THE club is the basic unit on which the GAA is built, but it is from inter-county matches that Croke Park generates most of its income. Therefore, it is inevitable that conflicts will arise from time to time in relation to whether the club or the county gets priority given that by and large the county generates the bulk of the income for the GAA.

Sometimes players have to decide whether they will train with their county or whether or not they line out with their club on a given day. In fact, it is a most difficult situation for a player to decide if he should let down his club team mates in favour of his county team mates.

Efficient sports administrators strive to ensure that players rarely have to make this decision county managers must also be willing to release players to their clubs for county championship training and vice versa.

In order for the system to work efficiently it is imperative that there is a mutual respect and co-operation between county team management, county board officials and club officials. For this to happen, strong leadership is required at county board level, otherwise situations will arise that ultimately will be detrimental to Gaelic games in that county.

Two weeks ago the Tipperary football manager, Andy Shortall, and his two selectors, Mick Byrnes and Jim Cahill, resigned from their role of managing the county team. This was after several days of negotiation with County Board officials, regarding the fixing of a senior club hurling match – a mid-divisional tie involving Loughmore-Castleiney and Thurles Sarfields. Shortall had requested that the game be postponed because two of his panel, Michael Webster and Tom King, would be playing with Loughmore-Castleiney. He wanted to have a free run into their All-Ireland qualifier game against Fermanagh the following Saturday afternoon at Semple Stadium.

The Tipperary mid-divisional board voted unanimously that the game should go ahead despite the request of both the County Board and Shortall. Two days later the whole Tipperary football panel, in support of their manager, decided to withdraw their services from the county panel and refused to fulfil the fixture. This was unprecedented in GAA circles.

County Board officials can argue that this decision was in favour of the majority of club players in Tipperary. However, it is highly unlikely that this would have happened if it were the county hurling team in question.

This decision will have embittered every member of the football panel, as it was a clear indication that all their efforts were not being appreciated and it will have a very negative effect on the future of Tipperary football.

How many of the present football panel will line out in next year’s National League campaign? Very few – if any – I imagine!

How many football managers will agree to manage Tipperary football in the future with that kind of co-operation and support from the County Board? Why did it happen in the first place? Could it have been prevented? Could it happen in Kerry?

I believe that if the Tipperary County Board officers in both hurling and football had been doing their job efficiently and correctly this situation would never have arisen. In order that situations like this would never happen the GAA set up a fixtures review body to review the whole situation and came up with recommendations on October 27, 2001.

The Central Council of the GAA approved a fixtures recommendation that all inter-county players be free from inter-club championship games for at least 13 days before participating in a senior inter-county championship game.

Each county’s inter-club championship fixtures programme must take this into account but this was clearly not done in Tipperary. I have no doubt that it was done the previous week for the Tipperary hurlers while in preparation for their Munster championship clash with Waterford.

It is the job of the provincial councils to monitor the progress of each county’s championships fixture programme. It was clearly not done in this situation.

This could happen in any county if they are not vigilant. In the event of it happening, common sense should prevail in order that a satisfactory conclusion should be arrived at. In Tipperary it was clear that the goodwill was not there in the interest of promoting Gaelic football. Now the Tipperary football and hurling boards have undone all the good work that has been done in promoting football within the county for the past 20 years.

The moral of the story is that all county boards should implement a master fixture plan that would incorporate the recommendations of the fixtures review body, otherwise a lot of good work done in the promotion of games can be undone overnight.