GAA managers now get chance to avail of GPA college scholarships

The Gaelic Players Association have this year opened their support programmes to inter-county managers as well as players. Dessie Farrell, the association's CEO, said on the announcement of this year's GPA DCU Business School Masters scholarship programme that the decision had been taken this year.

“Over the years relationships with managers would have been quite difficult for us, particularly in the early days. That’s changed as chances are that manager appointments, which come from former players, have themselves come through the ranks of the GPA and would be fully up to speed with the benefits.

More influential

“So they’ve been easier conversations – just a case of keeping them up to date. Engaging with managers is definitely an important issue for us. They’re more and more influential.

“Sometimes they’re quite maligned but are also important in the promotion and popularity of the games. Some would disagree with that but they’re an important stake holder in the county game.

“One of the things we’ve done this year is to make our programmes available to managers as well. Many of them, as former players, would be entitled to avail of them anyway, but for those who haven’t been, we decided to open up the programmes as well. In some ways, their commitment is even greater than the players.”

This helps create an environment where there can be discussion of issues including, according to Farrell, data showing that players with their lives well balanced off the field are more likely to perform better on the field. “There’s significant research on this in the southern hemisphere and we believe that it is relevant to us as well”.

Asked had any managers availed of the programme, he said they had but declined to identify them. “A number have but confidentiality with all our involvements is really important. The players [who received scholarships] today for instance would have agreed to have it made public.”

Farrell said that this year the GPA have spent €580,000 on 555 scholarships, including money donated by county associations in the US in sponsorship support of specific players.

He added that the academic programmes were one of the most important supports that the association extended to players.

“In specific terms, it’s one of our big categories. We’ve four: career development, health and welfare, life skills and education. A third of our membership are students as well, so it’s a significant population.”

According to Farrell, the schemes are important in developing players’ prospects off the field. As well as the inter-county footballers and hurlers who apply for college through the conventional CAO route, there are others who are identified by the GPA’s network of life coaches, who discuss players’ interests and can recommend them for further education.

Cause problems

“Players can get so wedded to their athletic identity they never see themselves as anything other than an athlete, and when you take that away from them, it can cause problems.”

He said that the GPA hopes in the coming weeks to release a report surveying the progress of students with a view to identifying any problems they might be facing.

“We’re actually looking at the academic success rate and how the work load of students – given that they may be playing on several different teams – affects their course work.

“We’ve surveyed a lot of students over the past year and hope to be able to bring forward a report on the challenges faced by the student population early in the new year. That concerns work load, both mental and physical, as well as funding issues, as elite athletes within Gaelic games aren’t in a position to hold down part-time jobs.

“Then, there are also the educational and academic considerations, such as drop-out rates and the frequency of having to repeat exams or repeat a year.”

Yesterday former Westmeath footballer David O'Shaughnessy, along with former Dublin players Coman Goggins and Barry Cahill, were granted MBA scholarships. They follow second-year students Chris Breen from Fermanagh and Leitrim's Rob Lowe onto the DCU MBA programme.