Wexford raise the barrier when it comes to Public Relations in the GAA

If you know me, and I am sure many will, you will know that I have never got to play a game of hurling or football in my lifetime. OK, I tell a lie, I have stood between the posts for a puck about, half hoping that those playing against my side will take it easy on me, and I have stood at the other end hoping to make a nuisance of myself standing on what was the edge of an imaginary square, but I have never played in an official game.

Despite not playing the games in my lifetime, it has never taken from my enjoyment of the games.

There is some that believe that to be involved in games you have to have played. There is some that believe you don’t know anything about the games unless you have played. But to me this is not the case.

Most of us at some stage or another will have played either hurling/camogie or Football. For most there playing games were while in primary school. Getting involved after all meant that you may have got off after lunch and had had to travel to a venue driven by mostly one of a small number of very loyal mothers of the players. However, many would have soon learned that no matter how hard they tried, hurling and football was not to be for them.

For others they would have learned that hurling or football for them was not to be for them came at a later age. It may be at under 14, 16 or minor levels. It may have been the case that there was twenty one in the panel and that you were the one that never got to go on in a competitive game, or if it was challenge game, you were the last player always to be put on.

While many people give up playing at an early age, these same people should realise that if they want to remain involved in the games, it need not be as a supporter standing on the side line or sitting in the stand. Within the GAA there is a roll for everyone if you want it.

Many people see the GAA as playing hurling or football. Many forget that Rounder’s and Handball are part of the GAA. But for those that see the GAA as playing, how wrong can they be.

Every team needs a team to oversee the running of the team. Every team needs a coach of one degree or another. Every manager and coach will need someone to help them pick the team. Many modern managers and coaches like to have someone to keep stats for them and the good news for people who see themselves as fillers of these positions you need not have played to the highest of standards, but don’t tell that to everyone.

Every club needs someone to look after how it is run. It would be wrong to ask managers, coaches, players, selectors etc. to run the club as well as play for the club etc. Each club need organisers. The club needs people that will go out and help organise events that will pay for footballs, Hurleys, sliothars, insurance etc. Club Lotto tickets will have to be sold. The Weekly 45 card drive on a Saturday night in the local pub after mass will have to be organised. The playing pitch will have to be cut and maintained. The dressing rooms have to be kept clean and tidy. Many of these jobs can be taken by people who have retired from playing after a long career, or a career that ended at a young age.

The GAA is more than about one club. Someone has to be appointed each year that will look out for all the interests of all clubs in a division and county. Fixtures have to be made for the inter county and more importantly for the none inter county players. To do this is not easy.

Referees and venues have to be found for these games. They don’t just happen. Someone has to be got to look after stewarding at games, to collect the admission fee, to operate the score board, to have the dressing rooms ready, the pitch cut and lines with flags put out.

For larger games someone has to be got to liaise with the emergency services. An ambulance or two will have to be on stand-by and have First Aid personnel in attendance. The Gardai will have to be worked closely with for the movement of traffic away from the ground after a game.

Someone has to be found that will liaise with the media, letting people know of when and where games are played and any special operations will be in place on the day.

And someone will have to be found that will oversee the actions of everyone and ensure that they do the job they are tasked with.

For me, over the past twenty years, this is where my interest in the GAA lies. In this time I have filled a number of positions, with a different degree of success.

I turned up a few years ago to see the county under 14 hurling finals at Fraher Field in Dungarvan as a neutral. For the first game the referee turned up short an umpire and I allowed myself to be talked into doing the job. And when the referee for the second and third games also showed up minus their quota of umpires, I again allowed myself to keeping the white coat on.

I have stood in the middle of the field for primary school games and for under 12 games with a whistle in my hand. We all know to be a referee is not easy and I have discovered this. Right from the off, you are sure of someone saying something to you. I have got it myself, but most of the time it goes in one ear and straight out the other. A memorable piece of abuse came when refereeing a primary schools girl’s football game and I accepted a phone call during the game.

I have stood on the side line for Under 12 and primary school games. If the players were expecting expert coaching they would be left disappointed. However at all times I tried to give as much encouragement as possible, especially if things were not going great for a player. On the line there is also plenty of abuse to be got at times if you allowed it affect you, especially if Paddy or Mary got to play nine minutes of a game and Johnny or Biddy got to play eleven minutes.

However, it is in the administration side of things that I enjoyed most over the years and especially in my first seven or eight years involved in Bord na nÓg.

I first got involved in the mid 90’s more by accident than anything else.

I attended a Club AGM. The Chairman from the year before had indicated that he was standing down and there was to be a contest to replace him.

Many of the officers and committee members from the previous years decided to stand down or try for a different position.

The Chairman’s position was filled. The position of Secretary and Treasurer and their assistants was filled and then it came to the position of PRO which had also become available.

I was sitting near the back of the room, staying nice and quite. About ten or twelve people were proposed and seconded for the position, but each as you do thanked your proposer and seconder buy politely turned down the job. People were looking at their watches and standing to get maybe a little bored, and when I was asked I said to myself ‘feck this’ and accepted the position. I remained in the position for just over two years before standing down to take up another position.

In the years in between, I have filled different positions. I was a chairman, an acting chairman, a secretary, an assistant secretary and a committee member of different clubs and committees. I was even one of a few people that tried to set up a Camogie Club about ten years ago.

Of all the positions I have held, it is that of Public Relations that I most enjoyed.

When I started off, while email was possibly available, most would never have heard of it.

