The GAA Rat Race

[DennistheMenace]

Good article in today's Irish News about the rigorous demands on current IC (and Club) footballers.

This year has seen many high profile retirements with many stating they couldn't adhere to 4 or 5 nights a week training, do you think the demands are too high and we are losing quality footballers at too early an age?

In many other sports someone in their early 30s is regarded in their peak. Marty Clarke doesn't look like he is going to commit to Down due to the 5 nights a week training structure. Personally I think it's all gone a bit crazy.

[muppet]

Good article in today's Irish News about the rigorous demands on current IC (and Club) footballers.

This year has seen many high profile retirements with many stating they couldn't adhere to 4 or 5 nights a week training, do you think the demands are too high and we are losing quality footballers at too early an age?

In many other sports someone in their early 30s is regarded in their peak. Marty Clarke doesn't look like he is going to commit to Down due to the 5 nights a week training structure. Personally I think it's all gone a bit crazy.

We could end up with a few (say up to elite teams and the rest a long way behind and with little chance of bridging the gap. Once you fall behind you could end up in a vicious cycle of players not interested because of lack of results and lack of results due to players not interested etc.

One of the hidden dangers of allowing the above to develop is that the small few elite counties would have a lot of leverage over the system and resources (TV rights).

[Walter Cronc]

How many counties have a realistic chance of winning the AI over the next 5 years??

5/6 at a push?? Is that any different to the past where the big sides dominated and you had the odd bolter - Offaly, Ulster sides etc...

[orangeman]

Good article in today's Irish News about the rigorous demands on current IC (and Club) footballers.

This year has seen many high profile retirements with many stating they couldn't adhere to 4 or 5 nights a week training, do you think the demands are too high and we are losing quality footballers at too early an age?

In many other sports someone in their early 30s is regarded in their peak. Marty Clarke doesn't look like he is going to commit to Down due to the 5 nights a week training structure. Personally I think it's all gone a bit crazy.

There's no way teams are training 5 nights a week. This is a myth.

[muppet]

How many counties have a realistic chance of winning the AI over the next 5 years??

5/6 at a push?? Is that any different to the past where the big sides dominated and you had the odd bolter - Offaly, Ulster sides etc...

It is different.

Any of the sides could have come a cropper in their provinces up to recently. This hasn't been a problem for Dublin and to a lesser extant Mayo for a while. Kerry and Cork obviously have seen no change there but if the likes of Down can't get their players training the same as, say Donegal, then there will be much less a chance of shocks happening in future in Ulster as well.

[brokencrossbar1]

Good article in today's Irish News about the rigorous demands on current IC (and Club) footballers.

This year has seen many high profile retirements with many stating they couldn't adhere to 4 or 5 nights a week training, do you think the demands are too high and we are losing quality footballers at too early an age?

In many other sports someone in their early 30s is regarded in their peak. Marty Clarke doesn't look like he is going to commit to Down due to the 5 nights a week training structure. Personally I think it's all gone a bit crazy.

We could end up with a few (say up to elite teams and the rest a long way behind and with little chance of bridging the gap. Once you fall behind you could end up in a vicious cycle of players not interested because of lack of results and lack of results due to players not interested etc.

One of the hidden dangers of allowing the above to develop is that the small few elite counties would have a lot of leverage over the system and resources (TV rights).

The top 8 or so teams has always been the case.  Only 12 counties have won the championship in the last 50 years with 3 of those teams being single winners.  This is the nature of all sports though and will always be the way.  It is getting more extreme with the level of commitment that is now expected but it really isn't going to change the status quo.  If we forecast 20 years into the future I would suggest that Kerry will have won 6-8 All Irelands,  Dublin 4-6, and the likes of Donegal, Cork, Tyrone, Down, Galway and maybe even Mayo, Derry or Armagh  will scrap for the rest.  I can't see it being any different to the last 20 years apart from maybe a team pulling a one off run but that is unlikely.

Good article in today's Irish News about the rigorous demands on current IC (and Club) footballers.

This year has seen many high profile retirements with many stating they couldn't adhere to 4 or 5 nights a week training, do you think the demands are too high and we are losing quality footballers at too early an age?

In many other sports someone in their early 30s is regarded in their peak. Marty Clarke doesn't look like he is going to commit to Down due to the 5 nights a week training structure. Personally I think it's all gone a bit crazy.

There's no way teams are training 5 nights a week. This is a myth.

Armagh players are currently expected to train mornings and evening 4 days a week and on a Saturday as well, that is why there have been a number of retirements and players leaving the training panel.

[orangeman]

Good article in today's Irish News about the rigorous demands on current IC (and Club) footballers.

This year has seen many high profile retirements with many stating they couldn't adhere to 4 or 5 nights a week training, do you think the demands are too high and we are losing quality footballers at too early an age?

