LET’S BE HONEST now, and admit that the ‘Gavin for President’ campaign needs a little gust of good fortune to fill out the sails.
The past week has been a brutalising experience for the record-breaking Gaelic football manager. How much easier it was when he was only asked if he had to throw a few teacups around at half-time to make sure Westmeath were beaten by 40 points rather than 15 by the Dubs.
Or the Dublin senior football team as he used to call it.
His contribution to the opening Presidential debate was mocked as a display of GI Jim, replete with protruding thumb gestures.
Then you had Drone-gate, where he claimed not to have seen an offending drone in the sky recording footage of him on a Park Run, which (a) wasn’t a great look for a man that had previously warned against such action in his role with the aviation authority, and (b) I’d totally believe he never spotted it because if you’re a 54 year old man running a 5k in 23 minutes, you’d be blinded by snotters and sweat, only fit to think of the nearest portaloo at the finish line.
Jim Gavin has said he did not see a drone that was filming material for his campaign flying without permission during a park run in Dublin at the weekendhttps://t.co/vQJ4WhklWz
That was followed up with some ‘oh, fancy meeting you here’ social media encounters with your typical man on the street. Perhaps unconvincing, capped off with more of the same content having to be deleted from their accounts as the Defence Forces were at pains to point out that they have no political bias.
Which is a pity for Jim, as he was leaning in so heavy to his military background that it was a miracle he didn’t just topple over and fall right in.
It’s easy to imagine him landing home on Friday evening and crawling under the covers.
Saturday morning is a new dawn, however!
GAA’s Special Congress will be a chance for Gavin to be bathed in the special glow of The Man Who Fixed Gaelic Football.
The first motion of the day will deal with the manufacture of GAA merchandise and playing kit, to iron out a concern over EU law. Virtually nothing will change over that.
But the 61 motions to follow, all relating to rubber-stamping his rule enhancements for Gaelic football, will change everything. Cameras will pop and the round of applause will be thunderous. There will be a glow from Gavin that his handlers will gladly record and use as an example that this is a man that achieves. Which he is.
Which makes you wonder why, if Jim Gavin has political leanings, they didn’t put him in up for election or parachute him into a ministerial position to get stuff done.
The Football Review Committee under Gavin has done the state some service. They have undoubtedly created a version of Gaelic football that was better to watch than that of 2024.
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A flag is flown for the two-pointers. Leah Scholes / INPHO
Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO
In just six months of coaching and studying however, along with some rule tweaks, the tactics and approaches of all the top teams have evolved very fast. There is room for further expansion, so who knows what kind of sport Gaelic football might be by this time next year.
However, the methods and means taken to arrive at this point have been clever.
In appointing Jim Gavin to the role, the GAA got a military operation. That meant chains of command, a fixed structure and everybody having a clarity around their role.
Maybe that’s the way this had to be.
One of the most impressive facets has been the propaganda wing. Eamonn Fitzmaurice is always brilliant at covering games as a co-commentator and his Irish Examiner columns are unique and clever.
As a member of the Football Review Committee however, he was able to shape the narrative throughout the year in the same role.
There was a slip along the way, when Gavin appeared on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland with Darren Frehill and was quizzed on the new rules.
At the time, there were various briefings sent to media as the season continued. It has to be said the flow of information was excellent. But the average person on the street wouldn’t have been across it all.
At an FRC 'sandbox' game. James Lawlor / INPHO
James Lawlor / INPHO / INPHO
When Frehill asked some questions, he was asking on behalf of the plain people of Ireland. Gavin’s response, to scold Frehill and suggest he hadn’t done his research, came over as high-handed, as did his assertion that he was not reporting to Frehill.
That feeling of controlling the message has lingered.
Even the delegates to this weekend’s Congress have been closely monitored. Prior to a Zoom meeting the other night for some pre-Congress briefing, any questions around the rule changes had to be submitted in a lengthy process. Counter-arguments will have been honed and the pro-lobby will be supremely prepared.
There are some people raising excellent counter-arguments around the new rules. Stephen O’Meara and Kevin Mulcahy are certainly worth a follow on social media.
This week, we even indulged in some investigative journalism by sending out some questions to around a dozen coaches engaged in club and county football.
Is it a better sport to watch?
Is it a better sport to coach?
Is there something you are broadly not in favour of?
The responses were varied. Broadly in favour but not without reservation:
1. “Crucially, we don’t know if all rules were needed and could we have got a significant change while retaining a simpler game. Part of what they wanted to do at the start was strip out things. They’ve done a poor job of that for me. It’s massively more complex with much more scope for controversy and greater impact of referees and conditions.”
2. “Better to watch from a scoring point of view but little to no defending anymore as all rules are to benefit scoring.”
3. “Fundamentally better when teams are matched and competitive. When teams aren’t matched and the game is less competitive it is more pronounced. Under the old rules, the weaker teams could hang in longer in a game.”
Others had little reservations.
The former Kerry footballer Sean O’Sullivan enthused in that way of his.
“It’s much better. We played a Junior B final here last Saturday and beat Finuge 5-14 to 1-19. We kicked all our scores from play. People were raving about it! It was even on Clubber! Played in Fitzgerald Stadium! A Junior B final, 12 months ago that would have been 0-10 to 0-9.”
At the back of it all though, Irish people don’t like being told what to do, how to think or what they should feel.
There is no overt reverence or military fetish in Ireland the way there is in England, or God forbid, America.
Nobody stops an Irish soldier in a train station or airport and thanks them for their service. That would feel all sorts of weird.
Dissent and disagreement has never been welcome in the army.
There is no room for the non-conformists. Shine your boots, get a short back and sides or you can go back to Massachussets, pinko!
