TOM Parsons has revealed that the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) raised two significant ‘red flags’ regarding this weekend’s inter-provincial tournament at Croke Park.
The games, broken into two double-headers across Friday and Saturday, are being used as a vehicle to test out the suite of new rules devised by the Football Review Committee (FRC).
GPA chief Parsons said players are behind the drive “to make the game more progressive, looking forward, not looking left and right, more exciting and a bit more dynamic”.
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The former Mayo midfielder also praised Jim Gavin and his FRC, saying that he has personally “learned a lot from just how professional and how comprehensive everything has been to date”.
But Parsons said the GPA raised two issues about the games, firstly that this evening’s games are on a Friday night, forcing players to take time off work in many instances, and secondly that two days of action is a lot to ask from amateur players.
“Look, I’ll be honest, we raised the red flag with the GAA, with Jarlath (Burns) and Tom (Ryan), a 6pm game on a Friday was the most significant problem, and I’ve had a few phone calls from players,” said Parsons.
“Players have had to take a half-day off work or potentially a full day off work. So, what I can say there is that it has absolutely been raised with the GAA.
“The GAA has given us assurances that this is a once-off and the GPA certainly wouldn’t want a move to games being played on Friday nights.
“We’ve been given assurances that this is an exceptional circumstance, a request from the FRC to get games played over a weekend. I was even on to Michael Murphy and he said a lot of thought has gone into it.
“But it doesn’t, I’ll be honest, it doesn’t sit well with the GPA with games scheduled for 6pm on a Friday.”
The players body isn’t particularly happy either about two days of intense action, back-to-back.
“That was raised as well, as the second red flag,” said Parsons who was assured by the FRC that players will be rotated throughout the two days.
“We absolutely have raised those two red flags with the GAA and out of respect for the work that the FRC are doing, I think the compromise is that it’s a once off and they’ve done a significant consultation and they’ve put in measures to reduce the load on players by extending the panels and having somebody tracking what every player is doing.”
Parsons also responded to the recent comments of GAA President Jarlath Burns who predicted ‘a debate on whether we should put managers on contract because it is nearly a full-time job’, raising the possibility of paying managers. Parsons said players wouldn’t object.
“We did ask players in our government grant survey, do you think inter-county managers should be compensated for their time?” said Parsons. “92 per cent said yes.”
