By John Harrington

Newly appointed Gaelic Players Association Chief Executive, Dermot Earley is ready to embark on a hearts and minds mission.

The Kildare native believes the GPA hasn’t always successfully got their message across to the GAA public, and wants to rectify that.

“It hasn’t got out to the wider GAA public on exactly what we do,” he admits.

“I suppose the challenge for me is to get that message out, while I’ve taken over in my new role, exactly what the services are we provide here for the inter-county player.

“I think a lot of people actually don’t understand the workings of the internal staff here of the GPA and the benefits of the programmes that we have here, so that’s a big challenge for me.

“But in any dealings with the media, I will get that message out and it’s also something we’ll look to internally about communicating the right message out there to the public, and we’ll look at that inside ourselves.”

Earley believes the GPA is sometimes misunderstood, because there isn’t a wide awareness of the wide array services they provide for their players.

“I suppose people, not that they don't want to, they don't really have an interest in what goes on,” he says.

“They might just see the funding we receive and they're possibly critical of that without realising where exactly that funding goes.

"If we look at the last deal, half of that funding is going right directly back into the players to help them prepare to play inter-county games.

“The rest of it goes into providing the support services here in order for players to be the best they can be away from the football field, to develop their own personal identity so that when they’re finished playing the game, they have something to fall back on in their own personal and professional lives. I don’t think many people know that.”