For all that, it feels like Gaelic football is heading for sunnier uplands. Keep debating, keep exchanging ideas and we will end up with as near as dammit the best game possible.
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GAA Special Congress a centre stage to add momentum to Jim Gavin's presidential campaign
LET’S BE HONEST now, and admit that the ‘Gavin for President’ campaign needs a little gust of good fortune to fill out the sails.
The past week has been a brutalising experience for the record-breaking Gaelic football manager. How much easier it was when he was only asked if he had to throw a few teacups around at half-time to make sure Westmeath were beaten by 40 points rather than 15 by the Dubs.
Or the Dublin senior football team as he used to call it.
His contribution to the opening Presidential debate was mocked as a display of GI Jim, replete with protruding thumb gestures.
Then you had Drone-gate, where he claimed not to have seen an offending drone in the sky recording footage of him on a Park Run, which (a) wasn’t a great look for a man that had previously warned against such action in his role with the aviation authority, and (b) I’d totally believe he never spotted it because if you’re a 54 year old man running a 5k in 23 minutes, you’d be blinded by snotters and sweat, only fit to think of the nearest portaloo at the finish line.
That was followed up with some ‘oh, fancy meeting you here’ social media encounters with your typical man on the street. Perhaps unconvincing, capped off with more of the same content having to be deleted from their accounts as the Defence Forces were at pains to point out that they have no political bias.
Which is a pity for Jim, as he was leaning in so heavy to his military background that it was a miracle he didn’t just topple over and fall right in.
Saturday morning is a new dawn, however!
GAA’s Special Congress will be a chance for Gavin to be bathed in the special glow of The Man Who Fixed Gaelic Football.
The first motion of the day will deal with the manufacture of GAA merchandise and playing kit, to iron out a concern over EU law. Virtually nothing will change over that.
But the 61 motions to follow, all relating to rubber-stamping his rule enhancements for Gaelic football, will change everything. Cameras will pop and the round of applause will be thunderous. There will be a glow from Gavin that his handlers will gladly record and use as an example that this is a man that achieves. Which he is.
Which makes you wonder why, if Jim Gavin has political leanings, they didn’t put him in up for election or parachute him into a ministerial position to get stuff done.
The Football Review Committee under Gavin has done the state some service. They have undoubtedly created a version of Gaelic football that was better to watch than that of 2024.
In just six months of coaching and studying however, along with some rule tweaks, the tactics and approaches of all the top teams have evolved very fast. There is room for further expansion, so who knows what kind of sport Gaelic football might be by this time next year.
However, the methods and means taken to arrive at this point have been clever.
In appointing Jim Gavin to the role, the GAA got a military operation. That meant chains of command, a fixed structure and everybody having a clarity around their role.
Maybe that’s the way this had to be.
One of the most impressive facets has been the propaganda wing. Eamonn Fitzmaurice is always brilliant at covering games as a co-commentator and his Irish Examiner columns are unique and clever.
As a member of the Football Review Committee however, he was able to shape the narrative throughout the year in the same role.
There was a slip along the way, when Gavin appeared on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland with Darren Frehill and was quizzed on the new rules.
At the time, there were various briefings sent to media as the season continued. It has to be said the flow of information was excellent. But the average person on the street wouldn’t have been across it all.
When Frehill asked some questions, he was asking on behalf of the plain people of Ireland. Gavin’s response, to scold Frehill and suggest he hadn’t done his research, came over as high-handed, as did his assertion that he was not reporting to Frehill.
That feeling of controlling the message has lingered.
Even the delegates to this weekend’s Congress have been closely monitored. Prior to a Zoom meeting the other night for some pre-Congress briefing, any questions around the rule changes had to be submitted in a lengthy process. Counter-arguments will have been honed and the pro-lobby will be supremely prepared.
There are some people raising excellent counter-arguments around the new rules. Stephen O’Meara and Kevin Mulcahy are certainly worth a follow on social media.
This week, we even indulged in some investigative journalism by sending out some questions to around a dozen coaches engaged in club and county football.
The responses were varied. Broadly in favour but not without reservation:
1. “Crucially, we don’t know if all rules were needed and could we have got a significant change while retaining a simpler game. Part of what they wanted to do at the start was strip out things. They’ve done a poor job of that for me. It’s massively more complex with much more scope for controversy and greater impact of referees and conditions.”
2. “Better to watch from a scoring point of view but little to no defending anymore as all rules are to benefit scoring.”
3. “Fundamentally better when teams are matched and competitive. When teams aren’t matched and the game is less competitive it is more pronounced. Under the old rules, the weaker teams could hang in longer in a game.”
Others had little reservations.
The former Kerry footballer Sean O’Sullivan enthused in that way of his.
“It’s much better. We played a Junior B final here last Saturday and beat Finuge 5-14 to 1-19. We kicked all our scores from play. People were raving about it! It was even on Clubber! Played in Fitzgerald Stadium! A Junior B final, 12 months ago that would have been 0-10 to 0-9.”
At the back of it all though, Irish people don’t like being told what to do, how to think or what they should feel.
There is no overt reverence or military fetish in Ireland the way there is in England, or God forbid, America.
Nobody stops an Irish soldier in a train station or airport and thanks them for their service. That would feel all sorts of weird.
Dissent and disagreement has never been welcome in the army.
There is no room for the non-conformists. Shine your boots, get a short back and sides or you can go back to Massachussets, pinko!
For all that, it feels like Gaelic football is heading for sunnier uplands. Keep debating, keep exchanging ideas and we will end up with as near as dammit the best game possible.
But we’re not there yet.
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FRC GAA going through the motions Jim Gavin special congress