Kerry manager Jack O'Connor has poured cold water on any suggestion that inter-county GAA managers may be paid for their work with county teams in the not-too-distant future.
GAA President Jarlath Burns established the GAA’s Amateur Status Review Committee (ASRC) in March of last year primarily, it seems, to tackle the thorny issue off the GAA’s dirty little secret – the supposed unofficial payments that many feel are being made to managers for their work with inter-county panels.
It is thought that making the job of an inter-county manager officially a paid position would at least bring that murky black economy into the open and allow the association to regulate it.
But, speaking with Marie Crowe on RTÉ Radio 1’s Sunday Sport show, reigning All-Ireland-winning boss O’Connor has insisted that paying managers simply can’t be implemented without in turn paying the players – an eventuality he is firmly opposed to.
"I can’t see how you can openly pay managers because to start paying managers, you have to pay players, you know? Can the GAA really afford to pay their players, pay managers and pay back-room teams and whatever?
"I don't think so. It's still an amateur organisation, remember. We are happy enough down here [in Kerry] to do it for whatever mileage or whatever it is. I can’t see how the GAA could sustain a semi-professional game."
In a piece for RTÉ Sport this week, GAA journalist Niall McCoy spoke to an inter-county manager who, commenting anonymously, offered: "I do believe the stigma around coaches and managers receiving payments is ridiculous because I know myself and my management work incredibly hard and it’s not about the small expenses we receive.
"I’m sure it’s the same for many managers and coaches around the country. The time it takes definitely warrants payment of some sort."
O’Connor, however, is steadfast in his view that paying inter-county bosses is simply unworkable. "If you pay the managers, 100%, you have to pay the players," he said. "So I can't see how that's sustainable or how that's a runner, to be honest."
The five-time Celtic Cross winner also suggested another addition to the new rules which this past season garnered so much praise for returning the game to a more traditional crowd-pleasing spectacle.
The Dromid Pearses clubman is in favour of looking into a new edict that would prevent players from returning the ball into their own half once the ball has crossed the half-way line, similar to basketball’s 'back-court’ rule.
"I spoke to Jarlath Burns earlier in the year one evening. He might have rang me in and I actually mentioned the thing that they're talking about now, the back-court one where once you cross the halfway line, you can't go back into your own half.
"That could really work because it's hard enough to press a team now – they're holding onto the ball because there's so much space. I feel that if that one was brought in where once you crossed the half, you basically can't go ‘back court’ like basketball.
"That's one that's worth trialling, certainly worth having a look at. It might decrease the amount of hand-passing because that might be the one thing that, at the moment, could be improved – there’s still a bit too much hand-passing."
Listen to Jack O'Connor's Sunday Sport interview with Marie Crowe in full below.
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