Regrading minor as under-17 is not going to stop Leaving Cert students from committing huge amounts of time and energy to Gaelic games.
The level of commitment involved in winning All-Ireland colleges titles was laid bare in Thurles on Easter Monday.
Famed Kilkenny hurling hothouse St Kieran’s made it three Croke Cups in a row with a 1-15 to 1-13 win over Limerick’s Ard Scoil Rís. However it was in the aftermath of the curtain-raiser that we got an insight into the work that goes into making it to Semple Stadium.
Tipperary’s Abbey CBS beat St Louis Grammar School of Ballymena to claim the All-Ireland senior B hurling championship on a 2-19 to 2-13 scoreline.
Speaking to the42.ie after the match Limerick hurler Darragh O’Donovan, a member of the Abbey CBS management team, detailed the immense commitment required.
“The boys were never going to get tired. We had a lot of work done with them over the year,” said O’Donovan.
“We came in eight days over the Christmas, this week we were in four times, we’ve trained 6 o’clock in the morning, 7 o’clock in the morning, we’ve often done two hours after school.
“198 days we’ve been together, on the 10th of September we first met since we came back to school.”
There's a touch of the Permian Panthers to Derek McGrath's double Harty Cup winning De La Salle team. Training on St Stephen's Day? #GAA
— Mikey Stafford (@me_stafford) August 9, 2015
This isn’t new. Current Waterford hurling manager and De La Salle teacher, Derek McGrath, made St Stephen’s Day training sessions a part of the school’s preparations back in 2007-08, when they won back-to-back All-Irelands.
Many of those students are now key members of the Déise senior team but as player welfare and decreasing burnout become priorities for the GAA, should the training load placed on students – many of whom are in their Leaving Cert years – be regulated?
Students are making similar commitments at rugby-playing schools, such as those that compete in the Leinster and Munster Schools Cups, where training is just as intense and just as time-consuming.
Is it all too much?
