The Man Behind the Wire: Offaly should have honoured O'Byrne Cup commitments

ON the surface, Offaly's fairly sensational decision to withdraw from the O'Byrne Cup and concede a walkover to Louth in the semi-final last Sunday looks like it was done for the right reasons with player welfare and managing game load behind it. However, any indepth, forensic examination of it, taking the broader picture into account and looking at all aspects makes it highly questionable.

In fact, you can go much further than labelling it as questionable – it was wrong and Offaly really should have travelled to Dowdallshill, outside Dundalk on Sunday last and played Louth in the semi-final.

Everyone will agree with player welfare and protecting players. The demands on young players have never been more severe and strenuous. The volume of training has reached record levels and is a hugely dominant part of any county players' life. It would be stretching things to suggest that it is bigger than family and work life but it is not far off that level of commitment – it dictates their lifestyle and it impacts greatly on family time.They still have to work and go to college but employers make allowances and studies often take a backseat for football and hurling.

There is a lot more at play here, however, than just player welfare. It is about the necessary principle of honouring your commitments and fulfilling your fixtures.

Sigerson Cup and availability of colleges players has become a major problem for the O'Byrne Cup this year. It is at the core of counties not fulfilling their fixtures and the result is that the long standing football competition has been a complete farce.

Leinster GAA have not helped themselves with everything but things have really spiralled out of their control. Louth had conceded a walkover to Wexford last Wednesday evening, Carlow withdrew from their fixture against Laois and Kildare opted not to field against Westmeath.

All of those counties have behaved disgracefully and Offaly is no different.

Immediately after last Wednesday's confidence boosting win over Dublin, Offaly manager Liam Kearns suggested that Offaly would drop out of the competition. He complained about playing three games in eight days, the impact this would have on players, the risk of injury. He also talked about missing players because of Sigerson Cup commitments, and questioned the benefit of pre-season competitions if you can't play your best players.

Despite that, most people believed that Offaly would fulfill their game against Louth and the announcement on Friday that they were withdrawing came as a shock.

Kearns had two very valid points in his post match comments on Wednesday evening. He was 100% right in his complaints about Louth being allowed to concede a walkover to Wexford and not only not being punished but benefitting by having an eight day rest ahead of the semi-final.

He was also correct in his remarks about the Wednesday evening fixture in Dublin, players leaving Parnell Park at 10.30pm, not being home until after midnight and having to be up for work early the next morning. Louth's reason for not playing on Wednesday evening was the length of their journey to Wexford on a Wednesday evening. They sought a neutral venue and when that didn't materialise conceded a walkover – they were already through to the semi-final.

Offaly travelling to Parnell Park on Wednesday evening was an awful fixture but Louth going to Wexford was on a different planet. It was horrific for them but they were still obliged to play it and they should have been sanctioned for not doing so – the punishment for not fulfilling fixtures should be elimination from the competition and Leinster GAA are very open to criticism here: a large fine might have been a deterrent and all counties who haven't fulfilled their fixtures deserve some punishment.

At club level, there is merit in not throwing clubs out of leagues for not fulfilling fixtures as they can have genuine problems and the emphasis is more on promoting the games. It is a different story at county level. Chairman Michael Duignan told an Offaly GAA County Board meeting on Monday evening that they would have had only 18-19 players available on Sunday. Even if this was the case, they could have fulfulled the fixture by drafting in players – bringing in club players who have not done any real training would not be a runner at all but calling up players off the county U-20 panel, who are now in full training, would have been an option if they were truly in a crisis situation.

Offaly sought a postponement of the semi-final to Friday or Saturday, January 20-21 with the final going back. Leinster GAA were amendable to that but Louth didn't agree and Offaly took the nuclear option of withdrawal.

Louth have not covered themselves in glory at all here. Having got away scot free with conceding a walkover to Wexford, they should have facilitated Offaly.

However, Offaly still should have proceeded once it was ruled the fixture was going ahead. Once counties and clubs take the law into their own hands and opt out of competitions because they don't get their way, we are in serious trouble. Organised sport can not function in these circumstances and part from very exceptional situations, people must abide by the rules and decisions of the organisers. Louth should have been thrown out for not playing Wexford but that was Leinster GAA's decision to make, not Offaly's and they should have been in Dowdallshill on Sunday.

