Studying for a PhD helps give Whelan fresh perspective

Galway ace delved into GAA players’ mental health challenges

ConorWhelanisabouttoembark on a 10th inter-county hurling championship season with Galway. How time flies. It feels like only yesterday since the 18-year-old with the speed skater movement was thrown in at the deep end in Thurles for an All-Ireland quarter-final against Cork in 2015. He scored 1-2 that afternoon and within weeks was playing in an All-Ireland final, only his third senior inter-county game.

There aren’t many introductions like that. Even his second cousin Shane O’Donnell – scorer of that hat-trick for Clare in their 2013 All-Ireland final replay – had played league earlier that spring.

But it feels like only now, in the last two seasons, that he is reaching a peak and developing into one of the most lethal inside forwards in the game, with 2-18 scored in the 2022 championship and 7-18 last year.

“I think Covid, there were stages of that when I felt really good as well,” he said. “I wouldn’t read into it too much. Am I enjoying my hurling? I definitely am.”

Perspective

Enjoyment is more and more important to him. As he gets older he has a different perspective on it. Are others deriving as much enjoyment, especially in those crucial early years?

So taken was he by that broad question that, having been a teacher for four years, he chose to take a PhD in mental health and well-being out of ATU Galway, focusing on student athletes at third level primarily.

How much of that was motivated by the death of his cousin Niall Donohue, the Galway hurler who took his own life in 2013, he can’t say. But it was a factor.

“Niall was studying in Athlone and then he dropped out,” recalled Whelan. “Is it one in four drop out of third level? He was one of those statistics. I wouldn’t like to say it was linked to what happened. But I suppose it is an unique cohort because you are amateur by status.

“You’re training to very high levels that would correlate to professional levels but not getting the same academic flexibility or entitlements in college. You are running two careers at the same time so chances of burnout are going to be high.”

His research has led to a couple of eye-catching statistics. One in three students will experience mental health challenges, down to one in two when they are in the high performance athlete bracket.

“I suppose it’s awareness around it and trying to develop a well-being programme for elite athletes, to educate them around mental literacy, pathways towards obtaining mental health support,” he said of his work.

“You look at Shane O’Donnell and Cian Lynch and you think that these people are immortal. But in reality they are human beings and if you were to chat to Shane or Cian, I am sure they would tell you that they have experienced as many lows as highs.

“So (it’s) around supporting athletes. I think particularly, managing demands of the modern game, that’s definitely a huge challenge.

“There’s been a couple of studies around student athletes in the GAA and there’s one out by Boyd in 2023. One done by Sheehan in 2018. And they have all found differently. There was one that found 45pc of elite student athletes have experienced mental health symptoms,” said the Kinvara man.

“The one by Sheehan found that in a study of 185, 40pc experienced mental health issues. So there is no disputing that. There’s been limited research done on the area, but am I surprised by that? Not really.

“You take your average student athlete who is studying 40 hours a week, going to lectures, and then living in Galway in college and are travelling back home to Mayo to train and play football. And doing that three times a week? And then going home and missing the odd class, you are tired in the morning. There’s no doubt, it definitely has an impact.”

For three months over winter Whelan got away himself, travelling to Australia, New Zealand and Japan. In Australia, he visited Geelong, a club with six Irish AFL and AFLW players on the books, as part of his research.

“I looked at their well-being programmes and how they look after players and met Mark O’Connor, Oisín Mullin, Zach Tuohy and spent some time there.

“There are ten of my friends from my home town in Sydney, another couple from my secondary school. So I spent a bit of time there, travelled the east coast and New Zealand with one of my best friends and then Japan.”

Their league conclusion concluded with a familiar ring to it – defeat to Limerick, who have beaten them in the last two All-Ireland semi-finals.

In Whelan’s career, they have lost to the eventual All-Ireland champions in six of the nine years (Galway were champions in 2017), four of which have been to Limerick. Was the Limerick defeat a missed opportunity to claw back some lost ground on them?

“We have beaten Limerick in the league before and came up short in championship. Any time you play Limerick it’s a good test of where you are at but that match was on March 17. We would have been happy enough with parts of it and other areas we would like to have been more clinical with but our focus isn’t really Limerick, it’s ourselves and the Leinster Championship,” he said.