GAA must try to reconnect with grassroots

There is a view amongst some ordinary members that the intercounty game has become a burden on clubs

WITH THE 125 celebrations out of the way how does the GAA feel about the ending of the year? There is good reason to be pleased the anniversary played out quite well and in the teeth of the most serious recession in decades that attendances held steady.

There is also the recent conclusion of discussions with the Gaelic Players Association, which finally put an end to years of squabbling between administrators and leading players. The agreement has yet to be approved by Central Council for submission to congress but evidence suggests there is little serious furore over the terms.

Viewed in the context of all the sound and fury that accompanied the players’ grants two years ago but which ultimately signified nothing at the 2008 congress in Sligo, there must be a reasonable expectation the association at large will accept the accommodation with the GPA and move on.

But the year’s end hasn’t been all good vibes – not for Gaelic games anyway. Croke Park has resonated to high excitement in the past few weeks but it has come courtesy of international rugby and soccer and that must, despite the merry jingle of Peter McKenna’s cash register in the stadium office, be a source of some regret. There is a marked irony given the enormous fuss generated by the opening of the venue to other sports that not alone is the move likely to have generated around €40 million but Irish rugby has enjoyed its greatest ever season not by the Dodder but by the Royal Canal.

There isn’t a lot the GAA could have done about that and the point here isn’t that Croke Park must secretly resent the success of the IRFU but rather that postponement of the international rules series against Australia deprived the association of its own opportunity to shine (accepting that with the hybrid game you can never be quite sure of what exactly is going to happen) on the international stage.

Although there was also a gap year in 2007, in order to rewrite the rules of engagement as a response to the previous year’s carnage, that didn’t create the same sense of a vacuum in the GAA simply because there were no rugby internationals in the wake of that year’s World Cup and the soccer action was distinctly low-key compared to this year’s play-off excitement and the visit of big hitters Italy and France. It is consequently good news that the internationals are apparently back on track with next year’s visit by Australia confirmed again this week by the AFL.

For all the grumbling and belittling of the international rules series it has come to play a significant role in the GAA’s autumn schedules. It’s easy to forget that at the time the internationals were revived in 1998, the NFL was still playing to a bizarrely elongated schedule that included matches in October and November prior to a two-month break over Christmas and the New Year. Up until 2007 and this year the GAA had never had to cope with empty national schedules from September to Christmas.

Even for long-time upholders of the club championships’ status as the most meaningful Gaelic games events between September and March, the lack of a counterpoint has shown the fixtures’ limitations as promotional tools for the GAA. Time of the year and weather play a role but the championships aren’t major crowd pullers until the All-Ireland stages. Last Sunday an eventful Munster hurling final between former winners drew fewer than 3,000 to Semple Stadium.

The point is the GAA needs a higher profile in the autumn and winter and the decision to reduce the frequency of the international series to twice every three years will create this sort of a hiatus on a regular basis.

This reality also explains the GAA’s determination to engage with the GPA, as the elite competitions really are the only show in town when it comes to giving Gaelic games annual profile and generating revenue.

But it is equally necessary to confront the rumbles of discontent that arise from the clubs at the perception that Croke Park is excessively influenced by financial considerations and removed from the daily grind of keeping clubs on track during exceedingly hard times.

That disconnectedness between the grass roots and national administration has become a major concern for the GAA, even allowing for the fact it is of course necessary to have some faceless bureaucracy to blame for things going wrong and that need doesn’t always run parallel to the requirements of accountability.

Increasingly the GAA at central administrative level finds itself in a position where it has to optimise its commercial activities, while at the same time administering an association that is largely amateur or more accurately, voluntary in its workings.

It may not be a majority or anything near it but there is a view amongst some ordinary members that the intercounty game – regardless of its vast revenue stream – has become a burden on clubs, drawing funds away from their activities and pumping it into ever-more grandiose preparation for county teams.

It also lays increasing claim to players, who become faintly resented strangers in their own clubs.

This isn’t a one-way process, however. Counties spend money not always wisely on county teams and bend to the will of insistent county managers – at times suspending club activity for no good reason. Clubs are reluctant to play without their intercounty players and as a result ordinary players’ schedules suffer so it’s not just national administrators, who can be accused of failing to recognise the needs of all players.

A problem exists and needs to be addressed but it’s unfair simply to blame Croke Park and intercounty players for bringing that about. It’s something that needs to be addressed by the association at all levels and should be urgent business for GAA 126.