Ready to talk tough at the top

Next month Sean McCague takes up the reins of office in Croke Park - metaphorically given that the GAA's administrative offices have been demolished and the association currently operates out of rented office accommodation pending the redevelopment of the ground.

This is turning out to be a tricky time for the president-elect. Increasingly sought for his opinions as his time draws near, he has to be diplomatic in his public utterances for fear of cutting across his predecessor, outgoing president Joe McDonagh whose popular tenure concludes at the GAA annual congress in his native Galway on April 15th.

The new man sets out his curtailed stall early. "I know you're probably going to ask me about Rule 21 (the ban on the northern security forces) but Joe's asked that he be the sole GAA voice on that until congress," he says.

Protocol notwithstanding, there's no real secret about where the president-elect stands on the issue and his public utterances in the past indicate as much. An Ulsterman by inclination as well as provenance, he supported Rule 21 as a salve for the bruised sensibilities of GAA members in Northern Ireland.

But he is also a pragmatist and has previously acknowledged that the GAA should abolish the provision when the Patten proposals take effect.

"When it's implemented is the time to move," he told The Irish Times in January. "There will be people who think it should go sooner and others who'll shout sell-out, but that's the way it has happened in the overall situation. There comes a time when we have to be courageous like David Trimble and Gerry Adams and bring people with us."

Judging exactly when the Patten proposals have been implemented might present a problem and since McCague's comments, although Patten has been accepted in full by the British government, the Northern Ireland Executive has been suspended and today's debate within the Ulster Unionist party may yet impact on policing policy in Northern Ireland.

Of the remaining controversies facing the GAA, the only other one he wishes to avoid is that concerning the report of the Football Development Committee (FDC) and its ambitious proposals to fuse league format and championship conditions in order to give more matches in better weather to teams and spectators.

"No, I won't be taking a stand on this at congress or before. That is my position because of the office I hold. Once congress is over, I'll be handing whatever's decided over to the new head of the GAC to implement.

"I haven't expressed any opinion on it, but I do feel that the amount of discussion generated by the FDC report has been brilliant. I've no doubt that whatever happens to the FDC proposals, we'll never go back pre-FDC in our attitude to fixtures.

"There's an acceptance that wasn't there even 12 months ago that you can have a championship that doesn't necessarily have to be knockout. There's an acceptance that county and club games have to co-exist. By and large there's a lot more people openminded."

There are fewer open minds in evidence on the issue of the Gaelic Players' Association (GPA). Its claims to be a representative body for players was firmly contested by outgoing president Joe McDonagh's statement at the launch of proposals drawn up by his Players' Advisory Group: "We take serious issue with any group which would negotiate a sponsorship at national level on outside of our organisation on behalf of our members as long as they remain members of our organisation."

By way of riposte, the GPA disputed the GAA had any mandate to represent players.

McCague acknowledges the concerns of players, but sympathises with his predecessor. "When you have an official grouping appointed to deal with something, it's very difficult to go off and deal with another grouping. I certainly recognise why players are dissatisfied. It's an accepted fact that people within the association are getting benefit-in-kind and players are saying: `Why not us?'.

"We're all aware of the amount of money paid to team managers at club and county level. I know no-one will stick their hand up and offer proof, but it's an accepted fact that it's happening and that the people letting it happen are county officials and club officials.

"I don't think that most players would be happy that a minority would cream off what's available (in endorsement money) and the rest wouldn't get anything. We have to look at the bigger picture. How does it affect the 96 per cent of players who will not benefit one iota from endorsement deals.

"As one player remarked to me, some of his team-mates were wondering why certain selected colleagues had been approached to join the GPA and they weren't. We have to legislate for team sport. Benefits which accrue should be on a team basis."

Although a firm upholder of the collective ethic, he accepts that prominent players will be more in demand and believes that endorsement opportunities relating to a player's job should be levied.

"We recognise that players have livelihoods and that in the course of their work, they are able to benefit from endorsements. We're not trying to claim we control that nor do we want to control it."

The PAG proposals were largely based on the 1997 report of the GAA's Amateur Status Committee. This recommended that players be allowed to benefit from commercial endorsements, but also called for greater transparency in the conduct of financial affairs so that players could be fully informed.

This plainly has not happened since the special congress which accepted the report. This stasis has been sharply criticised by McCague.

"I do believe that players should feel they've an open door to officialdom in any county. What annoyed me greatly was that so little was done to implement the proposals of the amateur status report in the counties.

