It caused a bit of a storm when St Brigid’s player contracts were leaked.
The team ultimately bowed out in the Dublin Championship against a hotly tipped Ballymun Kickhams that are now in next Monday’s final.
Brigid’s are a pretty good side and have Paddy Andrews in their team, he would have been expected to sign the player contract that made headlines earlier in the year.
The contract was extensive, the list of demands was borderline ridiculous:
- I will respond to all notifications on Teamer
- I will come to all games and training on time
- I will tog out in the dressing beforehand and go back to it afterwards
- I will notify my coach in advance if I cannot attend training or team related activities
- All holidays must be agreed in advance with management and only taken during breaks in the season
- All team events are compulsory unless agreed in advance with management
- I will be available for all league games unless agreed in advance with management
- I will attend all club matches (whether I am playing or not) unless I have the prior permission of management
- I will give 100% at each and every training session
- I will make all sacrifices required to make St. Brigid’s, my team and myself successful
- I will congratulate my teammates chosen on match days if I am not in the starting XV and encourage them on the pitch and be ready to give my all for the team if called upon.
- I agree to play for whichever Brigid’s team I am asked line out for
- I will go into clubhouse with my teammates after every game
- I will wear my Brigid’s training gear to all session and full tracksuit to all matches
- I will be rostered to help out with the Brigid’s Academy
- I will bring a positive attitude and influence to this group
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Andrews was asked about the contracts and admitted that he didn’t actually sign one as he was off in Jamaica with the Dublin footballers but wasn’t entirely against them:
“You’ve got to look at the reasoning behind it and why it was there and the intention was we’re trying to make the team a better team and trying to make sure everyone is united and trying to perform to the best of their abilities so the intentions behind it was right,” the St. Brigid’s man said.
“I’m sure if you went around any club dressing room in January there’d be something similar along those lines.
“Personally, I wouldn’t be too keen on that side of things but I think the intention was we were going to try to perform to the best of our ability as a team and as a club and I think that’s the real message to take out of it.”
The 29-year-old also revealed that Dublin players do not sign player contracts but everyone knows what is expected of them:
“In our own setup everyone there is giving absolutely everything they can it just wouldn’t be an issue we wouldn’t need to sign anything and just do it, I’m sure a lot of county teams are the same.
“Like I say, we’ve heard of this before with other clubs and other counties…it’s the first time I came across it, with Dublin we’re just there to work as hard as we can and all the players do that. We don’t need anything extra.
“As a team (St. Brigid’s), all the players knew why it was there. It was just a thing we wanted to do to try and help become a better team and set out a few guidelines and rules.
“Maybe it was needed and maybe it wasn’t but it didn’t affect the team, the players were all there to perform the best they could for St. Brigid’s and that was the point of it.”
Andrews wasn’t shy to admit that he isn’t one for player contracts but also values the intentions of them, realising that it has a purpose and that was to make St. Brigid’s a more competitive team than they had been.
The player contract was resurrected under Jim McGuinness, as Colm Parkinson wrote for SportsJOE around the time that the player contract was leaked:
“The Donegal squad were absolute booze hounds and had serious discipline issues that Jim would have witnessed first-hand. Intercounty football had become very professional and Donegal were way behind the rest. It was a unique case and I’m sure part of the reason for the contracts was the psychology of it – to shock the lads into action and make the party boys realise that this is serious business.
“Two problems arose from McGuinness’ player contracts. One was that word of it got out and, secondly, Donegal won the All-Ireland the following year. What does every manager in the country do when a team wins the All Ireland?
“Copy them.”
The original intention was the whip a squad into shape, one that hadn’t been realising its potential for so long and there is a clear code of practice and rules that need to be laid out by players at the start of the year but maybe signing a contract can be a bit excessive.
Paddy Andrews was in Holy Spirit BNS in Ballymun today at an AIG Heroes event. The AIG Heroes initiative is a programme that leverages AIG’s sporting sponsorships to help provide positive role models and build confidence for young people in local communities.
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