Keyboard Messengers Vs Messengers

Lots of new words and phrases have made their way into the English language in the last number of years.

One of the most used of these words or phrases is ‘Keyboard Warriors’.

What is a Keyboard Warrior?

I am sure that most of us have some idea. It is obviously someone sitting or standing in front of a Keyboard be it on a PC, Laptop, Tablet, phone or any other similar device and typing in views that are not always welcome by some, or giving views that could be considered populists. These views are very easy to give and can and do upset a lot of people.

It’s also important to note that these ‘Keyboard Warriors’ are often using made up names and many people don’t know the true identity of those expressing views.

Am I a Keyboard Warrior?

I will make no secret of the fact that I joined two or three social media forums down the years.

The Hogan Stand forum I found very slow moving, and seldom contributed to it.

I can’t say the same about other forums.

Two forums spring to mind. One is boards.ie the other a site that no longer exists and was to do with all things Waterford and the surrounding counties. I can’t think of its name right now, but I am sure that many will be aware of the forum I am referring to.

On both forums I gave myself the name of Deise Tom. I never made any secret of the fact I was Deise Tom and never will.

I got a number of short bans from the first forum for maybe pushing my views two much. Often what I was saying on there was tongue in cheek, but some could not see what I was at. At the end of my two or three day ban I would come back and behave for a while and then come out with something else that I knew would upset some. This happened until the forum page finally closed down when some maybe were getting too personal with some people and it was safer to close down the site.

I used to do the same on boards.ie but instead of a short ban on that site I got a life ban. Deise Tom was not welcome on the site.

I tried to re-join using my email address but was not allowed in, so simply set up another email address, went into the site, gave myself the name SliabhgCua1 and I was back in, but did not stay around there very long as a contributor.

I still go back into the site and read what is said from time to time, but don’t contribute any longer. Maybe I will soon.

I went in one day last week and began to read some of what was said. Lots of what was being spoken about on the Waterford GAA page was of little importance to me, but then I came across a posting that I was interested in.

It had to do with the structures we have currently in Waterford when it comes to the G.A.A. in Waterford.

On the forum one contributor ‘Culbaire’ said “it was time for the Boards to put the foot down and ensure that the club championships are not compressed into a few weeks”.

Culbaire went on to say “The fixture pile up is taking a heavy toll on players. Players are not getting chance to recover from injuries and in some cases are carrying injuries into fixtures” he or she said.

Going on, Culbaire said “(its) time for delegates at meetings to put the foot down and ensure that fixtures are better spaced”.

Culbaire finished by saying “this means standing up to Managers of County teams. Otherwise we will have very few clubs in the not too distant future.

Everybody with an interest in Waterford has one hope for the G.A.A. in the county.

We all want to see Waterford win a Senior All-Ireland. We have to be realistic, because of the way we do things in Waterford, we have to accept this is not going to happen anytime soon in Football, but it could very much happen in hurling.

But should hopes and dreams come at a cost.

Everybody within the G.A.A. has to agree if they know anything about the Association that the Club is the most important unit within the G.A.A.

Without the club we have nothing. It is here and in the schools with the help of the schools that the hard work in making hurlers and footballers out of young boys is done. The same applies to girls when it comes to Camogie and Ladies Football.

It is as a result of this work that the best players are selected and sent for different trials and coaching with the various under age development squads and it is from these squads that the best players are picked to play Minor, Under 21 and Senior for the county.

I am sure that because a close down or a near close down of the playing season in the county we are now playing serious catch up. We are rushing off games all in the hope that we will have teams in place to represent the county in the various Munster Club Championships which start in the coming weeks.

Down the years we have also heard a lot about ‘player welfare’. But come this part of the year how much thought is given to ‘Player Welfare’. Very little to be honest.

Take one club for example – Brickey Rangers.

They played Modeligo in the semi-finals of the Western Hurling Championship on October 8^th. The game ended in a draw needing a replay on October 15 which again ended in a draw, before they lost out in extra time. On October 17^th they were to play Stradbally in the Senior Football Championship, but conceded the game to the reigning Senior Football Champions. If the Bushy Park outfit had fulfilled the football fixture would playing three games between October 8 and October 17 give much consideration to player welfare?

Before anyone thinks otherwise let me say this, this is not having a go at any officer of Divisional or County Board. Far from it in fact. They are only playing with the deck of cards dealt with.

The officers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They are dammed at times if they do and dammed if they don’t.

It is no secret that some clubs and officers want change to happen. Some of said they want more but groups with smaller amounts of teams in them when it comes to the different championships which would free up some weekends.

There is some who follow the G.A.A. in Waterford that claim that the number of senior teams in the county should be cut to ten, freeing up two weekends (one hurling, one football) for the fixture planners if they were to stick with the current championship formats. I have claimed with some time with little support that we should have eight senior teams in both hurling and football.

There is some that claim we should have knockout championships, that there is little or no interest in the league or group sections of our current formats. Each year once the groups are drawn it is relatively easy to predict at least seven of the eight teams in both hurling and football that will contest the quarter finals in both championships.

But going back to the boards.ie forum that I read recently and a reply to what Culbaire had to say. Another contributor on there, “mickotallow” has another way of thinking of what in Waterford is our biggest problem and is something that I to have suggested is a problem within the county.

