GAA players aren’t far away – certainly the inter-county players aren’t anyway. But there are still some aspects they’re lugging behind in.
Paddy Brophy is back in Ireland fresh from a few years with West Coast Eagles and what he’s seen and learned as a professional athlete has opened his eyes.
The term ‘professional’ is bandied around now in this country as almost a stick to beat the GAA with but, when you’re working 40 hours a week in a completely unrelated environment, you’re not a professional athlete, are you?
If you were, you’d be doing everything right. Brophy can testify to that.
And, on The GAA Hour, the Kildare native laid out some differences between life as an AFL pro in Australia, and life as an amateur footballer in Ireland.
Preparation
“The big difference is preparation – in terms of physical preparation and mental preparation. You’re a professional athlete 24/7 so you’re being educated on certain things: your preparation, your recovery, your nutrition – everything,” Brophy explained.
“They also help in terms of education so they really try to cover all bases.
“GAA teams aren’t that far behind at all, it’s just the time. Being amateur sportspeople, you’re trying to balance work life with sport life so it’s obviously difficult. If you’re a professional athlete, you can commit your whole life to just being an athlete.”
Recovery
“Recovery’s one of the most important aspects over in Australia,” the Lilywhites man said.
“If we play on a Saturday, we get straight into the ice rooms after the game and sit there for 10 or 15 minutes. You might get into the swimming pool then and do a bit of stretching afterwards. You go home and get your night’s sleep, looking for nine hours at least.
“The next morning, you’re either going to the beach or straight into the club to do more recovery stuff. You’re in the ice baths again or at the beach in the ocean for 10 or 20 minutes. Then it’s stretching again.
“Even the Monday, you’re looking at recovery again and you don’t really get training again until the Tuesday. So it’s probably two and a half days of full recovery before you get going again.”
Body fat
The Australians are said to be obsessed with body fat numbers, so much so that stories of Colm Begley drinking only vodka and still water on nights out were doing the rounds.
Brophy isn’t sure about the vodka but he’s sure about the body fat alright.
“Body fat is a pretty important issue there,” he confirmed.
“You’ve got to manage what you’re eating in your diet but it’s obviously easier over there because you’re training every day and burning the calories.”
The diet of a modern day inter-county footballer compared to a professional rugby player (via @SportsJOEdotie) https://t.co/Acf4LOUGMm
— JOE.ie (@JOEdotie) December 30, 2015
