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This year in the 2016 Laois senior club championship, Portlaoise were in the final again. Portlaoise are going for 10 in a row Laois senior football titles. This time they did not play Tuohy and they lost by a point with basically the last kick of the game, Stradbally scored a goal. Tuohy was on the bench for this game and maybe if he was brought on for the last 5 minutes Portlaoise could have won their 10th Laois senior title in a row. This just shows how much of a difference a professional athlete can make to an amateur sport. Imagine playing in a match and with 15 minutes to go a team brings on a professional athlete who is “fresh as a daisy” and you’re struggling to get your breath trying to run after him. There isn’t many club players I could think of that would keep up with him. To be honest Zach Tuohy would walk onto any county team in the country he’s that good.
My view of this is Tuohy isn’t in the wrong, there is no rule in saying he can’t play and if I was in his position I would want to come home and play with my club whenever I could. GAA is in the wrong here for having no rule in place from stopping any professional athlete from playing. I believe when it is an amateur sport only amateur athletes should be allowed to play the sport.
Gaelic football is an amateur sport where amateur athletes compete in. These amateur athletes put such a commitment into their clubs from February until they get knocked out. They train 2-3 times a week and matches at the weekend and if they want to get any better at the sport they have to do extra training in their free time to try being the best they can be by doing sprints or gym or even just practicing kicking ball around. They also help raise money for the club by doing fundraisers so they can get gear etc. Most of all a lot of these players have to raise a family. This just shows how committed they are. An amateur athlete in the GAA takes time out of their own life just so they can be part of the club and you can guarantee that every player has the pride in their club to put on that jersey anytime they can. Every club dream is to win a senior county title at the start of the year and they don’t want that dream vanish so they put as much effort as they can into training and matches all year making sure to improvise around their work duties to get to games. Whilst professional athletes do not have to worry about working around work or help with fundraisers for the club they are playing for.
There is a big difference to amateur athletes to professional athletes. For instance it doesn’t just effect the team the professional is playing against but also the team they play with as the amateurs that really train hard all year for a professional athlete who hasn’t been there all year take their place after they working so hard to get on the team in the first place would be very disappointing for the player that gets dropped for him.
Finally I believe it is really tough for any amateur player to deal with playing against a Professional player in an amateur Sport. I have nothing against any professional athlete especially not Zach Tuohy as I enjoy watching him play when he does play. He is one if not the best athlete I have seen play but I really do think it is unfair for an amateur GAA player to keep up with professionals like him. Do you think it’s fair for Professionals to play in amateur sport?
Author: Nigel Murphy
4th Year Recreation and Sport Management Student