Time to jump before they run to a standstill

TIPPING POINT:The time and fitness demands are now so high on GAA players that it's only a matter of time before they have to turn professional, writes BRIAN O'CONNOR

IT IS 215 years to the day since Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the world’s first parachute jump. The Frenchman tied a glorified umbrella to the bottom of a balloon, stood in a basket underneath both, drifted up three thousand feet into the sky and cut the rope to the balloon.

By all accounts the basket swung violently as it fell but Garnerin’s theory worked out. He landed in the Parc Monceau, stepped out unharmed and I bet made in a hurry for the nearest bush: Because when you talk about jumps into the unknown, that’s the real deal.

In contrast, any jump ever considered by the GAA comes from a foundation as solid as the hill of Montmartre.

But that doesn’t mean it’s great and good won’t spend the next few months of comparative lull to ponder several unknowns of its own: like how many more Seánie Johnston-type cases are coming down the line, or how Jim McGuinness was allowed get away with banishing a journalist from a press-conference and didn’t have an empty room to address as a consequence.

There are also the results of the Football Review Committee to look forward to, the brand new digital dawn which provides an online opportunity for the grass-roots to give an input into possible rule changes for the big ball game that will also have implications for hurling.

But after a relatively controversy-free championship, there can’t be any great pressure to come up with anything radical.

So there isn’t much to stop Gaeldom taking its usual end-of-season deep breath. Well, most everyone. There are some club games to be slogged through, mostly on terrain that makes the Ypres Salient look like the backstretch at Santa Anita. And there are various knot-tying administrative bits-and-pieces but mostly it’s down-time – unless of course you’re a senior inter-county player.

Once upon a time October to Christmas was when such exotic creatures let off steam, a time when it really was a case of “see yez in Coppers” for a rush of thirsty nurses at the end of a week of nights: a period of RR to sink a few jars, develop a bit of a belly, ease aching hamstrings and generally behave like an ordinary citizen with a recognisable social life.

Not any more though. The letter of the law in terms of squad training may be followed but even now there are players preparing for extensive training towards the 2013 championship, foregoing pints for protein-shakes, counting reps instead of change for a shared taxi to Rathmines.

And if such monastic devotion floats someone’s boat, then good for them. But the evidence is growing every season of what such regimes ultimately produce on the pitch: big, strong runners capable of 70 minute cardiovascular miracles which compensate for skill quotients that can range all the way from A to B.

And it doesn’t matter because what does matter is winning, and of course the required professional dedication to an amateur ideal.

It’s not hard to picture a scenario where the Football Review Committee recommend some fiddling rule changes designed to make the game more attractive but which don’t address the roots of the problem whereby inter-county players are expected to behave professionally for little else bar glory. And there’s precious little of that unless you play for a big country.

What to do to fix that is a different matter. Asking players to regress on fitness is not on, for many reasons, but primarily because it’s the nature of the beast to continue pushing the envelope and improve. But it has to be addressed and addressing it honestly means venturing into the realms of the GAA’s Great Satan: pay-for-play.

Ultimately though it will have to come about. Doubt that and ponder how a couple of teenagers have unknowns of their own to jump into right now.

Ciarán Kilkenny will be far from the only 19-year-old Irish person heading to Australia next month and the culture shock of moving to the other side of the globe is the same whether you’re a brickie or a footballer.

But no other Gaelic footballer teenager right now carries the profile the Dubliner does. There are knowledgeable Dublin GAA types who reach for a teenage Wayne Rooney as an only viable comparison for Kilkenny’s overwhelming ability. It’s an ability that saw the Aussie Rules giants, Carlton and Hawthorn, squabble over his signature. Hawthorn won. Apparently they’ve been hugging themselves in anticipation ever since.

There is a history of Gaelic footballers trying their luck in the AFL, with varying levels of success. Recent changes to the Rookie List rules mean it is currently even more attractive for clubs to recruit Irish players. But the fact remains Kilkenny is plunging into the unknown. Impressing in trials for a new code is one thing: fulfilling potential is another.

Darren Sweetnam’s case is similar in so much as he will also be juggling an oval ball this winter. But it’s not as if he is unproven at rugby. In fact he’s proven at a lot of things.

An underage hockey international, as well as a prodigy in the Munster rugby academy, Sweetnam’s main claim to fame so far was breaking into the Cork senior hurling team last summer. No less a figure than Jimmy Barry Murphy describes Sweetnam’s hurling talent as huge.

But when faced with the chance to sign a professional contract with Munster, the Dunmanway teenager opted for rugby. And just as with Kilkenny, the only surprise would have been if he’d turned them down.

That’s two 19-year-olds, the brightest prospects in two of the GAA’s powerhouse counties, both acclaimed as hugely promising natural talents, lost to the games you suspect sit closest to their hearts.

So what you might say. It’s just two individuals. And that’s true, to an extent. But even if Australia or Thomond isn’t an option for the majority, who could argue with any talented 19-year-old casting a bleary eye over the fitness rigours required just to compete at senior level for any kind of sustained period these days and concluding it just ain’t worth it.

And you might also say no one’s forcing anyone to do anything. And that’s definitely true. Just as paying to watch teams of well-drilled, formulaic athletes swarm all over the field in perpetual toned motion is a choice. And no doubt just as there will always be an audience, there will be players willing to make the sacrifices.

However expecting real talent, talent that might be coveted by other codes, to ignore the financial realities of working like a dog on fitness, and getting paid for it as opposed to not, is unrealistic.

It’s Kilkenny and Sweetnam today: how many tomorrow? How many times over the years has it been said how the Irish rugby team, or soccer team, or many other teams, could benefit from having players with GAA skills on board? Well, we’re starting to find out. And you don’t have to be any kind of French adventurer to back the prediction that we’re going to find out a lot more.

Love for the game is one thing. But love only goes so far. The real unknown for the GAA is not about whether or not players can pick the ball up off the ground, or mass-defences, or any of the rest of the detail. Instead it’s the broad sweep of what can be done to make young fellas conclude the sacrifices might be worth it.