Pat Gilroy has been encouraged by efforts to strengthen the GAA’s amateur ethos in the 15 months since he resigned from the board of the Croke Park stadium company.
The departure of the successful businessman had been motivated by what he felt to be an unwelcome direction being taken by the association at a time when potential payment of county managers was a current topic of conversation.
That is no longer on the agenda after encountering resistance during consultations by the Amateur Status Review Committee (ASRC).
The former All-Ireland winning Dublin player and manager draws a distinction between walking away on the basis of policy disagreement and disengaging from the organisation.
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“I think one of the things about the GAA is we do have healthy debate and we do have healthy discussion and, by and large, we have a very democratic organisation. So, if things happen, you have to accept that, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be part of shaping or implementing them.
“That was my not wanting to be involved in steering something when I just didn’t like the way it was going.”
One of the measures he would like to see adopted at this weekend’s annual congress is the motion from Noel McCaffrey’s club Clontarf to require players to have played eight club matches the previous season if they want to qualify to play adult intercounty.
Gilroy says that he strongly supports the idea, “because I just feel the disconnect between the club and county players is not a healthy one at all. I think it’s more difficult now that it’s starting at a younger and younger age.
“So, you’re seeing kids getting pulled into development squads at 14 or 15, and basically missing the first half of the year, and only playing in their championships. And I don’t think that’s good for the long-term future of the games.”
Nearly 20 years ago, when talking to The Irish Times in October 2007 about the issue of burnout, former Meath player and surgeon Gerry McEntee referenced his time coaching St Brigid’s in Dublin when discussing the “disconnect” between county and club.
He was commenting on research by Tyrone’s Lynette Hughes, who said that 30 per cent of county players felt they were “resented” on their return to their clubs.
“I know that because I felt that way towards the Dublin fellas in Brigid’s – that they weren’t as enthusiastic about the club training as I’d hoped. I could feel that in myself even though I’m supposed to be one of the people who understand this. They were drained.”
McCaffrey, also a doctor, said a year ago when advocating much the same motion as this weekend’s – it was withdrawn for further consideration – that his concerns were partly influenced by the need to buttress amateur status.
[ Noel McCaffrey: Clubs need a rebalance - please don’t sit on the fenceOpens in new window ]
Writing in these pages, he argued: “The rationale includes basic fairness, honouring the core essence of the GAA, protecting the health of county players by getting them to regularly step outside the intercounty bubble, halting the misguided race to professionalism and acting to control the extraordinary amounts of money being spent on running intercounty teams.”
Another item of contention for Gilroy was what he felt was a headlong rush into commercialism – he instanced concerts and the use of Croke Park by other sports – which he said ran the danger of altering the GAA’s DNA of amateurism or volunteerism.
“The deeper we get into a commercial world of trying to get better and better and grow revenue and grow this, the more you’re potentially deepening that disconnect with the clubs.
“I think the magic and the power of the GAA is the club. We’ve seen it through crises, you know, like Covid. Clubs are at the heart of community action and for a player – this is the beauty of our association as well – it’s a lifelong thing.
“So, to get extracted from that community by being in a county squad or whatever, from 15 till you’re 32 or 33, is a lot of time to lose and then to hope that you’re going to come back in and everything is going to be smooth. I think it really is hard on the county player.”
The split season has been deemed a success by most stakeholders. Counties have space for their schedules and all players get certainty of fixtures. Some supporters might prefer the old season, with autumn All-Irelands, but there has been scant evidence of declining public engagement.
Gilroy, however, argues that clubs aren’t getting full benefit from the supposed boundaries between themselves and the county game.
“It’s not a split season. The one truly split season, which I thought did work very well, was during Covid [2020] when you had the club come first in the calendar and then the county second. That genuinely worked.
“People who played found that refreshing, but it’s not a split season now because, for a start, the club league games are nearly done by the time the county players are back.”
The idea of remunerating managers, which helped to persuade him to step away from the stadium board, was, until its rejection, part of the ASRC deliberations that are hoped to come to fruition at the weekend.
A central plank is the proposed introduction of a “certification” system, which will make intercounty participation dependent on satisfying standards of administration and governance of teams, similar to the Uefa licensing system.
The aim is to reduce the ever-rising costs of the intercounty game.
Gilroy is happier with the landscape these days, having had a positive discussion with GAA president Jarlath Burns, and he welcomes the ASRC report.
“I think there’s a lot of very good things in there and a lot of things that could help sustain amateur status, but I think we’re on a fine balance. I would say, though, the association is going the right direction.
[ GAA Congress gets its chance to halt the runaway train of intercounty costsOpens in new window ]
“My own gut feeling is that there’s an awful lot of money generated and being spent on things that maybe could be shared centrally, such as expertise, that really doesn’t need to be an ‘advantage’ for one particular county or another.”
Overall, as someone with the perspective of having managed both the Dublin footballers and hurlers, as well as having won All-Irelands at both club and county level, Gilroy is in no doubt which is the more important.
“For me, the club is what makes this association different and we should really try to maintain its importance.”
