Bloody foreign sports.
Joe Brolly reckons that the GAA is to blame – not soccer or rugby or whatever – for the loss of players.
The fixture crisis rumbles in the organisation and it is said once more that the club player is being neglected.
The Derry man alluded to another weekend spent with underage GAA teams. He spoke about the impressive set-up they have in the small and historic Oak Leaf parish, Lavey. He spoke about the hive of activity it was, what was happening when they were leaving and scoffed, “Competing rugby my arse. It’s the same all over the country.”
But, more and more, players are beginning to drift away as they grow older.
One proposal being put forward at Congress next weekend is to reduce the size of the inter-county season, abolish replays (barring finals) and bring the All-Ireland deciders forward. But the RTÉ pundit thinks that’s only the very start of the solution and that he isn’t one bit surprised that clubs have continued to lose players.
Last season, even the very first round of the Down club league was postponed in this classic ‘wait and see’ culture in the GAA that does tip-toe around the inter-county game.
#gaa 1st round Down League postponed as Down in League Final;club football suffers again,no wonder players prefer soccer @JoeBrolly1993
— Liam Farrell (@drlfarrell) April 9, 2015
And, in his Sunday Independent column, Brolly pointed the blame at the GAA themselves for pushing players away with their organisation, or lack of.
“Real promotion of the GAA entails supporting the clubs,” not just showing it to a wider global audience on TV. “The reason lads play soccer – especially in cities – it is because they get regular games.
“Gaelic club footballers train very hard, often four times a week, often with no game in sight. There are big fixture gaps during the season and the training/match ratio is around 12-14 to 1. If, however, they choose to play soccer, they get a game every Saturday and train around once a week.
“It’s a guaranteed 25-game season, run off weekly, allowing players to plan their lives. As the young population moves east, to Belfast and Dublin, lads simply want to play regular games. If we cannot offer them that, they might play soccer, which can.
“Promoting our games means supporting the clubs. Not just telling them now and again that they are ‘the lifeblood of the Association.'”
