Examples can be from the forum, or from the wider world. This one made me laugh.
Cooney blasts board hypocrisy
THE hypocrisy of county boards is possibly the biggest challenge facing the GAA, according to president Christy Cooney.
Speaking about the recently-returned inter-county closed season in the Gold Coast yesterday, Cooney expressed his view that it’s common knowledge the moratorium on collective training in November and December is being breached.
After a motion to clear up the period was defeated at Congress last April, Central Council will next week vote on a phased closed season.
However, Cooney believes it’s just one example of how counties say one thing and act another.
“The biggest challenge in it all is monitoring it and making sure that counties adhere to it,” said the Youghal native about the closed season.
"It’s the same with all our rules. I can never understand how counties vote for something and then go away and do the opposite. There’s no logic in it and it’s probably the greatest challenge that the Association has.
“It’s a big challenge. What are we supposed to do? Have police men running around monitoring whether or not people are training? You have to respect the rules that are there and do what they’re expected to do.”
On another matter in which counties could also be accused of talking through both sides of their mouth, Cooney stated he still intends staging a discussion forum on payments to managers, as cited in his Congress address.
At the time, he said he would organise it within two months of Congress but yesterday, seven months on, he clarified: "We have done some more work. We have decided not to do anything with it during the championship season.
“We will do it now in the off-season. It is an easier time to get people to sit down and discuss it in a realistic fashion.”
In that Mullingar speech, Cooney referred to payments to managers as “a cancer running through the Association”, an expression he acknowledges he was slammed for using.
However, he’s made clear it was uttered to highlight the earnestness of the problem within the GAA.
"People criticised me for using that word. The word was used with the best of intentions. It is a serious problem, not just at county level but at club level as well.
“It’s probably an even bigger problem at club level to some degree. There are clubs that are paying managers that can ill afford to do so. But the economic climate has sorted some of it to some extent.”
Cooney continued: "I can use the example of Edenderry who won the county final this year in Offaly. Two years ago they would have had outside managers. Now they have their own people doing it and they have been very successful as a result.
"Personally, I find it hard to understand why anybody would have to go outside their club for a manager.
"I would be a great believer in the homegrown situation and that we should be developing that as much as possible.
"We should have a coaching structure in our clubs that can deliver at all levels.
"I often see top-class people coaching at underage, they do a wonderful job for us, and then we feel they are not good enough for adult grades.
“I find that mind-boggling, to be honest with you.”
Asked if Kieran McGeeney’s presence in the Ireland management set-up contradicted his view, given that the Armagh man is an outside manager with Kildare, Cooney countered: "Kieran McGeeney is on it because of the skills that he brings to the table. Because of his knowledge of football and knowledge of coaching, I felt he was the right person to have on board.
"Do I believe in Kieran being in Kildare? I suppose I don’t agree with outside managers so that is the answer to that.
"But that doesn’t mean that Kieran doesn’t have a contribution to make within the Association.
“I see it very differently. I see that as two separate issues.”
Cooney, meanwhile, admitted the passing of what has proven to be unworkable motions at Congress reflects unfavourably on the annual forum. “To some degree it does,” he conceded.
He was speaking in relation to last April’s motion to facilitate replays in All-Ireland SFC and SHC qualifiers.
"Sometimes motions come at the end of a Congress, a vote takes place and probably people don’t think it through very seriously.
"You end up with a situation that’s not deliverable and we try to redeem that by bringing a motion to Congress the following year to remove it.
“After a long day people vote for things and they don’t think it through and you end up with situations that aren’t workable. That’s not a very satisfactory situation.”
The committee designated by Cooney to look at ways of improving the structure of Congress will report to the Management Committee next month.