In many other sports someone in their early 30s is regarded in their peak. Marty Clarke doesn't look like he is going to commit to Down due to the 5 nights a week training structure. Personally I think it's all gone a bit crazy.

We could end up with a few (say up to elite teams and the rest a long way behind and with little chance of bridging the gap. Once you fall behind you could end up in a vicious cycle of players not interested because of lack of results and lack of results due to players not interested etc.

One of the hidden dangers of allowing the above to develop is that the small few elite counties would have a lot of leverage over the system and resources (TV rights).

The top 8 or so teams has always been the case.  Only 12 counties have won the championship in the last 50 years with 3 of those teams being single winners.  This is the nature of all sports though and will always be the way.  It is getting more extreme with the level of commitment that is now expected but it really isn't going to change the status quo.  If we forecast 20 years into the future I would suggest that Kerry will have won 6-8 All Irelands,  Dublin 4-6, and the likes of Donegal, Cork, Tyrone, Down, Galway and maybe even Mayo, Derry or Armagh  will scrap for the rest.  I can't see it being any different to the last 20 years apart from maybe a team pulling a one off run but that is unlikely.

Good article in today's Irish News about the rigorous demands on current IC (and Club) footballers.

This year has seen many high profile retirements with many stating they couldn't adhere to 4 or 5 nights a week training, do you think the demands are too high and we are losing quality footballers at too early an age?

In many other sports someone in their early 30s is regarded in their peak. Marty Clarke doesn't look like he is going to commit to Down due to the 5 nights a week training structure. Personally I think it's all gone a bit crazy.

There's no way teams are training 5 nights a week. This is a myth.

Armagh players are currently expected to train mornings and evening 4 days a week and on a Saturday as well, that is why there have been a number of retirements and players leaving the training panel.

9 sessions a week ?.

[brokencrossbar1]

Good article in today's Irish News about the rigorous demands on current IC (and Club) footballers.

This year has seen many high profile retirements with many stating they couldn't adhere to 4 or 5 nights a week training, do you think the demands are too high and we are losing quality footballers at too early an age?

In many other sports someone in their early 30s is regarded in their peak. Marty Clarke doesn't look like he is going to commit to Down due to the 5 nights a week training structure. Personally I think it's all gone a bit crazy.

We could end up with a few (say up to elite teams and the rest a long way behind and with little chance of bridging the gap. Once you fall behind you could end up in a vicious cycle of players not interested because of lack of results and lack of results due to players not interested etc.

One of the hidden dangers of allowing the above to develop is that the small few elite counties would have a lot of leverage over the system and resources (TV rights).

The top 8 or so teams has always been the case.  Only 12 counties have won the championship in the last 50 years with 3 of those teams being single winners.  This is the nature of all sports though and will always be the way.  It is getting more extreme with the level of commitment that is now expected but it really isn't going to change the status quo.  If we forecast 20 years into the future I would suggest that Kerry will have won 6-8 All Irelands,  Dublin 4-6, and the likes of Donegal, Cork, Tyrone, Down, Galway and maybe even Mayo, Derry or Armagh  will scrap for the rest.  I can't see it being any different to the last 20 years apart from maybe a team pulling a one off run but that is unlikely.

Good article in today's Irish News about the rigorous demands on current IC (and Club) footballers.

This year has seen many high profile retirements with many stating they couldn't adhere to 4 or 5 nights a week training, do you think the demands are too high and we are losing quality footballers at too early an age?

In many other sports someone in their early 30s is regarded in their peak. Marty Clarke doesn't look like he is going to commit to Down due to the 5 nights a week training structure. Personally I think it's all gone a bit crazy.

There's no way teams are training 5 nights a week. This is a myth.

Armagh players are currently expected to train mornings and evening 4 days a week and on a Saturday as well, that is why there have been a number of retirements and players leaving the training panel.

9 sessions a week ?.

Good stuff, did you use a calculator?

[muppet]

Good article in today's Irish News about the rigorous demands on current IC (and Club) footballers.

This year has seen many high profile retirements with many stating they couldn't adhere to 4 or 5 nights a week training, do you think the demands are too high and we are losing quality footballers at too early an age?

In many other sports someone in their early 30s is regarded in their peak. Marty Clarke doesn't look like he is going to commit to Down due to the 5 nights a week training structure. Personally I think it's all gone a bit crazy.

We could end up with a few (say up to elite teams and the rest a long way behind and with little chance of bridging the gap. Once you fall behind you could end up in a vicious cycle of players not interested because of lack of results and lack of results due to players not interested etc.

One of the hidden dangers of allowing the above to develop is that the small few elite counties would have a lot of leverage over the system and resources (TV rights).

