Well I think a interesting question to ask if how often do these, often ridiculous, standards imposed by county set-ups on amateur players actually justify themselves.

How often has a county which imposes these 'mutual codes of conduct' for a panel - the sworn oath not to touch a drop, not to be out socialising, not to speak to the media without prior permission etc etc - bring success to county's?

I know from my time in UCD that a member of the Kildare panel when they were managed by a certain man from the North, was actually punished for missing a training session, IN FEBRUARY, because his partner went into labour with their child that night.

Wasn't another player in Kildare at that time dropped because the evening after a qualifier game he was spotted attending the Oxygen festival, even though he wasn't drinking and the venue was just down the road from where he lived.

Does a few Q-final appearnces justify going to those extremes to deny young lads some sort of life outside the bubble of the county team?

On the radio last Thursday Paul Galvin made a very interesting point of lads being shuffled into careers they don't want: banks, teaching, gardai simply because they can fit it around their GAA commitments at inter-county level.
Nowadays most lads are hanging up the boots around 30 and they are stuck in careers they have no interest in and have never got the experience to do anything else career wise.

At least in Kerry, it hasn't got to these proportions of absurdity just yet. There's still a few quiet spots where lads can head off for a pint and no one will bother them. People realise a big part of being a team is the social bonding and they are given a night or two out as a group when they head off to Portgual to train, they are given a team night out after the provincial final etc etc.

TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 17/11/2015 15:10:33    1807971

Hermit, I find it very hard to believe that people would choose careers simply because they could fit football around that career. Anyone who would do that is guilty of rank stupidity . I find it even harder to believe that someone would allow themselves to be bounced in to a career they didn't want simply because that career facilitated playing football . I'll repeat what I have said earlier . The elephant in the room concerning player burnout is universities football not the under 21 championship .

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6031 - 17/11/2015 18:01:21    1808035

TheHermit
County: Kerry
Posts: 899

1807971


I know from my time in UCD that a member of the Kildare panel when they were managed by a certain man from the North, was actually punished for missing a training session, IN FEBRUARY, because his partner went into labour with their child that night.

Did he or his team mates do anything about it?

The players sometimes have themselves to blame as they simply tolerate this crap from managers.

As has been proven with the Anthony Cunningham situation (different circumstances) and numerous others the managers are fairly defenceless and if the players stand up to them their is nothing the manager can do about it.

uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 17/11/2015 19:38:44    1808069

Agree Greengrass

To me a big problem is also the season is too long for too few games. Kerry played a league game at the start of April and then had 8 or 9 weeks before their next game. Though players would have played with clubs at that point, they would have trained all that time..

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 17/11/2015 19:43:01    1808072

I don't know Greengrass.

Consider this, maybe (not trying to be belittling; Devils Advocates stuff here)for a lot of young fella's in a county with little success like Louth playing for the county team isn't the be all and end all. So no they wouldn't let themselves go for a job/career that would just allow them the freedom to play football.

But what about in a county like Kerry, where playing for the county team IS the be all and end all.

You're 21 or 22, someone hands you the Kerry jersey but you have a choice: will you do that Masters degree etc that take sup all that time and jeopardises your chances of being a starting player.

Or do you go for the job in the e.g. local Bank branch, because you are offered it once you make the county squad and you will get all the time off for county commitments you need?

I know a couple of lads that were in and around the Kerry panel a few of years ago that took jobs offered to them because it gave them the time and flexibility to try and cement a place on the team.

TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 17/11/2015 20:02:49    1808086

17/11/2015 15:01:59
Greengrass
I thought it was a lazy article full of unsubstantiated generalisations. There was the little bit of covert subterfuge concerning an inter county training and "living" schedule that was smuggled out to him. Allied to that you had the reference to rugby clapping itself on the back for allowing players to live a "balanced lifestyle". Rugby is a sport that practices Omertà when it comes to the taking of performance enhancing substances . Rugby also had to be forced to take the issue of concussion seriously. It is only three years ago that an obviously heavily concussed Australian player was put back out on to the field in the last test against The Lions. Balanced lifestyle my ****.I have the height of respect for Joe Brolly but I still remember his "indentured slave " comments. This most recent article is of that ilk. Hypocrite. You cant go on talking about laziness and unsubstantiated generalisations and go on to say rugby stays completely silent on taking performance enhancing drugs. Rugby does and has taken concussion seriously but considering there isn't much known relatively speaking they have very strict rules on concussion.

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 17/11/2015 20:29:38    1808097

To me a big problem is also the season is too long for too few games. Kerry played a league game at the start of April and then had 8 or 9 weeks before their next game. Though players would have played with clubs at that point, they would have trained all that time..

Interesting to hear Paul Galvin say on off the ball the other night that he hated when the NFL ended. He said a few weeks of hard running would be on the horizon to prepare for the NFL.

