Give your players the teambuilding experience they deserve.

Prionnsias O Murchu
RUNAI
Cork County Board.
Pairc Ui Caoimhe
Cork.

Dear Frank,

My name is Paul Newton and I run a training company specialising in teamwork programmes,

I have developed a new programme that I’m sure your county board executive would be interested in running with both the Football and Hurling Squads.

This programme is designed to encourage teamwork, sharpness and co-operation and will ensure your teams get the sort of preparation that you and your colleagues know they deserve

Please take a quick look at the attached promotional video and reply to me if interested in discussing further

Kindest Regards

(Up the Rossies)

Paul.


Paul Newton

Paying Setanta to watch Sean Og.

People have to decide now on what sort of GAA they wish to have in the future, those of us old enough to remember the set up of the premiership or the Kerry Packer rebel cricket will have no problems figuring out where it's currently heading, the real debate is about what our national games should look like in 10 years time, and we should all be smart enough to see the importance of the current Cork dispute in that context.

When I was a young player there was no money in the GAA, players were treated like crap, and the administrators were legendary, nothing unusual to see them dining out while the players ate sandwiches, there was no balance and the situation needed to be redressed.

Later on as a club chairman I witnessed the latter part of an era where players began to be appreciated, where Liam Mulvihill and others like Peter Quinn introduced a much more commercialised GAA, where sponsors were involved but did not necessarily call the shots, the establishment of the GPA which led us to small elite player payments, and a recognition that the players were as important as the administrators. The majority of income is still ploughed back into clubs, but the players are well looked after, you might call it balance.

You ask country players privately if they'd like a semi pro game, or even a professional one and they would take your hand off for it, the idea of playing and getting well paid for it is music to the ears of all these very dedicated lads, as it would be to any of us of we were 19 again and good enough, but is this really the way people think the GAA should go? We've seen the effect of professionalism in soccer and rugby over the last 15 years, thinking we are immune to this is ostrich strategy, the TV companies and sponsors call the shots now, the administrative bodies will do what they are told, and the players will benefit hugely, what's wrong with that you ask.

What's wrong is that the club scene will slowly die, as the funds are sluiced away to elite players who are no longer available to their clubs, the senior club scene will give way to underage and school competitions, which will be important as the breeding grounds for the next superstar, like the United States in baseball, you will have an elite professional scene, and a strong schools and college scene (as everyone wants to make the pro's)

Cork players expressed surprise that their respective Club delegates appear to be supporting the executive of the Cork county board in this dispute, but the truth is that there is now a considerable distance between the elite player and the average club delegate, in times past the selection of players on county squads was seen as a major benefit by clubs, they continued to represent their club in league games and often trained and socialised within the club structure.

Modern day country set ups demand that players rarely play with their clubs, are typical unavailable for almost all league games and don't socialise at all except with other elite players on "bonding" weekends in Malaga. The gap between the modern elite player and his club has widened considerably, it's little wonder that the Cork players are having trouble getting their views represented via their clubs.

Is this the future we want? A semi pro premiership of 10 - 12 elite county squads, with a fluid transfer market ensuring the weaker counties lose their finest players and never have a chance to break through, a club scene which will thrive at Bord na n'og level but will die at senior and intermediate level into Sunday league pub competitions. I don't propose to tell people what they should want, simply to point out the I believe this is the direction we are inevitably heading unless someone shouts stop.

It’s time for an extensive debate into the future structure of the GAA, this is an issue that is far bigger than either Donal Og Cusack or Frank Murphy, as GAA people we are arrogant beyond belief if we think that our organisation would be immune to what's happened in soccer and rugby, and if we decide this is the direction we want the organisation to go in, then fine, but to wake up one morning and see wealthy elite players, no volunteers bar selfish parents who want their kid to make it, TV companies and sponsors calling the shots and clubs reduced to soulless shells with liquor licences. With "free to air" a thing of the past we'll end up paying Setanta to watch Sean Og. That's hardly what the founding fathers envisaged, I wonder is it what Irish people want now.

The GAA has been a major force for good in modern Ireland, a major part of the social fabric, yes in the past it was unbalanced, these days we have a reasonable balance between the interests of clubs, sponsors, players, communities and county boards, if we are going to unbalance it lets be careful about where the end game is at, in ten years time we want a GAA that retains it's ideals.

Those marching on the streets of Cork in the last week would do well to remember that.

My favourite ten inspirational movies

Led in by my favourite movie of all time - La vita e bella.

Happy Friday

1. Life is Beautiful




2. Billy Elliot.



3. Schindlers List



4. The Shawshank Redemption



5. Leon



6. A Beautiful Mind



7. Pay it Forward



8. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.



9. The Green Mile.



10. Jean de Fleurette / Manon des Sources. (almost)


Honourable Mention.

The Boondock Saints

You'll never guess what happened my cat.

This blog is going to the bad, it always suffers when i am a bit busier, in fact there is an inverse relationship between my business productivity and my blog productivity. The busier I am the less blogging i do, the stats at the side tell me that I wrote 67 posts in 05, and 69 posts in 06, but then rocketed to 83 last year, which means i was not as busy as i might have been, it's encouraging that I have only 4 for this year, but if you see a sudden rise in blogging please drop me a line and tell me to get cracking as it seems to mean that I'm writing too much here and not enough in places that are a bit more profitable.

