At the end of 2014, Stephen Hunt angered the GPA membership by saying that if GAA players had to live the life of a professional footballer, they wouldn't know what hit them.
Colin O'Riordan talked recently about the shock he received when he discovered the rigours of the professional game in Aussie Rules.
Now, Kieran McGeeney has made comments which chime with this viewpoint. McGeeney, a man who, rightly or wrongly, has a reputation for monkish self-discipline, has long pushed back against the view that 'over-training' is a major problem at inter-county level.
Speaking to Orla Bannon for the Irish Examiner, McGeeney said bluntly that GAA players are not 'elite athletes'.
I still can’t see where GAA players train that hard, despite what people may say. Any other sport trains much harder. If you look at a rower, a swimmer, a cyclist in this country. We are all competing at an amateur level.
But it’s better not to kid ourselves we are at the elite end of sport. I’ve done most of the training and I’ve seen other players do most of the training and you train twice a week – Tuesdays and Thursdays – and you have two gym sessions. Most people who have any keep-fit regime do that.
You can’t say you are elite if you do two or three nights a week at something.
Kilkenny hurler Eoin Larkin did not take kindly to being described as not an elite athlete and fired off this tweet in response.
I thought it before but he jus sealed the deal.what an Arse hole https://t.co/XB2U0frzQI
— Eoin Larkin (@11larky) January 22, 2016
Ominously enough for McGeeney's popularity, this tweet has been liked by Clare whizzes Tony Kelly and Colin Ryan and Offaly legend Joe Dooley.
Antrim's Niall McManus objected to McGeeney's portrayal of players training two or three times a week.
@ballsdotie in my experience most intercounty players train everyday. Sessions vary from pitch/gym/mobility. Might be 1 rest day built in.
— Neil McManus (@Neilmcmanus88) January 22, 2016
Eamon McGee is more sanguine and is cool with McGeeney expressing his viewpoint.
Makes a few good points here, it's ok to say we aren't elite athletes. https://t.co/SrcclAKCE8
— Eamon Mc Gee (@EamonMcGee) January 22, 2016
Of course, long distance runner and ardent Gael-baiter, Jerry Kiernan was slaughtered for making similar remarks eighteen months back when complaining bitterly about the generous grants doled out to the 'richest association in the country'.
If you’re training five times a week for the whole year, that’s good enough to run a reasonably respectable 10k road race in the Phoenix Park. If you’re an international athlete, you train twice a day every week for 50 of the 52. It’s a different thing entirely.
