Jerry Kiernan has a shot at GAA players/fitness levels

[Jinxy]

Interesting.
I'd love to see the raw data though or is there a greater level of detail given elsewhere?

[yellowcard]

Would be interesting to see the sample size and nature of the matches for each sport. I don't believe that soccer players run 14.6km per match based on the screen graphics that come up during matches. I've yet to see a player clock that distance in one match yet alone average it.

I remember Tony Adams saying one time that the fittest player he seen at the club was Graham Geraghty the time he was on trial at Arsenal. Not sure how true that story is though.

[Jinxy]

Also, if you take tennis and ladies football out of the equation, there's an inverse relationship between the average body mass of the athlete and the average distance they cover.
To be honest, the only really valid comparison is gaelic football vs. soccer.

[Eamonnca1]

I reffed a 7-a-side college hurling match at the weekend on a rugby field. Ran 1.3 miles in the first half and 1.5 in the second.

So now you know.

[Jinxy]

Actually hurling and football would be an interesting comparison.
We all know the answer but I'd like to see how much of a difference there is.

[Zulu]

I saw two pieces of research a few years back, one showed footballers to be fitter and stronger in every test compared to hurlers though the standard of footballer tested was higher than their hurling counterpart, IC Ulster players I'm sure. The second showed hurlers cover pretty much the same ground as footballers but this was a presentation so I don't know anything about who he tested or how he got his results.

[Mario]

That graphic isn't right. Well soccer and gaelic anyway, definitely in the very highest end of the scale and not averages. I know for a fact the furthest any Derry senior footballer has run this year in a game is 10.5 km.

Soccer distances for midfielders are usually around 10 km, i remember a year or 2 ago when tiote and cabaye were playing well for Newcastle there was a bit of hype in the media around how far they were running every game and it was 13 km a game. I also remember Beckham making the headline for running 14 km in a game.

It doesn't take away from the fitness of county gaelic footballers, they run as far as premier league players in 50% less time.

[shark]

The data presented tells us very little.  So what if a player covers X amount of kms per game?  11.7km if continuously ran for 60/70 mins isn't much above walking pace.  I will play midfield for my club tomorrow afternoon and cover far more than that (because I'm good for nothing else!), yet most of my teammates would blow me out of the water over 10-50 metres.  The amount of high intensity running, the speed this is done at, and the average recovery time are the metrics that matter.

[ck]

Soccer players play 90mins and GAA is 70. Was this factored in?

Ps: Jerry Kiernan is a bitter little tosser

[Main Street]

Soccer players play 90mins and GAA is 70. Was this factored in?

You have to factor that yourself. The GAA player cover more ground at a faster pace than his soccer cousins.
Fortunately  Francie Bellew has retired, otherwise his presence alone would have skewed the whole GAA figure to an embarrassing snail's pace.

[thejuice]

http://m.rte.ie/sport/touch/athletics/2014/0606/622010-blog-gillick-on-adapting-to-gaelic-football/

Wonder if Jerry has read this?

[Bingo]

http://m.rte.ie/sport/touch/athletics/2014/0606/622010-blog-gillick-on-adapting-to-gaelic-football/

Wonder if Jerry has read this?

Good read that

[Wildweasel74]

Gillick be hard to catch i say if he got going, like any other sport that type of fitness for that sport depends on the type of training u do, many say Bruce lee was the fittest man alive, but that was training for the full contact type fighting, Marathon runners train for long distances, is he fitter than a rugby player, its all horses for courses, personally i think the UFC type fighter or professional boxers are very fit though that doesn't mean u wouldn't run rings round them on a  football field.

[muppet]

Gillick be hard to catch i say if he got going, like any other sport that type of fitness for that sport depends on the type of training u do, many say Bruce lee was the fittest man alive, but that was training for the full contact type fighting, Marathon runners train for long distances, is he fitter than a rugby player, its all horses for courses, personally i think the UFC type fighter or professional boxers are very fit though that doesn't mean u wouldn't run rings round them on a  football field.

In my youth I though Tyson was the most awesome athlete I had ever seen. Since then Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt have impressed me even more. But how would they get on marking the Gooch?

[brokencrossbar1]

Gillick be hard to catch i say if he got going, like any other sport that type of fitness for that sport depends on the type of training u do, many say Bruce lee was the fittest man alive, but that was training for the full contact type fighting, Marathon runners train for long distances, is he fitter than a rugby player, its all horses for courses, personally i think the UFC type fighter or professional boxers are very fit though that doesn't mean u wouldn't run rings round them on a  football field.

In my youth I though Tyson was the most awesome athlete I had ever seen. Since then Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt have impressed me even more. But how would they get on marking the Gooch?

Surely Bolt would be playing with Cooper?