Wexford hurler and GPA co-chairperson Matthew O'Hanlon says that the solution to the current impasse between the players group and the GAA could lie in a policy document compiled in January.
Last January, separate to the charter negotiations, the GPA’s Player Welfare Manager Colm Begley discussed a working document with the GAA’s Sports Science Group looking at the area of contact hours.
Within the document, recommendations are made on the required number of sessions a player would train at each stage of the season.
The GAA's willingness to pay expenses for a maximun of four sessions per week is at the core of the current GAA-GPA row.
"This policy concept was proposed to the GAA charter negotiating team on 16 December via a memo as a means of using sports science to identify the required number of sessions per week as it varies from pre-season to in-season and from Rookie to late career players," O’Hanlon said in a statement released today.
"It would not just be done by picking an arbitrary number like three out of the air and then moving that to four at a whim last week. For clarity, the working document outlines situations where five sessions a week might be needed in pre-season. During the playing season and a de-load week for example, sports science indicates three sessions a week is adequate for performance.
"As part of the negotiations with the GAA, the GPA proposed that this is the policy that should be used as the means of regulating sessions, rooted in sports science and with player welfare actually to the fore. It’s our view that all parties, players, managers and county boards, should then sign off on a contact hours policy that indicates the optimum number of sessions allowable for all players on the squad. The mileage rate and claimable expenses by players cannot be the mechanism to do this; it’s a point of principle.
"The key difference – players would not be used by the GAA as a cost control measure. If they actually have player welfare in mind, then it’s a no-brainer to use a contact hours policy.
"Revert to the 2019 charter and let’s sort this out with a contact hours policy initiative as proposed by the players body in December of 2021," he suggested.
O'Hanlon added that players were not looking to be paid expenses for unlimited sessions.
"They are just looking for all squad members (not just the 32) to be reimbursed for all the sessions they take part in at the same rate of 65c. Players, through the GPA, have proposed how to properly regulate sessions using scientific expertise. That should be signed off by all and policed by the GAA to ensure county boards and managers are adhering to it.
"Players are still open and willing to go back to the negotiating table based on the above. It would be fair, based on expertise and would likely not cost the GAA anything more than what they are trying to impose."
O'Hanlon said he read the circular issued by the GAA to counties last week and found some of it hard to fathom.
Last weekend inter-county players took a stand that they would not engage in match day media activity around games.
The gesture was taken to highlight player frustration over the ongoing issues around squad charters with the GAA.
"It had minimal impact on fans, if any," O’Hanlon says. "The GAA’s response was to unilaterally, without the agreement of players, try to impose a squad charter on their terms.
"The GAA have designed this charter, by their account, with player welfare in mind. Again, let’s be clear on this. Last December, through to March, the GAA came to the negotiating table wanting to retain the cost saving measures players had agreed to during the Covid crisis. Now however, language around player welfare had been conveniently added in.
"At the time, the GAA negotiating team put forward a case that 50 cent per mile for three sessions a week and a cap of 32 players was all they could afford. Two months later they posted a profit for 2021 of €13.5 million. Was that an honest way to negotiate?"
In his statement, O’Hanlon continued: "That brings me specifically to player welfare. The GAA are now willing to cover four sessions per week at 65c. That came about because last week the GPA let them know we would be communicating with all players. Three sessions were then moved to four over the course of 24 hours. Surely if player welfare was the concern here such a move, adding 33% to a training load, would be unthinkable.
"Following on from that, the GAA now want to enforce a charter where four sessions are agreed at 65c per mile and then anything above that will need to be negotiated locally by players with county boards. In other words, county boards can allow as many sessions as they want – the GAA would be openly allowing unlimited training, but players would be financially penalised because the GAA accept a reduced mileage rate for sessions above four.
"This is what some commentators are accusing the GPA of wanting. It’s hard to believe that when Tom Parsons refers to training once or ten times a week to emphasise a point, it is being portrayed that the GPA would be happy to allow such over training. It’s spreading and creating a false picture – deliberately."
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