The question about whether the GAA should consider going professional seems to be cropping up more often these days, but leading figures in both football and hurling continue to find interesting and intriguing reasons for why it needs to retain it's amateur status.
Dónal Óg Cusack is one such figurehead, and the former GPA chairman surprised some people on his views on the matter when speaking at Bord Gáis Energy 'Winning in Business' seminar in Cork on Wednesday. Cusack claimed he was grateful that the GAA stayed amateur, and that it's of a benefit to players after their playing days:
Looking back on my career, I think it served me well as a person, that I had a career. You might go out in front of 50,000 people on a Sunday but, in a lot of cases, you’re back to work on a Monday. I remember one year, after playing Tipperary in Thurles, I was in on the Monday morning and there was a meeting, someone asked where one fellas was and the answer was, ‘He’s missing, he was at the match yesterday.’
I was thinking that there was something wrong there, but overall, I think you do get a balance.
If you asked me when I was 21 what I’d love to do, I’d have said it was to be a professional sportsperson, but if you ask me now, at 38, having gone through it all, I think that the amateur model is a healthy one and it’s a good one to keep, albeit maybe a bit more balanced towards the players. It keeps players grounded. Because our games aren’t professional, we have the opportunity to put really good structures in place, in terms of college courses or helping guys start businesses. These people who are leaders on the field are often leaders off the field too.
It's an interesting and often forgotten point. There are endless stories of professional sportspeople descending into depression and of being very unsure of themselves after retirement that Cusack says shouldn't apply to an amateur game.
[Irish Examiner]
See Also: Aaron Kernan Makes Compelling Argument Against The GAA Going Professional
Picture credit: Ray McManus / SPORTSFILE
