Most GAA players love a good drink.
Nothing whets the appetite more than a nice pint after a hard fought win or one to help get over a defeat.
But that’s it for most GAA players that take the sport seriously, drinking bans are in place in the lead up to matches and if it is championship season you better not be season near the local or that’s it.
And then you have to remember that everyone involved are amateurs, expected to sacrifice a large aspect of their social lives for sizeable chunks of the year.
Ruby Walsh knows a thing or two about making sacrifices in order to be in prime shape thinks the level of commitment and what is expected from GAA players is a bit too much.
Walsh was speaking at SportsJOE Live special on Wednesday night and gave his opinions of the culture in the GAA.
“There’s responsibility in everything in life and you have to do things right,” the 38-year-old said.
“I do think that every athlete is only a human being and they need to have some bit of social life to their lives or they’ll end up (with) their head absolutely fried and they won’t be able to function.
“I think some of the commitments that GAA players are expected to make, to me as a supposed professional athlete, is crazy.
“I think it’s OTT by miles, there’s no logic to it. You have to do this for four weeks and that for five weeks. Priests don’t have to do as much as GAA players are supposed to do and I think it’s over the top.”
Connacht rugby player John Muldoon joined Walsh on the SportsJOE Live couch and agreed with him.
“I think Ruby hit the nail on the head there, everyone needs to blow off a little bit of steam and everyone needs to go out and feel like a normal person. When you get the chance you have to blow the lids off it and enjoy it,” Muldoon said
“Sometimes, as Ruby said, what the GAA players have to do and put up with for an amateur sport I think is crazy and I think down the line it’s going to turn a lot of players away, it’s going to push a lot of players to the other side.
“It’s a worrying thing, they’ve got to keep the balance right and at the moment I don’t think they have it right.”
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