Early days but some lessons to be learned

GAELIC GAMES:Although it's only June should we be paying any attention to trends just yet?

“Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars,” – Book of Proverbs, 9:1-5.

The end of June. If the GAA season were an election count, how would the tally be looking? A bit gloomy? No one’s interested. Crowds down and no sign of those ‘‘new counties’’ emerging to challenge the oligarchic nature of recent championships; in fact the ones everyone was counting on are going backwards. More disciplinary controversies, what-about-ery and disinclination to accept the consequences of misbehaviour.

Then again, with the July, August and September boxes still to be opened and spilled out on the table in front of us, should we be paying any attention to trends just yet? Maybe not but that doesn’t mean the season to date has taught us nothing.

PAUL GALVIN

Undaunted by Paul Galvin’s recidivist form (third suspension in under a year), a preposterous barrage of special pleading was launched from Kerry.

The forest fire of indignation that sparked and threatened a conflagration was unexpectedly extinguished when the player himself decided not to contest a proposed eight-week suspension. Whole hosts had arrived to warm their hands on the crackling flames but had to leave disappointed.

PAT McENANEY

Having been the safest pair of hands in the refereeing game for quite a while – even to the point of abandoning some of his idiosyncrasies for rules-based officiating – Pat McEnaney found himself in the midst of confusion, admittedly not of his own making after the Galvin controversy erupted.

Despite having established a strong track record in reporting red-card offences that had happened behind his back during matches, the experienced Monaghan referee swiftly became a man of mystery.

“I’m pretty sure he’ll be okay, you have the best referee in the county looking at it from two yards away and there was a bit going on, on both sides,” said Kerry manager Jack O’Connor the day after the event.

But by the conclusion McEnaney had become a victim, harassed into doing the bidding of the CCCC. “There was certainly pressure put on Pat McEnaney,” was the reaction of Kerry’s joint-record All-Ireland winner Mike Sheehy. “There is no doubt he is the best referee in the game. If Pat McEnaney was happy with what happened during the game, I felt it should have been left at that.”

Yet there was no evidence that the referee made a conscious decision to “leave it at that”. He simply didn’t see the offence. The concept that when he did, McEnaney might be “happy” with what happened is hard for non-Kerry people to grasp.

ATTENDANCES

This is a popular topic early in every season. It even moved Leinster chair Sheamus Howlin to address it in last Sunday’s Leinster hurling semi-final programme. Although he couched his defence of the games’ enduring attraction by distant reference to “other sporting events around the world” rather than the GAA’s own comparative figures, his best corroboration came on the same afternoon.

The Croke Park attendance may have been an underwhelming 25,260 but it was still better than the aggregate of last year’s semi-finals, which were played at separate venues.

Leinster Council and the GAA in general could be forgiven for viewing this week with a certain trepidation, given the strong possibility of a first Dublin-free Leinster final – and the possible knock-on impact on morale amongst supporters – in six years.

But statistics are reassuring. GAA crowds are quite stable with incremental year-on-year shifts. Take the four years 2002-05, stretching through the two seasons when Laois and Westmeath won the province and including the championships before and after and the suggestion is that Dublin’s down years in 2003 and 2004 didn’t have a huge effect on the cumulative trends.

Total Croke Park attendances drove onwards and upwards regardless and if that was influenced by the fascination with the new stadium Leinster figures also failed to reflect a strong connection between Dublin doing well and a bonanza for the provincial coffers with the highest total coming in the year Laois put the holders out in the semi-finals.

SUNDAY GAME

Well done Anthony Tohill. Too often TSG panellists have given the impression that there’s no offence for which someone should be sent off or suspended, a phenomenon not helped in the past by the curious habit of putting former players on the couch for their own counties’ matches. With a bit of luck most international rules hopefuls will behave themselves when the Ireland manager’s in studio.

CENTRAL COMPETITIONS CONTROL COMMITTEE

The CCCC are right to fret over the failure of communication. If so many people can’t understand how the disciplinary system works, it’s maybe not surprising that the core message that you shouldn’t foul other players and expect to get away with it – regardless of what your manager, team-mates and supporters might say – also appears to struggle.

ADMISSION PRICES

What’s the balance here? Michael Lyster had the temerity to suggest on the radio that €30 wasn’t a lot to pay to get into a match and was roundly condemned for insensitivity despite the apparent reasonableness of his off-the-cuff response.

Accepting that media people, who get in for free, possibly aren’t best positioned to pass judgment on what constitutes a reasonable tariff, the question of what the membership want has to be considered.

What project funding should be withdrawn to allow for a decrease in admission charges? The organisation re-invests around 80 per cent of its income in various units of the association. At a time when State capital funding has disappeared should Croke Park countenance a decline in revenue and make tickets cheaper?

WHAT WOULD MEMBERS PREFER?

FINE GAEL

Amidst all the entrails of last week’s political diversion, one of the more interesting messages was that the abundance of cute GAA-hardened activists on Enda Kenny’s side had been a significant factor in the outcome of the vote of confidence and indeed former association president Seán Kelly could be seen helping his leader and Richard Bruton shake hands on the plinth of Leinster House.

And it’s true that the likes of Jimmy Deenihan has in his time defended against more penetrating threats than Leo Varadkar but does that mean that the GAA is switching horses at the appropriate moment or simply rewarding Fianna Fáil for all of that stadium largesse?

smoran@irishtimes.com