"One of the issues covered in that report was the setting-up of a county team account. Players were to have a say in the disbursement of that account and have ownership of the decision-making process. . . I honestly believe that lack of information contributes greatly to the tensions."

If these controversies are very much present entanglements, McCague has more long-term plans. What seems likely to become his "big idea" is a major and thoroughgoing examination of the GAA in all its aspects.

Thirty years ago, the MacNamee Commission performed a similar task and produced a seminal and exhaustive report whose impact was quaintly described by Marcus de Burca in his official history of the GAA as "likely to prove far more lasting than that of the spread of television".

Although the incoming president admits that he balks at describing his proposal as a new commission, the intent is to emulate MacNamee in plotting a course for the GAA into the future.

"There's a whole structural review required and I hope to undertake it early in my presidency. It would examine the structures right across the whole association and look 10, 15 years ahead and decide what sort of an association we want in 2010 and 2015."

Commissions may come and go, but the problem of indiscipline is always with us. Surprisingly for someone who introduced a tone of consistent severity into the dealings of the GAC, McCague is philosophical about the most effective methods of countering lawlessness within the association.

"Indiscipline will never be remedied by rules and regulations. A change of mindset is needed. We have to address it, the level of misconduct, comments to referees, opposing players as well as the physical aspect. It's not about diluting the passion in the games but they are primarily sport and we have to accept an emphasis on sportsmanship.

"The requirement in a society which is ambivalent about violence is to try and ensure that sportsmanship is inculcated from the very beginning from the age of eight, nine, 10.

"I think that has to come from a code of ethics or discipline within clubs to which players can contribute. It has to cover mentors and their attitude to other players and referees. It won't be easy and some people will say it's utopian but we have to strive to address indiscipline."

But surely one way of altering mindsets is to crack down on the activities which flow from them. After all, as chairman of the GAC, McCague decided to double minimum suspensions for off-the-ball fouls.

Something clicks and he remembers that Meath's Ollie Murphy (who was appearing before the GAC on Thursday night) has rendered the conversation less theoretical than he intended.

"That's not a great example at the moment. Take deliberately kicking. Three months. Just because there is a minimum doesn't mean that it should apply. Only in extenuating circumstances should the minimum apply."

How does he feel about county boards who deliberately undermine rules by granting county players greater latitude than ordinary club players? How does he believe they can impose rules?

"They can't. I don't want to refer to specific counties. Any county that by the actions of its officers sends out a message that it condones the misconduct of players and then tries to justify that loses credibility with the people they're supposed to protect.

"They are elected to uphold the rules. It's totally lacking in backbone for people not to implement rules. To opt out in the interests of personal popularity or whatever does a grave disservice to the association."

So what can be done about it? McCague believes that Croke Park must impose order from the top if individual units won't.

"I believe we in Croke Park have been lax in the manner we monitor our units. You have 32 autonomous units supposed to impose the rules and nobody seems to have any jurisdiction over them. We reviewed the structures of the provincial councils and there should be further reviews. Any actions by a county board which should be addressed by a provincial council and are not, should be addressed by Central Council."

Indiscipline and the administration of the games have always been associated with what McCague describes as the GAA's biggest single problem: refereeing. He is hopeful about the future and as a member last year of the new Central Referees Appointments Committee, strove to eliminate inconsistencies in refereeing by demanding that rules be applied whatever the consequences.

"I feel there's a genuine effort being made to address the subject of refereeing. Referees are brought in and their performances are monitored. I'll be putting my full weight behind that system of training, monitoring and tutoring, just the same as we do for coaches and players.

"It may mean that we have only a few people capable of refereeing to the highest level but in a short space of time I think we'll expand that to a higher number. Sadly and unfortunately this has been the single biggest problem in the association for a long time. But I'm optimistic that the new procedures will bear fruit."

For a practical man with a blunt preference for getting to the point, his concerns are at times surprisingly broad. The future of amateurism in the GAA concerns him as do certain modern influences in society, as articulated in his acceptance speech last April.

"The gap between the haves and the have-nots, the price of housing, traffic congestion, depression among young males and its terrible consequences are all aspects of the society in which the association must function."

In the aftermath of Joe McDonagh's hugely popular tenure and charismatic personality, McCague will present a different presidency. Yet he is confident and assured in his views and comfortable about what he has to offer.

This independence of mind and ability to be his own man are admirable qualities, but the irony of the future that awaits him is that his GAC past which he once said would prevent him ever becoming president - because of the tough decisions he routinely made - makes him a potentially crucial figure at a time of disciplinary crisis.