat’

Model Meath Girl

 Overheard in the in the Big Tree after a Dublin/ Meath game.  The Dublin/Meath Banter started. One fella in a Dublin jersey started chatting to a girl in a Meath jersey.

Dub: ‘Jaysis love, you should be a bleedin’ Model.’

Meath girl: ‘Thanks very much!’

Dub: ‘Ye……For PEDIGREE CHUM!!!!!!’

Doing away with the wife

Man #1: ‘Did ya hear they are forecasting high winds and massive waves on the west coast this weekend?’

Man #2: ‘Yeah think I will bring the wife down for a stroll on the cliffs of Moher ……….’

Politically Aware

Overheard in St. Steven’s green yesterday, two Southside Goth lads waking through One turns to the other and says ‘ I hate it when people say our generation isn’t political, I’m totally into anarchism loike’

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