The top 8 or so teams has always been the case.  Only 12 counties have won the championship in the last 50 years with 3 of those teams being single winners.  This is the nature of all sports though and will always be the way.  It is getting more extreme with the level of commitment that is now expected but it really isn't going to change the status quo.  If we forecast 20 years into the future I would suggest that Kerry will have won 6-8 All Irelands,  Dublin 4-6, and the likes of Donegal, Cork, Tyrone, Down, Galway and maybe even Mayo, Derry or Armagh  will scrap for the rest.  I can't see it being any different to the last 20 years apart from maybe a team pulling a one off run but that is unlikely.

Good article in today's Irish News about the rigorous demands on current IC (and Club) footballers.

This year has seen many high profile retirements with many stating they couldn't adhere to 4 or 5 nights a week training, do you think the demands are too high and we are losing quality footballers at too early an age?

In many other sports someone in their early 30s is regarded in their peak. Marty Clarke doesn't look like he is going to commit to Down due to the 5 nights a week training structure. Personally I think it's all gone a bit crazy.

There's no way teams are training 5 nights a week. This is a myth.

Armagh players are currently expected to train mornings and evening 4 days a week and on a Saturday as well, that is why there have been a number of retirements and players leaving the training panel.

9 sessions a week ?.

There was a time when this didn't mean training.

[blewuporstuffed]

Good article in today's Irish News about the rigorous demands on current IC (and Club) footballers.

This year has seen many high profile retirements with many stating they couldn't adhere to 4 or 5 nights a week training, do you think the demands are too high and we are losing quality footballers at too early an age?

In many other sports someone in their early 30s is regarded in their peak. Marty Clarke doesn't look like he is going to commit to Down due to the 5 nights a week training structure. Personally I think it's all gone a bit crazy.

There's no way teams are training 5 nights a week. This is a myth.

it wouldnt be that uncommon for club sides to be doing 4/5 sessions a week between on pitch sessions and S&C sessions

[Sidney]

From 1973 to 1991 no Ulster or Connacht county beat a Leinster or Munster county in the championship. All-Ireland semi-finals usually resulted in maulings for Ulster and Connacht counties. That was a real crisis of competitiveness.

Gaelic football has if anything become more competitive over the last 12 years or so. Sligo, Fermanagh and Wexford were serious competitors at the business end of the All-Ireland championship in this time, Westmeath and Laois won provincial titles (I know this is now over 10 years ago but it shows what can be done). And anybody with any sense of justice still maintains Louth won one too. Monaghan are one of the game's top 6-8 teams off the back of a population base of barely 60,000. Tipperary are improving and have an All-Ireland minor title to show for it. Cavan have won the last four Ulster under-21 titles.

Donegal and Mayo went from being humiliated in the first round of the 2010 qualifiers to contesting the All-Ireland final in 2012.

What was done by Donegal and Mayo, well there's no reason why several other counties couldn't do the same. Meath, Kildare, Galway, Down, Armagh, Derry being obvious candidates.

Donegal have shown with their system that they can beat more talented teams. System-based play should in theory lead to a levelling of standards.

It just requires the right organisation, preparation and commitment to make a team competitive.

Hurling is no different to football in terms of the time needed to train etc, yet we're coming into a more democratic era in hat seven or eight counties could all conceivably win an All-Ireland in the near future.

The argument about the average age of players is a different one to the competitiveness argument.

[illdecide]

I would like to see Jamie Clarke's face as KMcGeeney tells him to pump iron and train 9 times a week...lol (no calculator used). This is madness especially this time of year, you don't mind the training being stepped up a month or 6 weeks before the Championship and then ease up the week before hand but this is just too much to ask a guy to do as he tries to hold down a job(and worse if he's a young family too). We need a few teams with a fistful of exceptional footballers to tear these fit and well drilled robots to bits and then we'll go back focusing on skill again...

It happens all the time. Dublin won the All Ireland last year training around the clock so everyone else thinks this is the way to go . I know Kerry won it this year but Kerry are Kerry...the next team to win it using a different technique to the rest of the teams then this will be replicated by the other wannabe's

[manfromdelmonte]

If I was playing another sport I could conceivably be training/playing 4/5 times a week all for my own enjoyment
eg triathlons, squash, rugby

so I don't see what the big deal is once managers and players are sensible about the workload in sessions
some teams might do 4/5 sessions a week - how many of them are recovery sessions? tactics sessions?

[BennyCake]

Why 5 nights a week? Surely the body needs a days rest in between training sessions? I'm no training expert but training everyday makes no sense whatsoever.

[drici]

I remember seeing an interview with Paul Brady. He said that he trained 17 times a week. He's the best handballer there's ever been.

In saying that, I think he did have a rest day in there.

Arthur
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBGkhPx529g