GAA reignites David Bentley’s love for sport as Aaron Kernan measures up as a pro

Kernan spent four days with Sunderland and he admits the experience taught him that there is much more substance to the players we see on TV each and every week in the Premier League. He has a new found respect for players who may like to take a dive now and again but in fact probably don’t need to,

‘Soccer players are fitter and stronger than what I thought they were going to be, to be honest with you. It’s only when you get in and see how they run from day to day, the structures they have are in month long programmes and you see the whole mechanics of it, and then you really appreciate what they do as well.

Bentley’s week in Crossmaglen culminated in an appearance for the club against Silverbridge in a challenge game, as the England man scored three points on his debut. Kernan reveals that Bentley’s intelligence and vision impressed Oisin McConville and the management team. They felt that the former midfielder could easily be a top level club player with some more basic training,

‘If they got two months they could make something out of him. Because of his awareness. Before the ball came out of defence, he was looking for the space to break into to. They were playing him centre-forward. A lot of GAA players just run for the ball. You’re not spatially aware, just following the ball. He was seeing where the wing-forward was going and breaking into the space to pick up the ball.

Bentley appreciates the compliment but feels that his running and awareness is something that he did without even thinking. He was happy to help his team in whatever way he could.

‘Yeah, they said that to me but it’s just something that I do subconsciously. It’s just what you do. I don’t really know. You just move and play really. You move without the ball. In soccer, sometimes in the big games you can do a job for the team and never touch the ball but you got to keep moving. You can pick things up.

The game against Silverbridge last month was the first Bentley had played against a competitive side since playing for Blackburn against Cardiff in April 2013. His introduction to life as a GAA player was something that many first timers could certainly relate to when he faced up to his direct marker.

‘He put me down a couple of times. Once when the ball was nowhere. Come and flattened me. I don’t mind that. I got flattened a bit when I played. I always knew that the type of player I was, the personality, that people wanted to kick me. That was fine. It was something I quite enjoyed actually.’

Kernan got to train with the Sunderland U21’s as they prepared for a crunch Premier League clash with Manchester United. However he was only involved in practice games in training and didn’t get to see any action as a professional player out on the pitch.

Sunderland is a club that once had huge Irish interest as the Drumaville consortium under Niall Quinn had Roy Keane at the helm and half a dozen or so Irish international on their books at one stage. Kernan revealed that the players gave him a warm welcome but were probably expecting a hurler rather than a Gaelic footballer into the dressing room.

‘There was no young Irish boys there. John Egan Jr had just left the year before so they all knew a bit from him.  There was actually hurleys lying around from Roy Keane’s time and Niall Quinn. There was hurleys in the preparation room but they were just never used. They were in the middle of some medicine balls. They probably had a better idea of what hurling was rather than Gaelic football.’

The motivation and drive for players from varying codes to get to the very top of their sport are worlds apart. Professional players it’s widely assumed are motivated by a desire for money and a win at all costs mentality. It is one of the reasons that Bentley alluded to in his decision to quit life as a pro at the age of 29. Kernan admits that when he explained that he has never received any money to play his chosen sport, there was a mixture of shock and bemusement:

‘Yeah some of them just couldn’t grasp that, the time we were putting in. They thought it was weird, that we weren’t getting a wage. They might have needed another six weeks to get their mindset into the GAA. The boys in the academy from 14 or 15, couldn’t understand it, and thought it was madness.

Working with younger players also gave Kernan an idea of the pressure and the cut-throat nature of trying to make it as a professional footballer. For the majority the club will cast them adrift at the end of the season after six or seven years at the club from the Academy all the way to the U21 set up. The resignation from the players that their careers lie away from the Stadium of Light was something Kernan hadn’t expected,

‘They know themselves few, if any of them, are going to make a living. I presumed they all thought they they were going to make it but these boys knew it was make or break. Even their coaches,everyone said the U21s is the hardest working group you will come across because they are in a make or break situation. There’s a whole load more pressure than you would think from the outside so that was a good insight.’

So now in the wake of trying life as a professional footballer, does Kernan agree with the Stephen Hunt argument about GAA players not being able to cut it in the Premier League?  Though he didn’t excel in all the physical tests Kernan feels that overall GAA players can more than hold their own with their professional colleagues:

‘The one thing I was really disappointed with was the endurance test. I would have expected a lot better in it. That annoyed me because the reflection, and maybe this came across on the show, I know what inter county footballers are hitting. The testing they did with me is identical to anything I’ve ever done at inter county level. It’s the same thing, one hundred per cent. Generally the elite boys in GAA, or if I was going normally, would have been what they’re hitting, which is level 20-21 in their Yo-Yo test and I know that because I’ve done it myself and I’ve seen  with other boys in the county set up, I know what they can hit.

‘The huge difference is the preparations and recovery that GAA players don’t get, that those boys do get. I know the weights sessions that are done, and the fitness sessions that are done, and the amount of time that’s spent on skills with ourselves. But they get more time to prepare to go out to do those sessions, and they’ve far more time after to recover from them.’

So how would Kernan and Bentley sum up their experiences? Which indeed is the toughest trade? What in their opinions is the most difficult sport to master? The Armagh man feels that for GAA players to get up to a professional standard of conditioning is much more difficult when they have to combine life outside of the white lines too. He feels making it as a GAA player is much more difficult than playing at the top level in the Premier League.

‘It’s tougher in that they are picking from the whole world now – it’s obviously a bigger pool. But is it tougher to get yourself in top condition to perform as an inter-county footballer? It is. Because that’s their job and everything is laid on for them. Whereas we can get to the same fitness level, same endurance level and all that and we don’t have the same time to put in. We’re pushing ourselves really hard to get to an elite level. For me, the GAA has come out of it really impressive.

The former England international feels that there is very little to seperate both codes in terms of commitment and the effort of players. Much like Kernan he feels that physically there is little to  separate the sports but that it is the time away from the action on the field that may be the key difference.

‘I don’t think either one is tougher than the other. I think all aspects of what you have to deal with, I think they’re both as tough as each other. It’s a question that will always be unanswered I think. Obviously what they deal with with their home life and keeping their wives happy and their jobs and the whole balance of their travelling and still performing at a high level, it’s tough. People like to think that soccer players can be soft but it’s a very physical sport. It’s really physical. They’re bother difficult but I respect both. They’re really physical sports.’

The Toughest Trade is on TV3 tonight at 10pm

The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10