I agree with Bennybunny.

slayer (Limerick) - Posts: 6480 - 18/11/2015 09:06:49    1808136

Greengrass You may have a point but I do not agree totally with you. Football is a sport and many people enjoy playing. As you go through life there are many changes to that life and one of them is the opportunity to change jobs. Many folk end up doing an entirely different job than the one they start of with and if you are lucky you end up with a well paid job that you enjoy. You can do a masters at 40 or even 50 years of age!, however you will play very little football at 50. Life is not always about a good job and sometimes one wonders what is a good job. I would say that somewhere between what you say and what Hermit says may be correct but it is all about the person, and what that young person does in his hopefully long and happy life. As big Tom say 'you go out the same way and you come in'

browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2342 - 18/11/2015 09:14:33    1808139

16/11/2015 16:44:15 Damothedub
http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/joe-brolly-elitism-is-destroying-our-games-and-our-players-34201462.html />
Hopefully link has pasted across, Firstly can people get over the writer (Brolly) and have a read of the subject matter, for me I have to say I agree with the sentiment of the piece, at club level Im seeing it reaching stages that aren't a kin to county standard rules and regulations but the players not getting anything like the county benefits.
The win at all costs mentality is more prominent than ever, the drop off rate is huge after minor (for many reasons) if as the piece suggests the paid manager continues with his own military agenda are clubs going to have trouble holding onto players?
Discuss Its the same in all sports but how its managed is the issue... you will never stop a win at all costs mentality from existing. Its bred into people.
Whats with the gaps between every word and every comma/full stop/ etc.............
16/11/2015 16:56:14 cuederocket
I enjoyed the piece yesterday.Agree with most of it.The fun does seem to taken out of a lot of the game at inter county level.Having to have breakfast at home?Why would someone even think of telling a grown man that?? Because there is many 000s of people who only have a breakfast in the car/bus/way to work and sometimes people need to be told that that isn't the best thing for you
16/11/2015 19:46:09 facethepuckout
really enjoyed the article even if it did drag out our naked pool incident yet again. Well written and very accurate. We have to pull back from the direction we are headed, otherwise professionalism is the only option and for me the end of GAA ( and civilisation :-) ) Why would professionalism be such a bad thing?

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 18/11/2015 09:30:27    1808147

17/11/2015 14:05:24 keeper7
Uibhfhaili1986, "The players obviously don't have much of an issue with it as they are happy to go along with it and could easily tell the management to feck off if they wanted.The players are not tied to contracts so everything they do is completely voluntary.the players themselves are the ones to have drove the increase in effort in intercounty GAA."

I dunno if it's true to say the players are happy to go along with it. Maybe they are for 3 or 4 years when they first come onto the scene but we're after seeing 3 great Tipp players retire not long after the 30 age mark but the fact is that a culture of elitism has developed because of or in spite of all this. I think its quite clear players are happy in general to go along with it. If they weren't there would be more strikes/issues. Players are retiring at 30 because of work/family and they would continue playing if they could at all. That shows theyre happy with it...
17/11/2015 15:10:33 TheHermit
On the radio last Thursday Paul Galvin made a very interesting point of lads being shuffled into careers they don't want: banks, teaching, gardai simply because they can fit it around their GAA commitments at inter-county level.
Nowadays most lads are hanging up the boots around 30 and they are stuck in careers they have no interest in and have never got the experience to do anything else career wise.
At least in Kerry, it hasn't got to these proportions of absurdity just yet. There's still a few quiet spots where lads can head off for a pint and no one will bother them. People realise a big part of being a team is the social bonding and they are given a night or two out as a group when they head off to Portgual to train, they are given a team night out after the provincial final etc etc. Players choose to go into backing/teaching careers as they perceive its better for them and their inter county careers. Nobody is forcing/inducing them to pick those courses in college

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 18/11/2015 09:42:44    1808157

17/11/2015 18:01:21 Greengrass
Hermit, I find it very hard to believe that people would choose careers simply because they could fit football around that career. Anyone who would do that is guilty of rank stupidity. I find it even harder to believe that someone would allow themselves to be bounced in to a career they didn't want simply because that career facilitated playing football. I'll repeat what I have said earlier. The elephant in the room concerning player burnout is universities football not the under 21 championship. Why do you find it hard to believe? I know of several people aiming to be a top sportsman be it rugby/swimming/GAA who chose courses based on their sporting career. I know of several people who chose The BA in History, Politics, Sociology and Social Studies (HPSS) in UL as it had the shortest amount of hours of any course in UL per week and that gave them more hours to train.

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 18/11/2015 09:47:38    1808159

ormondbannerman
County: Clare
Posts: 10594

1808147

Discuss context , thread, I left school over 30 years ago made a very good living thank you very much without grammar lessons from the likes of you , and you had the audacity to complain about someone not getting your name right , English language snob .

Damothedub (Dublin) - Posts: 5193 - 18/11/2015 10:18:50    1808170

I know of several people who chose The BA in History,

Hey now there's nothing wrong with having a BA in History from UL or anywhere!

Some of us have gotten on just fine with it :)

TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 18/11/2015 11:02:46    1808194

Unfortunately players do choose a career/college course to enable them to play Inter-county and it is worse now. Colleges actively pursue players with grants/points reductions etc to go to a specific college. Plus players are leaving/retiring from the game much younger.

But in general the farcical imposition of codes of behaviour for players is really stupid these are not professional players.

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4896 - 23/11/2015 13:12:10    1809232

arock
County: Dublin
Posts: 2843

1809232 Unfortunately players do choose a career/college course to enable them to play Inter-county and it is worse now. Colleges actively pursue players with grants/points reductions etc to go to a specific college. Plus players are leaving/retiring from the game much younger.
]But in general the farcical imposition of codes of behaviour for players is really stupid these are not professional players.

Couldn't agree more with your last sentence Arock , don't get me wrong I wouldn't be impressed with a club player drinking the night before a championship game so yes there has to be sacrifices , but the line was crossed along time ago .

Damothedub (Dublin) - Posts: 5193 - 23/11/2015 13:34:09    1809238

I don't know why anyone would chose to study history as a career choice. There's no future in it.

festinog (Galway) - Posts: 3097 - 23/11/2015 17:22:27    1809309