Weather and value driving increase in counties' warm weather training camps

Croke Park chiefs are less eager to stamp out the practice.

The Campus in Quinta do Lago, Portugal. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

The increasing costs of staging training camps in Ireland and increasingly poor weather are among the major reasons for the rise in number of county squads going abroad to prepare for championship.

As Cork’s footballers returned home on Sunday from their four-day warm weather training break in Portugal, the proliferation in panels heading to the Iberian Peninsula has been as much for monetary reasons as inclement conditions in Ireland.

Team and county board sources indicate that the total costs of training at Spanish and Portuguese resorts including flights and transfers are attractive compared to staying at an Irish hotel with playing and gym facilities.

Derry and Kerry’s footballers will shortly head away to the Algarve for training weeks, while All-Ireland champions Dublin are set to go to the Costa Blanca. Limerick and Waterford’s hurlers were among those who trained in Portugal around this time last year.

As there is no longer a clash between inter-county and club championship games due to the split season nature of the GAA calendar, Croke Park has not been as hell-bent on banning overseas trips.

In 2019, Armagh and Laois’s footballers as well as Waterford’s hurlers lost home advantage for one game in the Allianz Leagues when they were found to have gone on training camps the previous season outside the allocated time of 10 days prior to a championship game. Armagh and Waterford went overseas while Laois trained in Kerry.

Oversea training camps were in line to be banned in 2020 with home sessions limited to three days. However, Tipperary’s hurlers were allowed to travel to Spain days prior to the lockdown being announced.

Arising from a 2019 motion, the rulebook states that they can do so providing they have received the green light from Croke Park: “Collective Training for all Senior Inter-County Team Panels which involves an overnight stay is not permitted unless written permission has been given in advance by the Central Competitions Control Committee.” 

Kerry are to return to The Campus facility at the Quinta do Lago resort later this month, while Derry have scheduled to go to Portugal the week after the Division 1 final on Easter Sunday, March 31.

As Tyrone manager, current Derry boss Harte regularly brought his native county’s squad to Carton House, which was part owned by his late brother-in-law Lee Mallaghan.

Speaking in 2019, he indicated no opposition to overseas camps being prohibited. “I was never really an advocate of foreign holidays anyway. I thought it was an awful lot to ask of the players to give up that much of their time, so it (ban) wouldn't bother me at all.

“When you're away, you'd feel you've got to put so much into this. I wonder how can you put so much into consecutive days? I feel a few days in Ireland, at the right place and the right time, will be just as beneficial.”