'Trust has been broken' over GAA merger - Meyler
· Yahoo Sports
Tyrone All-Ireland winner Conor Meyler said his concern over the planned merger of the GAA, Camogie Association and Ladies Gaelic Football Association [LGFA] is that the issue "is going to be thrown to the wayside again".
In February 2024, the three bodies announced plans to merge into one organisation by 2027.
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However, in recent days, chairperson of the Steering Group Dr Mary McAleese stepped down, while a recent letter sent by the GAA's Integration Committee said it could no longer commit to that timeline.
"I don't doubt her [McAleese's] ability and leadership in any stretch," Meyler told BBC Sport NI's Mark Sidebottom.
"I just don't think she surrounded herself with the right board composition to actually get it done or she didn't have the power in the position to actually get things done within the three associations that she wanted and that's probably really disappointing because I know she was wholeheartedly going into this trying to make it happen.
"What I'd love to see too is I'd love to see what truth is. I also think that the trust has been broken and you're waiting for someone to put their hands up now and go look 'you know what, you gave us a task that was over four years, and we did not get it done'.
"My fear and concern is that it's going to be thrown to the wayside again. So now is an opportunity to actually potentially take action."
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'Who is going to put their hands up now and say we didn't get it right?'
The GAA, Camogie Association and LGFA all voted infavour of integration at their respective congress in 2022, while with the Steering Group for Integration surveyed 30,000 respondents with an "overwhelming majority in favour of integration".
Meyler believes the key question that now needs answered is "how did we get here?"
"Is it structures? Is it facilities? Is it funding? Who is going to put their hands up now and say we didn't get it right," he continued.
"Because how do you rebuild trust then when you go into an organisation? We're talking about unity, we want unanimous integrated association for every young boy and girl, every coach, referee, volunteer, committee member gets the same opportunity to play the game of Gaelic Games.
"That's what we want, we want unity but now we're still creating silos and we're creating more friction and fighting between people because we've separated them rather than bringing them together. "
The Tyrone All-Star has recently completed his PhD in understanding sport leadership and gender reform.
During this time, he completed a case study on integration in Gaelic Games, which he presented to the Steering Committee three years ago.
"I presented the findings from our policy brief publication, and I've had conversations with different people in it throughout different periods, but it's been very much a closed group," he continued.
"This is quite disappointing because anything that requires this level and magnitude of change requires a huge level of trust and a huge level of communication and we haven't had communication really.
"Communication has been shocking compared to some of the other committees within Gaelic Games."