The GPA has suffered a bit of a kicking in the press lately (not something they were used to) following criticism from Colm O'Rourke and Joe Brolly - and their huffy, over-sensitive reaction to said criticism. One of the chief complaints is that the GPA has an elitist focus and ignores the many thousands of club players around the country. Brolly argued this particularly forcefully in Gaelic Life recently.
But, according to Dermot Earley, the GPA did explore the possibility of bringing club players into the fold.
Earley, speaking at the All-Stars tour in Boston (optically, not the place to be when disputing allegations of elitism but, sure lookit), told the press that Dessie Farrell had examined the possibility of GPA bringing club players into the tent.
Lack of resources killed the idea.
I know that Dessie did look at that, but there’s a huge amount, is there over over 300,000 club players that are playing hurling and football in the country? To be honest, the GPA don't have the resources to deal with the club player.
The one point they did make is that all county players are club players as well so that by helping a county player you are helping a club player.
Earley did acknowledge the fixtures problem but insisted there were channels through which this could be addressed.
I know there was an issue with the fixtures problem. Every club player has a right to go to their own club delegates to the county board to bring motions in addressing that.
When you compare it to other players' bodies around the country or around the world, they just cannot cope with the numbers.
