Beware Elitism

Interesting conversation with Mick Sull and a couple of other lads in The Market on Stephen’s Night. In most clubs, the most valued individuals are those with the most talent on the pitch. They are the guys everyone wants to be buddy-buddy with and their opinions rarely need clarification. They can do no wrong.

Not everyone fits this bill though. Some lads will have more moderate skills on the playing field but are often neglected. In rural clubs especially, where there may only be one adult team in each code, it is easy for these guys to fade from the scene. Without games, the training is meaningless for them. They were probably tarred with a certain brush years before and given no route back.

The star player might give prove a great man on the pitch but often he will be totally incompetent training teams or in the committee room. Plenty great players fail in management or don’t have the heart to make the hard yards to drive a club forward. They will inevitably be lost when they fail to find a role when they hang up their boots.

Then you have a gap. The foot soldiers are long gone from the battlefield and now the heroes have downed their tools too. Of course there are lads in between but your pool is significantly depleted.

The Celtic Tiger coincided with a period where college registration fees were at an all time low and their doors were open to all. Multinationals flooded the country and job opportunities were ten a penny. Coupled with this, we had many exiles return to the country and also an unprecedented uprising of entrepreneurial spirit. What this has given Ireland is probably it’s largest ever pool of young professionals who are well educated, structured and driven. Many will have worked on big budget, international projects and taken all the learning possible away with them. However, as I said, some will never be the man to make the last ditch block or angle a score from an impossible angle.

A college degree and a fancy job title is not the be all and end all of course, don’t get me wrong. Ireland has spawned many a smart man who simply may not have had the same opportunities (or even wanted to pursue them) but has accumulated his own set of invaluable experiences from his chosen career path. A club needs a mix of everything.

Imagine your club is taking on a massive redevelopment project. Surely you want a guy used to managing construction projects, dealing with finance or foremen? Their experience can add great value to a club and have a more lasting contribution than the winning score in a county final. Some people can’t do both.

The point is we must run inclusive clubs where everybody can carve out a role for themselves and make a contribution. It’s good to see the lads in Kinsale realising this and trying to encourage as many people as possible to get back involved. You need all hands on deck. It’s a no brainer, there can be no losers.