Mac's View: Are we heading towards professionalism in the GAA?

With all the talk in recent times about the payment of county managers and where that might lead the Association, I noticed another shift in the past week with the Gaelic Players’ Association (GPA) seeking an increase in the yearly allowance for county players.

The increase being sought from the current average of €1,400 to €2,500 is a significant increase and is part of the GPA’s pre-budget submission.

On top of that the topic of payment of county managers has been aired with a growing move to formally address the issue. It is an area which has been greatly debated for many years now.

This week also the Ulster Council voted unanimously to bring back the Dr McKenna Cup competition and I am very pleased about that. However, I’m not that happy with the idea being put forward by the GPA that senior players should be excluded from the competition. I think the formation of the teams taking part has to be controlled by the counties themselves and the team management.

The influence of the GPA in the payments issue and also in team formation is taking things a little too far in my estimation and we have to be careful about how we progress. Otherwise, we are heading towards professionalism.

I would be a wee bit worried about where we are going at the moment. I see the Kerry team manager Jack O’Connor came out strongly recently in an interview on the issue of paying team managers.

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP

Here in Donegal we had the quarter-finals of the senior championship at the weekend and I was in Ballyshannon to see Four Masters and Dungloe. It was a poor first half but things brightened up in the second half. This young Donegal Town side came out on top as Dungloe could have done with a Tony Boyle or an Adrian Sweeney. The final scoreline didn’t reflect the game but it was a good finish from Four Masters.

I was listening then to the second half of the Naomh Conaill-Termon game and Termon let it slip. But fair play to Naomh Conaill, they came from nowhere to steal the game.

The night before Gaoth Dobhair were that bit too strong for Kilcar despite Kilcar putting up a good fight. Gaoth Dobhair are probably the strong favourites now for the title.

Earlier on Saturday St Michael’s put up a big score to overcome MacCumhaill’s but the losers were without their main scoring threat Oisin Gallen. It will be an interesting semi-final between Michaels and Gaoth Dobhair, although St Michael’s don’t have a great record against them.

It is unusual for the championship that we are at the semi-final stage and St Eunan’s aren’t there. In the semi-finals I’m giving Four Masters a good chance against Naomh Conaill. The Glenties side have struggled, but then they are short of their main man (Ciaran Thompson). They are not the side they were but the spirit is still there.

Masters have to learn to win on the big day and hopefully things can come good for them. Head on the block I’ll go for Four Masters. They will have gained a lot from last Sunday’s game. When they got into the groove in the second half, they kicked some great scores. But then Glenties have a lot of craft and will battle to the end.

In the other semi-final I have to give the call to Gaoth Dobhair. They have a great defence and they have the potential to get scores up front. Big Michael Langan is a super player and is having a great season, scoring heavily. St Michael’s will need another big game from him if they are to cause a shock, but then they have been scoring big all year.

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I saw a bit of the Intermediate Championship semi-final in Ballyshannon as well on Sunday and fair play to Naomh Columba on getting through to the final once again. Also fair play to Red Hughs for making such a battle of it at the end with Stephen McMenamin getting another goal.

Hopefully Glen can go on now and take the title. It's been a while since they were in the senior ranks. But they won’t get anything easy from Malin in the final.

Best of luck also to our neighbours Naomh Brid in the Junior championship semi-final this weekend. They are taking on Letterkenny Gaels, who really should be playing in a higher grade, coming from a big town.

The other semi-final has Carndonagh playing Convoy and from what I hear Carndonagh are the team to beat this year.

After this weekend we will only have a few weekends left. We won’t know what to do with ourselves after that.

Brian McEniff was in conversation with Peter Campbell