The GAA and the Gaelic Players Association are conducting a detailed research project with the Economic and Social Research Institute to determine the full extent of the impact, both positive and negative, on the personal and professional lives of senior inter county hurling and football players.
The research will take place over the next eleven months and is the first tangible step from a joint working group comprised of players, administrators and others to draft proposals with the intention of assisting amateur inter-county players to better manage their personal and professional lives.
This itself emerged from the new agreement between the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) signed in 2016.
The research will be led by Dr Eilish Kelly who has previous experience working in sport on participation and physical activity.
Her work will kick off with desk based research of existing material drawn from the GPA and work it has undertaken with the support of PwC, from other sports in Ireland and overseas on the commitments of athletes. This will be followed by consultation, focus groups and an online and telephone survey of the 1,962 players who represented their counties in 2016.
This is scheduled to take place through the next six months with a report to be delivered in December.
In addition to examining the demands of inter-county football and hurling, the research will also provide the first profile of senior inter-county footballers and hurlers against which future generations of players can be compared with.
There will be inevitable parallels drawn with the announcement of the Club Players Association to represent the voice of up to 200,000 club players, though the level of detail and evidence this will generate will be far ahead of anything they could hope to achieve as a voluntary and unfunded body, at least in the short term.
Read about the launch of the Club Players Association
“Using evidence as the key element of formulating policy is essential,” said GAA President Aogán Ó Fearghail, launching the project at Croke Park yesterday.
“We want to create a clear picture of the level of commitment from players involved with their county, their college, their clubs and in doing so give us a better ability to help them manage while remaining within the amateur ethos that we as bodies hold to be of critical importance.”
“I welcome the announcement of this initiative. A lot has been said and written about the well documented challenges associated with playing our games at the highest levels and the commitment involved.”
“Involvement in our games at inter-county level should not come to the detriment of the personal development of our players and we have committed to working with the GPA to establish a clear view of the situation using the expertise of the ESRI.”
“The establishment of a joint working group between the GPA and GAA to review the challenge of life style balance for inter county players was an important objective in the new GAA/GPA agreement,” added GPA President Dermot Earley.
“This research study will be a vital first step in establishing a comprehensive picture of all the issues that impact on players life style balance.
“The deliberations of the joint working group, informed by this research study, should lead to concrete recommendations that can help address the challenges faced by players both on and off the pitch.”
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