Player power's silver jubilee

FOR some people it was the first modern manifestation of player power, although it might more accurately be described as a first expression of collective dissent. In terms of player power, it didn't set a particularly rousing precedent and everyone backed off at the first growl of an ultimatum from Croke Park.

The issue of £1,000 for an All Ireland winning panel may seem unremarkable at a time when successful teams toil long and arduously to raise substantial funds for exotic holidays. If the affair failed to invoke Spartacus, it still took a lot of gumption at a time when players concerns were not frequently aired.

The matter came to a head 25 years ago this week. The team concerned was then All Ireland football champions Offaly and the issue was rooted in the first All Stars tour which was due to leave for San Francisco on March 23rd 1972.

The All Stars scheme had been inaugurated the previous year by a group of journalists and the selections of the top 15 hurlers and footballers were sponsored by tobacco company PJ Carroll. The tour by the All Stars and the All Ireland champions, Offaly and Tipperary, to the west coast of America was being organised - at a cost of $30,000 - by the United Irish Society of San Francisco who were providing players with a daily allowance of $6 (roughly £39 at today's values) for the 10 day trip.

This allowance was central to the dispute. The Offaly players issued a demand to their county board for a further £1,000 to be divided between the panel of 23 ($100 per person by the exchange rate of the time).

None of the other teams, All Stars or Tipperary, mounted similar protests, so was there a subtext to Offaly's grievance? Tony McTague, their most celebrated forward and by 1972 the team's captain and spokesperson during the controversy, says it was an accumulation of things.

"We weren't getting on that well with the officials. It was just the way players were treated. In hindsight we should have just fundraised and taken care of it ourselves. It was a very sad episode and shouldn't have happened to us. We'd just won the county's first All Ireland."

Former GAA President, John Dowling, was then Offaly county secretary. "I don't remember that much about it," he says. "There was a demand made by a number of Offaly players who were not satisfied with the stated sums. The demand was passed on to Central Council.

"The county board refused in the light of the decision taken by the (GAA) executive (forerunner of today's Management Committee). Our hands were tied by the executive decision. There were plenty of hard feelings and I bore the brunt, myself and Fr McWey (county chairman).

"Relations with the players had been very good until this came up and in fairness when it was over they were good afterwards. Remember we won the All Ireland again later that year so the row had no long term effect. I put some of it (the demand) down to outside influence."

The intervention of the GAA Executive was a direct response to the players' demand. A players' meeting in Edenderry on March 8th had refused to waive their demand for the extra money.

Two days later, the late Sean O Siochain, then General Secretary of the GAA, issued a statement saying that the Executive would meet the next day to "consider the position arising from the attitude of members of the Offaly team to the San Francisco tour and to take appropriate action to ensure that the tour goes on in strict accordance with the regulations already determined".

This was taken as an indirect threat that another team, believed to have been Galway who had lost the 1971 All Ireland final to Offaly, was to be offered the tour.

Fr McWey was reported to be "appalled" by the players' demands. "After all," he said at the time, "the tour is unofficial and furthermore we have all known since we won the All Ireland last September that the team was going to San Francisco. Everyone had time to prepare. Former county players with whom I have spoken were absolutely shocked by this turn of events."

That such a controversial stand was taken by the players over the question of additional expenses should be seen in the context of the original All Star tours. Teams were not accommodated in hotels but placed with families in San Francisco.

Inevitably this proved an uneven affair with some players thoroughly enjoying their stay but others were quite unhappy.

"A fella could be 70 miles from, San Francisco," says McTague, "and living with people who he'd only see when they came in from work. I was one of the lucky ones. I had two uncles parish priests out there and they treated us royally. But there was a Tipperary player, Peter O'Sullivan, put up in a reformatory, you know a Borstal.

"I remember fellas coming home and saying: `Under no circumstances, never ever again. It was like being in prison it was so far away from the city'".

For those who had good jobs and a secure income, the tour was undoubtedly an enjoyable experience for others, the size of the daily allowance would be a crucial determinant: "One of the members on our panel was unemployed," says McTague, "there were a couple of apprentices and others you wouldn't know how they were fixed."

Whatever the merits of the players claims, they cut little ice in Croke Park. John Dowling requested the panel to attend a meeting on March 13th where they were given details of the Executive ultimatum.

This required the players to confirm in writing by 9.00 that evening that they accepted the conditions laid down for the tour. The county board were instructed that to draw from county board funds an additional £1,000 in personal allowances was "not in accord with the amateur status of the Association".

Furthermore, the Offaly players were condemned for a "grievous breach of discipline" and warned that if they didn't comply with the ultimatum, their participation in the tour would be cancelled.

The matter ended with the following written communication to Croke Park on March 14th: "We the undersigned accept in full the conditions laid down bye the Ard Comhairle for the San Francisco tour and agree to travel". All 19 players present, had signed and those absent had signalled their acceptance.

From a distance, Liam Sammon followed the affair with interest. "It was the start of players beginning to voice opinions relating to things like expenses and questioning county boards.

Hardly a welcome developments from an administrative perspective?

"Not likely. If you were trouble back then, you were got rid of. The county board was all powerful.

Looking back, Tony McTague feels one major regret. "We managed it badly from our own point of view. We should have got our own money. At the time we were going to have a fundraising game but we were told that would be too much like begging.

"It's a criticism of ourselves but if I was 25 years younger, I'd simply have ignored the county board and done my own thing. Their attitude then was: You may have won an All Ireland but it's above your station to be raising this sort of thing. Later, a type of Supporters' Club was set up and that solved a lot of the problems."

John Dowling believes the standoff was self defeating. "If they'd left it, they would have got something but there was no advising them. Something would have been found. In Offaly we always treated players well."

The county went on to complete back to back All Irelands and in 1973 a three in a row in Leinster. In that year's All Ireland semifinal, old rivals Galway cut them off from extending their national dominion and within 12 months, they gave way to the emergent Dublin team that was to monopolise Leinster for the remainder of the decade.

As a postscript, it's worth mentioning that Dublin, three years after the events of March 1972, were to insist on making their own arrangements for accommodation and when the Bank of Ireland took over the All Stars sponsorship in 1979, hotels became part of the trip. In 1991, after exhibition matches in Toronto, the All Stars tours finished and have not taken place since.