sam57 please do not refer to it as progress, because it would be a disaster. i am of the firm belief that people who support pay for play either 1. do not have the best interests of gaelic games at heart and/or 2. dont fully realise the negative effects it would have. a full blown transfer system would have to be brought in bringing an end to club football as we all know and supposedly love it. no more would it be a 32 county game, there would be about 10 franchises to try and make it sustainable - it would soon turn into the a league of ireland style farce. africangael is right, anything that can possibly be done job wise for players is currently being done, which is completely acceptable imo. i have no time for sean og the celebrity - a great player but he seems more interested in what he can get out of gaelic games than the game itself.

kilglasskrazy (Roscommon) - Posts: 80 - 29/04/2010 13:03:04    633359

Sure he said he'd be off to the AFL like a shot if he was young enough.
He wants to be a professional sportsman.
Doesn't matter what the sport is.
If someone paid him to play professional tiddlywinks he'd jack in the hurling tomorrow.

Coylers Elbow (Meath) - Posts: 1075 - 29/04/2010 13:15:03    633370

I'm wary of 'pay for play,' as it would seem to take something from the sould of the GAA. One man lining the pitch getting noting, and a man playing on it being paid. That would be strange and somehow doesn't feel right. We all put into the organisation, what we get out of it. I'm not the most active member, but I do exactly the amount that I enjoy doing. I'm pretty sure that those who put in more effort (Sean Og, the U14 trainer etc), do so because they enjoy that increased activity. Some might think they're being 'good for the parish,' but in reality they probably enjoy being 'good for the parish.'

For alll of that though, there is a huge problem with professional sports poaching the best of our younger players. It's rumoured that in Cork city, some rugby clubs are actually contracting the best of the city's minor hurlers while their still underage! In my view our best centre forward option (Tomas O'Leary) is playing rugby. Another hurling prospect and football panelist, Ciaran Sheehan, has been to Australia and who's to say he wouldn't go again? All over the country GAA talent is heading to Oz. This will probably be a bigger problem in urban enviornments where rugby is stronger, but could spread to rural Ireland. What is currently Cork city's problem may spread to other areas. These young guys may never earn a living from rugby, but they're still giving up GAA in order to try.

Is this a problem in Dublin? Perhaps in Limerick? I don't want to open up Limerick wounds, but perhaps the recent example they set for young GAA players is worth examining. Essentially they refused to honour the wishes of amateur and local players who had busted a gut for their own county, and instead backed an outside coach who could possibly be described as closer to professional.

Perhaps the ability to earn some few bob, might keep the best players in thge game? Or should we just leave it as it is, and except that whilst standards may decline, we'll still have pretty good games and an organisation to be proud of? Thos are they key questions.

Culchie (Cork) - Posts: 799 - 29/04/2010 13:20:54    633374

On one hand the current playing format is great because the amateurism is what makes it, for me a really true sport. then if you take a players perspective and look at administrators, coaches and some managers all getting paid it's no surprise they're looking for a slice of the pie.

The idea of giving "jobs for the boys" is more repulsive to me than full professionalism. The sooner we eradicate that practice from our society the better.

Floops (Dublin) - Posts: 1623 - 29/04/2010 13:26:35    633387

A big but unsurprising development, its patently obvious that the GPA have always wanted pay for play. They are clearly just moving one step at a time towards it.

Sean Og seems like a decent man but seems to have his own interests at heart in this which is fair enough but pay for play would hugely damage the GAA.

Is taking money from the clubs, which benefits all players, and giving it to a tiny percentage of 'elite' players really the way forward for the GAA?

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4652 - 29/04/2010 13:28:58    633391

most intercounty playrs are well looked afta..mayb an increase in travel expenes and some intercounty players do gigs on the side..

east17 (Galway) - Posts: 35 - 29/04/2010 13:29:12    633392

Coylers Elbow


That's a good point that's been missed so far... He has a dream to be a professional sportsman, as you said that could be in any sport.

At the end of the day he won't live his dream while playing his chosen sport within the GAA, the GPA and GAA have struck a solid deal which has been published, distributed to every club delegate and every County board throughout the country and it has been overwhelmingly supported.

It's time to move on.... And Sean Og needs to keep his personal opinions to himself... and realise that his words can be easily twisted by the media, and those opposed to the historic deal between the GAA/GPA. He never once in his statement mentioned anything about GPA policy... Zippo. It was whoever put that piece together that alluded to the fact that he is a prominent GPA member. This is not GPA policy, merely the dreams of a fella who wants to give up his day job and get paid for something he loves doing.

I don't see the relevance of this statement to be honest....I'd like to be a professional GAA player! Who wouldn't want that...!! It's not going to happen unless the GAA strikes oil under Croke Park!!

