Stephen Hunt has written another article in today's Sunday Independent in which he responds to Joe Brolly's claim that professional soccer players are not role models.

RTE pundit Brolly reckons the Ipswich Town midfielder wouldn't have lasted five minutes in last Sunday's Ulster club SFC final, but the Ipswich Town midfielder says that is "merely speculation" and has claimed he was misunderstood when he suggested that GAA players wouldn't cut it in the Premier League.

The former Waterford underage hurler wrote: "What I was trying to do last week was lay out the sacrifice made by a professional footballer, especially in the context of people thinking it's an easy life.

"Perhaps it's silly to get irritated with ridiculous comments made by Joe Brolly, it's like getting irritated with the sun for setting, but I want to respond to the reaction to last week's column.

"Brolly seems to think that we are self-interested because we don't remain among our local community. He doesn't think I'd have lasted long in the Ulster club final. 'I wouldn't fancy his chances standing on the edge of the square against Patsy Bradley.'

"It doesn't surprise me that he retreats behind the macho wall of the Ulster Gaelic football culture and I guess if the contest isn't a sporting contest but is just some crude violent attack then maybe he's right.

"Yet what Brolly says is merely speculation and we'll never know for certain how I'd get on in an Ulster final. What we can say for certain, and this was the point I was trying to make, is that most players who head from Ireland to England struggle in an environment which is as cruel and unforgiving as professional football.

"This is a fact which doesn't need embellishing. When I said that GAA players "wouldn't know what hit them", I wasn't saying they couldn't make it - although so few have when they've tried - but that they would experience a massive culture shock if they were to move from high-level amateur sport to the Premier League.

"Of course I understand the sacrifices that GAA players make to combine the pursuit of an amateur sport with a career outside the game. It is astonishing that they can play to such a high standard. However, the relentless professional demands of playing three matches a week is another level entirely and just because you are given the opportunity to compete at that level, doesn't mean you can."

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