ESRI report further illustrates scale of club and county divide
STITCHED into the 35 ‘main findings’ from the Economic and Social Institute’s extensive report into the life and times of the inter-county Gaelic footballer and hurler is a conclusion drawn from the data that aptly sums up the growing divide with the club game that has helped, among other things, to trigger a movement over the last 20 months representing the other 98 percent.
The conclusions are not obvious at first glance of a report that stretches 260 pages. But peel back some of the layers of the multitude of answers provided and it becomes clear that a majority of players are inter-county first and second before club status really appears on the horizon.
According to the ESRI authors “just under three-quarters of players stated that they would not want to spend more time with their club if it was at a cost to their personal inter-county career success.”
It shows ambition and drive for sure, a tunnel vision of sorts to progress and succeed but on the other hand is quite an insight into the modern player or more so the scale of the divide between the county player and his club counterpart.
While 36.2pc of footballers and 33.8pc of hurlers expressed a view that they would like to spend more time with their clubs (as opposed to 53.5pc and 50.1pc respectively who are satisfied with time spent with both club and inter-county), it’s clear that three out of every four do not want to trade any element of potential inter-county advancement to achieve that.
A closer look at the breakdown of that very question that the ESRI put to the 2016 players last year shows that 78.3pc of footballers weren’t prepared to spend more time with their clubs if it was at a cost to their personal inter-county success with 69.3pc of hurlers sharing that view.
Naturally, the higher figures lie with the higher standards, especially in hurling where 76.1pc of MacCarthy Cup players would countenance no trade off but 53.3pc of Nicky Rackard Cup hurlers would.
Similarly, when asked what they would like to spend more time on, club involvement finished so far down the list that it scarcely registered on less than four pc for hurlers and footballers behind their professional careers (46/49pc, hurlers/ footballers), family (34/36pc) and friends (11/9pc).
These are eye-opening results for the club game which has long since detached from the inter-county locomotive that is powering ahead down the tracks now at unprecedented speeds.
The headline findings of the ESRI report give flesh to the bones of what was already out there anecdotally anyway. Inter-county players are spending up to 31 hours on their involvement with their teams on a ‘non-match’ week. The addition of so many performance-enhancing elements – particularly around the area of sports conditioning – have added significant time commitments to their average week.
And while 83pc of those polled were ‘glad’ that they made the commitment, the synopsis of the testimonials recorded at the four workshops held in advance of the questionnaire being distributed gave more mixed signals on that. Enjoyment comes with quite a bit of baggage.
The ESRI gently invites the GAA and Gaelic Players Association to ‘pause’ to reflect on this information but in reality it can be taken as a call to address it and try to take some of the power out of a juggernaut which has been emboldened further by the addition of an extra 25 games between 2017 and 2018 when the new formats in the football and hurling championships are factored in.
How can it be reined in? How can it even be ‘paused?’ Regulation in the past, whether it has been adherence to closed seasons or sticking to the guidelines on training camps, has failed.
The imposition of a performance director, akin to the IRFU’s David Nucifora, is fine in theory. But how could such a position ever work across 32 counties, monitoring hurling and football?
The idea that there could be one in each county, independent and resolute enough to oversee the best interests of ‘time poor’ players, may be realistic.
Managers will almost always have their way and the threat of dropping down the pecking order will inevitably drive players beyond their natural capacity.
If there’s curtailment in one county, there’s sure not be in the next county and that helps to keep the treadmill in perpetual motion. It’s hard to see a slowdown but plenty are disembarking, almost one in three every year.
The ESRI’s work has provided a real reference point, clear figures written into the record. Unless there’s a check, the next station for the runaway train will have ‘semi professionalism’ written above the platform.