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 29/04/2010 13:33:17    633400

Sean Og is expressing a view few have. This man has an agent who books apearances for him. Dara O Se or Peter Canavan never had an agent.

castlemaine (Kerry) - Posts: 546 - 29/04/2010 13:34:33    633404

The logic would be for the GAA to end up the same as professional rugby with only a few 'clubs' able to pay the going rate, which if based on attendances as Sean Og suggest could mean Dublin having a team of the best players from around the country in both football and hurling. Would Sean Og like that? I know I wouldn't and even if that did happen would a Dublin team with maybe one or two actual Dubs on it be the same attraction as the current team? The implications for clubs are ominous as well if you look at the plight of actual club rugby where hardly anyone bothers going to see teams like Shannon and Young Munster any more.

hurlingdub (Dublin) - Posts: 6978 - 29/04/2010 13:36:56    633409

laflour
County: Cavan
Posts: 170

633281 This is stupid. Players already get enough and now they are just getting too greedy. No longer do the likes of Sean Og care about giving all for their county, they now want to play so they can be looked after like celebraties.

hang on a min players get a poxy 50 cent a mile to travel to training why shouldnt they get paid something do you tink the fat cats up in gaa HQ do their job for nothing or dont have huge expence accounts i very much doubt they do so fair play to sean og and as for this thing about players getting jobs for life its a load of bull i for one know several players that play for their counties that have to go and sign on the dole every month so how is that looking after players who travel miles every week to train.

delboydub (Dublin) - Posts: 665 - 29/04/2010 13:39:40    633414

bad.monkey
County: USA
Posts: 2086

Bad Monkey you failed to mention that it's actually the clubs wasting their money on paying managers and players.... That in turn has resulted in damaging club football/Hurling. Nothing to do with the GPA - Which have already stated will now make moves to help club players.

The only proven and confirmed circumstances of "play for play" within the GAA is coming from the grass roots. It's coming from the Clubs... fact.

Not the "Elite" - please dont ignore that.

And that goes for the rest of you....

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 29/04/2010 13:45:43    633423

As a friend of mine said to me today 'Seán Óg only wants to go professional so he will have money to pay his agent'.... alot of lads are already professional because there are getting 1000's a year charging clubs for presenting medals and the such like

miketyson (Limerick) - Posts: 2748 - 29/04/2010 13:53:18    633443

The GPA did not take long looking for pay for play this is what they always wanted and Sean Og a gaa hero yous must be having a laugh here serious.

Dellboypolecat (Tyrone) - Posts: 15069 - 29/04/2010 13:58:05    633450

And what would be the next step? Higher wages in counties that can afford it? And all the top players moving there to play gaa? That is what happens in LOI soccer. It is a slippery slope once you start on that route

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 29/04/2010 14:03:15    633464

I'm completely against paying players, i agree they should be looked after and i think they are at the moment, interesting how a week after the GAA accepts the GPA as an organisation Sean og makes this statement, we all know this is ultimately what they are about it's just a pity he didn't say it last week before congress met and the vote might might have went differently.

Louth Gael (Louth) - Posts: 1227 - 29/04/2010 14:05:17    633470

I am 34 years old and I have no doubt by the time I am 44, GAA will have gone one of two ways.
1. Fully professional
2. Clubs only, no more Inter County

Fellas wont be able to go on dedicating their lives to GAA to get nothing back while managers and officials sit on their holes and get paid.
It will go one way or the other lads

In ten years time we will not have a functioning senior amateur Inter County scene . Mark my words

Mikeynora (Limerick) - Posts: 888 - 29/04/2010 14:05:18    633471

Dellboypolecat
County: Tyrone
Posts: 10989



That was not an Official GPA statement. There's no arguing that fact Dell...

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 29/04/2010 14:06:00    633474

Pay for play is a dangerous road to go down. My club has lost one of its best young players because he gets €50 for every soccer game he plays. If the GAA goes down this role the clubs will suffer. Look at soccer despite all the money coming in. The local soccer teams are playing in cow fields and togging out at the back on cars because all the money is going to the top. Even club rugby is fairly hopeless as the best players leave their clubs and go to play with Munster or Leinster or some big club in Dublin, Limerick or Cork. If pay for play comes then the fine facilities which the GAA has provided in every parish in the country will be run down and the community as a whole will suffer. It's a sad day when people want to be paid for representing their own parish or county.

ogormanmahon (Tipperary) - Posts: 66 - 29/04/2010 14:07:20    633478

This was coming. This is the goal of the GPA. If it happens i for one will never look at another game.

51longago (Mayo) - Posts: 2981 - 29/04/2010 14:18:32    633509

Lads maybe the gaa could do pay per play like what is done in club rugby but we'er not talking massive sums here. Simple fact is the gaa is not financially strong enough and ireland dosen't have the population size to support a professional sport with 34 teams....

If pay per play is brought in should it then be brought in for club games there a whole can of worms that will be opened if pay per play is brought in. I thought they were going down the right raod with player grants but the government pulled the plug on that

Hag_and_Cheese (Tipperary) - Posts: 6103 - 29/04/2010 14:20:56    633517