The Gaelic Players’ Association has made a submission to the GAA around ‘competitive balance’, as one-sided encounters in the Championship stack up.
It’s not a reaction to recent results as it was submitted in May and forms part of the GPA’s contribution to the GAA’s latest wide-ranging strategic review for the 2021-26 period, which is currently being pieced together.
The term ‘competitive balance’ is borrowed from the Australian Football League and centres around equalising resources to ensure that all teams have a reasonable chance of success.
It was first floated in a GAA context during Paul Flynn’s term as chief executive of the players’ body. The former Dublin footballer was officially succeeded in the role this week by Tom Parsons, who retired from inter-county football with Mayo earlier this year.
His ex-teammates haven’t missed a beat in his absence, racking up 20- and 24-point victories over Division Four Sligo and Leitrim respectively to reach the Connacht final, just two of several lop-sided encounters in recent weeks.
Parsons explained: “The GAA are undergoing a strategic review and we submitted some of our core pillars.
“One of those is on our policy on competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome in every game and every competition.
“That’s a piece of work that needs to be aligned with the restructuring of competition. What is the detail of ‘competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome’ and what does it mean?
“That needs to be explored with the GAA and the NGBs (LGFA and Camogie Association) to really go into the detail of that.
“That might be fairness of the distribution of funding or capital spending in inter-county games.
“It might be a rebalance of resources: can we share and standardise video analysis, coding games, access to GPS and medical provisions.
“Looking at some of our counterparts around the world, the AFL in 2014 or ’15 underwent an equalisation strategy.
“Certainly from my perspective, I think there’s going to be a balance between the structures of the competition but also the policy on competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome.”
Could any policy bring about a set of circumstances whereby the likes of Leitrim could approach a Championship tie with Mayo entertaining realistic notions of victory again, or has the can simply been kicked too far down the road at his stage?
“The national planning framework for 2040 envisions another million people in Ireland by 2040 and if that population increase goes to urban areas and cities then there’s only so much in our control,” Parsons noted.
“Creating a structure that, if that materialises, that urban areas do thrive by 2040, that you still have teams competing in competitions that they’re proud to compete in, there’s uncertainty of outcome, there’s an opportunity to progress through a tiered approach.”