Mickotallow begins his replay to Culbaire by saying that he (I am sure Mickotallow) is a man that he agrees with him or her.

Mickotallow goes on to say that (he) “saw a comment by the manager of Ballyboden St Enda's (he think’s) after they were knocked out of the football in Dublin claiming it was a disgrace the way club players are being treated. County players only account for up to 5% of all players yet the club player is held up because of this”.

The poster adds that “the problem is the club delegates. These are fellas who more often than not are just sent to county board meetings as token gestures to sit there and say they had someone in attendance from their club”.

This is something that is hard to argue against. I have attended County Board meetings down the years as a Bord na nÓg delegate, as a club delegate, as someone that stood for a position on the board at convention and to report on meetings.

Often sitting at the back of the room for these meetings, I have observed the same people sitting in the same place at different meetings, sitting beside the same person and never contributing. They are often looking at their watches I am sure often wondering how long more the meeting will go on, and sometimes when it drags on, they are seen heading for the front door or the toilets and you need not guess what they are up to. If your nose is working at all and you enter the toilets after they come out you can second guess what they were at. And let’s keep this relatively clean; you can clearly smell the smoke.

Mickotallow finishes his point by saying “to ask amateur players to play 6 matches in a 7/8 week period when they've only played 3 games in 4 months is an insult to all concerned”. We just have had a number of weeks of hurling action to bring us up to this weekend’s senior county final and are currently playing four weekends of football, again to bring us to a county final in time for a Munster Club Championship.

The post however concludes with something I don’t entirely agree with. Mickotallow says “But at the end of the day intercounty = money to the county board and the revenue from the club scene is so pitiful in comparison that the county board just want to get all games played off as quickly as possible so they can say to the Munster board that they got their competitions finished in time”.

It is my opinion that the officers of divisional and county boards have to rush off their games at this time of the year because they are called off during the summer. Clubs sides with 20 to 30 players on their panels are left twiddling their thumbs for weeks on end without competitive games so that 30 to 35 players, many of whom are in all purposes involved to make up numbers of training games for the different inter county sides.

A number of clubs last year made an attempt to reshape the championships, especially at senior level but the majority voted to keep the current status quo.

Former County Board Secretary Timmy O’Keeffe in his stint as secretary put a number of proposals to clubs at convention that were turned down, one that included the introduction of an Intermediate premier or could be called a Senior ‘B’ Championship.

Clubs and those interested in the G.A.A. in general within the county who are ‘giving out’ that players are playing week in and week out of late with little or no time for recovery should ask themselves why. It is not always right to blame the officers tasked with running the different boards.

Clubs and their members have to look at themselves. It should not be just up to officers to come up with new ideas. Officers can only carry out what they are tasked to do. Clubs have to stand up and be counted. Between then they have to come up with new ideas.

Maybe that might be to reduce the numbers playing in the different games. Surely we should be talking about the quality of our names not the quantity. Maybe the solution is as suggested by Timmy O’Keeffe and we introduce some new championships.

Maybe the solution in the lower grades is to get rid of the East/West divide in the county. It has worked well at underage level. It has helped improve our competitions, so why in a county of less than 50 clubs do we need an invisible divide down the centre of the county.

There might be some that will say that players playing junior won’t want to travel from Passage or Ferrybank to Tallow or Ballyduff Upper to play a game. They won’t have to. Maybe in the east of the county such games are played on a home and away basis. In the west of the county the games are played at neutral venues. We don’t ask players from Ballyduff Upper or Tallow to travel to Passage or Ballygunner for senior games so we don’t have to when it comes to games in the lower grades.

Playing all county games might put pressure on some fields, but there is ways around this.

Junior ‘B’ and second string games could be played on a Thursday or Friday evening. Junior proper games on a Friday evening, intermediate on a Saturday evening and Senior games on a Sunday afternoon.

And finally, maybe another option to help the non-inter-county playing player get competitive games all year round.

Journalist Jackie Cahill today in the Irish Examiner reports that former Monaghan selector Declan Brennan has plans to establish a Club Players Association (CPA) and has revealed that he has received over ten thousand messages from interested parties.

 

The main aim of such a group which is something that I am sure will be welcomed by both players and supporters alike is to ensure a voice for club players across the country with the emphasis on the fixture schedule which often sees players without games for weeks and months on end as the inter county season is in place.

Let’s never forget that the club is the most important unit of the association and when it comes to the G.A.A. right now when it comes to the club scene, where there is a lot of good, but there is also a lot wrong.

It is often all too easy to blame the officers for the wrongs within out games, but on this one if players, clubs and supporters think something is wrong, and think it is wrong that games are rushed off week in, week out during September and October, then maybe it is time they looked a little closer to home and when given the opportunity come up with ideas that ensure that we are not rushing off our games each year at this time.

Maybe what Culbaire and Mickotallow had to say last week will have some labelling them as ‘Keyboard Warriors’. I have no doubt some who had to see what they had to say have in public or private labelled both. Maybe sometimes those that express such views are not in fact ‘Keyboard Warriors’ but messengers. Sometimes we have a habit of shooting the messenger because what they have to say is not the most popular of things. But there is times when it is worth listening to the messenger. Maybe seeing out championships run very late in the last few years, maybe instead of shooting the messengers and labelling them ‘Keyboard Warriors’ they should be listened to for a change.