Legends' rebukes only make it worse for players

Cyril Farrell thought the criticisms would “run off the players” and even motivate them but the Galway performance that followed disproved that

ONE IMPACT of the championship season is it tends to sideline non-playing issues until the evenings grow dark and the action on the playing fields is diffused across dozens of local contests. For instance, there is little now heard about the discussion document presented to the GAA’s Management Committee before last Christmas by association director general Páraic Duffy.

The subject of alleged (in the same sense as “alleged” rain during the summer) payments to managers has been deprived of the oxygen of publicity but will presumably at some stage come to the surface gasping for air.

That particular matter is just one aspect of amateurism. The paying of money in contravention of Rule 1.10 of the Official Guide is what occurs to most people when this topic pops up but there are a number of other aspects that don’t go away during the championship season.

One of those has been seen in spate over the past couple of weeks and that’s the public pressure on players. Many professionals can seek the shelter that wealth affords and be more or less cocooned from public criticism in their everyday lives. That is, however, impossible for intercounty players.

It’s true Gaelic games at the elite level demand standards that are nearly professional in the sense that the public at large feel entitled to criticise all aspects of a player’s life if it’s believed to be in conflict with the interests of the team. Yet there is no contractual obligation. What players give is given freely.

That obviously doesn’t absolve footballers and hurlers from the responsibility to be disciplined and responsible once they have agreed to submit to the rigours of intercounty commitment. But where is the line to be drawn? On last weekend’s Sunday Game, Galway’s David Collins was interviewed in the aftermath of his side’s defeat by Dublin in the Leinster hurling semi-final. He spoke of “knives in our backs” and glumly admitted “proving right” those wielding them.

Collins is a veteran at this stage. He lost and won All-Ireland under-21 finals in successive years, 2004-05, and has been one of the team’s best players since that time – he made the step up to senior at the same time and was Young Hurler of the Year in ’05 when Galway last reached the All-Ireland final.

A serious injury kept him out of the game for the best part of two years but he returned in time to win a league medal last year. Yet part of his frame of reference after a demoralising defeat is the critics within the county.

Passions run high in the summer. It’s part of what makes the championship. The three senior hurling figures who criticised the team in Saturday’s Irish Independent are all committed to their county: Noel Lane and Conor Hayes have three All-Ireland medals each and both managed the county to All-Ireland finals and Brendan Lynskey’s physicality was a hallmark of the last team to take the Liam MacCarthy across the Shannon.

Few won’t understand their frustration at the serial woes of their successors in maroon jerseys but imagine what it’s like for players.

Westmeath manager Brian Hanley, three times an All-Ireland club medallist with Athenry and someone who’s been involved in hurling for 20 years, conjured up an uncomfortable image of the impact on players’ confidence of seeing legends of the Galway game who they had probably grown up revering angrily dismissing – almost disowning – them on the day of a big match.

The protected terms of “some” and “certain” players hardly softens the impact. One manager privately explained that whereas you can stop players absorbing media on a Sunday because the routine of travelling and preparing for an afternoon throw-in makes it easy, you can’t keep them away from the papers until seven o’clock.

So they knew. Cyril Farrell, who took Galway to all of their MacCarthy Cups, thought the criticisms would have “run off the players” and even motivated them but the performance that followed didn’t exactly substantiate those views.

Last week Michael Duignan, the RTÉ analyst and Offaly All-Ireland winner, created a fuss in the county by making similar criticisms of his county’s footballers. He later regretted the universality of the charges, accepting a number of players had committed themselves impeccably over the years to the team but insisted he wasn’t withdrawing the basic allegation of frivolous levels of commitment.

A few weeks back Down footballer John Clarke withdrew from the county panel and, in passing, mentioned the anonymous criticisms all players have to contend with on internet discussion boards.

People are allowed to comment. The Duignans, Hayes, Lanes and Lynskeys of the world have high profiles and heightened sensibilities when talking about their counties. Lower-profile opinions expressed through new or social media are still expressions of the intensity the games generate.

It will also be argued that intercounty players are big boys and know that criticism – albeit at times unfair – is part and parcel of what they sacrifice for the kudos and buzz of elite sport.

Nonetheless, there aren’t that many material rewards even for being well-known as footballer and hurlers. Many players now struggle to stay employed in the teeth of the worst economic depression for decades let alone financially buoyant. Given the popularity of the games, report and comment are inevitable but are they always based on fairly assessed evidence? Is it sometimes forgotten that every player comes from a family, club and smaller community, which can be vicariously upset by harsh words that are often disproportionate to what’s actually at stake: a sporting outcome?

THE issue of amateurism in Irish sport will be the subject of a History Ireland Hedge School discussion at the Sunday morning session of this year’s Byrne Perry Summer School in Gorey, Co Wexford. Speakers include George Hook and Mick Wallace TD.

Other GAA topics include UCD lecturer Paul Rouse on Foreign Games and the Founding of the GAA and former GAA Museum curator Tim Carey on Bloody Sunday in Sporting Legend. Details on www.byrneperry.com.