Demands so high on players to perform..
MANY people may think they have a handle on what inter-county players put in – but I wonder do they.
So here goes. Let’s start with something basic that some probably don’t even think about – employers.
The reality is that, if you’re not a student or a teacher, your employer has to be flexible to allow you to play at inter-county level. That or something will have to give – the game or the job.
Twenty days’ holiday a year wouldn’t even go close. Most teams go away once if not twice a year. That’s up to 10 days gone already, just on training camps.
Then players get injured and want to take time off after games for recovery (primarily Mondays). And then you’ll need to take annual leave for your own personal down time as well.
A lot of employers are generous enough to give time off, at the expense of their business. But a lot of them aren’t.
Golfing trips with the lads, boozing up at a wedding, Friday nights out, Friday nights in with a takeaway? Forget it.
You have to sideline all of that and be selfish, which then impacts on the people close to you, like partners, family and friends.
So what does a typical week for a county player look like? Gym session on Monday. Field session on Tuesday. Gym Wednesday. You might have Thursday off. Back on the field Friday. Recover Saturday. Game/ training Sunday.
So it’s a minimum of five days a week, but that’s not where it ends.
If you’re training at 7pm and arrive at say, 6.03pm, you’re essentially late.
Physio, activation, practice before you train and, quite often, video analysis has to be done before the whistle blows to start the session.
And I haven’t even touched on sports psychology, which can often happen on one of those ‘off ’ nights that I mentioned or before/after training.
If you live an hour from where the team trains, you have to leave at 5pm, get there for 6pm, train at 7pm, finish at around 8.30pm, have a shower, eat, chat and get back on the road at
9.30pm, home at
10.30pm.
That’s five and a half hours at least twice and, more often than not, three times a week.
That’s not some counties – it’s the vast majority.
Maybe back around 2017/18 players would have been allowed to do the gym work in their own time but, these days, that’s not the case so much. You will be required at least once, and probably twice, to do a group gym session which, again, involves travel, preparation and time.
For the counties who haven’t been successful but are striving to be, they often believe they have to train harder and more often, inviting mental fatigue the GPS tracker won’t monitor.
When you flog a horse, you’ll get an initial response but continually using the whip is not a sustainable approach.
So what about when players are off ?
Often, you’ll have to work on your fitness by doing extra in the gym or at the ball wall. You have to ensure that you get eight hours’ sleep. Set out your food for the day and make sure you’re fuelling your body correctly.
There’s no switching off – nearly every decision you make has to be channelled towards making yourself a better player.
When I started with Limerick in 2012, the culture was that there was no drinking from January 1, something I signed up to without question.
I was thinking, “Head down now and work hard” but I was essentially punishing myself. At times you would be mentally drained from trying to do the ‘right thing’ but it turns out that it was wrong.
Nowadays, lads love going for a few pints every now and then, maybe three or four weeks out from a game. Five or six pints in a relaxed environment does a lot for people.
Thankfully, science has come on a lot. Ten years ago, unwinding like that a month before Championship and you would be hauled over the coals; now, it’s encouraged more.
I was in the company of Donncha O’Callaghan (inset) recently and he told me how it was so much easier to play rugby professionally than inter-county hurling, because you don’t train as much, you get plenty of down time and and you don’t have to hold down a job.
I don’t believe for a second that players should ever enter any sort of professional terms for playing the games, but it does jar that on a matchday, there are so many people that benefit financially, including me as a pundit, while those at the centre of the spectacle draw down nothing.
To that end, things like holiday vouchers, work relief and other ancillary benefits could be allowed for.
I’d also like to touch on is how being an inter-county player can frame you for life. Miss a last-minute free or a penalty and you’ll be known for that, with plenty of ‘experts’ online to send the message home.
The sacrifices continue to ramp up and, as Leaving Cert students fill out their CAO forms around this time of year, many of them will opt for a career that’s conducive to being a county player.
In fairness, teams can enjoy themselves more than they used to, with dawn sessions appearing to be a thing of the past, for example.
But more fun needs to be injected – or else I fear that we’ll reach breaking point before too long.