Rugby a bigger threat to Gaelic Football than Soccer says Flanagan

Offaly’s football manager, Pat Flanagan believes there is a real danger that the growing popularity of rugby is a threat to the future of Gaelic football.

In an article published by the Irish Times, the Clara clubman, who is in his second year at the helm with the Faithful county, said the structures of the GAA in the country need to be looked at.

Charged with redressing Offaly’s footballing fortunes, Flanagan believes that the current structure is flawed and that no team in the province can compete with Dublin on any front, including finance.

The former Westmeath and Sligo boss believes that it is time the hierarchy turn their focus back to the grassroots and work towards developing stronger links with schools across the province in order to nurture the game.

“I’ll probably be lambasted over this but if you look at what’s happening with rugby, what it’s generating, we’re in serious trouble, unless we go back to the grass roots and start bringing it up,” Flanagan said.

Flanagan believes the traditional rivalry between Gaelic football and soccer has now been overtaken by the growing influence of rugby.

“Before there was a competition between soccer and Gaelic players. But now it’s more between Gaelic and rugby players”, he told the Times, adding that there a number of players who are playing rugby at present who would probably feature on inter county teams, if they had stayed playing GAA.

Flanagan is seriously concerned at Dublin’s superior position within Leinster and stressed that the powers that be need to look at coaching in a bid to redress the balance. The capital county’s strong financial position means they have coaches in every club and this he says is likely to see them progress to such an extent that people will simply stop going to games in the provincial championship.

And what does the future hold for the Faithful? Looking to next season, Offaly have landed a reasonable draw in their quest for Leinster success, facing Longford in their opening game with a quarter-final clash against near neighbours, Westmeath the prize on offer. With Dublin on the other side of the draw, Flanagan will have high hopes of progressing the Faithful’s footballers to the business end of the campaign.

Before that however, the manager has a more pressing issue to deal with: the question of dual players. In his first season in charge, the Clara man came up against a roadblock in hurling manager, Brian Whelahan who refused to allow the players in his squad to train with the footballers but this time around, Pat Flanagan is hopeful that Whelahan’s successor, Eamon Kelly will be more accommodating.