“You can’t stop young people having the opportunity to have a career in sport because there’s not many as sports here in Ireland where there’s that chance as there are in Australia”.
Cora Staunton
And there you have it. Somebody finally puts it in black and white. Even if the person in question loves talking out of both sides of the mouth. Failing to cop that having one’s cake and eating it doesn’t compute.
The Carnacon legend – and she is exactly that to give her her dues – can acknowledge that these are “Worrying times for Ladies Football” and that is a” Conundrum to which (she doesn’t have) a solution to and I’m a member of the GPA”.
Yes Cora, you are, and there exactly lies the problem. The GPA now are nothing more than a sh** stirring slurry pump. On one hand, the Mayo woman (rightly) identifies improving the lot of county players is the only meaningful means by which to dissuade the player drain. I agree entirely. Yet in the very next breath – as per the quotes above – she’s actively encouraging players to go.
In fact, I would go so far as to say she is the reason so many lady footballers are now abandonning their clubs and counties. Just as Tadhg Kennelly is the culprit from a male footballers perspective.
Somebody had to be the first to open the gate and set out on the road for the others to follow. But here’s the thing, as Cora does point out towards the end of the quote above, you can’t blame players for wanting to operate in a professional environment.
You can, however, be aggravated and frustrated at the irony that somebody like her, one of the poster characters of the GPA (Gaelic Players Association) is, as the associstion should be, pointing out why and how the lot of players needs to be improved to incentivise them to stay at home. All the while as she’s trumpeting the merits of moving away.
You couldn’t make it up. Especially given the manner which her own county has been plundered by poachers. From Staunton herself, to Sarah Rowe, Pierse Hanley, Oisin Mullin and Kobe McDonald now.
Personally, I found it surprising and disappointing that new Mayo manager Andy Moran either didn’t try or wasn’t able to stop the mercurial Crossmolina youngster from flying the nest.
Mind you, that is no way meant as a criticism of the Ballaghadreen man. How could it be? Sure my own county has been pilfered as much, if not more, than any other county. Conor Nash, Vikki Wall, Orlagh Lally, Cian McBride, Eamonn Armstrong and Aoibhin Cleary. All the while, the silence within the county has been deafening.
Nothing done to try and persuade our stars to stay at home. Or at the very least to get a commitment that they would return to line out for club and county after a set amount of time.
Christ almighty, it’s closing in on nine years since Conor Nash swapped Simonstown Gaels for Hawthorne in the Australian Football League (AFL). He did, in fairness, come home for the first couple of summers and lined out for the north side blues. To the greatest regret of my own club.
For whatever reason, with the lady footballers it appears to be the opposite stipulation at play – that they can come home to play for their county but not the clubs. A particularly maddening state of affairs when considering that Dunboyne have been beaten in the last three Meath LSFC finals – all without Vikki even though she had been home to play with the county.
Now, that is not, in the slightest, a dig at the players. More so, whoever the moles are that are, carte blanche, earmarking the brightest talents for export and the AFL or AFLW clubs who are importing them. Mind you, in recent times, there have been murmurings as to whether those enticing our stars away should be obliged to compensate the clubs/counties who have done all the developmental work with the players they covet.
That, in my view, is the very least they might do. And by compensate, I don’t mean a piecemeal, patronising fob off. Rather, a substantial, meaningful compensatory package on foot of which infrastructural advancement can be implemented by way of, for example, perhaps the provision of training gear or more substantial provisions such as the installation of an all weather surface or floodlighting.
That said, there is a fundamental truth in Staunton’s point that the GAA/LGFA must do more to recognise and reward the efforts of the players which are professional in all but name. Yes boys and girls, that means PAY THEM!
I can hear the naysaysers and doom merchants choking on their dentures from here. To be fair, though, even before the former Mayo forward’s discussion with Des Cahill, new ground had already been broken as it had been agreed between the GAA/GPA that players “own” their image rights.
My understanding of same – and if the following is incorrect please advise – is that if entities wish to use a player’s image for advertising or endorsement purposes they (the players) are entitled to remuneration for same.
It’s a start, but whether it goes far enough, only time will tell. Look, as much as it breaks my heart, going for all out professionalism, even at senior inter county level (which should already be in place) is probably flogging a dead horse. But something has to be done.
How many more Kobe McDonalds or Eamonn Armstrongs or Cillian Burkes or Vikki Walls or Jennifer Dunnes can teams absorb the loss of before it becomes an even bigger issue.
What do I mean by bigger issue? Well, while so-called stronger counties like Dublin or Kerry or Meath might be able to recalibrate after the departure of a talent but other counties may not be in as fortunate a position.
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That being the case, of course, calls into question issues like the viability of, to my mind, at least half of the provincial championships. There are a certain cohort of counties who, though one is reluctant to ascribe labels to anybody, would find it very difficult to circumnavigate the loss of a generational talent.
Of more immediate concern to the GAA hierarchy should be a letter being circulated by the Watty Grahams club in Co Derry. Well, no so much the letter itself as the issues to which it pertains. Namely, their vehement opposition to proposals to put the All Ireland Finals back into August. Yes, the document is festooned with uber negativity typical of their hinterland, as well as being overtly sensationalist.
However, their serious concerns regarding the availability of county players to clubs are probably well founded. Even though I firmly believe trying to treat both as equals in the modern era is romancing. BUT, If the will is there there is an opportunity to affect change which could solve a large percentage of what are perceived as problems.
Namely, employ what is regarded as standard operational procedure in both rugby and soccer whereby the clubs have first call on players and, in essence, they are released to international teams at a defined period before the latter have a fixture? So, how would that work from a GAA perspective I hear you ask?
Well, if it could at the very least be taken as read that county teams could have first call on players throughout the National League campaign – especially given the truncated manner in which the latter are run off in the early part of the season. With precedence thereafter reverting to the clubs on the proviso that county teams will have – as always used to be the case before county managers were allowed lose the plot – exclusive access to the players in the seven days leading into a championship match.
No doubt the moaning masses will find some fault with that too, but, if these current ‘great Gaels’ – sh** stirrers more like – are determined to meddle in matters that nobody had any problem with for well over 100 years, they should be grateful that their bleatings get a hearing at all.
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