McGeeney: Abuse of GAA players has hit ‘new level’

Kildare boss Kieran McGeeney fears the abuse of GAA players “has reached a new level.”

This week Gareth Bradshaw revealed he withdrew from the Galway senior panel because he no longer enjoyed playing football in the wake of the criticism he was subjected to following their Connacht SFC defeat to Mayo.

And McGeeney has concerns with how younger players will react to negative headlines and analysis.

“It’s quite a large commitment to play inter-county Gaelic football at the minute and I suppose the abuse has reached a new level in terms of if you don’t perform, there is a large amount of attention put on the individuals concerned, ” said McGeeney at the Hawkfield centre of excellence yesterday. “And even when you see young players like Bradshaw, (who) to me are top class, starting to lose the enjoyment, it is difficult. But that, I suppose, is just the nature of the beast we have.

“We have a huge sport… it’s amateur (but) it takes more coverage than any professional sport in the country and with that there are two sides to it.

“You can get great PR and slaps on the back but when things don’t go well, it takes a strong mind to be able to cope.

“Maybe we have to look at showing our young players how to cope with that… I hate using the word abuse, but it gets to that level for some of them.”

Meanwhile, McGeeney says that he would have no objection to playing championship games on a Friday night but is adamant that the GAA will have to implement new rules to allow them to compensate players for loss of earnings or expenses incurred as a result.

“I definitely think players should be compensated. The amount of time inter-county players put in is huge and I think with all due respect, a lot of people commenting on what inter-county players do don’t have a rashers of what they actually do. What we ask of these players is unbelievable and people say ‘oh you should restrict this and that’ but the expectations are out there from the fans as well as everybody else for them to compete.

“If we start asking them to take half-days off work and days off work for games, then you are going to have to look at it a wee bit closer and have to be able to do something.

“I know you are talking about rules and bending rules but that’s what our association is there for, to make new rules if that’s what we need to do.

“It’s a new line for them to play games on Friday nights so if they can have new things to start games on Friday nights, I am sure they can look at rules to be able to better compensate their players… not paying them, just compensating them for expenses lost. I have nothing in principle against when it is played but I do think they should take into consideration the players’ views and it doesn’t happen that often.”