Emmet Moloney writes for the 'The Irish Farmers Journal' and is a former sports columnist with 'The Kerryman'.

As the GAA heads into its 126th year, many feel the biggest threat facing the organisation is player power. They are slightly misguided because player power doesn’t actually exist, Emmet Moloney writes…

Player power doesn’t exist. What we have in the GAA is simply unhappiness. I attended the Clare County Board convention before Christmas when Secretary Pat Fitzgerald lambasted this emergence of ‘player power’. It made some national headlines – as secretaries’ reports sometimes do in a slow GAA news week.

The line that is being trotted out by so-called GAA traditionalists is ‘players should play, managers should manage and administrators should administrate’. This is what you will hear in the pub when the next panel start talking about strikes and a manager is under threat.

It’s what was said in Cork, Waterford, Clare and Limerick in recent times and it is the line thrown out by office-holders in the GAA when they want to appeal to the grassroots. A bit like a presidential election in America, when a candidate calls for change and a new America. Nice words, but they mean nothing.

Players should play and managers should manage, while officials should officiate. If this happened, we are led to believe that player power would be a thing of the past. What nonsense. Player power, and I hate the phrase, is the direct result of managers not managing and officials not officiating. We’ll stay in my own county to explain.

Secretary Pat Fitzgerald bemoaned at the Clare County Board convention the fact that our hurling laundry was washed in public. It should have been dealt with in-house and not reached the papers, said Pat. And he was right. It should have been dealt with in-house, but the fact it wasn’t was probably Pat’s fault. He was the liaison between the senior hurling panel and the County Board and he is the only full-time executive officer on the board. This happened on his watch and he let it happen, develop and end in the acrimonious mess that it did. ‘Administrators should administrate.’ Secretary, heal thyself.

And what about managers managing? Mike McNamara departed the Clare job with a last undignified shot at the players – and one in particular. A further example, as if one was needed, of how unsuitable he was for the job. According to Mike, this one player caused most of the ructions in the camp and it was down to him that Mike was being castigated in this fashion.

So, what Mike was really saying was that he couldn’t manage this player, or the mess the player allegedly started. What kind of management was that? An admission that Mike McNamara wasn’t up to the job, that’s what it was, because if the players unanimously want you out, then you can’t manage that bunch of players.

Mike was such a strong manager that, according to him, one player (one non-playing player at that) was able to oust him from his job. Mike should have resigned with grace and dignity intact, but instead his exit was another clumsy episode in a disastrous year for the Clare seniors. A chunk of it self-inflicted.

The players? Well they did what most panels do these days when they are not happy. They gave a voice to it and didn’t quit until they had the manager’s head. Blameless? Probably not. But matters on the field almost always mirror matters off it. If the camp was wrong off the field, then you will see the signs on it.

Clare didn’t win a league or a championship match in 2009. Their sole victory came in a meaningless relegation tussle that neither Clare nor Wexford wanted to play. They now have what they wanted – a new man in charge. Be careful what you wish for lads. You have talked the talk, now you’d better walk the walk.

More than just a Clare issue…
The Banner’s annus horribilis is over and 2010 is upon us. So where’s the next powder keg? As you read this, the panels are coming together for this GAA year with ambitions and hopes burning at their brightest. No bubble has been burst yet, so enthusiasm is still strong. Long may it last because only one county can win Liam McCarthy or Sam Maguire. That means all the other counties don’t win. But will their players get together and dump their manager? Of course not.

There’s a reason. And it’s the only reason so-called player power gets exercised. And it’s down to the managers and administrators. When you gather 30-odd people together for a specific purpose, like winning an All-Ireland, then that group has to be kept happy. You don’t have to win it out to maintain respect and confidence in that group. Look at all the counties that kept their manager after losing last year. Why is that?

It’s simple. The players don’t feel strongly enough to get together and force a change. That’s why. Because they still have faith in their manager and the set-up. They will play for him. When they don’t, they won’t. And that’s the test of a manager. They don’t have to like you. Your first job is to get players to believe in you, because if they don’t, they won’t play or buy into what you are trying to achieve. If you’ve lost that belief, then your management has failed and, guess what, the press are ringing you about meetings the players have had. It’s time to get out with some credibility and dignity.

If a manager isn’t managing properly and the county board don’t see it (or don’t acknowledge it), then the modern-day player will do something about it himself. This isn’t the old Ireland where Church and State call the shots. Young people have confidence in themselves and most aren’t afraid to express it.

That’s where we are today. Player power didn’t get rid of Justin McCarthy, Gerald McCarthy or Mike McNamara. They did it to themselves when their very own players decided they had to go. If you can’t manage to keep players on your side, then you can’t manage them any longer.

And please spare me the ‘players should play and managers should manage’ nonsense. The world is a good bit more complicated than that.

To catch Emmet's latest column, get 'The Irish Farmers' Journal' every Thursday...