Fogarty Forum: Costs at home convincing GAA teams to train in Portugal

The Flight of the Hurls began in recent weeks with the likes of Antrim, Cork, Dublin, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford heading to Portugal. Limerick went out last week. Indeed, there was an anecdotal report of two counties attempting to arrange a challenge game there but insurance was a stumbling block.

Among the football squads who have headed to the Iberian Peninsula are Cork and Dublin. Dessie Farrell’s men travelled out on Monday morning and were unable to provide a representative at the Leinster senior football championship launch.

Kerry fly out on Saturday, although it didn’t appear a warm weather trip was on the agenda last November when logistical issues around last year’s journey added to the county board’s bill.

Besides the exclusive time together, the change of scene can’t be underestimated. At this juncture of the season, the trips serve as a relieving break from the drudgery of early season training. While the physical work on them has been known to be gruelling, the days allow for two to three sessions where skills are finetuned, games played and match-like scenarios rehearsed.

The pull factor of Portugal is obvious but now there is a push. A four to five-day training camp in The Algarve is estimated to cost between €35,000 and €45,000. Some counties claim those figures are up to €10,000 cheaper than camps of similar periods in Ireland, Up to this year, Kilkenny would have always prepared at home but opted for Portugal shortly after their final round game against Limerick last month.

The advantages of such foreign ventures have long been evident to the likes of Jack O’Connor who first brought Kerry to La Santa in Lanzarote in his first year in charge in 2004 although that was a pre-season venture.

Under Arabian skies, Donegal took the unprecedented move of beginning their pre-season training in earnest last December with a week in Abu Dhabi. Twelve months earlier, they were in the Canaries for a similar seven-day stay.

What’s now in fashion was once banned, of course. In 2019, the GAA prohibited foreign training camps from the following year. Tipperary’s hurlers were the last to experience one in March 2020 having received permission but that unfortunate trip to Spain coincided with the start of the pandemic.

In 2018, Armagh and Laois’s footballers lost home advantage for a league game the following season for going on training camps outside the permitted window. Pre split season, that came at a time when Croke Park had put on an onus on counties providing room for club activity between the National League and provincial championships. Training weekends post-league could only be arranged 10 days before a championship game or in the 17 days prior to an All-Ireland final.

From 2020, only training camps in Ireland were granted and could not extend beyond three days. The exclusive period provided to the inter-county scene put paid to that but opposition to foreign camps remains.

“Despite what team managers say, I don’t personally think they are value for money. If they are, will somebody show me the proof?” asked outgoing Galway treasurer Mike Burke last year. Yet on social media this week, the county’s football PRO John Gillespie gave an opposing view: “The benefits of training in these situations are literally incalculable. If you're not at it, you're going backwards at that level.” 

Mickey Harte had been a firm opponent of foreign trips preferring Kildare’s Carton House as a base during his time with Tyrone. However, that changed last year when as Derry manager he oversaw their camp in Portugal between the league and championship.

"Times change,” he explained. “There's lots of things happening now that I wouldn't have done in the noughties and didn't feel we needed to. The whole game has got more complicated, more complex, it's more strategic. There's more thinking required.” Going to Portugal to save money seems a particularly difficult circle to square when leaving these shores has for so many years spoken of ambition, affluence and occasionally one-upmanship.

The hoards of hurlers and flocks of footballers going there never mind Donegal’s United Arab Emirates trip doesn’t indicate there is much interest in arresting the €44 million inter-county spending.

But the race to the sun is increasingly becoming a non-negotiable for managers.

john.fogarty@examiner.ie

GAA must now face dodgy box enemy on its own

New name, new sole owners but how exactly does GAA+ differ from GAAGO after this year's schedule of games was finally launched on Monday?

The price remains the same at €79 for the season pass (10% discount for GAA members) as does €12 for a single match. The three-for-two bundle is back as is the most welcome free access for care-giving locations. A club pass remains €150 too.

There are two extra games being streamed on the service and the biggest change would appear to be what’s provided during the week free of charge on the GAA+ YouTube and social media channels.

The dearth of online audio-visual coverage between games has unquestionably impacted the promotion of leading Gaelic games fixtures but there is a promise of programmes each weekday.

That should be commended but really if there is no markable difference in the production levels in GAA+ from GAAGO then this year one will be considered a relative success. The new product has to be able to show it can stand on its own two feet without RTÉ holding its hand.

There is no doubt GAA+ has got off to a rocky start without a proper launch and a delayed one at that. Up until last Thursday, RTÉ’s board hadn’t signed off on the sale of the national broadcasters’ 50% share of GAAGO. There has been a blame game between the former partners for the hold-up but whoever is responsible it has cost the GAA money.

What is also going to hurt the organisation’s pocket is the proliferation of dodgy boxes being used to watch these events. There are more and more stories of authorities stamping down on providers of the illegal devices but in avoiding subscriptions it’s a market that remains lucrative.

Once described as “an enemy” by former GAA president Larry McCarthy, it’s one the GAA must now face on its own.

Cork didn’t need a double bill this Sunday

You didn’t need to put your finger to the wind to realise Cork were going to turn up in their masses for a shot at a first national senior hurling title in 20 years on their home patch this Sunday.

Pat Ryan’s side have attracted an aggregate 65,605 people to their three Division 1A games in SuperValu Páirc Ui Chaoimh this year. On Sunday, the 100,000 mark will be exceeded when in front of a sold-out crowd they face a Tipperary side who are slowly but surely attracting more of their own to games.

Organising the Division 1B final for Ballintemple this weekend sure is a headscratcher when a Waterford-Offaly clash in UPMC Nowlan Park would have attracted thousands and made the GAA more money at the same time. At the very least, allocations should have been divided between the four participating counties to distribute to their clubs before going on general sale. A league final should be an accessible game for supporters.

Coming as it did days before a Division 2 final was played in Inniskeen where there were no 65 lines drawn, it was a rough few days for the promotion of hurling but it’s asking too much for Croke Park to be made open for such lower league deciders when the argument for it hosting football finals based on more small crowds this past weekend is weakening.

Hurling’s lesser lights deserve more respect and the decision this year to fix the lower league hurling finals for neutral venues may have to be changed.