COMMENT: When are GAA fans going to get sick of being treated like fools?

GAA fans are a dedicated bunch.

Put a county game on at 11.30am, or 5.30pm, and have it compete with any amount of various other teams or sports at the same time, and players, mentors and supporters will still find a way to be there. Fix a game for one venue, change it six hours before throw-in to somewhere 60km away, and they will still manage to pack it out to capacity. This weekend appears to prove the theory that the GAA is not so much a sporting pastime, but a cult-like organisation whose followers, or devotees, will walk lemming-like off any cliff, just for the love of their team. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1FxfR3lg6Q But like any organisation that inspires, but demands unwavering loyalty, the level of trust is open to abuse. How far can you push someone until they rebel? What will eventually be the final straw before someone grasps the hand with the iron rod about to strike their back, and say no more? When will the GAA finally stretch the patience and goodwill of supporters to a point where the relationship will be irreparably damaged? https://twitter.com/noelk16/status/716561411753816064 Sunday's farce in Roscommon and Leitrim has been a long time coming. But the whole sorry mess has really nothing to do with Dublin, Roscommon or a bog standard - pun intended - pitch. It has nothing to do with people guffawing at a Dublin fans getting lost outside the M50, or cheap jokes about Roscommon fans expecting a free Luas to Croke Park for their league semi-final next weekend. For years, the GAA have thought nothing of playing county hurling and football games at different venues, at the same time, dozens, if not hundreds,of miles apart. It has thought nothing of playing a college American football game in Croke Park and dragging Kerry and Mayo fans to the Gaelic Grounds for an All-Ireland semi-final. https://twitter.com/CathrionaMcD/status/503652001943937024 It thinks nothing every year of a lottery system for GAA fans desperate to get to Croke Park, being forced to beg, steal or borrow by whatever means for a golden ticket to a September showpiece. Croke Park can become one of the biggest music venues in the world, but fans going to see last weekend's All-Ireland colleges' football finals had to pay €20 to see teenagers play in the biggest game of their lives. And why does it think it can get away with it? Ah, because 'it's just volunteers', and they 'give all their spare time for the association', and 'shur won't it be grand for an hour a bit out in the cold and the wet'. But it's not fine, it's not acceptable. GAA people love giving out, this one included. It's the classic Irish bad service notion - people will tell an entire restaurant how cold their steak is, but don't dare say it to the waiter or the chef who can do something about it. The well-known ad campaign for the GAA is 'Be there all the way'. It's hard to be there 'all the way' when the last train to the hastily arranged venue left an hour ago. But what did the GAA get for its insult to fans on Sunday? A crowd of 10,000 in Carrick On Shannon, Dublin fans desperate to see Jim Gavin's side make history and Roscommon supporters eager to see if their team could derail the sky blue monster. GAA fans will just keep going and say nothing because seeing their team in the flesh, and supporting their neighbour and friend, is still more important than whatever obstacle the GAA put in their way. But someday that may change and, when it does, the GAA may regret treating its biggest asset, a willing paying public who will endure any treatment, so poorly. The GAA understands profit above all else, and until fans start hitting the GAA where it really hurts most, with falling attendances and public anger, nothing will change. Sunday was proof of that.