WHILE PLAYERS BEING hit with long bans in the GAA for on-the-field indiscretions is nothing new, Ballinderry’s Colin Devlin is believed to have been the first person punished for comments made on social media.
In the wake of his side’s county championship loss to Slaughtneil, Devlin took to Twitter to make comments about the referee, Anthony Campbell, and the opposition.
Yesterday, GAA Director General Páraic Duffy said that players must realise that, no matter how few people follow them, when they take to Twitter, it’s possible far more people can see what they’ve written than they originally expected.
“This happens all the time and we have had instances before like the Tommy McGuigan one. Players have to be so, so careful.
“Sometimes people just don’t realise that when they put something on Twitter it’s not just to the people that follow them, it can end up all over the place.”
Duffy says that education and understanding is the way forward and believes both the GAA and the players’ representative body are already working to address the issue.
“It’s an education thing and, in fairness, the GPA and ourselves have done a fair bit of work with inter-county players but when you get down to club players… they don’t realise that this isn’t a conversation with three or four or five people. That’s the problem.
“You only need one person to retweet it and away it goes. It’s an education process and players have to be aware of it.”
Duffy admits that sometimes the topics players tweet about can be personal and, in those circumstances, it’s not something his organisation should involve themselves in.
“We can’t deal with players and wouldn’t want to deal with players who say things that have nothing to do with their role as GAA players.
“If you are a GAA player and you are talking about things that happen within the GAA then I think you are answerable. We had incidents before where players tweeted comments that had nothing to do with the GAA in any shape or form. We can’t do anything about that.
“Everyone has their own personal life. Within the GAA if you make comments about the GAA and about other members of the GAA then we are all answerable. There’s no avoiding that.
“The association and every club and county have a reputation to protect. If it is within the GAA you are answerable. It’s like any other form of criticism so people have to be very careful about how they use it.”
“Australian footballer gets called up to Australian squad.”
Is there any other country besides us and maybe North Korea which would run an article like this.
@PScald: haha . Nothing really wrong with the story though . Prob got published here as Martin O’Neill was looking at him., made the right choice . Senseless for him to play for Ireland . All tbouse long haul flights to prob sit on the bench
For someone who grew up in Australia he sounds like someone who grew up in Dublin’s Northside!
Very tidy player, always demands the ball in tight spaces. Has a great range of passing and could do a job for Ireland I reckon. Definitely the stand out Centre Mid in the A-League.
Soccerwhaaas??
A