In the opening sections of his widest ranging annual report to date, GAA director general Tom Ryan dwells on a matter that has concerned him for a while: the burden on volunteers, their importance and the ethos that underpins the association.
“The single most important contribution that anybody can make to the GAA is to contribute their time,” he writes. “Yes, money is important, we need sponsors, and we need people coming through turnstiles. But given the choice of an hour of your time or a few notes from your wallet I know which is more valuable in the long term.
“That time is what keeps clubs operating, keeps children playing, keeps players training and keeps our pitches and committee rooms active. Unfortunately, time is becoming increasingly hard for people to find.”
Allowing that “we can be justifiably proud of our reputation and standing,” he goes on to say that when the other side of the ledger is taken into account, “the various shortcomings” prompt sober reflection.
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“The inevitable conclusion is that those values are at risk of erosion. In 2024, our ethos also represents the biggest risk that we face.”
His snag list is lengthy and familiar.
“Insulating children from overt competition at the earliest age grades is a struggle. We had to relaunch Go Games two years ago to protect the integrity of the participation message.”
Old reliables like the treatment of referees gets mentioned plus the oldest of the lot.
“The temptation to treat the disciplinary system as a means to evade sanction persists and we saw a couple of instances again this year which yielded outcomes that didn’t do us credit.”
A more recent snag is also noted, the vast expenditure on county teams, constantly lamented but perennially unaddressed.
“Of course, this presents a financial challenge but it also represents a relentless erosion of the volunteer ethos.”
Ryan laments the growing professionalism of teams everywhere, most obviously but not only at intercounty level and gets to the heart of the matter.
“The responsibility doesn’t really lie with the manager who is being paid or the juvenile mentor who only picks the strongest players. The failure is on the part of the association in espousing one thing and doing the opposite.”
Asked if there are any plans to address the dizzying costs of intercounty, he isn’t specific but suggests there are moves afoot to try to come to terms with it.
Questioned about his remarks on ethos, he expands, presumably making reference to the financial fair play rules in professional soccer.
“We’re not good at that. In general, it’s not in our make-up really. We cajole. We try to influence. We try to convince – we incentivise. We extol the virtues to try and scare people, all of those things. They haven’t really worked.
“So, if you’re trying to think about things we haven’t done . . . and you look at other sports and you look at the travails of some teams in other sports at the moment because there are defined regimes that have to apply. I don’t know off the top of my head how we would go down that route but it’s something that we should consider.”
He acknowledges that it’s been a steady financial year even if revenues are down €16 million for various reasons, such as reduced income from switching media rights from established broadcasters to an embryonic streaming service. That and a slight fall-off in sponsorship suggests that cloth is being cut to measure.
In the GAA that normally means grants are also down but without major infrastructural projects to be supported and record gate receipts, director of finance Ger Mulryan was still able to report increases in games development grants and distributions to the counties.
Ryan also expressed concern about the financial challenges of integration with the women’s Gaelic associations but also suggests that the process might prompt a rethinking of all costs.
He followed a number of senior officials in criticising – while allowing that the organisation represents all players – the Gaelic Players Association for joining the women’s protests over player expenses and its possible impact.
“A single organisation will in time emerge, but until then it does a disservice to both of our sister organisations to seek to usurp them and involve the GAA in their issues.
“My fears here are for the integration process itself and I hope that unwitting damage has not been done to that project. We need to make sure that momentum towards integration is not undermined.”
There was good news from Stadium Director Peter McKenna, who announced a €15 million dividend for Central Council despite not having hosted any concerts during the year. This included the last portion of the sale price for the parcel of Clonliffe land sold for the development of a hotel and to help develop the rest of the property as pitches and training facilities.