Match reports and notes had to be hand written or typed twice and dropped into the offices of the Dungarvan Leader and Dungarvan Observer on a Sunday evening.

When I got clever, the notes were put together once, and they were left in the letterbox of the local correspondent with number of papers and it was up to her how she decided how she got them to the papers she was compiling local notes for.

In the different positions I have held I feel that I have learned something new.

I have stood for other positions in the past but have not got them. I have never asked for votes but have let people know I was standing for this position or that position, and hoped that my reputation would win me the place if there was to be a contest. This I have however discovered is not going to get you places at times.

Had I got these positions I feel I may have brought something new to the table, and possibly would have pressed for things to be none differently.

For now, I have decided not to stand for any position for the time being. However I am going to keep my interest in the GAA alive. With five and a half years now, I am helping out with the GAA Coverage in the Munster Express. I have set up a twitter account and try and give updates on it of games as they are played and to give team news etc. I have set up a Facebook page to go with it and try and get as many of my tweets as possible to transfer across to it. I have set up my own blog where I try and preview and review games in both codes for both men and women’s games.

Last year I started another blog which I use for sports involving women. Women sports at times find it hard to get coverage, and this is a chance for them to do so without any charge, and its not open to just Ladies Football and Camogie. If you know of anyone involved in women’s sports let them know my contact details and get them to email me their notes each week.

To me the G.A.A. cannot get enough coverage, both for the men’s and the women’s games.

To me the more use the GAA makes of the media available to them the better.

Most clubs up to recently would have used the local papers as a way of promoting themselves. In recent years however, editors have had to cut the number of pages in their paper each week and in doing so they may have had to cut or edit what is forwarded to them for publication.

The task of the editor is not easy if things have to be left out. He or she will have to decide what goes and what stays. And what clubs may consider important may not be considered important to the editor, meaning the results of the draw during the card night has to be left out when the paper goes to print.

Therefore if clubs want to advertise things like this, they have to find other ways of going so. It is important that they use as many media sources as possible to get their message out each week.

Facebook is a way of doing this. The Club PRO or Secretary each week could upload the club notes onto an official Club page for those not just at home but more importantly for those away from home to keep up with what is happening in their home area. It is often the small things that mean most to these people.

Websites is another way of getting the message out. Clubs that have one should be uploading their notes each week.

There is a large amount of people in the Waterford city area who do not pick up the Dungarvan Observer or Dungarvan Leader each week to find out what is happening in clubs in the west of the county, and I am sure there is a many in places like Touraneena, Ballymacarbry, Lismore, Tallow and Ballyduff Upper who do not pick up the Munster Express or the Waterford News and Star to read what clubs in the east of the county are doing. Uploading notes to a club website or Facebook page would allow many to keep up to date with what is happening at the other end of the county.

Clubs and Boards should also realise that its not just there own website they could be using to get their message out.

For example how many are aware that the Waterford Ladies Football notes each week are available to read on the Munster Ladies Football Website and that the Waterford Camogie Notes are available on the camogie section of the Hogan Stand website.

Twitter should also be used by clubs. Twitter is with us with a while now, but in the past year or so has really taken off.

Every club should have an official twitter account. Clubs should be giving their starting line up before every game on it. They should be giving scores as they happen. Details of subs should be given. There may be some that will say if a person wants to know what is happening at a game they will be at it, but it’s important that not everyone can attend games as they used to and they want to keep up with what is happening.

A number of times in recent months without naming names on my twitter account I have commented on the number of clubs without a twitter account or a Facebook Account. The number without them has fallen in recent weeks. It would be great to see all clubs with accounts soon and for every club to keep them bang up to date.

It is also great to see the Ladies Football and Camogie Club start Facebook and Twitter pages but it would be great to see more get involved and again to keep them right up to date.

The amount of ways we have to promote Gaelic Games has risen over the past few years and hopefully in the years to come we will have more come our way. The local papers and local and community radio stations do a great job but they can only do a certain amount for us.

The deal with Sky Sports to show games has to be welcomed. It brings our games to a whole new group of people and no doubt will benefit the Association in the years to come. Anyone that have seen what Sky are doing can only be impressed despite reservations by many when the deal was announced.

There are those that knock the Sky Sports deal, but these are often the same people that knock everything. You find these people everywhere and not just in the GAA. What some of the knockers have to complain about at times in very petty, maybe a wrong caption on the screen.

If the Sky Sports deal is to be welcomed then so too should what the GAA in Wexford are doing.

Last Friday night at 10pm Wexford GAA TV hit our screens on Sky Channel 192. For half an hour with no ad breaks we got to hear what is happening in Wexford with their inter county teams.

It’s a show I am looking to seeing more of. Hopefully in the coming weeks we will see the programme focuses on things like the club championships in the Model County and if the programme takes off maybe it could be extended to an hour.

The show reminded me of one similar which came from Cork in the past and which was shown on South Coast TV. The show was presented by Trevor Welsh who went on to join TV3 and showed action from the senior hurling and football championships in Cork.

The new Wexford Programme has taken Public Relations within the GAA to a new level. Will other counties follow suit? I hope so. There could be a market for similar programmes from different counties.

Wexford GAA (Men and Women) boards have not raised the standard of public relations within the GAA to a new level. The challenge is gone out now to other counties to do as Wexford have started to do or maybe to raised the barrier even higher with something even newer for the GAA. I look forward to seeing how others will respond.