GAA county games development managers are reporting heightened fatigue and disrupted personal lives as a result of their occupations, according to a newly published study.<\/p>\n
The research led by former Connacht director of hurling Damien Coleman, now a GM in ATU in Athlone, found the several of those interviewed for his academic paper complained of difficulties.<\/p>\n
First reported on the \u201cWexford Weekly\u201d website, eight game managers participated in the study entitled \u201cCaution! Achievement subjects at work: a Hanian analysis of policy enactment in Gaelic games\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was found their \u201cinternalised drive to deliver policy objectives fostered deep cognitive and emotional entanglement with their work. This pressure generated a persistent sense of needing to \u2018be on\u2019 in navigating the everyday demands and dilemmas of policy enactment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
One manager claimed the GAA at central level are not sympathetic to the difficulties faced by them. \u201cEverything now is based on metrics\u2026 no one cares, just send in the figures. Nothing about quality or standards or the human side.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another articulated a similar opinion: \u201cThe demands are constant from above and below. The job description says x, but you\u2019ll soon find out it means as long as you need to get the job done well\u2026 the expectations just keep growing. You want to do well. But it can be really tough going.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The feedback from games managers is that they work far more hours than they are paid by the GAA. \u201cWe\u2019re officially down to work 39 hours a week,\u201d said one, \u201cbut we all do more. Often, it\u2019s 60 hours or more. And if you complain, you\u2019re told it\u2019s your time management and asked how could you manage things better? It\u2019s not fair or acceptable. Weekends, daily… it just never stops. And I don\u2019t think anyone cares, so long as you\u2019re doing the job well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their reflections on how their roles have impacted their homelife are just as eye-opening. \u201cA young family back at the time, they\u2019re all grown up now, and I wasn\u2019t there. No. But maybe I should have been spending more time with them. My wife checks me up all the time\u2026 she asks for me to give her attention. She sees my mind drift off to something I should have done at work that day or will be doing tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe reminds me of the past, and the time lost over last 20 years. I didn\u2019t look at it that way\u2026 but I should have. My family should have been first. And it wasn\u2019t. I should have been better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another games manager also speaks of not being present in the homeplace because of the stresses associated with the job. \u201cAt home with the family watching TV, and I\u2019m on my phone the whole time. Someone asks a question, and I answer it. But I haven\u2019t a clue what they asked about. Because my mind is consumed with all the work messages and emails. This causes problems at home. I\u2019m never present to my family. There\u2019s so much going on and I know they suffer as a result\u201d.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the LGFA has confirmed their Master fixtures plan for 2026. The 2026 Lidl National Leagues will commence on Sunday January 18 with the opening round of fixtures in Division 4.<\/p>\n
Divisions 1-3 will start on Sunday January 25 along with round two of Division 4.<\/p>\n
The Division 1 and 2 League finals will be played on Saturday April 11 with the Division 3 and 4 finals on Sunday April 12.<\/p>\n
THe 2026 TG4 All-Ireland Championship will get underway on Sunday May 31 with the opening games in the Junior and Intermediate Championships. The Senior Championship will kick off on Saturday June 6 with the senior semi-finals taking place on Saturday July 18.<\/p>\n
The Championship finals are pencilled in for Sunday August 2 in Croke Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAA county games development managers are reporting heightened fatigue and disrupted personal lives as a result of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1965,1128,61,60,850,112],"class_list":["post-65593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-hurling","tag-football","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}