Gambling, the price of amateurism, head injuries, and the very real fear of a positive doping test have replaced boot deals and mileage rates as the priorities within the Gaelic Players Association (GPA), according to its chairperson Donal Óg Cusack.

Cusack was speaking in Croke Park at one of the latest joint GAA-GPA initiatives – a “freestyle” hurling competition – but admitted that’s not what makes the headlines, and that most of their more serious work now goes on behind the scenes.

Indeed one of Cusack’s biggest concerns is what goes on away from the playing field, and the potential, especially given the increasing physicality of both football and hurling, for someone to mix up something they shouldn’t be.

“We definitely don’t have a culture,” he said, “but education is still the key, first of all, about what is legal and what is not.

"Because I dread the day when we get that phone call, when a player tells us he has a problem with something, that he's after getting a letter in the door, and it's not to say that he's clear. We have a procedure in place, of what will happen then, but still I dread that day. Because of the uniqueness of the GAA, that it's so high profile.

Potential pitfalls
"And it would be naïve of any sporting organisation in the world to think that there isn't the potential for something like that to happen. And again, it's a big part of what the GPA has been doing over the last couple of years, delivering as much information as possible, trying to warn players of the potential pitfalls. But it's a whole different world, really, with all the advancements, and the way things change, what is banned and what's not. . . We've seen what happened with the sprinters, down in Jamaica, and it is a very complicated area."

Cusack feels the GPA has shifted its priorities not just to meet the changing demands of players but the changes within society itself, such as the increase in unemployment, and the spread of gambling.

“We’ve got a 24-hour help line set up. Now I’m not going to tell you the figures of the people that are contacting that but that’s there. Like, gambling is a big issue. Watching things the way they changed over my career, one of the things that I couldn’t get over near the end of it was how gambling almost became part of the discussion.

“So many people are talking about games and odds it’s become a part of the whole narrative. It’s become so easy for people. But there’s professional people that are paid to deal with that area, and again education is the key.

“Players also need to upskill, cross-skill, go back into employment, whatever. We’ve always had it in our communities, that you look out for the guy next door, but this sort of structure was not in existence before the GPA came along.”

Related topic
Limerick hurler Niall Moran, also present in Croke Park, spoke on the related topic of the ever-growing player commitment in a still amateur game: "You can never go too far in the pursuit of excellence and the pursuit of trophies, but I just wonder from a lifestyle point of view, where is the gap for people to live?

“Training has become a 12-month experience and I feel that you are losing some of the old folklore that used to go with it. Is there a role for the bricklayer in hurling any more, or the farmer? And where does the next advantage come in? Does it come in the use of supplements, guys giving up their jobs? . . . Look at rugby and games like that constantly evolving doesn’t always mean that the lustre of the game improves.”

Moran however was more certain that the GAA is still a long way off any doping culture:

“I have never seen any of it in GAA and there is no trophy worth taking such a risk for. That goes against the grain of everything that the GAA stands for and I don’t think that’s any threat in the GAA at present.”

Cusack also supported the claims of Donegal football manager Jim McGuinness that the danger of concussion and other more serious injuries need to be highlighted: “Again education is the key. If any two players run into each other, and heads collide, concussion can be as bad as those at the very top of the game. So highlighting that risk, educating people, is something I’d be fully supportive of.”

All of which makes for a long list of serious priorities within the GPA.

(For full details on the Freestyle Hurling competition see GAA.ie/freestylehurling)