Pat Spillane calls out GAA for lack of concern for welfare of Kerry players

An interesting point.

The GAA club championships are well underway, with some counties even finished with their competitions.

To keep track of everything going on at the weekend is confusing, to say the least.

There are different formats, depending on the county, and sometimes four different levels.

In his column for the Sunday World, Kerry legend Pat Spillane criticised the structure of his own county's senior championship, which contains divisional teams, such as North and East Kerry, as well as club sides.

He claims it is too favourable towards the divisional sides, who are an amalgamation of clubs, and then goes on to criticise schedule, which has seen top players such as Seanie O’Shea, Diarmuid O’Connor and Paudie Clifford, begin their club training just two weeks after their All-Ireland win with Kerry.

The split season has meant that is basically non-stop training and playing throughout the year for the best players, who start training with their counties in November, but could be contesting All-Ireland club finals 13 months later in January,

Spillane wrote: "It’s remarkable that no one shouts stop about a crazy and intensive training and playing regime that sees our top inter-county players starting training with Kerry in November and, 13 months later, some of them might be appearing in the All-Ireland club finals.

"Are the powers-that-be worried about player welfare, particularly player welfare of our elite players? Given the structure of this, I doubt it.

"So all I can say is welcome to the crazy, crazy world of the GAA club championships. And I hope that you’re still with me after all that."