Carlow starlet facing burnout

A CARLOW minor hurler, who made his debut with the senior side this year, is on the verge of burning out after being asked to play six games in nine days.

Alan McDonald from the Erin’s Own club in Bagenalstown claims the county board are not doing enough to help players in his situation.

He said: “The county board needs to space out the matches. We weren’t really keen on playing the matches this week but the county board needed to have the matches played by a certain date (because of the Leinster club championships),” he said “When I was burnt out two weeks ago I was tired the whole day and I couldn’t sleep. I was staying up all night. You’d be hungry all the time and there’d be a load of things that would be wrong with you.

“You get bored of hurling. It’s how you feel when you’re burnt out. You’re tired and you’re not bothered. You don’t really want to play, but you have to do it, you don’t want to be letting down the team.”

McDonald’s club, who reached the county final for the first time in 39 years last season, are also angered by the demands.

“The big thing in the GAA is burnout. Every team has minors playing senior, so the county board can’t say that minor has nothing to do with senior,” said Erin’s Own PRO David Kelly.

“We’ve senior today, minor Monday, senior Wednesday, minor Thursday, intermediate Friday, senior Saturday, minor on Sunday and then the minor football starts on Monday night.

“The players are saying it’s crazy. 17- and 18-year-olds are being asked to go to the park every night of the week. We give them rest when they’re playing, we don’t train and of course that doesn’t help the club. But they’re only getting maybe one night off in 10 days.”

However the board says their hands are tied and county board chairman Pat Deering opined that minors might be banned from playing at senior level.

“Alan is a great player with a lot of potential and he needs to be minded. One would question whether he’s strong enough at this age to play senior hurling with the county team,” Deering said.