While the issue of the ever increasing demands being put on GAA players of all levels is something that has been widely discussed in recent years, there was still a sense of shock at one example of that dynamic in action in recent days. Last week, one club's player charter document was leaked online.
It ruffled quite a few feathers, with many people blown away by what was being asked of the hurlers at this (rumoured to be a Galway) club.
Among it were some straightforward asks such as logging personal training sessions and a commitments to strength and conditioning work.
However, it also outlined other asks such as a near blanket ban on drinking between June and October, no other sports being played from June onwards, and a rule that any player planning on travelling to Australia or North America for the summer could not be part of the panel at any stage in 2024.
You can see the rules in full below.
This is not the GAA I love! pic.twitter.com/sB4AElvLfQ
— Michael Verney (@mlverney) November 26, 2023
The name of the club in question was not revealed at the time, although it was said that they were an All-Ireland winning outfit. After rumours spread on social media about the identity of the club in recent days, it has now finally been confirmed.
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Galway club explain controversial player rules list
The team that issued these rules was Galway hurling club Clarinbridge, who won an All-Ireland club title back in 2011.
They have not won a county title in the years that followed, with their only appearance in the decider over the last decade coming in 2021.
That has perhaps played a part in their decision to introduce a more stringent setup this time around, something that was apparently decided upon by the players.
In a piece in the Irish Independent, a source at the Galway club said that the rules put in place were suggested by players, before the entire squad would then sign off on them.
The players came back to the management and said this is the feedback from the year. We feel we didn’t put enough effort in, we feel we didn’t put enough work in during the summer.
We had nine or ten lads who went to America playing hurling for the summer. They came back but they didn’t have the work done from a conditioning perspective...
We had a couple of lads who said ‘oh we’ve booked two weeks in Ayia Napa’ the week before a championship game. They’d been told to book holidays in June, don’t book them in August when we’re playing championship.
So it’s just those common sense approaches. The club completely believes in a player-led system. This is what the players wanted.
In relation to issues such as playing golf, it was said that the rules were not as strict as suggested and it was suggested that players not play a full 18 holes on the days of training or games. The anonymous source would say that some of the wording of the document was a tad harsher than it should have been.
They also said that a 'bit of a drink culture' had developed in the squad and that was something that the players wanted to address. When it comes to players going on a J1 and missing out on the squad as a result, this apparently came on the back of conditioning issues for some players who went down that route in 2023.
You can read the article in full here.
It seems that this may have been a player led initiative at the Galway club. While all players may have agreed to it, you would have to winder if every single member of the panel will be happy to play under such rules for the whole of 2024.
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