Who wants to be a sports star?
On a national level we have all seen the treatment of the Irish soccer players and our top hurlers and footballers.
The GAA’s provincial councils are extremely reluctant even to make a contribution to players’ holiday funds. The situation seems to be worst in Cork where some senior hurlers may boycott the National League.
But you don’t have to be a senior inter-county player to be guaranteed a raw deal.
I recently heard about a rising star who plays with Templederry in north Tipperary. He was a member of the club’s senior panel, but didn’t play a championship match and so was entitled to played for the junior B side.
However, for some reason, he was left on the sideline for all the junior games this year. The junior B county final was played last Sunday in Moneygall where Thurles Sarsfields beat Templederry by a goal.
Now the losers can only wonder what might have been as their best player was left on the sideline. Why? We cannot continue to do this to our young players anymore.
If the GAA, from top to bottom, doesn’t change its ways, they may hold on to the plodders, but the gifted ones will have gone elsewhere.
Dermot Ryan,
Mountain View,
Moneygall,
Co Offaly.
