The Pitch: How Naas GAA Club gambled jeopardy against strategy and lost

Instead much of the talk will be about judgement and a potential reputational hit for a club which has always been well regarded as a strategic and progressive organisation.

The journey it has brought its almost 3,000 members on over the past seven years is one of remarkable success, where business strategy has supported sporting excellence to create and drive a powerhouse of the GAA.

Central to the growth of Naas GAA was a 2018 initiative to develop the club to a new level, spearheaded by an ambitious plan to turn the fortunes of this once sleeping giant of Kildare GAA.

Through a groundbreaking club development plan, run through a newly created subcommittee, the club’s Executive was able to “assess, examine and make recommendations” to improve the facilities and standards across Naas GAA.

“This plan is ambitious, exciting and will require the commitment and support of our members, friends and the local community of Naas to achieve its targets,” it stated at the outset.

The club analysed that it would need an initial €447,798 to fund the project’s five year plan, which was divided into three phases.

These included the ability to purchase lands, to improve spectator experiences, improve pitch maintenance and drainage, upgrade lighting and electrical systems and make improvements to the clubhouse and its facilities.

Such objectives would allow Naas “to grow and improve our club facilities in order to maintain the highest standards necessary to enable our players to develop and achieve the highest standards”.

The project was managed and achieved by a highly focused business orientated Executive, which included current chairperson Damien McGrath.

Such strategic leadership and direction was pivotal to the improvement of the club and its business, which in turn supported improvements of quality and performance on the pitch, as Naas embarked on an unprecedented period dominance across football and hurling in the county.

Its senior men’s football team won its first county title in 31 years and started a run which this year will see the side go for five county championships in a row, while the senior hurlers are eyeing up a seventh successive title.

An elusive Leinster Club SFC title and an All-Ireland title remain the ultimate sporting goals for Naas, to complete a sporting and business strategic success story.

But earlier this month, a decision on the coaching ticket catapulted the club headlong into crisis mode — the appointment of Rory Gallagher to its team management, resulting in a rare intervention and correspondences from GAA President Jarlath Burns to McGrath warning of the perils of the plan.

For a club that has heretofore managed its own destiny this was a PR disaster, raising issues around standards and reputation, and questions about how it did not forecast such controversy. It raises questions, one of which has to be: For a club with a record of heightened business intelligence, why did it gamble on a high-wire move?

There has been legitimate comment on Jarlath Burns’ intervention, particularly as the GAA president felt “compelled to share my perspective on this matter given the potential implications for Naas GAA”.

It has been widely reported as to what Rory Gallagher has been accused of. While he denies those accusations and has never faced charges for any of the claims made, he remains a divisive figure in the association. It is also worth noting at this stage that the Gallagher hire negotiated its way through Naas GAA’s Executive without adequate and risk assessment.

It’s not known if the club consulted key stakeholders in advance, particularly its sponsors, as part of the normal relationship and communications management. So far the club has been largely uncommunicative, publicly, over the Gallagher appointment and the subsequent reversal of that decision, telling The Pitch that all it “can confirm (is) that Naas GAA will not be making any further comment on this matter”.

We asked 13 of Naas’ most prominent sponsors if they could elaborate on what knowledge they had on the matter but none were willing to offer any insight, except for one, who said: “This sponsorship is so local it’s really difficult to say anything.” 

One group with a lot to say about Naas GAA are the local contributors to its social media accounts, particularly the normally benign space which is the club’s Facebook page. A club post announcing that senior manager Joe Murphy had been reappointed to his football management role was met with a series of responses ranging from confusion to outrage by fans and club members.

One contributor offered: “If the rumours are true re new coach then Naas GAA Club executive need to take a serious look at themselves… are any of them married, have daughters, have girlfriends, are women?” 

Amongst the almost 100 contributions are a number supporting Rory Gallagher – pointing out that he has not been charged with, or convicted of anything – indeed Gallagher has always protested his innocence.

And so what of the sponsors, particularly the key corporate brands? SuperValu, a loyal sponsor of GAA at HQ and local level, when asked about whether it supported Naas GAA in its initial appointment of Rory Gallagher said: “(We) wouldn’t be in a position to answer that.” 

That response is not to be taken one way or the other, and indeed the silence from other big name brands including Tesco and Maxol is possibly understandable given the deep complexity of the issue.

Their brand values will not be called into question in the wake of the Gallagher affair, but the GAA club itself is yet to address its position and its decision making processes more clearly.

Until then, questions on reputation linger, and that is never a good look for any community organisation, not least one which has raised its profile and set such a high standard in recent years.