Back in April at the first unveiling of Jim Gavin’s Football Review Committee, the six-time All-Ireland winning manager wanted to pay tribute to similar groups who had come before. In particular, he pointed to Eugene McGee. In 2012, the GAA legend launched his own report on the state of the game.
“The overriding conclusion that has emerged from all this research is that Gaelic football is in a fairly healthy state,” McGee declared. Over a decade later, was Gavin in agreement? “You mentioned Eugene McGee saying in 2012 the game isn’t in as bad as people make it out to be,” he was asked. “Are you of the same view yourself?” Gavin’s reply was immediate: “I am.
” Him and thousands of others. Last week Gavin gave his latest update and announced a series of trials that are to take place over the next month. They were being steered by responses to the public survey, he stressed.
Key themes had emerged from that process. One of the main questions asked participants to rank the current level of the sport at inter-county, club, underage inter-county and underage club. “In general, Gaelic football as a sport at [X] level is very good, good, average, poor or very poor.
” In all four categories, the most popular response was good. For senior intercounty, 17% of the 6553 responses so far said it was very good. 39.
1% went for good. 28.8% said it was average.
11.3% opted for poor and 3% selected very poor. Of course, the fact that it was a survey of Gaelic football fa.