Right, time to take my own medicine.

It just never leaves ya!

What am I like? Playing Basketball game last night and I found myself going nose to nose with one of the opposition, in that "wonder will he hit me" kind of way. I'm almost 43 for fecks sake, mind you Tommy was in a few scrapes too, and he's bloody 54.

Starting to feel some benefit from the lack of cigarettes, I felt much better through the game last night, and I feel better overall, I've done the last 9 days without very much bother, and as long as I keep my head on my shoulders I think I'll be fine this time.

That storm knocked everything around the garden that was not nailed down, basketball hoop, patio heater, flowerpots all toppled over, only the heater sustained any real damage.

I never imagined my blog would turn into one of those incredibly boring "you'll never guess what happened my cat yesterday" kind of offerings, so I apologise for this one.

Now better do some work.

P

Fit to burst

So much happening am almost fit to burst, good news on funding, off to UK next week, rebranding all 2007 brochures for 2008, trying to come up with a great angle for a personal development course for business, busy busy busy.

This year's business plan needs to be more varied than last year, not so much putting the eggs into one or two baskets, plus I need to be out of the office a whole lot more.

Am excited

Phil O'Donnell RIP

Up in my attic I have several boxes full of magazines, for years in the 90's I bought the Celtic View every week, and several years ago i rounded them all up, but unable to actually chuck them out I ended up "storing" them all in the attic.

This Christmas I had a look through some of them, a mate called me the other night to tell me the Phil O'Donnell had collapsed and died while playing for Motherwell. The funny thing is that I never enjoyed supported celtic more than i did at that time, even while we were winning stuff since, and definately not the current stuff, I just can't seem to reconnect with the passion I felt from the early 90's right up to Seville, I had my mate Ger (who died last year) beside me most of the time, watching and screaming for the Celtic of Collins, McStay, Cadete, Di canio, Rieper and marvellous Moravcik.

I was in my late 20's and early 30's. Life was brilliant, nobody we knew died of "natural causes" and as long as we were careful what pubs we went into and where we wore our colours we felt indestructable.

Well Ger is dead, and now one of the young lads we used to watch playing is dead too, I certainly don't feel indestructable anymore, so I went up and had a flick through some of the magazines, through the time of Tommy Burns, Wim Jansen, Dr. Jo, John Bloody Barnes and finally Martin O'Neill (I stopped buying the magazine years ago) and I felt glad to have had all those experiences, glad to have lived through those times and in a strange way i felt that I had little choice back then, cos i had got myself into something i had to see through, and in a strange way Martin O'Neill helped deliver us from that, after Seville it became possible to follow Celtic as a pass time rather than as a compulsion.

It allowed us all to grow up a little.

The ten years before that had kept us as angry passionate teenagers from 1988 to 1998,

But we loved it.

Phil O'Donnell is the first Celtic player of that generation to move on.

RIP

Will I sue?

I just found this image on Henrik Larsson's website, he definately never asked my permission to use it, plus i think he may have altered it to give the impression that he is a celtic legend too.

All I can say I my defence is that I was younger at the time and needed the money.

What I'm getting myself for Christmas.

No not the full father ted collection on DVD. This year I'm getting myself a good kick up the arse.

It's been a while since i did anything that really challenged me or stretched me. and although things are grand I can feel them getting comfortable the last while, it's the watching eastenders and eating full bags of sensations (thai red chilli flavour) kind of comfortable and with Christmas coming up, that's really the wrong direction for me to be going.

When will the penny drop that I'm only really happy when I'm trying to climb a mountain, once i get there and sit on the top for a while I get bored, frustrated and have that sense that I should be doing something else.

So that's what I'm giving myself this Christmas, a good boot up the hole, the sort that gets me out exercising more, out working harder, reading writing and presenting more, playing a bit more sport, doing the christmas swim, enjoying life rather than sitting round staying warm.

I thought your man Kahlil Gibran put it fairly well.

"verily the lust for comfort murders the passion in the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral"



An after Christmas update, I did actually take my medicine on this one, and although i did manage a lot of sitting around, I also visited several people, had loads of visitors, did the christmas day swim, played 2 hours of basketball on boxing day, played a full gaelic football match on 27th, had a limited game of cricket several days and played the traditional new years day "american football game" now the trick is to keep it up cos Jan is often a month when it's hard to get really motivated

The ups and downs of life.

Maybe it's too early to be doing a review of the year, but this has definately been a most interesting one.

The American poet Robert Frost (the road less travelled by fella) said

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life — It goes on"

It was Joy's birthday yesterday, she's 15 now, and she got out of hospital where she's been for the last week after getting a serious fright, so i'm in appreciative mode right now.

Christmas is coming, fast, there's a few balls to fall into place before that though, I'm never sure how they are going to fall, but I know there are going to be some predictable and some surprises, just like life itself

the only reason i put up that pic is because i like it, it was taken a few weeks ago at a friends wedding and i was obviously happy being the centre of attention.

