THE SOLO RUN: Recently published provincial reports show there is a welcome awareness of hypocrisy within the association

ONCE WE accept the distinction between being introverted and being introspective it’s fair to say that the GAA in general isn’t much given to critical self evaluation. The recent discussion document on payments to intercounty managers has however become a lightning rod for some interesting opinions.

Apprehensions that the association at large would flock to option two in the document – the strict enforcement of the rules on amateurism – as a means to ensuring option one – business as usual – look well founded in advance of this week’s deadline for submissions on the subject, but some critical voices are being raised.

In the first two provincial convention reports to be published, Connacht and Leinster secretaries John Prenty and Michael Delaney have reflected the above concern by focusing attention on one of the GAA’s most besetting flaws: publicly upholding one course of action while following another.

Prenty expresses the problem succinctly: “On several occasions in the past I have highlighted an issue that, in my opinion, poses the greatest threat to our organisation, ie the inability or unwillingness of those that make the rules to implement them – by attempting to circumvent them or ignore them.”

The Connacht secretary cites a few examples: the almost universally ignored close-season training ban in November and December, the restriction to 26 of county panel size and acceptance of fixture schedules.

As it happens both Prenty and Delaney are strong advocates of enforcing Rule 1.10 on amateur status but both are also aware that such is the depth of hypocrisy on the issue (one county secretary said that a submission on the topic which fiercely upheld amateur status came from a club that was known to be paying both its senior hurling and football managers), that there will be no appetite to challenge and change the culture of under-the-counter payments – as opposed to continuing to turn a blind eye in their direction.

Delaney further develops consideration of the central problem by looking critically at other treasured assumptions and focuses on a classic elevation of piety over practice.

“As an association all our pronouncements in this regard say that our priority is club fixtures – all our actions indicate a bias towards intercounty. As we break it down into our units we again see a diversity of opinion and action. Every county board – whether they admit it or not – is geared towards success at intercounty level. This will always mean that club fixtures are secondary when it comes to planning.”

Lecturing counties on the gap between aspiration and reality when it comes to club activities and how they are served is as strenuous as shooting fish in a barrel. Many counties are in thrall to the prospect of success and the recreational-development/elite-competitive balance rarely receives engaged consideration.

But counties also have to factor in the promotional value of having a high-profile county team and at higher levels of administration the intercounty championships remain the association’s biggest revenue stream, something Delaney recognises when reflecting on his own province.

“As a provincial council we in Leinster must also look honestly at our priorities. For as long as I remember we have selfishly promoted the intercounty scene. After all, it is our bread and butter. We take up to six months of the year to run the intercounty championships in the province – beginning with under-21 football in February and ending with the under-21 hurling in mid-July.

“We spread out our senior championships over a three-month period, thereby ensuring that club championships are parked in a lay-by for this period. Some of our reasoning is organisational while much of our planning is dictated by the desire to have as much live TV coverage of our games as possible.

“Both reasons have merit but what about all the other reasons why we should tighten up our schedules? Believe me these can have much more merit.”

This is another of the paradoxes facing the GAA. The intercounty game is the association’s cash cow – last year’s accounts showed that at least 70 per cent of Central Council income comes from match-related earnings, between gate receipts, sponsorship and media rights, and this year’s Leinster Council figure is over 60 per cent – but the cost of resourcing county teams is identified by Delaney as one of the main reasons counties are in financial difficulties.

And that’s just the accounting cost. In the past week there have been further uncomfortable reminders of the physical cost of the elite game. Cork footballer Diarmuid Duggan’s career ended early because of injury and it has since transpired that he remains significantly out of pocket after settling medical expenses of nearly €10,000.

Kerry centrefielder David Moran damaged a cruciate just as he was coming back after a year out with a similar injury. Although a physical ailment this injury has spread like an epidemic in the past couple of years and it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that players at the top level, for all the sports science support and best practice, are doing too much.

But as with payment to managers, which it can be forgotten amidst all the hand wringing is a fact; can the clock be turned back on the escalating demands of the elite intercounty game without undermining the valuable public interest in its championships?

Aside from his timely questions about the club-county interface, Michael Delaney raises a strikingly existential question about the purpose of provincial councils, posing questions such as what do they do (a) for counties, (b) for clubs and (c) for the association at large? Are they outdated administrative structures? Would the GAA be better served by a completely central administration? Would an enhanced county-based administrative structure be more effective? Are the provincial championships an even-handed method of organising the All-Ireland championships?

The last question is particularly dramatic, as it has always been assumed that provincial councils would be the foremost defenders of the established model based on their intercounty championships. Yet if Delaney’s logic is followed, the possible obsolescence of the province as an administrative structure would remove the importance of the provincial fixtures as funding mechanisms for the respective councils.

In the best of all possible worlds however any inequity of the provincial system as an integral part of championship structures could be detached from the useful role played by the provincial councils.

Close enough to Croke Park to have an overview of the GAA but sufficiently in touch with the counties to be able to access the broad membership’s concerns, the provinces still have an important role in brokering unpalatable truths – in either direction.