Farcical stuff.
These are not professionals. These are amateur sports people who live like professionals only because of the pride they have in representing their counties and the grá they have for the game.
And living like a professional isn't an easy thing to do. Inter-county players nowadays revolve their whole lives around training and their county jerseys.
Their lives outside the game might suffer, but they don't complain about that because they know the window is small, and if they show any signs of an inclination to become a normal human again, that someone will step in and take their places just like that.
And because of this year-round dedication from our inter-county soldiers, we have hours of entertainment to gorge over nearly every single weekend of the year.
GAA players at the highest level are valued by the Irish public, there's no doubt about that, but when you hear stories like the one that broke this morning via
the Irish Examiner that Government grants were being withheld from these players because of their refusal to agree with home drug testing taking place on them, then you begin to question how these players put up with stuff like this.
With a number of hurlers and footballers affected by the delay in their grants, it was no surprise that GPA CEO Seamus Hickey hit out at it as "neither fair or reasonable," and when he revealed that GAA players are against the notion of home drug testing.
GAA players have enough training sessions, gym sessions, team meetings and bonding trips going on, they devote enough of their lives to the GAA so as not to be worried about drug testers banging on their door when they're in the sanctuary of their own home.
Shouldn't stuff like that happen at matches, at training sessions, at these gym sessions?
Cork hurling legend Diarmuid O'Sullivan is a
Paddy Power GAA ambassador, and he said what we were all thinking about Sport Ireland's proposals.
“My view on this is very simple. These are amateur players you’re talking about here, not professional athletes so I wouldn’t see it as being fit or right for anti-doping tests to be carried out on these players outside of training hours. If they were being paid for a living to play GAA and drug testing was part of their contractual agreement then that’s fair. But I don’t think this is a fair expectation and 98% of the GAA fraternity would feel the same.
“These funds should be released immediately. These players are sacrificing enough. Their attendance at training sessions and dedication to an amateur sport already has a massive impact on their professional lives and indeed their personal lives. This money is due to them so I hope a solution is found fast before this escalates into something far more serious."
Hear hear.
