Why are so many players leaving county panels?

[thebandit]

Just heard on the radio that 2 Limerick hurlers, Brian Begley and Maurice O'Brien have dropped off the panel.This is on top of the St Galls men in Antrim, all the Laois players, and most baffling of all, Ger Brennan from Dublin.

Have players reached breaking point?

[Rossfan]

2 in Limerick, some from 1 club in Antrim, 1 from Dublin and "all the Laois" players
Should the thread not be titled "why are all the Laois players leaving their County panel"?

Leaving out Laois - the other 31 Counties have 62 panels of 30 = 1,860 players. About 10 of these are dropping out.
Hardly a crisis is it?

[ziggysego]

A big demand is placed amongst player now and with that, more pressure.

[Bogball XV]

2 in Limerick, some from 1 club in Antrim, 1 from Dublin and "all the Laois" players
Should the thread not be titled "why are all the Laois players leaving their County panel"?

Leaving out Laois - the other 31 Counties have 62 panels of 30 = 1,860 players. About 10 of these are dropping out.
Hardly a crisis is it?

No, but it's a good point, when you add in the likes of O'Neill from Tyrone you've got to wonder.  Basically there's just too much committment needed, there's also top level players in every county who don't make themselves available in the first place, not to mention the amount of players who retire from competitive club football at a relatively early age.
What the solution is, I don't know, but I suppose we're all to blame in some way.

[INDIANA]

it's like this you'll sit on the bench for a period of time, but if you're  notgetting close to the 15 after 18mths, you'll jack it. the commitment is too much too continually pick splinters out of your arse. that's post celtic tiger ireland for you.

[Bogball XV]

it's like this you'll sit on the bench for a period of time, but if you're  notgetting close to the 15 after 18mths, you'll jack it. the commitment is too much too continually pick splinters out of your arse. that's post celtic tiger ireland for you.

I think that's always been the way Indiana.
Some good points there ML, some way of tightening up the intercounty season should be looked at, I'd be in favour of getting rid of the provincial system and combining league and championship.  Does it really take 3 months to play 8 games in Ulster for example?  There's too much bowing to tradition (bar pricing and revenue generating mechanisms of course), it is time to take a new look at it all. 
Good point on O'Neill, such a talented player was joy for us all to watch and it's a shame that he won't be gracing our playing fields this summer (and a blessing too of course).

[Zulu]

I think it should be pointed out that Begley has left due to injury and if can get back to fitness he will re-join the panel. I also think you are over stating the hardships of the inter county player.

[thewobbler]

I'd say the main reason is very simple; it requires an awful lot of effort and commitment for very little game time.

For example, between March and July, Down players go off the sauce, train collectively 3 time a time, train individually the same again... and over the past few years none of them has got more than 210 minutes of football over those four months. Some of them got none, aside from when released to club duty.

[INDIANA]

a lot of them don't skull, i'm afraid to say. we're at breaking point either the game goes back to being amateur or it heads towards the inevitability  of semi- professionalism/professionalism. you can't hold down a 9-5.30 professional job anymore and play at that level. that's how ridiculous it's gotten. guys won't give up a career anymore for 5 years on the bench.

[orangeman]

a lot of them don't skull, i'm afraid to say. we're at breaking point either the game goes back to being amateur or it heads towards the inevitability  of semi- professionalism/professionalism. you can't hold down a 9-5.30 professional job anymore and play at that level. that's how ridiculous it's gotten. guys won't give up a career anymore for 5 years on the bench.

[/b]


Some in Tyrone do ! 

[ONeill]

Are there many in Tyrone, Armagh or Derry who have turned their back on the county game? The odd example etc like Sweeney or McCrossan but that's about it. To me it's attitude. The aforementioned three are usually involved in as long a season as there can be yet have less deflections. I feel that lack of glory/love for the county has some kind of impact.

