Irish athletics hero David Gillick is one of countless club footballers in Dublin who have been left frustrated by a lack of games caused by the Dubs' All-Ireland success.

And the double European 400-metre indoor champion, who revived his football career with Ballinteer St. John's last year, believes the GAA could worse than follow the example of rugby when it comes to looking after its club players.  

"I look at what they do in rugby in the AIL [Ulster Bank League]," he said on 2FM's Game On last night.

"They'll have their fixtures and they're set in stone so you can plan. You know exactly when to push the players, when to back off, whereas in GAA, this summer, it's been really difficult.

"You want to play competitive matches, challenge [matches] are all well and good but you want to play the league games, the games that actually matter, the championship games.

"When the Six Nations is on, all the [Pro12] league games are still continuing. The players who aren't playing internationals are still playing games.
"That's something, particularly in Dublin, that I've found quite difficult during the summer."

He added: "I was playing [a lot of football] until Dublin decided to do well and I haven't played a competitive game in about two months.

"You're just waiting around. Even with the championship side of it at club level, you don't know any fixtures. It's frustrating now to be brutally honest. We've had challenge games and things like that and once the All-Ireland [series] is over we're straight back into it so we've got a league game against Skerries on Saturday.

"It's just a little bit frustrating because you've been waiting around all summer and now the weather is closing in and before you know it we could be playing a play-off final in the first week of December."

Tweet

Most Read Stories