Essays & Observations ...Tony Conboy

“We should have stood in bed” (Used in Boyle GAA Blog Feb. '10)
Three or Four
The above was the response of a New York boxing manager one time when his fighter was ‘robbed’ of a decision in Italy. Once more, a little like the Mary Celeste, I guided Tida through the intermittent fog, of a late January evening, on my way to a County G.A.A. meeting. It was in Roscommon town, always Roscommon town. My earliest such meetings were in the early sixties in Fahey’s Bar in Goff Street. They obviously have an allure, which is hard to shake off, with me! This was a Fixtures analysis meeting in the offices of the board and how the Championships might be run in 2010. The Fixtures Committee had produced a working paper with various ideas and choices. It was a long agenda, much too long as it turned out. There were three options as to the structures for the coming year's Championships for Intermediate and Senior. The options were really down to the number of teams per group; three, four or six. You’d imagine that this debate wouldn’t become almost as intractable as Northern Ireland talks. The Chairman had set down a time parameter of two hours for the discussion. From his professional experience he was well acquainted with the attention span of his audience. I thought, from my own previous life’s experience, that it was a somewhat generous time span, even for serial GAA meeting attendees. Anyway, of course, it was ignored. The existing three-group-option was more or less ignored, for the most part, in the debate. Despite the eloquent and passionate promotion of the six-team option by the Strokestown delegate, Sean, it seemed a few bridges too far for the delegates. “We’ll take our beating, as we always do” Sean concluded magnanimously as the six-group option failed to gather momentum. Something like an hour and a half was spent on the four-team option and it looked, for much of the time, ‘a no brainer’ as they say in investment circles! It seemed to have certain reasonable logical arguments in its favour such as teams fielding on the same day, the avoidance of long time lapses between games and the earlier beginning of the Junior Championship. The Chairman also tipped the hat in its direction. The storm clouds began to appear when another important official extolled the virtue of our championships and the way we run them. In this we were apparently ‘light years ahead of Meath’. We didn’t puff out our chests as we might, being sceptical. At next winter’s solstice I’ll be on the look out. Boyle had experienced the three team option last year and it was not a totally happy experience. As the debate entered the final furlong, and a vote was about to be called, a hurling official was asked what he thought and responded, somewhat along the lines of; ‘If you go for this option then it will destroy the hurling championship’. This was a pretty weighty contribution at such a late point of the debate and must have shaken the hurling vote out of its slumbers. In one sentence, the vote, regarded as being in the area of three-appropriately- for the three team option, slid, like the gold in ‘The Italian Job’ bus to the other end of the spectrum. Anyway, a dishevelled vote was taken with 27 for groups of three and 26 for the groups of four, as far as I remember. The ‘Status Quo’ survived. I thought, but of course didn’t say, that in such a close scenario a written vote might be better. Anyway I was conscious of the number of my interjections already and that it would be inappropriate to over contribute. I was now, 'not waving but drowning'.
A further complicated, if shorter and sharper, debate took place on the make-up of the last two quarter finalists. Apparently ‘scoring difference’ is a rule from on high and if you do not have a degree in GAA legal science regarding rules etc. you are at a distinct disadvantage here. While rule books floated hither and thither along the front bench I hadn’t brought mine but scribbled a note to myself that I would have to get an updated version and have it very visible at the next meeting a la Mr. Bean. I was really just a substitute delegate on this occasion. We actually await a ‘ruling’ from on high- Croke Park- regarding the status of the ‘scoring difference’.
Then there were questions of trying to reduce postponements especially using minor excuses to gain them. This too got holed below the waterline, will need serious redrafting and is now in the aspirational tray.
Status Quo:
A discussion on the O’Rourke and O’Gara Cups was next on the agenda. I suggested that the top team be declared the winner. This was on the basis that Boyle has been top of the league proper around three times in the last decade or so but due to the requirement of having to play a semi-final, and, if won, a final, have not actually won the O’Gara Cup on those occasions. It was late now and the Chairman’s 7.30 fears of concentration becoming shredded were coming to pass. Promotion and relegation was another issue. The Status Quo was coming into its own. Top two winners up, bottom two ‘loosing’ (as per ovehead projection) teams down, with the third from bottom in Division One meeting the third from top in Division Two, stayed in place.
The Chairman’s initial fears about issues of this importance not getting their due had come to pass.
Cut and Thrust:
A Clann na Gael delegate got a grenade response from an otherwise benign Fuerty delegate, Dominick, when the Clann man complained about the comfort zone of Fuerty pitch especially for the elderly supporter at double headers. ‘A Clann official begged us in Fuerty to take the match’ Dominick responded. There was the undercurrent of, 'if you come with the begging bowl again, in the foreseeable future, it may be passed along'. In fairness though a week is long time in GAA politics also.
Even the distinguished fraternal delegate, to the ruling Central Council, also met with a volley when he took a look across 'no man's land' finding it stoutly occupied. He was supporting ideas on restricting the County Junior team. Indeed he was having difficulty with the politburo of the Central Council, in the distant capital, in having a very worthy policy idea advanced, regarding improving the lot of the proletariat club player.
Hanging On:
The meeting ended at around 10.30 and for some reason I had a headache. I tried to reduce the testing drive home to the hills by latching on-at a safe distance of course-to a car in front to enable an easier driving challenge in the fog. However they always seemed to be driving a few miles too fast for me and one productive spell ended with the lead car, disappointingly, turning towards Elphin at Shankhill. The idea came into my head that the fog was just a metaphor for the whole evening. The New York boxing manager's claim had a good deal of merit.