Opinions divided on issue of burnout

Player burnout, discipline, and competition structures were among the key issues addressed at the weekend's GAA annual coaching conference, and as anticipated, opinions were mostly divided.

There is now a clear division regarding the proposal for a new under-19 grade to replace the minor and under-21 championships - which goes before the GAA's Special Congress in January - as a way of addressing player burnout.

According to the GAA's head of games Pat Daly, a session dealing with that issue suggested a stronger case for football compared to hurling: "One of the points raised was that the research is based on football, and therefore not as relevant for hurlers," explained Daly.

"And neither is the problem as acute for hurlers, because in football you have under-21, national league, and third level all running simultaneously, whereas you don't have the under-21 hurling championship at that time. That runs during the summer.

"Clearly that session provided significant food for thought, that something has to be done, given the amount of pressure put on players at post-Leaving Cert to ages 21 and 22, who are traversing minor, under-21, club, county, third level, and football and hurling.

"But like everything else, the difficulty is getting consensus on how to deal with that, and there is some polarised thinking on the thing. I'm not sure you'll get anyone to deal with all of the recommendations, but there are an awful lot of people that would agree with some of them. The trick is to get enough people to agree with some of them."

The theme of the conference was "Creating a Platform for People to Play and Stay with the GAA", which according to Daly, requires a major rethink on underage competitions to do away with the competitive element, and focus on participation.

"On the Friday we tried to have an open-ended session, which about 300 people attended. It was mostly about underage activity, and did finish up in a fairly lively session. We have the GAA's Go Games, and in Sligo, for example, they've decided to go with that up until the end of primary school, to roll that out across the board in Sligo.

"We also had a presentation by Neil Wood of the British rugby league, who outlined how they moved to that type of modified game, from the 13-a-side, adult game. There was a lot of debate on that, some saying we should insist on imposing the Go Games model, and that's it.

"Others were saying we can't just impose it, and also that you can't have the under-14 Feile competitions, which are effectively mini All-Irelands, and then go for the Go Games up until the age of 12. There would create an element of contradiction about the thing.

"It's hard to know where it will go next. One is always very reluctant to impose something. That just gets people's backs up.

"It's no different to the situation regarding wearing helmets. "

On the issue of discipline, there was at least an acceptance that the current system is not working, and therefore new measures - including the revisiting of the sin-bin procedure - are inevitable: "There was a workshop on discipline, and again there was universal acceptance that something needs to be done, in terms of a far better respect for match officials, and making sure that it doesn't pay to foul.

"There was more evidence over the weekend that there isn't sufficient respect, or sufficient deterrents there either. New measures are necessary, and that possibly includes the reintroduction of the yellow cards and sinbin."

Overall the conference was deemed a great success, with around 700 participants: "There is a huge thirst out there for knowledge and information, and it's also said there is a communication vacuum within the GAA, between those of us in Croke Park, and the grassroots. This conference addresses that in no uncertain terms, and also allows us to advocate what is best practice.

"We were lucky as well that we had Brian Cody at the end, because he really brought the whole thing back to basics. He left no one under any doubts that it's a simple, straightforward process.

"I think there is an increasing awareness of the faddism out there, all the stuff that goes on on the periphery of coaching, like cryotherapy and all of this stuff, is de-focusing people, and getting them away from the basics, such as ball work."