Offaly were forced to concede a walkover to Kildare in the Christy Ring Cup a couple of years ago because of a Covid outbreak – there was absolutely no option that time. Apart from that, I can't remember Offaly not fulfilling a fixture in my time and conceding a match is a rubicon that should not be crossed unless the reasons are genuinely extraordinary.

The O'Byrne Cup and Offaly's stance in no way comes under the criteria for exceptional circumstances. The concerns about player welfare and player load are difficult to argue with but they don't stand up to close scrutiny. The panel is big enough to manage game load.

Apart from that, the format of the competition was sign posted back in November and the fixtures have been known for a few weeks. The semi-final was not thrown at Offaly on Wednesday evening after they beat Dublin. Michael Duignan told Monday's meeting that they didn't know when they entered it that they would be playing three games in eight days and that they would have had a gap if they had played the first round instead of Wicklow and Dublin. That is true but the structure of the competition was out in November where the possility of three games in eight days was there – the fixtures have been made for some weeks and Offaly still proceeded in it. In fact, Leinster Council had faciliated Offaly's concerns by placing them in a three team group rather than a four team one to reduce their volume of games and to enter the competition and then withdraw is just wrong.

Offaly had threatened to withdraw before the competition started. They wrongly believed that college players were not allowed to play and only proceeded once it was clarified that they could play – they couldn't play if they were playing Sigerson Cup that day or the previous or following day but they were allowed line out other than that. Offaly were able to play Sigerson players in their win over Wicklow and could have played them on Sunday but they were down some on Wednesday evening.

The concerns about the volume of games for these players are legitimate. It is too much and plenty has been said about the number and severity of injuries that members of the Offaly 2021 All-Ireland U-20 football winning panel have endured.

Ironcially some of these came in the weeks after the All-Ireland U-20 final. The Tullamore players had to play a minor football semi-final just two days after it and the panel were then hit with a ferocious schedule of U-20 and adult fixtures as the County Board finished off 2020 competitions and then got 2021 ones up and running. Any dual player didn't get a chance to breathe and the games schedule in those weeks was a factor in at least some of the injuries.

The Offaly County Board refused requests for postponements or leeway, arguing that their duty was to provide games for all players and clubs and not cater for an elite few. It was hard to argue with that but the stance they took then flies in the face of Offaly's actions this week – it is not consistent and Offaly will take the same stance this year when clubs come looking to them for postponements for all sorts of reasons, including player welfare and game load.

Plenty of clubs have been thrown out of championships in Offaly over the years for not playing games. Most of the times they didn't have a leg to stand on but in some cases, they had far more valid reasons than Offaly's ones for not playing on Sunday. Every club has been forced to play a game they didn't want to – sometimes postponements were sought for very emotional funerals. Elimination was still the correct response as anything else could lead to anarchy. This is just one of the factors that does not sit well when you really examine the nitty gritty of what Offaly did.

Offaly would have been far better off if they had withdrawn from the competition before the start. It was clear that Liam Kearns had little enthusiasm for it and his priority was on preparing for the National Football League at the end of the month. Not entering or withdrawing before the start would have been an honourable thing to do – conceding walkovers and withdrawing in mid competition is not the right way of behaving.

Part of the problem is managers are taking the competition way too seriously. The O'Byrne Cup was always a development competition. Yes, it is preparation for the league but it was an opportunity to try things, experiment with positions and give players game time that won't be afforded when the stakes are so much higher in the league.

This is the way it should be approached. There are plenty of players on the Offaly panel who won't see much action in the league and the O'Byrne Cup was an opportunity to play them. Offaly could have rested any player they were truly concerned about sustaining injuries on Sunday. They had plenty of other players who would have loved the chance of a good portion of a game and to stake a claim for the league. No one would have minded or voiced real criticism if the result or performance went wrong.

The O'Byrne Cup has served Offaly well down the years. They were the first winners of it in 1954, ironcially beating Louth in the final in Croke Park. It was played in 1955 and it was very important for Offaly football at the time as they progressed out of the doldrums, on their way to winning a first Leinster senior football title in 1960 and first All-Ireland in 1971. The O'Byrne Cup was a big deal at that time and while it is now very much a periphery competition, it still fulfills a role.

