When Stephen Hunt was so bold as to suggest that GAA players wouldn't know what hit them if they witnessed the demands of professional sport, he became the punchbag for the online GAA community.
Rushing to his defence in the Sunday Independent, Eamonn Sweeney ridiculed those GAA players who had derided Hunt as a mere Ipswich player and made a salient point not often entered into the discussion.
The professional is subject to a pressure the amateur sportsmen will never have to cope with, the knowledge that should he perform badly his job is in jeopardy.
In his Irish News column today, Aaron Kernan has made a similar argument. A participant in the Toughest Trade last year, he found, from conversations with some of the players, that professional soccer could be a cold, unsociable and ruthless world.
There are so many perks to being a professional sportsman – playing the sport you love everyday, the wages, the profile and commercial endorsements. However, it does have its downsides when there’s money involved. Money demands results and the failure to deliver can cost you your livelihood.
During his week at Sunderland, he found the players' daily routines stultifying and typified by a lack of camaraderie. He acknowledged that he started appreciating the boys in Crossmaglen all the more. GAA players get to keep a foot in two camps.
The professional environment doesn’t suit everybody. For most GAA players, football is their release from work and when Championships reach the final stages and the on-field pressures mount, work becomes our release from football.
Read the column here.
