Times they are a changing

IN ALL FAIRNESS

The GAA didn’t have to produce as comprehensive a report as the entitled ‘Nobody Shouted Stop - Until Now’ to highlight the scale of the challenges facing both rural and urban clubs. It’s being felt on the ground but to have it in concrete form is important to provide a platform to try and address the issues coming from it.

The GAA’s initial response to Ireland’s demographic shift is an impressive document, based on several years of analysis which shows how population trends, mapping rural decline, and issues such as the mass migration of people, particularly to east Leinster means that many rural clubs are struggling to field as many teams as before, while in urban areas, clubs are trying to cope with huge numbers which places burdens on their volunteers and specifically access to playing and training facilities.

At the reports launch last week, Uachtarán CLG Jarlath Burns said: “In the last 100 years no bigger issue has emerged as a threat to our ability to stay relevant to our members than the subject of demographics. Many of these challenges are outside of the GAA’s remit to control. But what we must do is have a conversation about how capable we are to be able to still have a foothold and pulse in our cities, towns, villages and rural communities.

Chairperson of the National Demographics Committee, Benny Hurl, added: “Demographic change is not a future threat - it is a present reality. This report provides a roadmap for renewal, ensuring Gaelic games remain inclusive, resilient and central to Irish life.”

So, what does it mean for Tipperary? At the moment, on a county wide basis in terms of inter-county, Tipperary had the thirteenth highest population level of 0-5 year olds based on the most recent census from 2021/2022. That’s not bad considering the counties ahead of them are mainly urban and suburban areas around the major cities.

However, the concern comes with the projected numbers where come 2040, Tipperary will be 28th of the 32 counties in terms of players at 6-11 age rage with only Laois, Roscommon and Monaghan set to be below them. This suggests that Tipperary’s ability to compete consistently at inter-county level in both hurling and football in the longer term will become much harder.

In a local sense, we are seeing demographic change at both ends of the scale, at the upper end is Newport where its population has almost trebled in the twenty years between 2002 and 2022, largely due to its proximity to Limerick as a satellite town. It’s starting to bear fruit on the field with Newport fielding three teams at under 13 and two teams at under 15 in recent years, winning county ‘A’ titles in both hurling and football, as well as reaching this years county minor ‘A’ hurling final. They shouldn’t be in intermediate hurling for long and much like Ballina, should be able to field a competitive adult football team as they have the numbers.

It’s not all about success though, having numbers is great on the one hand but you need to have the facilities to prepare them on the other, and while Newport have developed their facilities at Lacken Park in recent years and have the Longhouse Field also to call on, it’s still not enough when you have teams from under 5 to adult, then throw in camogie teams with Newport/Ballinahinch, and ladies football teams with Rockvale Rovers.

On the other end of the scale from Newport, you have clubs like Lorrha, Shannon Rovers, Knockshegowna, Ballinahinch, and Templederry Kenyons in particular where the playing base of younger players is falling and amalgamations have been a staple for those clubs for much of the last decade, and it won’t be changing any time soon.

It has helped that at under 13 level at in ‘C’ and ‘D’ grades that there are 11 and 9 aside competitions for clubs to field on their own as much as they can but the likelihood is this will start being the case at higher grades going forward.

This is one of the recommendations of the report to provide opportunities for counties to provide championships for demographically challenged clubs who are unable to field at 15-a-side. It’s something clubs will have to learn to accept as it will prolong their survival in the longer term as players playing regularly at underage level have a greater chance of being retained into adult level, rather than sitting on a subs bench in an amalgamation where there is a greater risk of them drifting away and not being there for their adult teams in the future.

It will be harder for smaller clubs to compete going forward but not impossible. While numbers might be limited, it is sometimes easier to work with what you have compared to clubs with bigger numbers who can sometimes have too much choice. The GAA isn’t immune to evolution!