David Breen critical of Congress votes to reject reform

Limerick hurler David Breen has questioned the Congress decisions to reject any reform of club or county fixtures, and he should know. Currently preparing for an All-Ireland club hurling final with Na Piarsaigh on St Patrick’s Day, Breen has highlighted the need for a lot more breathing space between the various commitments at club, county and career level.

Part of the concern is that his professional commitment as lead academy physiotherapist at Leinster Rugby means he’s unsure yet if or when he will return to the Limerick set-up. The priority for now is balancing his work and club career, although Breen also feels the GAA missed an opportunity by rejecting the various motions aimed at addressing the club fixtures issue.

None of those motions – bringing forward the All-Ireland finals, restricting replays to All-Ireland and provincial finals, and abolishing the intermediate hurling and junior football All-Irelands – attained the two-thirds vote (with support at 61, 54, 65 and 61 per cent respectively).

Extra time

“As a player I would have liked to see that,” says Breen.

“I don’t see any reason why you can’t play extra time on the day and get a result. It was disappointing there was an opportunity to shorten the calendar year and it hasn’t been taken . . .. All you can do is to highlight the issues that are there, like burnout, the length of season, and length of time between games, and compare them to other sports and how they run off their season. It’s difficult to administrate but there are ways of making it easier on players.”

Breen is also in a position to make a direct contrast between the professional and amateur player, given his role within Leinster rugby. One of the problems he’s encountered is the temptation to play through some injuries.

“You learn to train a lot better yourself,” he says of his links with Leinster, “especially in the strength and conditioning. You are working with a lot of S&C coaches who have a lot of experience and they know how to manage players and you are just taking advice from them,” he said.

“In GAA, it is a bit unregulated in terms of who works with what teams and what their qualifications are whereas in professional sport, you have to have a decent CV to get hands on these athletes. You are managed quite closely.

“And it’s been a challenging season for me personally with the injuries but I think I’m in a good place now. I’d a broken shin during the year, then I broke my hand, and I’d a broken bone in my foot earlier on in the season. Sometimes the medical advice was overridden . . .

“It’s also difficult when you work in that environment, you’re advising players to do one thing and then you’re going out doing the exact opposite thing yourself. But obviously GAA and professional sport is two different things. You wouldn’t be allowed do that, if you had a (professional) contract.”