Joe Brolly caused quite a stir on Off The Ball last night when he likened modern Gaelic footballers to “slaves”.
Today’s players are no more than “indentured servants” according to The Sunday Game pundit, who also claims the All-Ireland football championship should be run from April to June.
Since the turn of the century, inter-county GAA training has been transformed by the adoption of practices drawn from a variety of professional sports. Workloads and the demands on players have increased dramatically as a result.
“In a way now the players are little more than indentured servants,” Brolly said.
“In an amateur sport where the ideals are community-based, we’ve imported professional practices. So we’re expecting players to play and train and live as though they are professionals.
“The (county) boards are complicit in this.”
The 1993 All-Ireland winner continued: “Players are now cocooned away from the public. Gaelic football was supposed to be part of a healthy, balanced lifestyle. It’s so unhealthy (now). And so boring as well. They don’t play for their clubs any more. The playing game at county level is now unhealthy.
“The sole contribution the GAA has made to this plague is the winter-training ban. People just laugh when you mention the winter-training ban. I was talking to some of the Derry lads ... a couple of the Dungiven lads. They’re just training like lab rats – there’s no break at all.
"Managers are trying to wringing every last drop out of them and county football is becoming a very negative experience."
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