GAELIC GAMES Players' association: The Gaelic Players' Association have expressed surprise at comments made by GAA president Seán Kelly. Speaking in Paris after the interprovincial football final Kelly openly canvassed for the vacant position of players' representative on Central Council. Sean Moran reports.
"I was a bit taken aback," said GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell. "My reading of our discussion was that we'd engage again with a view to appointing someone to Central Council, either through a ballot or the nomination of certain individuals. I find it strange that the matter be opened to the floor like that.
Kelly told the post-match dinner: "We need player representation on the Central Council and if the players here tonight come up with a name, we would seriously consider it."
This issue has been a bone of contention between Croke Park and the GPA since Kelly took office over 18 months ago. Initially he deferred the appointment of a players' committee and of a successor to the previous committee chairperson Jarlath Burns.
The GPA opposed this on the basis they, as the players' association, should be allowed nominate the representative to Central Council and that their existence made Croke Park's Players' Committee redundant. Accordingly they asked members not to accept nomination to any such body. The stalemate seemed to be shifting when earlier this year the GPA agreed to participate in a process to fill the vacancy.
"According to our a.g.m.," said Farrell, "we would partake in a ballot to bring closure to the issue of a players' representative on Central Council."
One of the problems about advancing this process has been the lack of scheduled meetings between the GPA and the GAA. Farrell feels although Kelly is sympathetic to the players' concerns, engagement between the meetings should be conducted on a formal basis.
"Seán is amenable to the players' plight and his attitude to the GPA is different to that of other administrators but it's difficult to do business without formally structured meetings. It's important not just for Seán's term but for future presidents that relations are formalised rather than dependent on a whim.
"This is a serious and substantive issue because we're currently working in a vacuum. I notified Liam Mulvihill (GAA director general) in writing of our wish for a meeting. Seán has appointed me to a marketing committee but that's only one of a whole host of issues.
"If there was a structure in place for meetings on say a bi-monthly basis, it would nearly make the seat on Central Council redundant but he mightn't want that for cosmetic reasons."
As recently as last week Farrell and Kelly met and agreed in the absence of a full-scale ballot, they could come up with a name acceptable to both the GPA and the GAA. "It was my understanding that we'd go off and open channels with possible candidates," said Farrell.
Whereas the GPA would be happy to go along with the compromise Farrell hasn't lost sight of the association's original goal and he is frustrated that hostility towards the organisation still exists.
"The GPA electing directly to Central Council would probably be a bridge too far for some administrators. I don't know why. We're five years in existence and not about pay-for-play but despite the good we've done and the benefits we've brought to players, there's a suspicion about us in some quarters."
