It wouldn’t have been worth the sacrifice if he didn’t win the All-Ireland.
Recently retired Tipperary hurler and footballer Kieran Bergin has hit the headlines in the last week for his explosive comments on the disregard and lack of respect shown by the GAA to its players.
Bergin, who won an All-Ireland medal with Tipperary in 2016, admitted to Colm Parkinson on Thursday’s GAA Hour that he felt underappreciated during his time as an inter-county GAA player.
He felt the sacrifices he was making to be on time for training, to rush home from work to gym sessions, to leave his personal relationships to one side, to abstain from alcohol for a full year were unfair and went unheralded.
Fairly damning https://t.co/WwEleRR1j1
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) January 11, 2018
He basically feels the GAA require players to down tools at their beckon and call. For little or no gratitude.
“The real aspect that annoyed me is the lack of appreciation you get for doing it,” said the Killenuale man on Wednesday’s GAA Hour Show.
The Killenuale man earned plenty of praise for his straight talk. But to play devil’s advocate, you could counter-argue by asking whether his Celtic Cross, won in 2016, justified the means.
“It is an awful lot to get back out of it, don’t get me wrong. It’s brilliant to win an All-Ireland. A lot of inter-county players don’t get that chance,” said the 31-year-old.
He hesitantly admitted the 2016 year was worth it, but it wouldn’t have been had Tipperary lost to Kilkenny on that September Sunday.
“At the same time, too, for the level of commitment that went in that year, at the end of the day if you were to ask me was it worth it… it was, but if you were to ask me about the sacrifices you’ve made to get there, it’s only worth it if you win it.
“If you’re not winning them regularly, I don’t see how it’s worth being involved in an inter-county set-up for the level of commitment, the level of your life you’ve to put on hold,” he said.
That makes it a very grim situation for players from weaker counties who have no hope of winning Liam or Sam, but Bergins views will be shared by some players.
The players who have to get off early from work to make training. The players who have a massive commute home, the players who aren’t living in their own counties might struggle.
Bergin’s experience of winning that All-Ireland medal, something he had dreamed of, was dampened by the GAA protocols for his winning Tipperary team.
“It’s a great feeling. There’s a great feeling there that you’ve achieved what you set out to achieve at the start of the year. You’re overjoyed, but you’re on their clock.
“You come down, you have your ten or 15 minutes. But you’re on the GAA or the county board’s clock. You have to go to the banquet, and you’re there with your parents or your friends, but you’re not doing it on your own terms.
“You have to be there. You get a bit of relief that night, you can go out and have a few drinks, but the next morning, you’ve to be up, you’ve to go back to Thurles.
“You’ve to meet the fans, sign jerseys and that. Then you’re back on a bus to wherever the captain is from, and you’ve to go up on stage there.
“It was 12.00 by the time we got back into Thurles. How are you to enjoy that?
“It seemed like a distant memory by Wednesday,” he said.
When Kieran Bergin talks, you have no option but to listen.
You can listen to the whole interview here from 41″00′.
