They Said It ....

July 2004

Probably unheard of in recent times but the Tipperary footballers pulled out of the 2004 SFC. Such a late decision and the reasons underlying same brought the predictable mixed reaction from around the country and from the Premier County itself. That fine GAA paper the Tipperary Star led the way and its very editorial possessed the heading ‘Football Fiasco’.
The circumstances which led to the resignation of the management of the Tipperary senior football team and the players subsequent decision not to make themselves available for selection for last Saturday’s All-Ireland qualifier against Fermanagh, reflect badly on the administration of gaelic games in the county.
A Mid Tipperary senior hurling tie involving two of the football panel was played three days before the Fermanagh game was scheduled. Efforts to have this changed failed and led to the action by the management and players. As a result, Tipperary gave a walk-over to Fermanagh and are facing the possibility of further sanction by the Croke Park authorities.
The difficulties for the Mid division, which had its game planned before the All-Ireland qualifier was listed, stems from the fact that the county senior hurling championship format was changed this year and the entire month of May was taken up with the huge programme of additional games involved. Traditionally the Mid started is senior championship in May and is obliged to meet county quarter-final deadlines for August.
However, the footballers have gotten a raw deal in this fiasco. They have been preparing since last November for these championships and have made huge sacrifices to be ready to do themselves and the county justice. They should not have had their chances jeopardised in this fashion.
The question arises - are deadlines for competitions so sacrosanct that there is no room for manoeuvre? What would have happened had Tipperary drawn with Waterford in the Munster hurling semi-final days previously, with the replay due that week-end also? The authorities should remember that they are dealing with amateur sportsmen who are giving freely of their time and talent. They deserve greater consideration.
Last week’s fiasco challenges the authorities in the county and nationally to examine its championship structures to ensure that last week’s events are not repeated.

Michael Dundon explains the unavailability of the players and the subsequent walk over to Fermanagh in the qualifiers
In an unprecedented move, members of the Tipperary senior football panel declared themselves unavailable for selection for last Saturday’s scheduled All-Ireland first round qualifier against Fermanagh resulting in a walk-over to the Ulstermen.
The players took this action on Wed. last in support of the management of the football team, Manager, Andy Shorthall and selectors Mick Byrnes and Jim Cahill, who on Tuesday resigned their posts in protest at the staging of a Mid Tipperary senior hurling match between Loughmore-Castleiney and Thurles Sarsfields on Wed. night, involving Miceal Webster and Tom King of the football squad, three days before the Fermanagh game.
Efforts by the football management to have the Mid match postponed were unsuccessful and after initially deferring their resignation for twenty four hours to see if the matter could be resolved, they bowed out on Tuesday.
On Wednesday evening the players met with officials of the County Board and the County Football Board in Thurles. The Football Board was led by chairman Michael Frawley, along with Pete Savage Vice Chairman, Hugh Kennedy and secretary, Eddie Lonergan. County chairman, Donal Shanahan, Vice-Chairman, John Costigan and PRO, Ed Donnelly were also in attendance.
The officials outlined to the players the events of the days previously leading to the resignation of the team management. The officials were well received but the question was asked what would have happened to the game had the Tipperary v Waterford senior hurling clash ended in a draw with a replay on Saturday last.
The officials then withdrew and the players discussed the situation for two hours. At the end of that debate, team captain, Robert Costigan and Sean Collum emerged to inform the county officials that the panel would not be available for selection to play Fermanagh.
County Chairman Donal Shanahan then spoke to the players and expressed his disappointment at their decision which he felt would not advance the cause of Tipperary football.
In a statement issued afterwards by Co. PRO, Ed Donnelly, the board said - “The officials of the Tipperary County Board and the Tipperary Football Committee met with the Tipperary senior football panel in Thurles on Wednesday night. Following this meeting, the Tipperary senior football panel met separately to discuss their position. After this meeting the unanimous decision was of the players that they were not making themselves available for selection for the game with Fermanagh on Saturday.”
The County Board Chairman Donal Shanahan, addressed the players afterwards and expressed his grave disappointment with this decision and said that this was a huge setback to football in the county. As a result of this decision, Tipperary have given a walkover to Fermanagh on Saturday in the All-Ireland senior football qualifier.
A statement issued by the Tipperary players said - After three hours of players meeting on Wednesday night, we have unanimously decided to back our management team and with no manager or selectors in place for Saturday’s qualifier against Fermanagh, we find it impossible to play.

