“You are in essence a professional except you’re not being paid.”
Joe Brolly wastes very few of his words.
The RTÉ pundit highlighted the huge problems with the GAA nowadays which has seen a culture of young men put their lives on hold so they can devote training full time to what is supposed to be an amateur game. When they hit 30, then what happens?
The Derry man appeared today on RTÉ radio for another brilliant segment alongside recently-retired Limerick star John Galvin. In it, Brolly stated that players are continuing to come to him to ratify what he is saying about the excessive professional demands in the game and, whilst he stopped short of comparing himself to Russell Crowe in The Insider, he did say that he felt like a whistleblower in the tobacco industry.
“County football has become a really joyless experience for players,” Brolly said. “It’s now getting more and more. For example, in Armagh in December, the workload, the training load was so heavy that five players walked away. Now, the vast majority of players feel a real pressure and this is what has been happening this week. Players have been ringing me saying, ‘look, I can’t walk away. I’ve got a GPA scholarship. They feel obliged.
“Often you’ve got powerful managers now who arrange jobs through third parties for a player. Now that player owes them. Also in society, we put huge players on GAA players. There’s a huge morale pressure and what’s happening is that players are putting their lives on hold.”
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