Professionalism is not a route best taken The provincial leagues masquerade as the first serious blows of the season but the veteran GAA fan knows they constitute nothing more than springtime shadow boxing. Yet the crowds have turned out in record numbers to get their first sightings of teams that are under strength, experimental at best and certainly in challenge game mode. It proves, I suppose, that we are living in a very special time for the game of Gaelic football. Indeed you could argue that the GAA never had it so good - a magnificent new stadium to play host to our national games, Rule 42 relaxed to allow HQ play host to some international games and as mentioned above, big attendances. Throw in the queue of television stations that want to give us live broadcast of our leagues, college and university finals, the championship summer, ladies football and camogie and of course our first cousins from the compromise/international rules series. There is little question but the skill and fitness levels coupled with the intensity of the games at all levels has made for better contests and up to a dozen teams now harbour ambitions of attaining provincial and All Ireland goals. The downside, strange to report, concerns the increased income flows that this GAA 'Celtic Tiger Sporting Explosion' has delivered. When the FAI and IRFU are finished their rental agreements for 2007, the GAA will lodge the best part of a cool 10 million euro. Nice work if you can get it. And this particular stream may flow for another few years beyond this while the nation awaits the new stadium on the Southside. Downside? Afraid so, for as soon as the boys from the GPA completed the maths, the call went out. Grants, increased expenses, a play for pay survey and a couple of well-orchestrated solo runs by high profile players to keep the topic at the top of the sports pages hit the unsuspecting public. The GAA had better get to grips with this for a spark (and it is a little more than that at this stage) neglected can lead to a great fire. A sport searching for and struggling to find, a solution to the problem of an amateur era attempting to somehow transform into a quasi-professional model, is a phenomenon that is neither new nor exclusive. Rugby in this island walked the path some years ago, so we have a certain type of template to guide us. But I expect no model exists that reflects the traditions and history of the GAA so we can expect difficulties along the way. It is my strongly held opinion that the association and the players must stay well away from the idea of full time professional engagements. I retired from inter county football almost 16 years ago and in the interim the way players prepare for and play the game has changed dramatically. In fact, it is nearly unrecognisable. The organisation of your sporting week is now as close to professionalism as makes little odds. At the time we felt the sacrifices were great too but understood very clearly that we, like those who trained us, had volunteered our services and could walk away at any time if we felt we had more important things to do with our lives. By the way, that option still applies to both sides today. We trained twice a week, fairly hard usually and had a training game on the Saturday and maybe a club or challenge game on the Sunday. The NFL started in October and there was a game every fortnight and a break usually for December and January. Off again in the springtime and usually an exit by the end of March from the league. Another two month break as we eyed the championship! The modern inter county player might laugh at this schedule, especially as it might not compare favourably with a top-level club team in 2006. No games midweek, no games under lights, few meetings and only a little bit of weights, nutrition and psychology. Over the past few years I decided to sneak into the training sessions of teams I admire from afar so that I can judge for myself how training is going and what type of drills and intensity they apply. It proves that every minute is accounted for and any coach worth his salt has planned the evening and not a single minute will be wasted. The end result is perfectly tuned athletes but the cost to the player is one of time and serious commitment. To get to and remain at this elite level is not easy and players very often park family, social educational and career responsibilities. The man that sets these standards is exclusively the manager and if he has a few like minded players so much the better. And getting the best manager for your team is often a costly business. This is where the GAA money comes in - there are counties, supporters and business people prepared to do all in their power to get the best, because his expertise and knowledge when dovetailed with a talented crop of players often leads to unimagined levels of success. But the players are beginning to get envious and want a slice of the action. They obviously do not realise the short life span of a modern manager - those in charge are hired to be fired - or the workload involved. At inter county level it is almost a second full time job; at club standard certainly a twenty five-hour week (three sessions and a match at an average of five hours each and throw in telephone and meeting time) if you are serious about success. I cannot deny that players have a strong case for certain allowances - travel, accommodation, food, kit and most importantly, loss of earnings due to their football. But the GPA jumped the gun a little and their argument is not well thought out. This extra money will be for a three-year cycle at best before it slows to a trickle. Long term funding for grant aid needs a fixed source of funding - a percentage of league gates, sponsorship from the title sponsor, etc but not one that changes from year to year. At any rate we need a position paper from the GPA that sets out the road map for the next 10-20 years. When the applause begins to fade and retirement from the playing fields comes into focus, players will have all the time in the world to become managers or pundits or part time columnists if that is their fancy, but they can hardly lay claim to owning the association and thus be in charge of its future. As players we played for the enjoyment, the contest, the fun and the friendships. We played for the pride we had in the jersey and the colours. Today, footballers play for all those reasons too and in my opinion those are reasons enough to keep you at it. If you are lucky enough to play in finals and win them then you are one of the chosen few and those memories are priceless. And I'll finish with an obvious question: it is late January as I type these words and 50%-60% of clubs are unable to find suitable managers. Money is not the problem - every club is able to offer reasonable rates. So, why all the vacancies if it is so lucrative? The figures rarely stack up if you are honest and I know plenty of managers who ended up in the red as a result of their passion for certain appointments. These matters are rarely tracked by straight lines. Tweet

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