The GAA Rat Race

[From the Bunker]

Glennon had three hours' sleep before Meath game

http://hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=229747

[From the Bunker]

'Players are little more now than indentured slaves' - Brolly

http://www.hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=229753

[INDIANA]

'Players are little more now than indentured slaves' - Brolly

http://www.hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=229753

He's dead right too. I mean who the hell really enjoys playing inter county anymore.

There is more to life then playing in Croke Park. Likes of Mc Geeney doesn't understand that

[INDIANA]

'Doomsday scenario'.
Good to see nobody's losing the run of themselves anyway.

Its out of control Jinxy. Tom Cribben was lamenting his side's lack of confidence in front of goal and yet he trains them at 7am on a frozen pitch on the Wednesday morning before it.

Its laughable. You'd wonder who really advises managers out there how to train teams. Quite often the tail wags the dog. I know of several fitness professionals who have worked with inter county teams who advised managers they were over-training their teams only to be over-ruled.
They subsequently found out the manager was being paid by the training sessions!!

[From the Bunker]

The point that everyone realises is that all these inter county players are in a privileged position. There are hundreds upon hundreds of lads out there who would bite their hand off to be in their position.

You Lucky, Lucky Bastards!

[INDIANA]

The point that everyone realises is that all these inter county players are in a privileged position. There are hundreds upon hundreds of lads out there who would bite their hand off to be in their position.

You Lucky, Lucky b**tards!

There is nothing lucky about postponing your career, denying yourself promotions and ensuring you will need knee or hip replacements in your 40's. In my opinion anyway. Your view to me is from a bygone era. They were the priviledged ones when you had a life outside the GAA. Now you can't have one to play at inter county level.

All considering 24 out of 32 teams have zero chance of winning anything either. Its commendable that it's lasted this long

[ardtole]

'Doomsday scenario'.
Good to see nobody's losing the run of themselves anyway.

Its out of control Jinxy. Tom Cribben was lamenting his side's lack of confidence in front of goal and yet he trains them at 7am on a frozen pitch on the Wednesday morning before it.

Its laughable. You'd wonder who really advises managers out there how to train teams. Quite often the tail wags the dog. I know of several fitness professionals who have worked with inter county teams who advised managers they were over-training their teams only to be over-ruled.
They subsequently found out the manager was being paid by the training sessions!!

I happen to know one of the westmeath u21s who were also training with the senior team that morning and he told me they didnt even get a cup of tea afterwards. That particular morning the roads around Kinnegad and westmeath in general were very dangerous, some common sense is going to have to take over soon.

[JoG2]

The point that everyone realises is that all these inter county players are in a privileged position. There are hundreds upon hundreds of lads out there who would bite their hand off to be in their position.

You Lucky, Lucky b**tards!

There is nothing lucky about postponing your career, denying yourself promotions and ensuring you will need knee or hip replacements in your 40's. In my opinion anyway. Your view to me is from a bygone era. They were the priviledged ones when you had a life outside the GAA. Now you can't have one to play at inter county level.

All considering 24 out of 32 teams have zero chance of winning anything either. Its commendable that it's lasted this long

thats if you're full time with Dublin. Derry for example have dentists in the team, others training to be doctors and other top end professional jobs as well as business owners etc . Would love to have worn the senior county jersey....absolute privilege to represent your county. Hope some year by young buck does

[orangeman]

Professor Moyna's view on under 21s and Sigerson cup

Somewhere in there is a happy medium, but who will cry 'halt' to the burnout syndrome in Gaelic football and 'go, go, go' to our schoolchildren?

Professor Niall Moyna of the Centre for Preventive Medicine in Dublin City University was among the attendees at the launch of the 2015 Schools Fitness Challenge sponsored by Aviva Health at the Aviva Stadium yesterday.

Moyna is well known in GAA circles and is manager of the DCU football team.

He is in favour of the Schools Fitness Challenge which last year involved 13,067 students - 7,242 boys and 5,825 girls from the 26 counties in a successful participation over the six weeks of the Challenge.

"The research clearly shows the danger of poor levels of aerobic fitness, with 15-year-olds already showing signs of early onset heart disease," he said.

