The work and commitment to get to a county final is incredible. I know from my club Cloughbawn who reached the senior hurling county final in Wexford this year, they trained twice a week and when match day grew closer that increased to 3 times a week. I also know of teams which have over 120 training sessions in a given season. A club in Waterford train 3 times a week for 9 months and when they get into the championship they have one pitch session, one gym session and a match every week. Some clubs even train 5 nights a week. Nobody questions their managers or coaches as they will decide who will play the games.
Cloughbawn were also put on drinking bans throughout the year as are most senior teams. However in doing this, the players miss out on a number of social and family events. A few of the players could not drink at one of their best friend’s weddings this year which just shows their commitment, passion and hopes to bring the cup home. GAA has become more than just a game to these athletes, it’s a way of life. Holidays, work and other things are all planned around training session’s, matches and the drink bans. They effectively give up 10 months of their lives in order to play for their clubs; this shows how important winning that final would be.
The GAA are clearly aware of the current situation when it comes to the issue around burnout. They recently brought out a new rule stating that players aged 17 and younger were not allowed to play with senior teams because of burnout. They also brought out a rule stopping anyone who was playing on a county minor team from playing senior with their club until the minor team was knocked out of the championship. With all the sporting demands put on younger players in GAA, these rules appears to be a good ones. However why make rules which protect the younger players yet directly expose the older players to burnout?
These players are having games forced on them constantly between hurling and football. Once they reach the county final stage they have been training at a high intensity for almost 10 months, this in their eyes is all worth it if they win. When you win a county final the celebrations begin almost immediately. The spectators run onto the pitch surrounding the players the cup is presented and then it is brought home and the drink ban will be well and truly over. However with the Leinster championship being played 2 days after your county final how can you even celebrate your 10 months hard work? Not only is this devastating to team moral, playing two massive games two days apart is crazy.
For example the Duffery, a team in Wexford, played Cloughbawn in the intermediate football county final this year and won. They then had to play the Leinster championship 2 days later. This is completely unfair to the team. How anybody would be recovered after putting everything they have on the pitch for the first game, the one they had worked all year for. They would not be able to perform to the best of their ability. Thus making this game an unfair challenge. There was also a similar instance when a team in Westmeath played their club county final and the next day had to play in the Leinster championship. This is just completely ridiculous and something should have been done about it.
There is no point in everyone complaining about the situation we all need to come together and change things because we can. It seems that Aaron Kernan is also working with the newly founded Club Players Association. This is an association purely set up to hear the complaints or queries of the club player. This page is a campaign to try and get the season shortened, which so desperately needs to be done. Although everyone seems to be complaining about this and all the players want things to change, they are having awful trouble trying to get support for the Club Players Association. All it takes is the click of a button on Facebook or Twitter, it’s really that easy.
It all has to start with the club players themselves, they need to give the CPA the support it needs. Once this happens then and only then can the CPA start to work on delivering what they have promised and be the voice of the neglected club player. From an article I have read previously on Joe.ie there appears to be 3 ways in which this goal of a shorter season can be achieved by the CPA. They can crack down on the 13 day rule, meaning all players will get a fixtures list at the beginning of the season which would be final and thus taking power away from inter-county managers. Make the inter-county season shorter to allow extra time for club games. And the last option is make the players chose before the start of the season weather they wish to play club or inter-county. This option we all know would not go down well in any club.
It is now apparent, what we as individual players can do to make this change happen. Burnout in players is a real problem evident In GAA. It would be an awful shame for so much of Ireland’s talented athletes to be in retirement at 25 because of the massive workload piled on top of them at a younger age. Clubs need to step up and protect their athletes.
Author: Christina Cullen
4th Year Recreation and Sport Management Student