It is also a benefit competition with the revenue from it going into a Leinster Council hardship fund. This aspect has been ignored by the counties not playing their games. It has really helped Offaly managers at different stages. Winning gave Tommy Lyons and team a big early lift back in 1997 and within a few months, Offaly had come from nowhere to win the Leinster senior football title.

It had helped Liam Kearns get off to an encouraging start as manager. The wins over Wicklow and especially Dublin had went down very well with supporters. There was growing satisfaction with the way the team was appying themselves and the way they were responding to the new management. It was heightening interest in the team and the wider public wanted to see how they got on against Louth. The O'Byrne Cup is always a nice early season treat for supporters. They mightn't go to games in their thousands but there are hundreds of people who like those games in early January – the chance to get back to normal after Christmas and to see how things are going ahead of the league.

It is a pity that Offaly took this stance and it does place extra pressure on Kearns.

From a purely managerial point of view, there is merit in Liam Kearns taking the action that he did and putting all his eggs in the National Football League basket and the opener against Antrim on January 31.

It is easy to see where Kearns was with it but the County Board, however, should have looked at the full implications, said no, insisted on Offaly playing the game and deal with any repercussions.

There are a lot of other elements to this. Leinster GAA had signed a streaming deal with Clubber to provide coverage of the games, with an overall package available. Some people signed up for this and have not got value for money.

There was an Offaly man, Pat Teehan, chairman of Leinster Council and his own County Board should not have placed him in this position. He is running for the GAA presidency in a few weeks time and while the O'Byrne Cup farce shouldn't do him any harm, it is not helpful either – it should not cost him any votes but you can be sure that there are people out there who will have observed that he was unable to keep his own county onside.

There is a much bigger elephant in the room in all this and it is the whole managerial culture. It is the biggest challenge facing the GAA. The cost of team managers and their packages is massive – Offaly's expenditure in this regard would be mild compared to many of the bigger counties.

The whole area is out of control, even at club level and there is going to be serious repercussions for the GAA. Already, there is considerable discontent manifesting at grassroots level. Figures have been circulating widely in recent weeks about the money some club managers are supposed to be on. Such figures are to be taken with a grain of salt but if some of them are even close to being true, then the GAA is very sick – some of those rumoured figures are above the average wage.

If it continues going on this road, people won't take on volunteers roles. Everyone from your club treasurer to your U-13 hurling selector will want expenses of some sort. People will do very little for nothing and the GAA has become the giant organisation it is for two very big reasons – its volunteers and its amateur ethos. This whole area must be taken on and the managerial area is the first challenge.

In some counties, managers have too much power – and the whole O'Byrne Cup farce looks to be a symptom of this.

Hopefully, it will not spell the deathknell of the O'Byrne Cup. It has a role to play but it does need changes. At the very least, it needs to return to a knockout competition and playing the Sigerson Cup before Christmas is worthy of consideration. Liam Kearns has suggested that but again there are downsides with it – players need that off season in December and loading a very serious competition into that month won't help them.

Like everything in the GAA, there is always more than one thing at stake and there are so many elements to be considered. Michael Duignan made the very valid point that the O'Byrne Cup structure is contravening the GAA's own medical group recommendations that counties should be allowed six weeks training before competitive games. He is right on that and it shows the grey areas that surround the whole issue of player welfare – there are strict guidelines about when counties can train and matches can be played. The reality, however, is that without the O'Byrne Cup, managers will want games in January ahead of the league and they want to train as early as they can, even if these guidelines are breached – in fact, the Offaly County Board were sanctioned and fined themselves for playing a senior hurling challenge against Tipperary in December.

In the long run, Offaly not playing an O'Byrne Cup semi-final won't matter and will be quickly forgotten but it was still a very bad week for the county. Talking about Louth conceding to Wexford, Liam Kearns stated that the intergrity of the competition was shot and said: “If you enter a competition, you should have to fulfill your fixtures”.

That is what this is all about and irrespective of what Louth or anyone else did, of Leinster's Council's own failings, it is a great shame that Offaly did not go for the high ground and abide by that most fundamental, essential of sporting principles.