Colm O’Rourke is just a GAA man like the rest of us.
We all watch the big games, we all have our opinions on the big matches and we all have our opinions about each other’s opinions but, when you boil it down, we’re only really club men and women at the end of the day.
The club is the only place that has a home for everyone – for footballers of every ability, for people of all ages, for volunteers of all skills. Whatever you can do and whatever you can’t do, the club will welcome you with open arms and they’ll make use of you. The club is where everyone builds their own little empires and it’s those empires that represent us all.
"Well… you see… Joe would be like the wind" 😂 https://t.co/VipbcEEnoS
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 3, 2016
That’s why the GAA need to be careful not to neglect the 98 per cent of the playing population that plays solely with their clubs. From fixtures to attention to funding, there’s no end of gripes from the club player about what they’re not getting and Colm O’Rourke has seen it up close.
The Meath man won the senior football championship with Simonstown at the weekend – the club’s first ever – but the game wasn’t played until the end of October despite the Royal county being put out of the championship on July 9.
“There was no football played for something like five weeks because Meath were in an under-21 B hurling final and there were other various things,” Colm O’Rourke told SportsJOE on The GAA Hour. “It certainly shouldn’t be running this late. We got lucky this year [weather-wise].
“Meath aren’t a team that have been in the latter stages of the All-Ireland recently but the championship final was played on the bank holiday Monday last year and just one day earlier this year. It shouldn’t happen like that.”
However, O’Rourke doesn’t buy the idea that there are no games for club players.
“At the same time, people are always complaining about club and no club football – it’s all bullshit.
“I think we’ve played 25 competitive games this year with Simonstown. Now, if teams are getting over 20 games – which every club in Meath is getting – they can’t really complain too much. The only issue we have all the time is that we play a lot of games without our county players. That’s the only issue I have.
“It’s up to each individual county board – they should be able to sort out their club fixtures. I don’t know what the Club Players Association can do. Obviously Paraic Duffy is trying to shorten the inter-county season and I’d be very much in favour of that because you can’t ever get the joy and satisfaction at county level that most of the people who are involved at local club level can do from winning a championship – whether it’s junior, intermediate or senior.
“Maybe I’m a bit of a bog man. I just prefer the local scene.”
Maybe we’re all just bog men.
Listen to Colm O’Rourke’s full interview on The GAA Hour below. Subscribe here on iTunes.
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