Inter-county players don’t want to go out on the piss every night of the week.
They train too hard, they give up too much time and they want to win too much to jeopardise it all with too many heavy nights of drinking.
But they also don’t want to be treated like children. They don’t want to be treated like prisoners. They get enough of that back at their clubs.
So Tipperary boss, Liam Kearns, is a breath of fresh air. He wants his players to celebrate victories and he wants them to enjoy themselves.
He knows the science would tell him otherwise but he’ll happily argue with that.
“The science side would be that you recover and that drink isn’t involved at all. That would be the scientific side of it and I’d say an awful lot of teams might be going that way,” Kearns spoke with The GAA Hour ahead of Tipp’s Round 4 clash with Derry.
“From my point of view, I would believe that the psychological aspect of team bonding by celebrating a victory would far outweigh the scientific benefits. That would be my view on it and I believe for so-called weaker counties that they need to have a good spirit with good team bonding and be able to go out and really back each other.
“I think that kind of exercise is very helpful. You can talk about going for team bonding exercises in army camps and all of that stuff but, ultimately, I think socialising together is still the best way to grow the team ethic.
“I would serve more of a partnership approach rather than me telling the players what to do.”
Take even Euro 2016. Ireland made history. The players rose from the ashes and beat Italy and it was a momentous, magical occasion. After they lost to France four days later, people were genuinely asking questions about Martin O’Neill’s decision to allow the team a beer after the Italy game.
If Ireland can’t celebrate an occasion like that, what the hell are they doing it for?
If Tipperary players can’t celebrate when it’s deserved, what really is the point of this whole thing?
Thankfully, Liam Kearns has perspective.
Listen to the whole Liam Kearns interview from 16:14 of the below clip (the drink chat comes at 26:13).
