“Every club should be a dual club.”
Dual players are becoming less and less common, and although clubs may not openly put bans on players playing for both codes, they certainly don’t help matters.
It should be something that is encouraged within a club, rather than looked down, and no player should be punished for missing on session to attend a match for another code or vice versa.
We discuss the matter on the latest episode of the GAA Hour, and Colm Parkinson puts forward his thoughts on the issue.
“Yes it is a player’s own decision but they almost feel like this is what’s expected of me you know like and we were saying this is terribly sad.
“That this shouldn’t be the case at all, that every club should be a dual club. In a way, from speaking to people, a lot of the issues come down to outside managers in that, an outside manager comes into your club and I would say the very vast majority of outside managers are getting paid.
“So what’s an outside manager going to do, who’s getting paid, there’s a lot of pressure on them to perform. Are they going to want their footballers or hurlers going away, only having them one week every two? And could get injured
Journalist and hurler, Niall McIntyre, made his point on the matter clear and concise.
“If you want to be a dual club, I think it has to be made clear to the manager that’s coming in that this is the story, like, we are a dual club and you just have to make do with it like.”
While the dual ethos is dying out in some clubs, in @Loughmore_Gaa it has never been stronger.
For training, they bring hurls as well as Gaelic footballs and with the enjoyable mix doing them no harm at all, more clubs should surely follow their example. pic.twitter.com/08dElY24hx
— The GAA Hour (@TheGAAHour) October 28, 2021
Naturally, I agreed with the lads but wanted to highlight that the issue of outside managers should be nipped in the bud from the very beginning.
“Even in the hiring process when they’re picking a manager, and in the interviews and stuff, do you know, they need to make it very clear that if you are willing to take this role, this is one of the responsibilities is looking after these dual players and making sure that burn-out and availability and everything else, is key.” I replied.
Parkinson even brought some evidence to the table to suggest that it can be done successfully.
“Probably the best example in the country of you know, the dual player being promoted, is Loughmore-Castleiney and they’re obviously one of Tipperary’s best teams in both football and hurling.
“They’re not kind of suffering because of this policy at all. They currently have the same manager for football and hurling.”
“You just have that image of a Loughmore training session like, with sliotars flying in one direction, the footballs flying in the other,” replied McIntyre.
“Magical I would call that,” Wooly responded.
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