[neilthemac]

so it'll be a case of:

the players who are prepared to stick it out for the few bob they'll get for being on the panel but not playing

and the players who want to play for their clubs and have some sort of life in their 20's

[cornafean]

Donal McAnallen's heartbreaking story of his brother's death sums up this issue, in my view

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/setting-the-record-straight-1332335.html

(quote)

The life and death of my brother Cormac epitomised these problems. Yet the GAA hasn't learned the lessons from his death: that pressures of time, expectation and stress are the real problems for inter-county players, not money.

In the year before he died, Cormac achieved most of his GAA dreams. He was on Tyrone's first Sam Maguire Cup and National League winning teams, played for Ireland in Australia, won an All-Star, and went on the Tyrone team trip to Dubai. In January 2004 he became Tyrone captain. Along the way he had lots of fun and made many friends. Ostensibly it was the greatest year of a great life.

But the world doesn't know how much he endured in that year. Due to a knee injury he missed all but two ordinary NFL games in 2003. In late March he was sent off for a clumsy tackle -- a mere yellow card offence -- in a club game. The injured player later apologised to Cormac for going down.

While suspended, Cormac missed the NFL semi-final. Three times between May and August he visited A&E after games: his cheekbone was fractured by an elbow in an Ulster SFC game; and twice he was concussed in club games, the latter after a late tackle. He also shipped off-the-ball strikes in Croke Park. He began to suffer frequent headaches and sleepwalking.

The trip to Australia in October 2003 was a real trial for Cormac. It was badly organised: few activities were planned for the players, and team morale was low. Cormac felt slightly alienated, while he worried about domestic matters such as the classes he taught at school, and he rued missing Tyrone's celebrations. In the first test he scored an own goal and was sent off for defending a team-mate, even though he didn't strike anyone. Critical comments (largely unfair) were passed about him in the media, and these hurt him. He rang home in tears. It was a relief for him to get an early flight home.

In a club game in November, a late tackle wrecked Cormac's knee for the next three months. On his return, he felt chest pains, but disregarded them. In late February he caught a cold or virus, which some people ascribe to his waiting 20 minutes in playing gear for a TV interview, in the bitter cold, after the McKenna Cup final. (Stress and viruses are believed to be key triggers for underlying heart conditions, but we knew none of this at the time.)

He obliged many requests; some he didn't mind, such as the club functions in nine counties he attended that winter. But some demands were plain daft. At 9.0 pm on March 1, 2004, after he returned from a day at school and the gym, he was about to mark homework, when we told him about some inane new requests. "This has got to stop," he reacted with a sigh. Six hours later, it did stop, but not as we would have hoped.

(end)

[North Longford]

I've said it here before in relation to the few quid the county players are getting, I don't think anyone really appreciates what the county players go through. Even in a county like Longford it's non stop and these guys have more and more expectations of them all the time. If they miss a training session with their club you'll hear that these lads are too big forthe club all of a sudden. Theres a few boys from our club with the county team and they work long hours, some of them have small kids and I honestly don't know how they do it. The ones that don't get games really deserve praise because so far in Longford this year there have only been 2 club games which thay have been eligible to play in.........its June for Gods sake and some 'footballers'in Longford have played 2 games this year!!!! For the past 3 years we have had fellas who have had really good years with the club, have been called up to the county panel and not got games and have been half the players when they come back to the club. Some of them are still struggling to make our senior team. With the way things are run in Longford i wouldn't be questioning why some of the fringe players pull off panels I'd actually be advising them to do so!!

[thebandit]

For the past 3 years we have had fellas who have had really good years with the club, have been called up to the county panel and not got games and have been half the players when they come back to the club. Some of them are still struggling to make our senior team. With the way things are run in Longford i wouldn't be questioning why some of the fringe players pull off panels I'd actually be advising them to do so!!

That is happening in every county..... If the panels were tightened to 24 it would cut this down, but then the problem is that intercounty managers understandibly want panels of at least 30 (most are actually carrying more) in order to create match like conditions in training