Gracefield controversy highlights communication issues
By Kevin Egan
Gracefield’s presence in the Offaly Senior B championship quarter-final is a source of huge disappointment to the club, who felt in the immediate aftermath of their final group game against Ballycommon that they had topped their group, and thus were straight through to a semi-final.
It seems like the confusion was widespread, as that outcome was also briefly “confirmed” on Offaly social media, though it was quickly taken down.
In fact, because of a motion that was passed at 2023 Congress (Motion 13, submitted by the Burgess club in Tipperary and carried with 82.7% support), the scoring difference to separate three or more teams that are tied only pertains to the games between those teams. Gracefield lost out on the advantage garnered by their 4-13 to 0-7 win over Tubber, and so went from first to third, with the consequence that they now had to play a tough quarter-final.
Gracefield subsequently appealed that ruling, but lost that ruling during the week. The result of that appeal was inevitable, as GAA rules here are clear cut. The changes that were made at this year’s Congress were emailed out by Croke Park on February 22 and from there, all units had access to the information.
But is it reasonable to expect every club to plough through a 33-page document when the majority of information doesn’t pertain to them? That’s an open question certainly, and there’s no doubt that more could be done from HQ to break down the fallout from Congress according to what rule changes were relevant to which areas of GAA administration.
Equally, at a county level, Offaly could probably have done more to take responsibility for understanding the changes, and making those changes known to clubs as they became relevant. While it would be ideal that every club secretary is completely across all aspects of their brief, to do so would involve a huge time commitment on par with a part-time job, and not every club has someone in a position to do that. At county level, there are vastly bigger human resources at hand.
Ultimately, however, the onus fell on Gracefield – and all the clubs involved in final round drama – to know the lie of the land, as it pertained to them. That they didn’t is understandable and forgivable, but it’s a lesson that a lot of other clubs would do well to learn all the same.