Sport

Win at all costs mentality is damaging GAA's ethos

HAS the win at all cost mentality eroded our respect and tolerance for each other as Gaels?

As a county footballer, the amount of games you have the opportunity to view live at any level is minimal as much of your spare time outside of work and family is devoted to your own personal preparation to ensure you are in peak condition to perform.

As a player, particularly when trying to juggle everyday life with your club/county career, you find yourself in a bubble. Each week goes by at pace, with everything set out session by session; I loved the structure it brought to my week. I knew where I had to be and what I had to do. It is a fairly selfish lifestyle which takes serious patience from our families and partners but, then again, it has to be in order to compete at elite sporting standards.

Throughout my senior career, I have been very fortunate to spend more of my time on the field of play than off it, therefore I very rarely heard what was being said in the stands around me. Since stepping away from the county scene in 2014, it has afforded me the opportunity to attend more games as a spectator across all grades at club and county level.

Maybe it has always been the case, but I would hazard a guess it has gradually gotten worse over the past decade, but the lack of respect shown by supporters to each other, the opposition players or, worse still, their own players has surprised me.

I am as competitive as the next man and have been my own worst critic when playing, but even the slightest mistake made on the field is enough to drive some supporters into a frenzy. There is not a GAA ground or clubhouse in the country that I have visited that does not prominently display the GAA’s Respect campaign posters. Do we all pay heed to them?

‘Give Respect - Get Respect’ is an awareness campaign that was brought in to ensure Gaelic games are promoted and played in a positive, fair and enjoyable manner, where the key participants - the players, coaches, spectators and referees - give respect and get respect from each other. The Respect campaign applies at all levels and among all players, regardless of age, competition or ability. 

The GAA has always been and always will be a family-friendly organisation. Nothing highlights that better than the half-time exhibition games, which allow kids from all clubs the opportunity to play their part in big events from the first National League game of the season to All-Ireland final day itself.

We’ve all attended GAA games with our families from childhood, this is where our love and passion for the game has been developed, but in a day when there is so much time and effort put into child protection and online awareness which it rightly deserves, why should a game of football turn us into raving lunatics while in the presence of so many impressionable children?

I’ve had many arguments with team-mates, opponents, referees and spectators throughout the years and no sooner would the final whistle have blown than I’d say to myself “what the hell did I get involved in that for?”. 

Some managers can, at times, be just as bad as supporters. The famous American basketball coach John Wooden wrote in his book Leadership: “I wanted those under my leadership to see me always on an even keel - intense, of course, but even. How can I ask others to control themselves if I couldn’t do it?”

Wooden argued that emotional control was the primary component of consistency which, in turn, was the primary component of success. Unfortunately, good judgement, common sense and reason tend to fly out the window when emotion kicks in. This usually happens in times of turmoil or crisis, when your team can least afford it. 

I believe that when managers or supporters are constantly on the referee’s case and feeling hard done by, this influences the players on the field who, in turn, join in on the act, which has a negative effect by taking their focus away from their primary role of actually playing the game.

And once the backs are up and the ref’s getting it in the ear, no-one is safe. Just think how small the margin for error is on the player’s behalf, when you consider they are the ones trying to execute the skills while under pressure from opponents, possibly in poor conditions. Yet we lose our composure with them as players for not executing the skills to perfection, when we cannot even hold our composure and we have nothing to do apart from watching the game. 

I am fully aware that this is far from a GAA-only issue. I recently read an article containing a letter from an English soccer youth league chairman, where he wrote to all clubs in his region outlining the risk of Sunday morning games being spoiled by aggressive parents. Local referees reporting an increase in the levels of physical and verbal abuse prompted his letter. 

The competitive nature in us all comes out in the sporting environment, but there comes a time when we should have the maturity to know when not to cross the line. It is a sport, after all, which we participate in for enjoyment.

I have no doubt, at the back of it all, most people’s hearts are in the right place. We all love and are passionate about our sport, but we must take responsibility for our own words and actions. Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves to respect our games and the values they stand for.