My meme

The word "meme" was introduced by Richard Dawkins in his book, the selfish gene in 1976.

A meme is an idea that spreads, like a virus, through a population which can change the way we think about things, An example of a meme might be that you can do all your Christmas shopping without leaving your house, unthinkable a few years ago, but the idea has now spread and in a few years many many more people will feel safe and confident doing their shopping online.

So what's my meme?

Real change is a adaptive process over time, it's neither impossible nor transformational, but evolutionary.

For coaches this means we should be encouraging small but significant changes rather than trying to change the world, in terms of managing expectations we should not be promising revolution, but rather helping people to move towards what they want a step at a time, change can only really occur when we get momentum, not the pretendy enthusiasm which follows a motivational event, but real momentum built on concrete personal evidence.

I badly ned to find simpler language to get this across, but that's basically the idea I want to propogate.

Everton 7 Sunderland 1

This can't be right can it? i thought it was all about not failing to prepare, and being incredibly intense and not having any big egos in the dressing room.

And then getting stuffed 7-1, not by United, Liverpool, Arsenal or even Chelsea, but by Everton.

Frankly I'm appalled, I don't know what to think anymore.

Much better when it's busy.

Life is just much better when it's busy, whenever I read through my insights personal profile, it strikes me how easy I get bored and how dissatisfied I get when I don't have lots to do.

Too much of a good thing!

It's probably not a good idea to be blogging while watching TV.

I'm watching the mind blowing "high society", the RTE programme which makes me want to run out the front door and buy a gram from the first dealer I meet, It would certainly makes you think about the concept of addiction.

Cocaine looks to be great, the only reason people seem to stop using is that they get into financial trouble, lose a job, or get forced into rehab by somebody who really cares about them.

There is very little evidence that people ever go into rehab voluntarily, in fact the guy at the end made two very interesting statements.

1. I am certain that 95% of the best times in my entire life were when I was on a cocaine blast.
2. If i was 65 and diagnosed with a terminal illness would I go back using? You bet i would.

Now Brian Treacy "guru" used to have a goal setting exercise where he would ask what you would do if you were told you only had 6 months to live, I doubt he ever got "do as much coke as I can afford" as a response.

The problem in life is not drink or cocaine or sex or even scientology, the problem in life is that you can have too much of a good thing.

Irish people are just shite at moderation.

Absorbed!

How does it feel to be in "the flow"?

Completely involved, focused, concentrating - with this either due to innate curiosity or as the result of training
Sense of ecstasy - of being outside everyday reality
Great inner clarity - knowing what needs to be done and how well it is going
Knowing the activity is doable - that the skills are adequate, and neither anxious or bored
Sense of serenity - no worries about self, feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of ego - afterwards feeling of transcending ego in ways not thought possible
Timeliness - thoroughly focused on present, don't notice time passing
Intrinsic motivation - whatever produces "flow" becomes its own reward

it's just a lovely place to be, when high skills meets high challenge.

Capturing Mary.

There's a massive amount happening in my life at the moment, it's not all positive and I find it hard to sit and simply focus on one thing for too long, there's also a great temptation for distraction from the difficulties I'm experiencing so it was in this light that I sat down last night to watch the new Stephen Poliakoff movie "Capturing Mary" on BBC.

After last week watching the Jimmy McGovern drama "The Street" all I can say is thank God for the BBC. They really do make the most wonderful pieces allowing one to forget all their worries and be transported to a different place for a little while. One of our greatest needs in modern society seems to be the need to be "distracted" from life by something else, TV, drugs, religion, something that will make us feel better about ourselves for a time. I usually think that this is taking refuge and failing to confront the issues in life, but I think I might be a little more conpassionate about it in the future.

There are some things in life that cannot be either controlled on wished away. There are difficulties that just are, things that can't be effectively confronted or run away from, perhaps these are the things that simply must be endured. Of course we are determined by our choices, but there are things in life we simply don't choose, illness, difficult relationships, and family are just 3 examples, we also have to expect that once you choose you can gain but you can also lose, so it's not just about choosing it's about trying to make the right choices.

This was intended to be about capturing mary, but as usual it's about me.

Births, Deaths and Marriages.

I'm off to the wedding of my friend Brian, and while I'm at the wedding I'll be thinking about the breakup of another friends marriage. And then in the next 12 months someone will die, and new people and things will be born, some will fall in love and more will fall out of it and do you know what... that's just fucking life.

It's births, deaths, marriages, divorces, tax, christmases, sex, sickness, joy, holidays, hope, pain, victories and car accidents.

It's a bloody rollercoaster because it's supposed to be, it's either highs and lows, or it flatlines... at which point it's so beige that you might as well be bloody dead anyway.

You want a life without pain, try a lobotomy? cocaine? Jumping off a bridge?

Otherwise it's a marriage today and a divorce tomorrow, a birth sunday and a death monday.. that's life man. don't expect it any other way.

Saturday afternoon

Spent a lovely few hours on Sat afternoon just going through and scanning some old pics, these are my maternal grandparents, taken in Glasgow in 1934