FAI and LGFA learn grass isn’t always greener on other side
BREAK IN PLAY COLUMN
A chasm has always existed between the men’s and women’s games in the GAA. Now, the tide looks set to go out once more as the number of women heading to the AFLW blossoms, with Mayo losing a significant number of players to the game Down Under.
If the roles were reversed, there would be undulating public outcry from the heavens. The loss of Oisín Mullin was always going to be a hard pill to swallow, but there was comfort in seeing his progression and achievements rewarded with a long-term contract at Geelong. But just imagine, for a moment, if five more of his colleagues had departed alongside him, leaping from the Mayo senior inter-county matchday programme to chase the oval ball in Oz.
I suspect we’d see something close to mass mobilisation of Mayo people akin to the Land League. Instead, because it’s the ladies’ game - and not just in Mayo - the reaction is far quieter. Noelle Healy spoke on the Irish Independent Sport podcast with Joe Molloy about the loss of so many top players from the LGFA.
It’s a cliché, but it’s true: no one can begrudge these players the opportunity to play professionally. An athlete’s career is short, and who wouldn’t want to compete under baking sunshine instead of enduring a cloudy, misty Irish August and a mundane 9-to-5?
But what’s in it for their clubs, the incubators of talent for large-scale AFL teams to hoover up en masse, giving little in return? In soccer, for all its faults, FIFA guarantees a set percentage for the underage clubs and academies that developed players. It’s why Ringmahon Rangers received a colossal windfall from the sale of Caoimhín Kelleher, and why many in Mayo are wondering about the potential boost for Manulla FC if Sligo Rovers’ Owen Elding is sold for his reported €1.5 million valuation.
These once-in-a-generation windfalls are copper-fastened in FIFA rules to ensure clubs benefit from the players they’ve nurtured. In contrast, our amateur GAA players can be poached with nothing returned to their home clubs. Unless there is goodwill from the hunting club, rural clubs receive nothing and lose plenty. It’s something that will need to be addressed instead of the games’ head honchos burying their heads in the sand.
FAI backtracks on summer calendar commitment
It was a disappointing climbdown by the FAI this week as summer football is once again left open to interpretation. This marks a remarkable shift for an association that was, until recently, proudly promoting full national alignment. FAI President Paul Cooke announced via email that leagues can now choose whether or not to play summer football.
This proposal was a key part of the FAI Football Pathways Plan, launched by the now-departed Marc Canham. Since his exit from Abbotstown, momentum towards aligning grassroots leagues with the League of Ireland season has faded. Ireland remains the only one of UEFA’s 55 nations out of step with its senior professional league.
Here in Mayo, this is a setback for a league that looked ahead of the curve. Elsewhere, with leagues now able to pick and choose their season, misalignment will persist, hindering youth player pathways.
The Mayo League faced its own issues in high summer, with an unprecedented number of games conceded, teams folding, and squads shrinking. Still, the legacy of Canham’s 11,000-word plan now looks dead in the water. Football revolutions here seems almost impossible, and the maddening patchwork of calendars will continue.
It has long been an issue of schoolboy leagues holding too much power. Ironically, the reason why they do is the note I mentioned above. Clubs in prolific leagues such as Dublin would make a small fortune sending a player over to England. Many clubs inside the M50 would have had bigger budgets than FAI First Division sides. That supremacy was being challenged by the League of Ireland, despite the invitation to join the third tier, but many view the league itself as a step too far.
What this means for future Connacht Cup or inter-provincial games is unclear. Twenty-two leagues, including Mayo, already follow a summer schedule, while 12 others have indicated they may switch. The GAA-clash debate has again reared its head, but no sport should fear another. The pathways proposal was about a long-term structural shift, not the short-term gain of having the parish’s best GAA player fill a forward slot for the summer. That mindset stymies player development and keeps Ireland lagging, from junior level right up to the League of Ireland’s final round.