With clubs having taken their lead from intercounty teams, the pursuit of success is trumping the association’s best intentions
In real terms, what does that mean? It used to be the case that outside club coaches came as a one-man band, but that is no longer common practice as sports science, strength and conditioning became not just accessible but essential. Most of the experts in that field, though, are professionals who, as you would expect, bill for their services.
“There was always a circuit with coaches going from club to club, but it has turned into a mini-industry. It’s not sustainable for clubs.”According to one Dublin-based coach, many clubs prefer to agree a flat fee for the season, rather than being exposed to a hyperactive schedule. “You could have a fellah charging €150 a session,” he says, “and he starts putting on four sessions a week. A flat fee for the year could be €15,000, but at least you know you’re not going to be paying any more.
In the course of their due diligence, though, they discovered that some of the coaches who had approached them had also made contact with other clubs in the county. They were determined to end up somewhere. But even on the club scene now, distance is no longer a barrier for ambitious clubs and coaches. Karl Lacey has taken over as manager of Kilcoo in county Down, a round trip of 210 miles from his home in Letterkenny. The time and energy involved in such commitment at club level is extraordinary.
It is 26 years since the amateur review committee, of which Brennan was a member, produced its report. It was such a significant document at the time that a special congress was required eight months later to determine which recommendations would be spat out and which might be digested, after further chewing.
“There is no other issue facing the association,” he wrote, “that brings into sharp focus the disparity between what we preach and what we practice ... It is disagreeable to find oneself accused of hypocrisy and double standards, and particularly so for an organisation that likes to see itself as a force for good. Yet it is difficult to refute such charges.”
The GAA’s puritanical vision of amateurism had been subverted by the GAA’s rank and file. The vast, vast majority of people in the association were still energised by the noble act of volunteering, but the white cloth of the GAA’s amateur “ethos” was smeared with familiar stains. How many people stood up at a club AGM or a county convention and shook their fists? People accepted the changed norms. Volunteers have been paying the coaches.
Croke Park tightened the rules around temporary transfers to America too, but one of the unintended consequences of the split season was that it suddenly became easier for intercounty players eliminated early in the championship to spend six weeks or two months in the States, and still be home in the time for their club championship.
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