News: The issue of player burnout is being overstated at senior intercounty level and should not be used as the rationale to prohibit training in the off-season, according to Carlow manager Paul Bealin. Such a restriction is one of the main proposals of the GAA's burnout report, which goes before a special congress on Saturday week.

Bealin's comments follow Carlow's five-point win over Wexford in the O'Byrne Cup on Tuesday night, which set up a semi-final date this Saturday against Dublin - the county Bealin won an All-Ireland title with back in 1995. But it also underlined the differing philosophies between Carlow and Wexford, the county Bealin previously managed up until last year.

"When I left Wexford last October, it was because they didn't want to allow any collective training before Christmas," says Bealin. "Wexford believed that burnout is an issue at that level, which is something I totally disagree with.

"What I am saying is that a young player at minor, under-21 and college level can definitely end up doing too much, and someone needs to be accountable there to ensure that doesn't happen. And that's definitely something that needs to be addressed.

"But once a player is out of college, and into full-time employment, burnout never happens. Now if the GAA wants to make the decision to ban collective training in November and December that's fine, and I'll go with that. But for one county to take that stance is wrong."

Bealin was appointed as Carlow manager shortly after leaving Wexford, and immediately started into some off-season training: "In 2006, my first year in Wexford, we only started back at the end of November, and the players were also away for a week in December. I felt we were always chasing six to eight weeks of training, and lost our first three league matches as a result.

"Last year we were back at the start of November, and only lost one league match. And I think if the GAA do ban training until January then the standard of football early on in the year will suffer as a result.

"But the other point is that for the teams that make the All-Ireland semi-finals and finals a break like that would be more necessary, but for a team like Wexford, who for the last two summers were out of the championship in July, I really don't believe burnout should be an issue.

"But of course if I have a player that is also training with a college team I'm going to say 'hold on, what exactly are you doing?' because I know I'm not going to benefit from driving this player into the ground. I'll want to get the best out of that player.

"And that's only when burnout becomes an issue, and something that does need to be addressed in a more methodical way."

The GAA's burnout committee, however, believe such a restriction on off-season training is now necessary, partly because most other major field sports now have a mandatory closed season of about eight weeks.

Those first five weeks are strictly free of organised training, and are followed by three weeks of 'volunteer' training, conducted at the discretion of individual players in consultation with the club or team coaches.

Bealin, meanwhile, is looking forward to Saturday's meeting with his native county, even if it is a little earlier than he had hoped: "Of course Dublin will be a massive test, and I'm not sure I want this calibre of game so soon.

"But I'm very happy with the early progress we've made in Carlow, which effectively was the worst team in the country when we came in.

"What I found when I first came here is that the club set-up was far better than the county set-up, but also that the main objective had to be in getting the best players to commit to Carlow. I'd say we have about 95 per cent of those players now.

"We've had a panel of 37 out training in awful conditions for the past few weeks, whereas this time last year Carlow only had 16."

• Dublin manager Paul Caffrey has announced his team for Saturday's clash at Parnell Park, and it shows four changes from last week's handy win over Westmeath.

Paul Flynn moves back to midfield to replace the injured Shane Ryan, Alan Brogan returns to corner forward and Stephen Cluxton is back in goal. Philip McMahon also replaces Derek Murray at right half back, and John O'Brien takes over from Pat Burke at centre forward.

DUBLIN(SF v Carlow): S Cluxton; N O'Shea, R McConnell, S O'Shaughnessy; P McMahon, C Moran, P Brogan; P Flynn, E Fennell; D Lally, J O'Brien, B Brogan; J Sherlock, D O'Mahony, A Brogan.

The Proposal

The months of November and December will be closed months for all inter-county games and collective training for inter-county panels.

* The provision of a mandatory closed season will provide players with appropriate time to rest and recuperate from the physical and emotional demands of the previous season.

* It will also provide players with the opportunity to get away from the training and competitive environment of Gaelic games and to manage any injuries sustained during the season.

This may involve an appropriate pre-habilitation or rehabilitation programme, or some form of surgical intervention (where appropriate) on injuries that were not overly dysfunctional during the season, such as minor cartilage tears of the knee, ankle arthroscopy, hernia repairs or Gilmore groin repairs, tears in the shoulder and minor wrist surgery.