On the GAA front, Moyna revealed a conversation he had with one of his young footballers on Monday night, something which should be a warning to Association officialdom to wake up and decide to get serious about the ongoing burnout situation.

Competitive

" I talked to a young lad last night after training, and I said to him, 'look, I want to see you playing into your late 20s, but if you continue what you're doing, you won't be playing when you're 24," he said.

"He's a phenomenal young talent, but he's being asked to train with U-21s, senior team, DCU Sigerson team, his club team, and he's trying to please everyone."

DCU are a competitive college in sport, but for the last four years, Moyna has banned strength and conditioning training for his footballers, because they do so much of that work with their counties.

He is also open to change, even with the blue riband of third-level colleges' football, the Sigerson Cup.

The problem remains, as it has for so long, with the rigid adherence to an outdated fixture list which takes no account of modern life and the stresses imposed on amateur players, particularly U-21s.

"If you put on a competition, you can't blame managers for getting players ready, and you can't blame players for playing, so it's the competition structure which is the problem," he said.

Moyna highlights the rise in competitiveness of the League as a relatively new trend, with more preparation than ever before going into the early part of the season by virtually all counties.

The professor believes that teams display fitness levels close to championship level in the League.

That's great for supporters and great for the sponsors, Allianz, and the GAA, but it comes at a cost, because effectively players have to hit a strong peak for the League, and rise again for championship.

Pressure

"Because there's so much effort going into the National League, it's putting enormous pressure on U-21 and Sigerson players," he said. "In the past managers didn't really care, because it was 'only ' the National League.

"Now it's absolutely huge, so I think from that perspective, that's where the calendar really has to change - and is there a need for both U-21 and the Sigerson?

"I think that's another hard question that needs to be asked because you're calling on the same group of guys."

The solution has to come from a strong core of leadership that is prepared to make the tough calls, and stick with them.

"They've really got to decide whether they're going to take this on once and for all because we're not the Association we were 30 or 40 years ago," said Moyna.

"The championship should be combined with the League and it should be finished at the end of August.

"And with the amount of preparation that teams are putting in, they should get more games, because the ratio is something like 12 or 13 training sessions per game and that's just ridiculous. No other sport does that."

[DennistheMenace]

More and more of the 'older' footballers from 29 - 34 age group now see it as a burden rather than a privilege. When it starts to impact your family time and work as it has done in recent years with the unreal commitment required these days then I think it's gone too far. As I've said previously, club commitment is somewhere similar to what county was not too long ago, intercounty commitment has reached new levels, boys not being able to celebrate championship wins, out training in November / December, early morning sessions, double sessions, personalised strength and conditioning sessions in between training.

The social aspect is gone, weddings in the summer are a no go, stag dos well forget about them completely unless in December, the sacrifice is surreal and GAA players surely look at the likes of the rugby boys who enjoy a beer after their games, even in the world-cup soccer players enjoyed a drink in between some games yet we have drink bans for month. Enough is enough.

[Jinxy]

Introduce a rule whereby you cannot play Sigerson if you are training with a senior intercounty squad.
This would give sub-elite players a chance to play football with their college.
It would also reduce the scholarship merry-go-round as there's no point recruiting someone who won't be able to play for you.
It's unhealthy to have lads going to a college, or staying in college, just to play football.
Who would object to this?
And don't give me this "But the players will want to play Sigerson, think of the great memories they'll have etc."
It's high time we started protecting the players from themselves.
I full agree with Brolly by the way in terms of the GPA being the primary cause of the current mess.

[AZOffaly]

Introduce a rule whereby you cannot play Sigerson if you are training with a senior intercounty squad.
This would give sub-elite players a chance to play football with their college.
It would also reduce the scholarship merry-go-round as there's no point recruiting someone who won't be able to play for you.
It's unhealthy to have lads going to a college, or staying in college, just to play football.
Who would object to this?
And don't give me this "But the players will want to play Sigerson, think of the great memories they'll have etc."
It's high time we started protecting the players from themselves.
I full agree with Brolly by the way in terms of the GPA being the primary cause of the current mess.

A lot of county teams would train seniors and under 21s together.

