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1/35 Long thread on John Horan’s sit-down with journalists in Scotstown yesterday.
Access to JH for media has been far less than any #GAA president in my experience. I think yesterday was just the third time that I personally had opportunity to question him since he took office.
Access to JH for media has been far less than any #GAA president in my experience. I think yesterday was just the third time that I personally had opportunity to question him since he took office.
2/35 But there were 10 journalists in on the interview so you’re never going to put all the questions that you would like to. The interview lasted over 26 minutes and ran to more than 3,700 words on a range of topics.
3/35 The tiered football proposals were prominent. I asked him if there could be a mechanism whereby the tier two winners would re-enter the All-Ireland race similar to Joe McDonagh winners in hurling. I was told it was “not practical” and “there’s been no push for that”.
4/35 Personally, I believe such a mechanism would go a long, long way towards appeasing those who are against the proposals. There are lots of things in the GAA that there hasn’t been a “push for”. JH could do worse than instigating that push here.
5/35 Anyway, JH said that his new fixtures committee could come up with a mechanism that would make it practical, along with various other things. Which only hardens my conviction that tier two is being rushed in for 2020, the last year of his presidency, to afford him a legacy.
6/35 I pointed out how, if this year’s draw is replicated in 2020, Derry would need to beat Tyrone, Antrim and Donegal to get to the qualifiers. Cork would have to beat Limerick. “Bar getting rid of the provincial structure, that inequality is always going to be there.”
7/35 JH spoke of pushing tier two “to get an appreciation that tier two is accepted within the organisation”. He said it was the “norm” in hurling, ladies football and camogie to have tiers. “It always seemed to be a barrier in football. So we want to crack that barrier.”
8/35 Why do we need such an appreciation? Just why does the barrier have to be cracked? As for the hurling, ladies football and camogie comparison, I always immediately and seriously doubt somebody’s grasp of the situation once I hear that one. This is coming from the president.
9/35 It’s an exceptionally weak argument and not relevant to men’s Gaelic football, as explained by @TurloughCarlow here:
10/35 JH: “If you fall to Division 3 or 4 in the league, you’re not there out of bad luck.” Even if everyone was as strong as Dublin, there would still be teams in Division 3/4. Either way, that doesn’t mean they should be cut off.
11/35 JH spoke of tier two being run on a regional basis initially to help with public buy-in. Example: Throw-in for Laois-Offaly put back 10 minutes because of the crowd last Saturday. I guarantee you this will NEVER happen for a Laois-Offaly tier two game.
12/35 I certainly didn’t disagree with everything JH said. He harked back to his proposals for a round robin in Leinster when he was chairman, something which I think has merit. Far greater merit than the current tier two proposals.
13/35 Also, he argued his point of view on the possible backpass rule with goalkeepers quite well, something which I think is worthy of debate over the coming months.
14/35 I asked him about the possibility of the Leinster SHC being expanded to six teams to avoid yo-yo effect. “Nobody has pushed it that much yet.” Again, why should a president need somebody else to push it? It’s a highly unsatisfactory situation. Address it.
15/35 Another part of his answer on that: "Everybody last year said it should be increased to allow Offaly into it. Look where Offaly ended up.” In total, he mentioned Offaly five times, often in a snide manner, despite not being asked about them once.
16/35 I’m not paranoid by nature, but colleagues said afterwards that they felt it was pointed at me because I’ve been critical of the football/hurling structures, particularly of late, and obviously given where I come from.
17/35 No other county was mentioned as often, bar Dublin who he was asked about repeatedly.
Surely a man in JH’s position should be above that sort of thing.
Surely a man in JH’s position should be above that sort of thing.
18/35 I agree with JH that Dublin shouldn’t play a ‘Super 8s’ home game in Parnell Park. After all, Croke Park is their home ground now, everyone knows that. It’s the neutral round of Super 8s that should be moved out of Croke Park.
19/35 “Dublin have never, ever complained about being asked to travel outside Dublin,” he said. He’s dead right, they haven’t. So why not just take them out then? Surely the integrity of the competition trumps all?
20/35 On Dublin funding, he again went with the line that it’s purely to increase participation levels in the capital. It insults people’s intelligence to imply that there is no knock-on effect to the senior team from increasing funding/participation over 15-odd years.
21/35 I fully accept that there are various other factors as to why Dublin are successful. JH shouldn’t patronise the GAA membership by saying that finance isn’t part of it.
22/35 JH said that Shane Flanagan of Meath told him that “per head of population there's actually more coaching money going into Meath than Dublin”. He added that he “didn't have the actual figures so I'm not going to stand over it”. Not good enough, reflects poorly on him.
23/35 I know which metric I’d be going by…
Furthermore, let’s do a tally over the last 15 years and see how Dublin and Meath compare, by whatever metric you like.
Furthermore, let’s do a tally over the last 15 years and see how Dublin and Meath compare, by whatever metric you like.
24/35 JH asked by @CahairOKane1 about Tyrone motion to “produce on an annual basis a transparent formula for the distribution of monies allocated to each county for Games Development”.
Rules Advisory Committee ruled it out of order but said it would refer it to Central Council.
Rules Advisory Committee ruled it out of order but said it would refer it to Central Council.
25/35 JH’s response to this: “Well, I mean, I will... I'm going to ask someone to just have a look at the metric and give a clearer picture, yeah.”
Note: As president, JH chairs Central Council. Again, not good enough.
Note: As president, JH chairs Central Council. Again, not good enough.
26/35 When asked about promotion of tier two football, JH threw out this question: “How many of you were in Croke Park for the Christy Ring, Lory Meagher and Nicky Rackard? Any of you there?” It was pointed out to him that the Munster football final was the same day.
27/35 Still, he insisted. “That was in the evening. I’m just asking the question, any of you there? Were any of you there?” When it was pointed out that the drive from Dublin-Cork would be prohibitive: “It’s amazing, some did (both).”
28/35 So, JH thought that journalists should cover those finals and then scarper down to Cork to do another. Personally, I wasn’t in Croke Park that day. It was a day off and I was working the next day in Thurles.
29/35 I wasn’t prepared to work on my day off and neither was I going to drive to Dublin on my day off just to take in games involving six counties that I have no affiliation to. If Offaly reach the Ring final next year, I’ll certainly be there.
30/35 It’s not the first time that JH has shown a poor grasp of the demands of our profession. Of course, if the GAA hadn’t walked away from playing these finals before top tier games and having them live on TV, we’d all have been there. Whose fault is that?
31/35 Also, I wonder how many Ring/Rackard/Meagher finals JH attended before he became president. And how many he’ll attend once he leaves office.
32/35 Going back to tier two football, he said: “Look, everybody has been crying out for this to happen, we’re now getting near to getting this over the line. Now you see people are flipping their stories and their attitudes.” Everybody? Really?
33/35 Just who actually flipped? Enda McGinley maybe, at a push? Anyone else? If there are such people, they’re very much in the minority (and also entitled to change their minds). That comment is disingenuous to say the least.
34/35 He referenced Ciaran Deely’s tweet about how much it meant to the teams involved in those finals with regard to tiered football. Of course, CD’s opinion is valid, but funny how he doesn’t quote Turlough O’Brien’s, Liam Kearns’s or John Sugrue’s views on tiered football.
35/35 God knows when we’ll get the chance to question JH again but I know this much: he needs to do a lot better.
