Tipperary GAA star Michael Quinlivan joined Ger and Alan Quinlan on OTB AM earlier today to talk life as a football star.
Naturally, the discussion found its way to the employment side of things and players asking for help. But, as Quinlivan alluded to, there still remains a reluctance for this generation of players to open up and willingly ask for help, mirroring the Irish mentality of many.
“It can be quite tough, like you have to be probably a bit more pro-active about it yourself.
“You have to go and ask and unfortunately in the GAA at the moment for a lot of players, going and asking isn’t a thing that we’re too accustomed with, I think.
“Being seen to go and ask ‘what could I do here?’ is seen as maybe a sign of weakness or a sign of you’re leaning on someone else and I don’t think that’s in our society at the moment.”
When later comparing it to the mental health side of things, the 25-year-old full-forward insisted that the two weren’t entirely intertwined within the GAA sphere.
“It’s more the career aspect of it. I think people tend to get to a stage of if they don’t do it at the start they tend to do it when the problem comes and that can be sometimes a small bit too late.
“I don’t think people really understand how much help there is in that regard.
“The guidance is there if you go looking for it.
“It’s a subject that we’ve improved massively on in the last 10 years, whereas 20 or 30 years there would have been a huge drop-off.
“I think we’re getting a bit more cognitive now at the moment and people are starting to really engage.”
The trio also discussed balancing the double life of playing GAA and full-time employment, with Quinlavin noting that teaching was undoubtedly the most ideal job for most.
“There’s no doubt teaching is the one that definitely lends itself most to playing GAA.
“You have to have the proper amount of time off to rest, you have all your summers off to get completely right, but I think nowadays you’re starting to see a lot of people go back and change after they’ve played.
“I did an undergraduate in teaching but never actually went into it, I kept going and studied in Cork afterwards but that was more out of a realisation that I knew it wasn’t for me.
“I picked it because I was a bit too strong-headed on the last day of the CAO form, to be honest. But look, I went a roundabout way.
“Yeah, it’s not the worst [having summers off].
“I wouldn’t ever put down [discourage] teaching, it’s a brilliant career.”
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