I like Indiana's idea, but maybe at a slightly higher level. If you play Senior inter County championship, you cease to be eligible for an underage grade. Obviously the calendar will mitigate the impact of this rule when you are talking about pure U21s, but a lot of 20 year olds and younger are playing senior. I think once you've moved up you should be out of the underage equation.

It would make managers think twice about using younger lads as well.

re. the Sigerson, I think it's a good tournament, but it is starting to be blown way out of proportion. At the end of the day it's a knock out competition for colleges. A small bit of realism might be beneficial here. It should be a pleasant diversion for lads attending college, rather than a massive pressure situation for them. Colleges need to stop 'building' Sigerson teams, and instead go back to fielding teams to play Sigerson. (rather than 'creating a team *for* Sigerson).

Finally, I think they should not enter the O'Byrne/McKenna/FBD/McGrath Cups. No need for it. Is there still a third level league? If so, let them use that.


I think bringing in a rule that once you play adult county championship, you are ineligible for underage grades, reducing the perceived importance of the Sigerson, and reducing the amount of games the college teams play would be a good start.

[JoG2]

The county season needs dramatically shortened which in return will also allow the club championship run off in the calendar year,as well as a decent club season in the whole.

[yellowcard]

From talking to plenty of people I haven't heard anyone not agree with the fact that ther needs to be a radical overhaul of the fixtures from the top down and yet those that matter at the top continue to bury their head in the sand and do nothing.

Brollys interview on Newstalk sums up everything brilliantly and highlights the pressures on players now. They are pawns in the top brass' continued quest for revenue generation before player welfare. When will they say enough is enough?

[AZOffaly]

From talking to plenty of people I haven't heard anyone not agree with the fact that ther needs to be a radical overhaul of the fixtures from the top down and yet those that matter at the top continue to bury their head in the sand and do nothing.

Brollys interview on Newstalk sums up everything brilliantly and highlights the pressures on players now. They are pawns in the top brass' continued quest for revenue generation before player welfare. When will they say enough is enough?

It's a tricky one in fairness. The ethos of the GAA is an amateur, volunteer, organisation. However even amateur, volunteer organisations need cash to provide facilities, look after players, etc. In order to do that, you need a business model, run by business men. The problem with that is the business men will be focused on maximising revenue and revenue streams, and unless you have strong leadership which continues to steer the ship by the central tenants of the association, you end up with this sort of bastardised model we currently have, which to my mind is being driven by commercial motivations. Possibly a clear case of the tail wagging the dog.

Do we have enough money? If not, what is enough? And what do we sacrifice to get more money? At the moment a lot of people would argue that every decision is motivated by the potential financial return. I don't necessarily agree with that, but I do think it is a major driving force.

I don't mean this to be a divisive statement by any means, but if we take a couple of areas as examples, I think you can clearly see where income, and profit, is the main motivation behind the current  position or status quo. some of these things I agree with, some I disagree with, but I think it points to what is setting the agenda in Croke Park.

1 - Games in Croke Park, especially featuring the Dubs.
2 - Huge investment in Dublin games development in hurling and football, vis a vis investment in other counties.
3 - The current Qualifier system in football.
4 - The American Football in Croke Park in August/September.

I'm not taking shots at Dublin at all, but I think the focus the GAA has put on Dublin is less about trying to make the Dubs competitive as it is about making the GAA a huge player in Dublin. Why, because that way you get more TV, more patrons and more media attention, all of which leads to more money. Again, is that a bad thing - moot point. I think it's right that our capital city is a stronghold of our games, but I'm not sure that's what the GAA are worried about. I think they are worried about the €s which are generated in terms of ROI. And in maximising this revenue stream, they may have unintentionally helped create a situation where there is a competitive unbalance, at least in Leinster terms. So is it worth milking the Dublin cash cow for all it can give, and speculating to accumulate, if that investment means the actual games themselves become less competitive, and arguably less attractive.

Again, it's not a shot at Dublin. If they turned around and stopped funding Dublin altogether, and ploughed millions into Kildare, or Antrim, because they felt there was a huge untapped revenue source in Kildare or Belfast, I'd be saying the same thing. Mind you if they ploughed it into Tipp or Offaly, i'd be happy out