Show Us Your Medals Blog

My piece on ever-increasing player power in the GAA, in this month’s Magill magazine:

“The lunatics are taking over the asylum. Sure, you need to be a psychiatrist and a babysitter nowadays to manage an inter county team.” So said a former hurling manager to me over the course of the summer and he’s not the only one in management circles feeling uncomfortable at recent developments in the GAA . They see a worrying trend developing, one where inter-county players’ are having an ever-increasing say in team affairs.  Never mind pay-for-play, but is player power in danger of ruining and taking over GAA teams?

GAA players have come a long way in recent times, aided in no small measure by the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) under the leadership of Dessie Farrell. Whilst still fighting for official recognition, the voice and standing of the players has increased considerably under the GPA. It’s a far cry from the days of an All Ireland winning captain being refused entry to an officials’ bar in Croke Park because he didn’t have the proper pass, even though he was carrying the Sam Maguire Cup at the time.

Player grants were finally forced through – albeit only after the GPA membership voted on strike action. Sports scholarships are awarded each year. Funding is in place for the organisation and player representation and contact with the GAA powers-that-be has never been higher.

At the height of the player grants issue, the GPA were accused by their opponents of being advocates of pay-for-play professionalism, and that grants were merely the first step in all of this. It is a charge the GPA have consistently denied. They have been at pains to point out that they wish to uphold the amateur ethos of the GAA.

The question now is: where to now for the players? If they have met their goals – or are on their way to meeting them – in terms of player representation, commercial funding and sponsorships, what is left on the table for them? Remaining vigilant and keeping watch on these matters, perhaps. But are we in the throes of seeing player power becoming too powerful?

Take away the whole issue of pay for play for a moment. When this is removed, players will argue that they are agitating for better facilities and conditions and maximising their careers and chances of success. Sounds like manager speak, doesn’t it? And this is where the lines begin to blur and the danger of future problems could be brewing.

If a manager is not perceived to be on the same path as the players, who wins out? Who decides what is the correct winning path? Players or management? An authoritarian such as Alex Ferguson dumps players the moment they become agitative. Just ask Roy Keane. For men like Ferguson there is only one boss and there is a clear chain of command: what he says goes. He chooses the direction of the club and team, he hires those to assist in training and implement fitness regimes. He is the sole arbiter for club/team development and progress. There is a clear delineation between manager and players.

(Witness his recent stance over the Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid saga. Refusing to countenance Ronaldo’s transfer or the player’s wishes, Ferguson commented: “I can say he’ll be a Manchester United player next season. He won’t be sold… The player is under contract so the strength and the rights are with Manchester United.”)

But now the GAA seems to be entering dangerous new ground where, if management is not perceived to be singing from the same hymn sheet as the players, then it is the players who have the final say.

Witness Babs Keating’s fallout last year with his Tipp panel. Or Justin McCarthy with Waterford, more recently.  Wiitness the recent comments of Limerick hurling manager, Richie Bennis, criticising some of his players’ post-training drinking habits. There now appears to be a widening gulf between players and management.
Most recently we have seen the Donegal footballers publicly criticising the sacking of Brian McIver and in turn seeking input into the next and future managers saying,
‘it is the squad’s intention now to seek representation in the selection process for any future managerial appointments’.

And then there’s Cork. Their recent dispute over the appointment of Teddy Holland against their wishes has a long and tortuous history but is another more glaring example of the gulf between players and managements.

Can it be explained simply as a generational thing? That many of the managers in charge and those recently ousted are just too old-school? That their methods of the stick and the hairdryer approach are no longer adequate? Even the aforementioned Alex Ferguson has had to curb his disciplinarian tendencies in recent years. Managers like him have recognised that the old ways no longer suffice. Players have different mentalities and are perceived as more complex human beings nowadays. They no longer react to just a dressing down.

Players now look to have a say in training methods being taught to them and the systems being used affecting them. They want a pat on the back if they’re doing well and a consoling arm around the shoulder if they’re being dropped or struggling in a game. Players no longer see themselves as mere cogs in the machine to do as they’re told unquestioningly.

But with this new empowerment comes added pressure: the pressure to succeed. For their failings, they will fall on their own swords, and be watched with some glee by many of the officials they run up against.

After all, the rise of player power has meant an unnoticed and often uncommented diluting of the power of GAA county board officials. The mentality whereby the players were expected to do as they were told is now outdated. Yet in Ireland, it lingers on. Witness the lengths to which Roy Keane had to go for decent food and plane seats for highly paid international soccer players.

The Cork players’ recent and long-running saga was really a proxy battle between players and county board officials. The appointment of Teddy Holland was seen as a return to the old ways, indicating an intention to supplant previous arrangements. Holland was then caught in the crossfire as the Cork players dug in their heels and refused to countenance a system whereby a manager’s selectors were chosen by the county board.

Holland’s appointment was the first shot across the bow of the players and they were quick to sit up and tackle it head on no matter what. While the battle may now be over, rest assured that future skirmishes in Cork and elsewhere will continue as both camps seek to re-assert their dominance.

However, in a changing sporting landscape, and in a changing sporting culture – one where sports athletes are accepting as having a legitimate say in the running of things – player power will continue to rise and be a dominant voice.

The more perceptive officials first detected this sea-change back in 2002. The Cork players went on strike then, and came out victorious. To do so in a county where the power of the county board was seen as sacrosanct made many throughout the other 31 counties realise that the natives were getting restless.

That was the first warning sign and officials elsewhere began to make suitable changes to set-ups in their counties in relation to players. It is no coincidence that many such counties have also been among the most successful in recent times and are those that run a tight ship with all – players and officials alike – moving in one direction.

Ironically, the GAA’s best way of curbing further interference from players in county affairs would be via professionalism. Tying players into contracts that clearly delineate control and authority would bring clarity to the matter. But until that day comes (if ever) the lines in the sand will remain blurred. If anything, the rising tide of player power will ensure that the officials might be drowned out altogether.

The clash of cultures – player v official – will continue so long as each is vying for supremacy. The suspicion and derision of the other will be there and its poisonous undercurrent is already infecting the game.

Witness the hatred that is aimed at Cork’s hurling goalkeeper and outspoken GPA representative, Donal Og Cusack. Despite his many years of service and heroics, and his commitment to the GAA cause via schools, fundraising and time given to kids, never mind the constant training and playing with the county, he raises the heckles of many in Cork. None more so than those that wear the badges of officialdom.

This resentment runs deep and is affecting the core of the GAA, from club all the way up to county.

As long as the sideline battles continue between players and officials, and the more the players’ voices trumpet the loudest, the skirmishes will continue. We haven’t seen the last of the bodies to be cast aside at the players’ bidding. The managerial casualties will continue to rise in the real war between officials and players and it’s one neither can countenance losing.