Grim life in GAA enough to drive a player to drink

WHILE the rest of us were infected with joy this week, we would like to think that there was a small element that woke up horrified at the pictures of the celebrating Irish players in Lille.

Some were seen drinking cans of beer and devouring slices of pizza within minutes of the final whistle sounding to confirm their place in today’s last-16 game with France.

It was hard to marry that picture of unabashed joy and unashamed revelry with the often stoney-faced visages which greet us on this beat every weekend, where winning teams are ushered into buses in the knowledge that the only iced liquid they are likely to come into contact is one that will be poured into a bath rather than a glass.

Brian McGuigan, the three-time Tyrone AllIreland winner (right), revealed recently how the old post-match routine of going for a drink after a big Championship match is no longer in place. Instead of the pub, the Tyrone footballers head for the pool and the bed. They are hardly the only ones. While there is something to be admired in that kind of discipline, it does seem a rather joyless existence. It may also be a pointless one. The monastic existence which so many elite county set-ups pride themselves on seem at odds with what happens in the professional world, where fitness levels are higher and games come thicker and faster.

No doubt, the Irish players last Wednesday night did not ‘do the dog on it’ but their management trusted them enough to let them chill as they saw fit, even though they had gone through a draining three games in 10 days, while they faced a fourth inside 96 hours.

Meanwhile, in the drylands of the GAA, where the games come so slowly they might as well be supplied by intravenous drip, the players live their lives to the grim rhythm of a daily existence that would drive them to drink but for the fact that the only thing their bar has on tap is a protein shake.