Players Meetings

The impact the automotive crisis has had on me is that in the company I work for, Toyota, we have all had to take 16 days unpaid leave this year. This on top of my normal holiday entitlement has left me with much time on my hands. As a result, I've come home alot more and stayed more closely in touch with whats going on.

On Sunday, the Kinsale footballers will have a players meeting to thrash out all sorts of issues. When I was naive and more militant I'd have been a ringleader for this type of activity. I think in 2000, I chaired such a meeting and had a detailed agenda. I used to think that you could influence people and gain their buy-in this way. We held it in a meeting room in Actons Hotel and no-one was allowed bring alcohol in. It was a constructive meeting and we all went away feeling reasonably good about things.

As the year rattled on though, it was obvious that you can't sway some lads. Committments get forgotten and standards start to slip. There was another year where we had the meeting in The Greyhound. Having it in a pub in the first place, sends out all the wrong messages. With each passing year though, you had the token gathering. Rarely did they bring about meaningful change.

This year we had a very well attended one for the Belgian Footballers and not knowing the track record of the group, I left energised. I had forgotten some of the guff that fellas (not all in fairness) come out with when given the floor. Weeks later you'd be left scratching your head when the same fellas are doing the bollocks.

From Kinsale's perspective, opportunity knocks. There is a core of well trained and disciplined young fellas who have graduated from Gearoid Condon's Minor set-up. They have been coached and have expectations of what is to come. Alongside them, there is a sprinkling of other talent, enough to make a right go of things. I'm interested in what the tone of the meeting will be on Sunday. Unfortunately, I have no business there so will have to wait till after to hear how it went.

It can go two ways. The first is it will be riddled with negativity; fellas getting at eachother for screwing around this year, others may give out about the training and more about their general 'treatment'.

The other way is that fellas will come up with some very constructive ideas about training and the set-up in general. They'll put together the formula that can produce the best results for them given their own personal situations. I don't think it should be about any grand statements of committment, it should merely be about trying to get the players to agree what can work best for them. Their awareness of the respect they need to show the club should be heightened as well. By this i mean things like paying Membership, wearing the right gear to matches etc.

How to bring the message from the meeting to the trainers and the committee is key to its success and failure. Those two bodies never like feeling like their being dictated to and if they get a hint of that then you can be sure your voice will fall on deaf ears. In this era of player revolts, sensitivity levels are at an all time high and change can be ground hard earned.

I'm still confused about the value of these meetings. Nevertheless I hope Sunday goes well and it can be the first step towards landing an Intermediate football title or a Junior Hurling one.