A STEP-BY-STEP process to being an “innovative” entrepreneur in recessionary times.
Step one:come up with a scrappage scheme for the defunct hurling helmet as all, now mandatory, headgear must carry the IS355 certification.
Step two:rent out corporate box 686 in Croke Park (this being the GAA box and the biggest).
Step three:make Galway's Joe Canning your brand ambassador (Everyone seems to want a piece of the maturing Portumna prodigy – two senior campaigns, two All Stars).
Step four:tug the heartstrings by providing a €15 discount that ensures an unspecified donation for every helmet sold to a worthwhile charity (in this case it is the Make-A-Wish foundation.).
And finally, step five: ensure GAA heavyweights, like general secretary Páraic Duffy and head of games Pat Daly, shuffle down the corridor to provide comment about other topical events (See other piece on this page for blanket postponements and the Limerick hurling war.).
Of course, invite the sports media along. Provide coffee, tea and biscuits. It’s a slow news day, in early January, so just watch as nature takes its natural course.
We skated down the Jones’ Road yesterday morning to hear Mark Ganly of MARC Sports lay out details of his new scheme: the price of a helmet will be reduced from €75 to €60 on presentation of out of date head gear.
“MARC Sports is to be commended for launching this innovative scheme, which will ultimately increase the safety of our playing members,” Duffy stated. “The IS355 is an important standard for the use of helmets.”
Problem with a room full of journalists is they ask questions like whether the policing of IS355-certified helmets is actually possible. “Not really, it’s not possible for us,” said Daly. “All we can do is recommend they use the IS355- standard helmets. I think that over a period of time, it may take a year or two, we’ll get to a situation where all helmets are approved.
“At the outset some guys had said they didn’t want to wear helmets, particularly guys that didn’t do so before, so to get everyone wearing helmets is a start. Ideally, we’d want to see everyone wearing the approved helmet. We’re not going to get into the business of policing the helmets that people are wearing but we’d strongly advocating they only use IS355 helmets.”
The new law, while proven to be an important health and safety reform, will make hurlers even more invisible to the public eye. Is it time to start branding surnames on jerseys in Gaelic games?
“At the moment our primary concern is to get everyone wearing a helmet, that’s our first goal,” said Duffy. “Marketing the games comes after that. It is a valid point. It’s been an issue for quite a long time that hurlers are not as easily recognisable as footballers but at the minute we don’t have any plans to do that.”
A genuine concern, as even Joe Canning is not an instantly recognisable face in Irish sport. “It doesn’t bother me,” said Joe. “I’d rather just come off the field and be the same as everyone else and not many people know you and you can walk around and not be pestered and live a normal life.”
Hopefully, that can continue.
- EXPERIENCED Clare forward Tony Carmody has decided not to take up an invitation to play for the county under new manager Ger O’Loughlin this year.
Carmody, 34, has informed team management he does not have the appetite for intercounty fare and won’t be making himself available for the 2010 season.
Clare will also have to plan without Gary O’Connell, younger brother of last year’s team captain Brian. O’Connell had been tipped for a long intercounty career but hurling will have to take a back seat for now due to work commitments.
