In six weeks time, the GAA will hold a Special Congress.
Among the topics up for discussion are reforming the All-Ireland Hurling Championships and making more weekends available throughout the year for club games to be played.
Ahead of the Special Congress, the Club Players Association have released a list of seven motions that they feel are an improvement on what the GAA have offered to their members.
A statement by the Association shows the relationship between them and the GAA shows no sign of closing any time soon.
It is the view of the CPA that the seven motions circulated fall far short of what is required from the leadership of the organisation. Leadership that repeats and uses the rhetoric of the Club and the Club player being at the centre of the GAA. There is a serious discord and disconnect between the idea and the reality in the GAA in the current era, and it is threatening the fabric of our Association.
We are deeply concerned at the direction we are taking as an Association, with a growing imbalance between the income-generating big business wing of the GAA, directed and managed by paid officials, and the volunteer club ethos at local community level. The CPA is firmly in the latter category.
The seven motions will be voted on next month, but the CPA feel they don't go far enough in helping the club players around the country and further afield.
It is the view of the CPA that these motions are inadequate, and tinker with issues around replays, player release to clubs, the running off of the British GAA championships. These are issues of concern in particular circumstances, but they should be addressed as part of a wider solution and a fixtures masterplan that encompasses club and county players. In reality the motions change little.
Every other national sporting body has a short, medium and long term strategy. Often their funding and accountability is predicated on planning and games development for all units.
As unpaid GAA volunteers embedded in our clubs, we are deeply disappointed that it appears the opportunity has once again been squandered to place the Club, the fundamental unit of our great Association, at the heart of planning and development
The relationship between both associations still has a long way to go.