Michael Dundons son Noel follows up with reaction in Tipp and the angry exchanges.
The Chairman of the County Tipperary GAA Board, Donie Shanahan launched a stinging rebuke on the Manager of the Tipperary senior football team for the manner in which he went about getting the senior hurling game between Loughmore and Sarsfields off - threats and counter threats are not the way to go, he said.
The Board is awaiting anxiously the deliberations of the Games Administration Committee in Croke Park to see if lengthy suspensions will be handed out in the wake of the senior footballers refusal to play Fermanagh in the All-Ireland qualifier last Saturday. It is more likely that a sizeable fine will be handed out.
The matter was debated at length on Tuesday evening last at a County Board meeting in Thurles Sarsfields Clubhouse - a meeting which was full of anger, tension and outrage at what had happened in the name of Tipperary football. The senior players had refused to play following the resignations of Manager Andy Shorthall and selectors Jim Cahill and Mick Burns over the decision of the Mid Board to play a senior hurling championship game on the Wednesday before involving two football players. The selection team had threatened to resign if the game went ahead - and they did.
This was a very emotive issue and tempers became occasionally frayed as the dabate wore on. Mick Egan of Commercials raised the matter in the first place and said that the situation should never have been allowed to develop. He wondered why a full County Board meeting was not called before the walkover was given. “The last thing that should have been done was to ring Croke Park and give a walkover. This was a detrimental step in the history of Tipperary football. Why was there not a full board meeting convened? The executive Committee of this Board is not trusted in football circles and I just wondered if the footballers were made aware of the full consequences of Rule 16 B. There is also a perception out now that the Chairman of the County Board can be dictated to by the divisional boards. You should have used the powers vested in you and have that match postponed. You are the supreme officer in the county,” he told chairman Donie Shanahan.
Frank Burke of Moyle Rovers wondered why the football Manager was not asked to meet the County Executive. He also suggested that there is now a need for an independent person, or committee, to enter the fray and try to restore relations between everyone involved in the Football Board, the County Board and the players.
Ardfinnan’s Sean Barrett said that the players have worked very hard since last December. However, he cited a number of incidents going back a few years where problems have arisen between the footballers and the Board. “There seems to be an anti-football attitude at the top,” he said.
Fethard’s Gus Fitzgerald said that there were very few GAA people in Tipperary who didn’t share the pain over the last two weeks. He added that the Board now has a duty to find a formula to deal with such emergencies and he proposed that the Chairman be given ultimate powers to deal with such situations should they arise again.
West Board Secretary Jerry Ring said that the game should have been played and the consequences sorted out afterwards - Tipperary won no admirers for doing what they did. He added that most GAA players in the county are club players and they are the ones carrying the can for the GAA. “We are adding more and more games every year and I am delighted that this has finally come to a head. Perhaps now someone will start listening to what clubs are saying,” he said.
Chairman Donie Shanahan gave a comprehensive rundown on the sequence of events leading up to Andy Shorthall’s resignation. On the question of a County Board meeting being called he stated that at all times it was felt that there was hope that the matter could be resolved. It wasn’t until the very end that it become clear there was no way back. The Chairman met with the players and pleaded with them to fulfil their obligations and play the game - they refused to do so. A request for a postponement was made to Croke Park - it was refused, and attempts to contact Fermanagh failed.
The Chairman was highly critical of the actions of the selectors - actions which were fully endorsed by the Football Board management committee. “Those three men let the players down. They picked up the ball and ran away with it like little children do. And, I have to say that there was very little enthusiasm from people I would have expected more from to get the thing sorted out. There are no winners in this situation but it is not right that people make comparisons between hurling and football in all this. We have supported and supported very fairly, football throughout the county and I want to bury this notion once and for all. Hurling is not getting different treatment in this county than football. I would also say that I was very disappointed with the manner in which I was approached to get the game off. The day is long gone when threat and counter threats are part of the GAA,” he said.
The Mid Tipperary Board also came in for criticism from delegates who felt the game could have, and should have been deferred. Football Board Chairman Mick Frawley said that the date for the qualifiers was fixed for so long that it was in the GAA diary. Anyone making fixtures would have been aware of this, he said. He didn’t like some of the remarks of the Chairman and said that there is no point in playing the blame game. He refuted the allegation that no encouragement was give to the Chairman to solve the problem - “I gave you every possible encouragement” he said.
County Board Trustee Pat Cullen said that the clubs of Tipperary have to come first and foremost. “If clubs are being asked to play games three days after county games then I don’t see why county games cannot be played three days after club games. “It’s a pity this happened but we have to learn lessons from it,” he said.
The discussion ended without a solution being found. However, Andy Shorthall, Mick Burns and Jim Cahill were thanked for their efforts with the team. The Football Board is to commence a process to progress the issues with the squad.

