Managers want rewards for players

GAELIC GAMES/ Leinster SFC final: It's going to be the most crammed and heaving stadium in Europe this weekend. Over 80,000 people packed into Croke Park for the Leinster football final.

Every ticket sold in advance and the turnstiles barely able to turn quickly enough to let the people in. It will be the biggest crowd ever to watch a provincial final, anywhere, anytime.

It will generate about €1.25 million in gate receipts for the Leinster Council. Everyone working inside the stadium will get their share too, from the programme sellers to the newly-employed barmen. The only ones walking away empty-handed are the Dublin and Laois players, who'll shed sweat and probably blood over the 70 minutes in an effort to satisfy the paying customers.

And that - say the two managers involved - is where the sense of it all ends.

Laois manager Mick O'Dwyer had one suggestion: the two teams that get to an All-Ireland final should get €10,000 a man. Use that as the benchmark and maybe work back from there. Dublin manager Paul Caffrey didn't have a figure in his head but he had the same idea. The players' lot has to be improved, especially at the business end of the season.

Their appeals arose during yesterday's discourse at the Bank of Ireland centre in Dublin. O'Dwyer first explained his thoughts behind the €10,000: "That's just to cover the loss of earnings and expenses over the year," he said. "And I don't think that's asking too much. They should certainly get better expenses than they're getting. No one wants to be paid for play or anything like that, but they should certainly be looked after better than they are.

"We saw the young player from Wexford go off to America last week just to earn a few pounds. So the day has come when we have to see after them in a financial way. You'll have 80,000 people in Croke Park on Sunday, and not one penny going to any one player, and they're the ones putting on the show, providing all the entertainment. And I think that's wrong."

O'Dwyer has been involved with intercounty football since 1951, when he was first brought into the Kerry minors. He played his first match in Croke Park in 1954. The 69-year-old has witnessed most of the major changes in the GAA over the years, and the commitment involved in the modern game can only be addressed with improved financial compensation.

"We won the 1975 All-Ireland with Kerry with just three games. We got a bye into the Munster final, so we beat Cork, Sligo and then Dublin in the final. Just look at today, Armagh have played seven games in the championship already and are still looking to win the Ulster title. So it's a totally different scene."

Caffrey hasn't been on the road nearly as long as O'Dwyer. Sunday marks just his fourth championship match as manager, and yet he was equally concerned for his players' welfare.

"I think we have to give great credit to the GPA (Gaelic Players Association), because they have improved the players' lot," said Caffrey. "But I still think it has to be improved more, especially at the business end of the season. The commitment and number of training sessions that the players put in is phenomenal.

"The season they put in, and the amount of hours they've stood away from overtime or even promotion opportunities, is something we have taken for granted for too long. There needs to be more appreciation shown."

As it stands, four match tickets per player is as far as that appreciation goes - although they can buy extra if desired: "If I had my way I'd be giving them about 20 tickets each," added O'Dwyer. "It's crazy the way it is."

Yet in many ways the GAA's hands are tied when it comes to offering any such financial rewards. Michael Delaney, secretary of the Leinster Council, explained the way forward.

"It's not something the Leinster Council can do on their own," he said. "Right now we just don't have a choice, but something like that would have to be made association policy. It would mean a whole new mindset for the GAA. That's for the GAA politicians and power-makers to decide, and something that would have to come before Central Council and Congress.

"But what people tend to forget in these situations are all the other counties involved in the provincial championship. We had only a few thousand people at our first round game between Offaly and Louth on May 8th. Teams like that have been putting in the same effort all year, and usually end up slogging it out through the qualifiers, and then disappearing into the mist. We can't just forget about those teams either.

"All the money we make on Sunday goes on the various game developments we have going in the province, including a lot of building work. We're not in the business of making money. We're simply in the business of turning it over."

Delaney did admit interest in the game was now at an all-time high: "This has been the biggest demand I've ever known for a provincial final, by a long way. If we had another 10,000 Hill 16 tickets we definitely could have sold those, and possibly as many again for the stands.

"It's a combination of things obviously. Some people still deem us the weaker of the football provinces, but I think we do offer the most attractive football. There's also been a huge interest from the neutral counties, with a lot of requests for tickets coming from outside the counties involved. But overall I think the public interest in football is just greater than it's ever been."