McCague to meet GPA despite new militancy

GAELIC GAMES: GAA president Seán McCague has given a brief but swift response to the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) by confirming he would meet the group on Monday week. After the decisions taken by the GPA at last Saturday's emergency general meeting, there were doubts whether the meeting would go ahead. Now it is likely to take on even greater importance.

"Prior to the calling of their e.g.m., an invitation from the GPA to attend a meeting on May 13th had been accepted," said McCague. "Obviously they decided to proceed with the e.g.m. in advance of this meeting, which of course is their right, but the meeting as arranged and agreed will still take place."

The status of the GPA increased literally overnight on the basis of the turnout and motions passed in Portlaoise. With 171 intercounty players in attendance, representing 23 counties (another 10 panels sent letters of apology), the GPA called on the GAA to recognise them alone as the official players' body. They also threatened a withdrawal of services if the GAA fails to engage the GPA agenda.

But McCague will also bring new arguments to the table based on the outcome of a meeting in Croke Park on Saturday, where he called together leading officials from every county to discuss the association's amateurism and factors related to it.

For a start, the GAA have agreed to the principle of players being entitled to All-Ireland tickets, and have decided that they will issue two tickets to each intercounty panellist. There were also renewed guidelines drawn up on the minimum amount of gear that each panellist is entitled to.

McCague also reiterated to county delegates their responsibilities to players with regard to the payment of expenses within a certain timeframe, and also the importance of granting all assistance to players within the amateurism laws as they stand. These were among the other issues that came up at the e.g.m. of the GPA.

Yet the GPA's vote of no confidence in the GAA's own players' committee, which is chaired by former Armagh footballer Jarlath Burns under the appointment of McCague, is sure to bring about some particularly interesting debate.

It has also emerged that the GPA has requested that the GAA director general, Liam Mulvihill, attend.

"Up to now we have been meeting with Seán McCague and Jarlath Burns," said GPA chairman Dessie Farrell. "But we have stipulated to them that this time we want Liam Mulvihill in attendance as well."

Farrell remains adamant that the GAA hierarchy has not fully considered the GPA's agenda since their last meeting on January 9th.

"We've explained to them in broad detail how to address the issue of reimbursement. That's why we were so disappointed in the delay for a follow-up meeting, because it was our belief the last time that we would then make a submission on that particular issue to them."

Yet it seems unlikely that McCague will make any less stern defence of the association's amateur status when the two sides meet. At Congress earlier this month, the president reminded delegates that the GAA owes its very existence to the voluntary efforts of its administrators, organisers, mentors and - most importantly - its players.

McCague also appears satisfied that the objectives of the GPA and the GAA's players' committee remain the same: "I believe that working together within the association we can make progress," he said at Congress.

"But (the GPA's) much publicised demand for a defined weekly payment for players is ill-conceived and fails to take in reality. It does not take into account either the enormous changes in our structures that would inevitably follow."

The threat of a player strike also appears a long way off, and while the GPA did point out that such action would be a last resort, spokesperson Donal O'Neill felt that player-power had reached an unprecedented level.

"Leaving the meeting in Portlaoise," he said, "there was a much higher emphasis than ever before from the players acknowledging what they can do for the GPA, and when they were prepared to do it. I don't think that was present there before."