Paraic Duffy is perfectly suited to the role of a sporting administrator. A former headmaster he is patient, thoughtful and careful in stepping through the sometimes rocky terrain of keeping multiple stakeholders happy.
His equable temperament was sorely tested at yesterday’s launch of his Annual Report on the workings of the GAA in 2016 and where the challenges lie ahead in 2017 and beyond.
The key focus of this year’s Congress, and the main thrust of his report is the challenge of getting fixtures right across the board between Senior All ireland Championships all the way through to the heart of the sport at club level.
Duffy himself is acutely aware of and sensitive to the challenges. He, together with the Management Group within the GAA have put forward three motions to Congress which will make things better, bringing forward the dates of the All Ireland Finals, creating a shorter Inter County season but one which still satisfies the demand of fans.
Duffy knows that anger serves little purpose and so he was measured in his response when asked about the newly formed Club Players Associations multiple demands, released to media the previous night and calling for the withdrawal of the proposal until their consultation with players was complete.
He made the valid point that you cannot demand change immediately and then call for the withdrawal of the one proposal that is on the table that will make things better.
He accepted it may not be perfect and that he wanted to give every opportunity to the CPA to bring forward their own proposals which would be considered but change in the GAA is rightly not something that should happen at the whim of one group or one individual over another.
He was surprised that after three reasonable and constructive meetings that it was a three page media statement that called for the withdrawal, rather than a phone call or a private note.
This was after all a Club Players Association who stressed they wanted to advance what was good for Gaelic Games in general and were not in this to be antagonistic or particularly aggressive.
The focus on sorting out the fixtures is central to what Duffy wants as much as any Club Players Association. He knows the path that needs to be travelled in order to get to the right result while upsetting as few as possible.
The Club Players Association will in time be a vital part of making things right across all sections. They are not however, as a new organisation, quite as central to it at this point in time as there statements might suggest.
Join us tomorrow when we look in greater detail at ten key points to also emerge from the Director General’s Annual Report from technology and media to ground developments, player welfare and the National Sports Campus.
