Nine-time All-star winner and ex-Gaelic Players Association President DJ Carey believes that the GPA would be silly to ignore the €1.05 million euro on the table for a new government grants scheme, despite the ‘package’ being reduced by almost €2 million because of the current economic climate.
Already this month the GPA have rejected the new offer from Sports Minister Martin Cullen TD, as this will leave up to half of the country’s hurling and football senior inter-county sides without a slice of the pie. Teams that fail to progress past the first three rounds of the football qualifiers, and hurling sides competing in the Christy Ring, Nicky Rackard and Lory Meagher Cup’s will be among those hit if the new scheme goes ahead. 38-year-old Carey was in Dublin this week to launch the Bothar golfwithstars.com fundraiser for the charity and feels that both the GAA and its’ players should adopt a realistic approach to the grants issue. "Maybe it’s time the GAA and the players take the lead in this situation and say ‘hold on a minute, we are in pretty difficult times and we need to act here, maybe it can’t be afforded,’ he stated. And it’s that rounded approach which will see the players come out of the situation with plenty of good will towards them according to Carey.
He stresses that these are difficult economic times for everyone – not just GAA players. "If a GAA player who fought and battled for this is to lose out, then, you know what; there are highly paid sports people who should be in the same boat. It shouldn’t just be the GAA players who are to lose out, but I also think the GAA and the players have to take a lead and say ‘if the country is in the situation it’s in, then we have to look at it’.
On the issue of official recognition which the players body are seeking at present, Carey approves of the GPA’s campaign to see five percent of GAA monies to help fund its’ activities. However Carey’s positive stance does come with a caveat. He wants to see the money used for college grants, injured players and educational programmes – but ultimately not pay for play. The Young Ireland’s clubman is fully aware of how delicate a relationship there is between the GPA and the GAA’s rank-and-file members.
Carey was the first President of the GPA when it was founded in 1999 and believes that everyone is playing a role in the blame game and that players and administrators need to work more closely and in tandem with each other.
“It is like everything else, it seems to get to a crisis point before people sit down. The whole country has gone mad as far as I’m concerned. With everyone it’s - we blame the government, we blame the GAA, we blame everyone,” he said.
"We go and strike and then we’ll sort it out, instead of people grasping it by the throat and saying ‘you know what, everyone of us in this country is in trouble’.’’
On the on-field action Carey was particularly impressed with Waterford’s stunning comeback last Sunday in their quarter-final tie against Galway.
However he believes it was another game which the Tribesmen let slip from their grasp. "I would have thought Galway should, at that stage, have had the game closed out.
"Six points up, probably the best hurler in the country on their team and they never played him with one ball. “For the last 15 minutes did they even aim to play the ball to Joe Canning? That was a major surprise to me. Whatever about when you are winning well, when you are under pressure you want to be bringing your best player into it, particularly your best forward, particularly the man that is doing the most scoring for you. They didn’t do it and paid the price.”
