In the kerfuffle that surrounded last year’s decision to suspend the preseason provincial tournaments, there was much pushing and pulling. They were suspended by Central Council in September and then thrown back into the fray at the end of October.
Even by the standards of the administrative GAA’s notoriously short attention span, this was a bit of turnaround. The Gaelic Players Association, who had pushed for the suspension on grounds of player welfare, were fuming over the potential reversal but the proposal duly materialised.
Although the swift revisionist coup failed, as association president Jarlath Burns sided with the GPA, arguments were made that 2025 of all years was not the time to do this with the FRC rule changes about to be introduced and also that the loss of revenue to the provincial councils would be hard replaced.
What was interesting about this debate was how little it referenced the original purpose of the suspension – player welfare and the creation of some time off for teams.
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Whereas there were arguments that given the continuation of training, the only rest players would be getting was the actual matches in what are invariably low-key competitions, there was little consideration of why the GPA had been pushing for the pause.
More light has been shed on the position of intercounty players with the publication last week of a discussion paper on the IZA Institute of Labor Economics platform – and it is less than reassuring.
‘Playing an Amateur Sport in a Professional Context: Good for Gaelic Players’ Mental Health?’ by Elish Kelly (ESRI, Trinity College Dublin and IZA), Seamus McGuinness (ESRI, Trinity College Dublin and IZA) and Eoin Kenny (ESRI and Trinity College Dublin) has also been submitted to the British Medical Journal.
The paper is based on data gathered by the ESRI in its landmark 2018 report on the experiences and consequences of playing intercounty Gaelic games. It was jointly commissioned by the GAA and the GPA and worked on by both Dr Kelly, who was the lead, and Dr McGuinness.
There is a stark finding in the research conclusion: “In this paper we found that the number of years playing on a senior intercounty panel reduces players’ mental health and increases their risk of depression, which is extremely worrying from an amateur sport perspective.”
At the heart of this conundrum – after all, recreational sport is meant to destress participants rather than add to their anxieties – is the conjunction of supposedly amateur sport and increasingly professional preparation.
The World Health Organisation-Five Well Being Index (WHO-5) is a widely used metric, which asks individuals to indicate the extent to which they have, over the previous two weeks: (i) felt cheerful and in good spirits, (ii) felt calm and relaxed, (iii) felt active and vigorous, (iv) woke up feeling fresh and rested, and (v) daily life has been filled with things that interest them.
These self-assessed findings are scored out of 100; 50 or lower indicates depression. Players come in at 63.7, well clear of 50 but less than the national average of 70 and less than all 18-34 year-olds, who score 73 and all males at 72.
The comparisons with the national average were possible because in the same period as the ESRI survey, 2016 and 2017, there was also a European Quality of Life survey, also using the WHO–5 metrics.
An obvious question will centre on data that is eight or nine years old but that raises two questions: has the reality of life for intercounty players changed for the better in that time and would a further survey not be a good idea?
In the paper, there is acknowledgment of a couple of developments that may have impacted for the better on players. One is the split season, which may have gone some way to reduce a key impact on players’ mental health, “being unable to socialise with grassroot club team-mates”.
An interesting finding is that there is a lower level of mental health among footballers compared with hurlers, who scored 65 on the index as against 62.6.
The paper suggests possible reasons why there might be a difference between the games.
“This may be related to well recognised differences in how the playing of both games have evolved in recent decades. Specifically, compared to hurlers, footballers’ ability to play independently has been curtailed and replaced with rote learning and executing defensive systems of play.
“New rules are currently being trialled to address these constraints and reduce the use of highly defensive structures. However, it remains to be seen if the new rules will give rise to changes in the nature of play that will result in any improvement in the mental health of Gaelic footballers.”
Intercounty hurlers also have a far greater range of realistic competition with five championship grades as opposed to two.
It is important to note that these findings purely arose from data collected from 1,037 out of 1,947 players – a response rate of 53 per cent, duly tested for accurate representation.
Intercounty players are the main actors in the GAA’s most valuable financial resource, the senior championship. That is not to reduce them to simply commodities but to wonder why when their representative body, the GPA, pushed so hard for the removal of the January tournaments, the response was that there were more “important” considerations.
The GAA has for a while been trying to roll out a database of physical injuries and their toll on players. Surely, there should be similar urgency to assess the state of players’ mental wellbeing?
And to ask whether sustained participation at the top level of the games actually does more harm than good.
Read the report: Playing an Amateur Sport in a Professional Context: Good for Gaelic Players Mental Health? | IZA - Institute of Labor Economics
email: sean.moran@irishtimes.com
