Players may have to look abroad as recession hits county stars

GAELIC GAMES:WATERFORD HURLER Eoin Kelly has made the disturbing revelation that he may be forced to consider emigration if the country's unemployment crisis doesn't improve sometime soon.

Kelly recently lost his job in the building-related sector and the feeling is he’s far from the only high-profile county player to find himself in such a worrying situation.

“Two weeks ago, unfortunately, I was let go,” he said. “The building industry has gone down at the moment. I was doing sales with Brooks in Waterford. Hopefully, something will come up in the near future. But it’s hard to see where it’s going to come up.

“We’re lucky enough down in Waterford that not too many of us are struggling right now. A few though, with jobs and that, and it’s not a nice situation to be in.

“If an opportunity aboard came up them you’d have to look at it. Bills have to be paid. You have to put food on the table. I’m not going to be doing that if I’m not working. It’s something that I don’t want to look at. But if it needs be then I’ll have to look at it further down the road.”

Kelly was speaking at yesterday’s meeting of the Gaelic Players Association (GPA), where a petition seeking the retention of the Government grant scheme, and signed by members of every football and hurling squad in the country, was submitted to the Minister for Sport, Martin Cullen.

Kelly was one of several county players present. The 26-year-old two-time All-Star, who was top-scorer in last year’s hurling championship with a superb tally of 7-43, wasn’t necessarily volunteering the information about his own work situation – but in the discussion about the possible cutting of the grant scheme, in an already difficult economy, it was inevitably raised.

Having a young family to look after puts further pressure on his situation, yet Kelly says the grant scheme is as much about some small recognition as it is about helping in some small way with paying the bills.

“It’s a show of respect first of all for the players and what they’re doing. The soccer players bring 60,000 to Croke Park. The All-Ireland final brings 80,000. And the difference in payment there is a massive gulf.

“So it’s a bit of recognition that we doing something for the country. So, hopefully, it would continue, especially the way the work situation has gone. People are losing their jobs and players are losing their jobs. So this is just something small at the end of the day that gives you a helping hand in life, more than anything.

“We all love play hurling, but sometimes it does cost you money to play it. It’s a huge commitment. You have to look after your family, number one. Hurling comes number two. At the moment I’m a full-time hurler, unfortunately.

“But that’s the way things can go, and there are more players like that around the country. So it’s hard to combine the two, because at the end of the day you have to look after your job.

“In this day and age players have to be looked after a small bit. Because what’s going to happen is that they’re just going to leave.They’re going to go to Australia and Canada and these places. And you’re going to lose the best players in Ireland to this. But on the other side, the whole country is suffering, not just players.”

Even the old idea of county players being well looked after in terms of employment appears to be a thing of the past: “Well that never happened me. It’s probably still a bit relevant, and some players were looked after over the years. But fair play to them, they put in a lot of effort and fair play if they get a helping hand.

“But the grant is just a small thing at the end of the year, helps if you’ve a few bills to pay, or whatever. It would be devastating if even those things were taken away.

“We don’t mind taking a small cut, but I think it’s definitely necessary for it to keep going. The GPA have put in endless hours of work on this, and it’s only a small token of what we should be getting, I think, anyway.”

Kelly’s thoughts on hurling, meanwhile, are entirely focused on Sunday’s meeting with Limerick, now managed by their former manager Justin McCarthy.

“The way it’s looking both teams are safe from relegation, so I won’t say there’ll be a whole lot shown this Sunday. I’d say it will be fairly lukewarm. It’s June 14th that matters. There are no medals given out in March or April.

“But Justin is a proud man and would like to get one over us. The players here still have great respect for him and wish him well with Limerick. Just not against us.”