The public got in on the act and a John J Hassett wrote to the same Tipperary Star
Dear Editor
It is with great regret and sadness that I view the aftermath of what has happened within the GAA in the Premier County leading to the withdrawal of the Tipperary Senior Football Team from the All-Ireland championship. It is not time to be judgmental on what has occurred other then to say it is the greatest debacle to befall the GAA in Tipperary since Mick Hogan of the Tipperary Football Team and twelve spectators were killed by British forces in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday, November 1920. This time it is a self inflicted act of madness that must be overcome by reforming the crazy outdated divisional structures of organisation that exist within the county dating from the first quarter of the twentieth century and realising that the GAA in the county has always promoted hurling and football. My sympathy is with the players who trained and played games throughout the year in preparation for the championship to represent their county, the greatest honour of all for them. The administrators have an onerous task too, with limited appreciation of effort and time given; perhaps everyone involved must realise that it is a sport for our enjoyment and entertainment not the reverse.
To many people the GAA has been a part of life and for myself life without club and county football and hurling games would be hard to contemplate. To say I am disappointed at what has transpired is putting it politely; disappointed too are all who uphold the honour of the blue and gold jersey of the Premier County. Let us have the best of the beat of the big drum and flex our minds and hearts to achieve unity and renew our efforts to restore some validity to our label as the Premier County.
Come every Gael from hill and vale and hasten to the call, and let ten thousand voices shout Tipperary over all.

Further afield that most liberal of GAA activists (the vast majority would agree with the views of the former Roscommon County Board Chairman) Tommy Kenoy writing in the Roscommon Herald reckons that ‘the Tipp players [were] treated disgracefully’
Tipperary footballers have taken an historic and unprecedented decision by withdrawing from the football qualifiers. They were left with no option following the disgraceful action of the Mid Tipperary Board in ruling that two members of the football team had to play a hurling championship match three days before the qualifiers.
That decision tells us clearly that GAA administrators in Tipperary merely tolerate football and have no great interest in its promotion or development. Nor have they any respect for their county’s footballers who have put months of hard slog into preparing for the championship.
Tipperary football manager Andy Shorthall was left with no option but to resign. There is no way he could expect to retain the respect of his players if he was seen to accept the utter arrogance of the Divisional Board and by extension the County Board. Then the players took the ultimate action. They simply downed tools in support of the manager’s stance and in protest at the actions of their administrators.
This is another page in the story of the “them and us” attitude that dominated relationships between GAA administrators and players for decades. A situation that has led to the formation of the GPA, the strike in Cork and now the mess in Tipperary. Rule 57 (d) of the GAA Official Guide tells us that a county committee shall have the power to ‘suspend for up to six months a player who refuses to travel or play for his county when selected.’
It will not, of course, happen because to suspend their county footballers would cause wholesale rebellion in Tipperary. The county’s administrators have shot themselves in the foot once already, they won’t do it a second time.
But the problem don’t end there. The board now needs to find a new manager. The first question that springs to mind is who the hell would want the job in a county where football does not appear to be taken seriously.