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You are > Home > GAA must soon realise that its fans are not soccer hooligans
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
GAA must soon realise that its fans are not soccer hooligans
Drastic action was called for during the All-Ireland hurling final.
I locked the front and back doors to ensure that I had no visitors from next door or anywhere else to interrupt yours truly to watching Kilkenny winning four-in-a-row with a broad smile after seeing the Galway minors win a great final.
That I had a few quid on the senior decider was also probably a factor in staging the ‘lock-in’.
However, to be quite honest, I was never a fan of 20 tongues wagging when there’s a big game on, or when you’re trying to hear the analysts giving their views during or after the game (except when Cork people are analysing Kilkenny games, as they clearly despise them).
Like many, I was delighted to see fans breaking through the hoardings after the game to greet their heroes. It’s only right the fans should be a part of it.
Not just because those same fans wanted to cherish the moment of witnessing their county winning four-in-a-row, but many of those same fans not only spent years travelling around the county watching their county play, they also spent many nights watching them train.
The stories of Kilkenny training sessions are legendary.
How an association thought it was going to hold back people, whose love of hurling runs so deep, in a way emphasizes, once again, the cultural changes the GAA have taken for the worse in the last few years.
The GAA pointed out before the game that people making claims after getting caught in the big heave at the end of a final has cost them it the region of €500,000 in recent times.
For an organisation with profits regularly breaking the €10 million mark annually, it’s a small price to pay to hold onto a vital part of the celebrations.
Or put in another way, the rent from the first half an hour from a concert would cover such payments.
At a time when Gaelic games is constantly evolving and being told it’s borrowing so much from other games, the GAA should be proud of its fans’ clean image.
The fans can mix in the same pubs before games. Gardai on horseback aren’t required to keep fans of opposing teams separated after games.
Fans from different counties can eat, drink and watch the game together.
This is not unique, but it is in comparison to soccer.
So when the GAA stated the day after the hurling final that it was considering “fencing” off the pitch to stop the invasion of fans, it was directly taking Gaelic games into a murky world that fans are not and will never be part of.
There’s no risk of a player being attacked when the fans come onto the pitch.
And while there will always be a few chants by what are essentially non-GAA folk from the Hill when the Dubs are playing, GAA fans aren’t the type who will shout abuse directed at players’ wives or make up disgusting songs to sing during games.
It’s one thing to hear whistling or general noise when a player steps up to a free in football or hurling but that’s a far cry from what goes on when a player not popular with fans makes his way to take a corner kick in the Premiership.
Such people shouldn’t be let out, never mind be allowed into a game.
GAA fans are not soccer hooligans and the powers that be ought to consider that before making sweeping statements about fencing off the pitch to ensure fans can’t share in the glory when their county wins an All-Ireland final or a provincial final after a long wait.
Wouldn’t it have been a sorry state of affairs if every Roscommon person present in Cusack Park, Ennis on September 23rd, 2006 was told to remain seated after the final whistle?
The steward trying to enforce such a rule that day would definitely have grounds to make a claim, if there was anything left off him to scrape off the ground!
The fans are a hugely important part of every sport.
In the GAA, unlike global sports, fans know the players individually. They see them walking down the street.
They live in the same world in every sense.
Fans’ heroes are not multi millionaires living in big mansions.
Many fans grew up and went to school with those who have given them the greatest days of their life. Nobody should have the right or indeed think they have the authority to take that away.
If Cork win the football final on Sunday, I wonder will GAA President Christy Cooney be disgusted to see his native county’s fans racing onto the pitch after beating Kerry in the 125th anniversary year?
Somehow I doubt it. He’ll probably leave it to Peter McKenna to do the complaining afterwards.
But whoever wins on Sunday, there won’t be a GAA fan at the game or one of the many millions around the world watching on television that will have one bad word to say about fans running onto the pitch afterwards.
We’re gone a bit too far in this country with regard to changing tradition for the sake of being able to say we’re moving with the times.
Or as Jim on the comedy The Royle family would say, that Health and Safety crowd soon will try to stop you from wiping your own backside!
Whether it’s Cork or Kerry, I’m looking forward to watching a pitch invasion on Sunday. It’s part of the GAA’s fibre since the games began.
I was present for what I recall was the first presentation of the Liam McCarthy Cup on the pitch in 1999 when no fans were allowed on.
Cork captain Mark Landers received the cup with no fan within 50 yards of him.
That it was a wet day made the presentation even more miserable.
Giving that so many companies have gone bust in this country, maybe the GAA will have a brainwave one of these days and consider putting fans into the many corporate boxes that are becoming available.
That way, they could set a timing lock on the doors so no one would be able to get out after the game to join in on the celebrations!
And finally...
This week in the Herald we are mourning the loss of former Deputy Editor Angela Doyle, who passed away after a short illness last Thursday.
Angela was the Charlie Bird of provincial journalism.
She was born to do it and during her time in the Roscommon Champion and Roscommon Herald, which spanned over 15 years, her natural talent was admired by many.
A very hard worker, who was the fastest person typing I ever came across, she had a style that appeared effortless and her grasp of all the laws of the English language was envied by all of her colleagues.
Her column ‘While I’m at It’ was widely read. People were engrossed by her views and felt they played some part in rearing that famous cat over the years.
Angela is gone to her eternal reward at the tender age of 41.
She had so much to offer in many fields.
Her ability to learn, adapt and progress was endless.
She will be much missed by all her friends in the Herald and Champion.
Over the past two decades, she set the bar for the rest of us.
That few, if any, have ever reached it is a testament to her drive and ability.
May she rest in peace.
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