We don’t get enough men standing up for their principles and explaining their stance.
We don’t get enough people willing to engage in debate and use points and arguments to win over their doubters.
The GAA definitely doesn’t have enough of them. Too often, other people’s opinions are just dismissed or we’re all forced to just plough on with the vision of someone else and we’re told that’s the way it is.
That’s where words like ‘disconnect’ and ‘out of touch’ come from then. There’s not enough listening and counterarguments. There’s not enough communication. From everyone.
But, on one of Monday’s GAA Hour football shows, Jarlath Burns came on and asserted his thoughts and he hit the nation with a few grim revelations about what the opposing GPA actually did to object to the motions he supported at Congress.
They let us all down https://t.co/bOxo3ESj3B #GAA
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 27, 2017
The truth of the matter is that they did very little.
But Burns didn’t stop at the GPA. He turned on the Club Players Association too saying that they have no principles and that it actually wasn’t clear what they were even after.
“I think it was on the 18th of October that I got an email to say that they [the CPA] were going to be setting up and asking ‘would you like to join?’ And I joined them,” Burns explained on The GAA Hour.
“At that stage, I saw no constitution, no standing orders, no protocol, no principles even as to what they were for even as to what they were for even if they didn’t have a road map for the way forward.
“We all want to fix the fixtures; it’s how we fix the fixtures.
“I found it a bit curious that all you had to do was put in your email address and tick a box and suddenly you were in with the CPA. I said to myself, ‘I have just become a member of an association there. I hope they don’t start making statements and claiming I’m supporting those statements.’ So we waited.
“I’m not expecting a master fixture plan from the CPA but do you know what I would’ve liked from them? I would’ve liked a few principles. A few principles to say, ‘This is what we are for and this is what we don’t want’.
“For example: We are for or against the provincial championship; We are for or against the backdoor; We are for or against a B championship; We are for or against a Champions League format.
“At least then they would’ve had something to hang their hats on for people to say, ‘Well, that’s not chiming with what central GAA is saying. Therefore there is a disconnect.’ But do you know what we have got from them? Nothing.
“Their suggestion was that we put Congress back 100 days. Now, if you haven’t a clue about the way the GAA works, Congress for all sorts of good reasons – also to do with the way the accounts work and all the rest – has to be on that weekend. That’s a GAA rule.”
SportsJOE’s GAA Hour presenter, Colm Parkinson, did not let Burns get a free pass though. Whilst the Armagh native’s insights into the GPA’s actions are very important – if depressing – his denouncement of the CPA is probably unfair and definitely premature.
Parkinson sees the role that the association can play in fixing the fixtures and he definitely isn’t buying Burns’ idea that motions such as the Super 8 and bringing the All-Ireland final forward are going to help club players.
“That’s actually the problem. Everybody has their own idea,” Wooly said.
“The CPA just want to sit down with the GAA, with the GPA and with the universities.
“Those third-level education competitions are no short of a joke. They get no prestige because the league is running over the top of them, the early-season competition is too.
“Look at Cuala at the weekend. They beat Slaughtneil? Who was watching it? There was a full round of league fixtures, Congress was on, everything is overlapping everything.
“The CPA want to sit down. They don’t want to come with their idea because that’s the problem – everybody has problems with other people’s proposals. What we want is for every stakeholder to get involved and come out with a solution that the GAA, the GPA and the CPA can all stand over.
“I don’t think they should be coming out with a masterplan. Sure I’ll pick holes in it, you’ll pick holes in it, everybody will.
“The idea that this is for club players Jarlath… I have to pull you up on it. It’s not for club players – it’s three weeks extra for Dublin and Kerry or Mayo. That’s all it is. No other club player’s life changes a jot.”
Listen to the full brilliant interview below (from 22:00).
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