Joe Brolly has spoken out against the demands being placed on modern intercounty GAA players.

The outspoken pundit was talking on Newstalk Radio's Off The Ball show this evening. He believes that players are being asked to live the lives of professional sportspeople even though they are amateurs, and as a result their careers and personal development are being stunted.

"The players are little more now than indentured slaves," said Brolly. "We've imported professional practices into a sport that is community based.

"We've a real problem on our hands because we've got all these young lads between 20 and 30 drifting between scholarship to scholarship. They're not able to work full-time, they're not able to build careers.

"A lot of the big stars of Ulster football are unemployed."

To counter the problem Brolly feels that the GAA calander needs a radical overhaul, with the intercounty game played in the first six months and the remainder of the year dedicated to clubs.

"The National League should start in January and finish in March, the Championship should start in April and finish at the end of June. If you've got the All-Ireland final at the end of June or start of July, you've got June to December for the clubs."

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