When less is more

IN ALL FAIRNESS

It might not feel like it with the dreadful weather at the moment but we are closer to the start of the 2027 inter-county GAA season than the end of the 2026 campaign. Collective training isn’t due to begin for another three weeks or so but that is being broadly ignored across the country with gym sessions up and running and more, even as far back as September in some counties, with Croke Park having no stomach to monitor the regulations they set down as they are once again unenforceable.

With the inter-county game virtually professional in everything but name, what isn’t are the demands placed on players. In professional sport at least, rest and recovery are deemed as important as training, but when it comes to GAA, if you aren’t training or getting together in some form, you are already behind the eight-ball.

A lot of it is down to paranoia, which isn’t just an inter-county thing, where you have to be one step ahead of your competition because they are probably (a lot of the time with no evidence) doing the same, even if it means the players are the ones that suffer in the long term so far one wonders are we near the wall of what players are willing to give in terms of time and commitment.

The split season has both its positives and negatives, and while it provides certainty for players in terms of match schedules, it does mean very little time off for the elite players, at all ages. Take the Tipperary senior hurlers for example who officially began training eleven months ago for the defence of the All-Ireland title with their campaign ending on May 24th. After a brief breather and a short holiday for some, most players were back in training with their clubs almost straight away, and such is the preparation levels at club level among first teams, the drop off is negligible.

Then you go straight into a club campaign, which this year ran from late June to early September for the vast majority of players before the knockout stages began. For those players unfortunate enough to see their club campaigns end at an early stage, there was a chance to recharge the batteries, but for those who get to the latter stages, it runs up almost to the start of inter-county training and those gym sessions. It’s almost a year round exercise for the elite players and one has to wonder, is the quest for short term success worth it if players will be physically and mentally exhausted in the longer term.

And it isn’t just senior players, under 20’s and minors are in the game boat, worse in some situations as they still have under 21 club hurling and football championships to contend with at this time of year, as well as the early stages of schools competitions.

Nenagh CBS manager Donach O’Donnell raised his concerns recently following his sides first game in the Harty Cup. His claim was that four players were mandated to attend a gym session the night before in Thurles, which were subsequently denied by Tipperary GAA.

This is where the grey area exists in terms of collective inter-county training and whether gym sessions are deemed separate because they aren’t pitch sessions. It can be argued that players are just going to the gym as per their routine, both in and out of season, something former Tipperary senior football coach and under 20 manager Paddy Christie mentioned in the past of what is required for players to get to an elite level. Still, one wonders what is being benefitted from asking players to congregate this early in the season, particularly with the technology now there where everything can be monitored remotely.

The dream of every person who has the ability to hurl or kick a Gaelic football in this country, after they first don their club colours, is to wear the blue & gold jersey, if they have the talent to do so. When you get that close, you are prepared to do anything to achieve that dream, and in an amateur game with no financial perks, that dream is the pinnacle and you don’t want to risk that being taken away and so you do what is asked.

Three months away from the start of the senior inter-county season and the national league, five months from the under 20 championship, and six months from the minor start, is all this training actually necessary. It is also a financial drain on county boards as it all has to be paid for in terms of expenses, food etc… with club and inter-county admission charges a large proportion of covering this.

All-Ireland titles are great in the short term but at what cost in the long term for players?