UCC stress fun factor when dealing with inter-county students

Increasing demands placed on inter-county playing students has encouraged universities like UCC to emphasise the enjoyment factor of Gaelic games, the college’s GAA development officer John Grainger has said.

A more condensed start to the inter-county calendar has meant third-level institutions have felt squeezed in January and February — their peak months of the year. The changes haven’t necessarily meant improvisation but rather, in the case of UCC, simply ensuring that training and representing the college is a pleasurable experience.

“A typical training session in UCC would be a good warm-up, a tactical game and a good warm-down — in total not lasting anything more than an hour and a quarter,” explains Grainger. “We do not include specific physical work in our sessions. There is no collective gym work. If they go to the gym, it’s because they want to go themselves.

“Rather than rely on technology for the work done by players, we talk to them. If he or she says they’re tired and injured, they don’t train. Maybe it’s old-fashioned, but there’s a lot to be said for talking to the players and respecting them. We have a lot of great medical people involved and we make sure players are looked after.

The amount of training is not the thing anymore, but [rather] the quality of it. Everything we do is on grass and everything is with the ball. We have them for such a short space of time, from September/October to the start of March, that we want to make it as enjoyable for them as we can.

“Everybody wants a piece of them, but if we are to gain from them it requires an intelligent response to how they are treated. This is not me dictating to anybody or saying that other teams or other clubs are not looking after their players.

"There’s only a small minority who go down the personal route of using players to feed their ego. The vast majority treat their players right and that’s what we like to think we’re doing.

“Our coaches talk to the inter-county coaches across hurling, Gaelic football, ladies football and camogie. There is co-operation there on the basis of player welfare. We have access to our players and it’s about looking after them when they’re with us.”

Lasting just three games, the McGrath Cup starts on Sunday and finishes the following weekend, the four counties involved preferring a knock-out structure, with two weeks freed up before the start of the Allianz Leagues at the end of the month.

It’s four years now since third-level institutions were last involved in the Munster pre-season competitions. Grainger would love to see the third-level institutions welcomed back into it, but points out: “What I could say or not say won’t make a difference. They were great competitions for us and we always treated them with respect”.

With the potential for fixtures clashes between the All-Ireland senior club football semi-finals and Sigerson Cup semi-finals next month, it may be that the colleges lose out again, as they did last year when Liam Silke couldn’t line out for UCC on the day Corofin beat Moorefield.

But Grainger is adamant the appeal of the premier college competitions remains strong.

If you’re being selfish you’d love to have total access to them but the world isn’t ideal.

"What I would say is we have our fair share of inter-county players in the Fitzgibbon, Sigerson, Ashbourne, and O’Connor Cups and as a result of that calibre of player, there is an interest in the competitions.”