Outrageous direct debit demands on club team to pay manager show the GAA has lost all control

A player from a hurling club in Ulster has contacted SportsJOE to reveal staggering new demands placed on the senior men's team.

As most teams will do at this time of the year, this side got together for their first meeting and were introduced to the new manager who has come from a neighbouring county. Already in 2017, we've seen some secrets being leaked from such meetings - the sort of rules that would make your eyes roll into the back of your head. In Dublin, St. Brigid's demanded that players be positive and have good craic. In Mayo, they demanded that weekend breaks be agreed before the season starts. This stuff happens everywhere. The stuff that isn't written down is just unwritten rules anyway but, every January, clubs start afresh with a new regime that is promising that, this year, there will be no f**k ups. Let's get real though: three senior teams win championships in every county each season - the rest ultimately fail. So, come the dawn of a new year, everyone tries to get tougher and more professional to make sure it doesn't happen again. For one hurling club up north though, that has been taken to a whole new extreme. It's no secret that some managers are getting paid by some clubs and it's no secret that the arrival of outside managers can sometimes cause a bit of tension more quickly than normal - especially when money is involved, and especially when results are not going as planned. What's happening in one hurling club in Ulster is another depressing low. SportsJOE has exclusively seen documents that were handed out to every member of the senior team at the first meeting. In the interest of anonymity, the player asked that neither the manager, the club or the county be named but what happened is yet another blow to what the GAA is supposed to be about.

• The club held their first meeting for the senior men's hurling team.
• They met the new manager from a bordering county.
• The manager left the room and then the chairman "took over".
• The chairman handed every player a standing order form.
• The players were told that anyone who wants to play this year has to sign up.
• Students were required to pay 15 quid a month to pay the new manager.
• Those working were required to pay 20 quid a month to pay the new manager.
• The players were told that the new manager was going to cost 10,000 and the players would contribute to that figure.
• The players would also be required to pay membership and sell National GAA Draw tickets on top of that.

A lot of club players would accept now that some of the best coaches from outside the club don't come cheap and, in many cases, the team themselves might request that the club get the best on board - even if they have to pay. But now there's a situation where a group of players not only know the manager's salary, but they're paying for most of it. That can be difficult to sustain as the year goes on and every one of the players are devoting as much time and effort as the manager to the cause - but they're doing it at a cost, not profit. To make it worse, the reality now is that these players have to pay a monthly fee to play for their own clubs and represent their community. This is supposed to be their pastime and this is supposed to be their club. Now, it's another expense.