The GPA's raison d'etre is player welfare. So is the GAA's new Player Welfare Manager Paraic Duffy on an inevitable collision course with Dessie Farrell and Co? Kevin Carney reports. Some ten years ago, Paraic Duffy attended a challenge game between the Scotstown under 10 footballers and a club from neighbouring county Cavan. It was a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon at the Monaghan venue but the would-be chief administrator warmed to the occasion as if most of his family was playing for the hosts. He was, at times, animated (more than most of the locals would scarcely believe) and enthusiastic to the point of almost being bowled over by the contest that panned out before his eyes. Then, as now, Duffy showed himself to be a passionate supporter of the game at grass roots. Thus, how appropriate then that GAA President Nickey Brennan should conclude his press conference last August for the new club competition structures by announcing that Duffy, an archetypal supporter of the club structure, would be the GAA's first Player Welfare Manager. The announcement was greeted with stunned silence, principally because most people hadn't reckoned on the serving school principal wishing to change careers. However within milliseconds, the announcement of Duffy's appointment was followed by unbridled applause. It seemed that all present recognised that the champion of the most basic unit of the Association would be a natural championing the cause of the GAA's DNA, namely the player. Certainly it looks likely that, for the next number of years, club and player will be the operative words as far as Duffy's tenure in the GAA's inner circle is concerned. The GAA's newly created position of Player Welfare Manager and Duffy should make for easy bedfellows. One is a hugely responsible, imaginative post and the other is reckoned to be just the man to nurture its development and usher it into the main strand of the GAA's modus operandi. Duffy brings a haughty reputation as a doer, an achiever and a skilful operator within the machinations of the country's biggest sporting organisation. Those at the heart of the Croker engine room would even go as far as saying that the Monaghan man is the most skilled official in the Association. No wonder current GAA President Nickey Brennan confessed to being "pleasantly surprised" when he first learned of Duffy's interest in the rookie role in mid-summer. On the basis of his c.v alone, he could hardly have been trailing in the race to get the job. He was widely viewed as the most efficient and effective chairman of the Games Administration Committee while serving under county colleague, Sean McCague, then President. In addition, Duffy garnered a huge amount of brownie points when acting as chairman to the committee that produced the draft proposals for changes to the way the football league and championship is run. It was Duffy's Football Task Force which, last spring, proposed the abolition of a football league final, something which would tally 100% with Duffy's own wish to scale down the number of inter-county football games in deference to the ratcheting up of more time and space for club games. He's worn a whole host of other hats too, of course. He's a former chairman of the national audit committee and the coaching and games development committee to boot. His reputation for rolling up his sleeves comes second only to his reputation for getting things done in a way that belies the GAA's dinosaural profile. Rather than being one of the organisation's dinasaurs, Duffy - a former chairman of Monaghan GAA - is looked upon as a very progressive, far-seeing administrator who won't let the bonhomie he enjoys with Croker's hierarchy prevent him from doing what he perceives to be fair, apolitical and honest. Of course part of the challenge which the Monaghanman will face in his new role will be holding the line between officialdom and the players. It promises to be a tightrope situation and there's bound to be some wobbling seen as things are teased out between the two parties. Dessie Farrell and Co. in the Gaelic Players Association would undoubtedly have liked to have seen Armagh footballer Enda McNulty get the nod as Player Welfare Manager if, for no other reason than because he's 'one of their own'. From January 1st onwards, Duffy will kick-start his term in the novel role knowing that he will scarcely be afforded any honeymoon period. There's hardly a bigger issue at present in the GAA than the relationship between the players and the powerbrokers of the Association. Just how controversial his dealings will be post January 1st 2007 will go a long way to deciding the profile the quietly-spoken sports in the years ahead. Those who know him insist that, whatever else, he's unlikely to adopt a confrontational, antagonistic approach is his meetings with the representatives of the players. The fact that he himself wasn't an inter-county player won't stop him doing what he thinks is best for the modern player. Also the fact that he served as a Monaghan selector under the aforementioned McCague will have given him a very useful insight into what makes top grade footballers tick and the treatment they expect. In that respect, we can fully expect that all matters relating to players, from medical matters to expenses and injury schemes etc will be tackled head on by the new appointee. Establishing a good player welfare structure for the GAA will be his brief for the forseeable future but, one suspects, Duffy will be spending quite a bit of time liasing and communicating with the GPA. Thorny matters such as anti-doping procedures, entitlements, sponsorship, possibly pay-per-play and endorsements will undoubtedly rear their heads under Paraic Duffy's watch, sooner rather than later. The current principal of St. Macartans college in Monaghan town (a position he held for 10 years having taught there all his teaching life after being a student there), Duffy is a good communicator so his skills in that regard will likely be used to the full to keep the lines open between Jones' Road and the GPA HQ. One supposes too that he will be more than happy to work with the GPA to raise the profile of players at all levels and to perhaps strike more lucrative, beneficial deals with the money men in the world of commerce. A club colleague of Duffy's maintains that the new Player Welfare Manager is far from being a loner or someone who is wont to plough a lone furrow. "Paraic is very capable in his own right but he is good at bringing people on board with him," the Scotstown club official explains. "He has a good way with people generally and I don't think he'll be hard to work with as long as everyone is in it for the betterment of the GAA." It is understood that Duffy will also focus on ensuring that county boards around the country comply with Central Council guidelines which could be a real hot potato too given the culture of under the table payments to managers at club and county levels. Given though the number of key portfolios he has held over the last five years or thereabouts, there is no hint that the husband of former international athlete Vera Sherry will not prove to be a success in the post he takes up in the New Year on a four year contract. Just how success or failure will be measured and by whom remains to be seen though. On the same day Paraic Duffy's appointment as Player Welfare Manager was announced, other appointments were also publicised, most notably a new Financial Accountant and a new IT Executive. With no disrespect to the holders of those two other offices, Duffy's demesne ranks way and above them in influence, significance and stature as far as the rank and file membership of the Association is concerned. If Duffy can succeed in building a player welfare service that keeps the players happy and his employer then his role in the GAA will be simply invaluable in propelling it onto a new plateau. The matter of player welfare within the GAA is still the greatest live issue of them all. If he can manage to erase the bouts of distrust and disharmony which have dogged the relationship between the GAA and the GPA since the latter's formation, Duffy will have embellished his c.v like never before. The wheels of the GAA turn notoriously slowly but don't be surprised if there's a real spring in the step of all parties with player welfare at heart come springtime. Tweet

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