With a stack of Leitrim lads reportedly being removed from the panel for going on the beer, is it necessary to impose a drinking ban on young lads who are playing an amateur sport?
Bear in mind that rugby players are allowed go on the tear mid season as are association footballers, who are both professional, does a blanket wide drink ban for six months of the year in GAA make sense?
I don’t think so. Kev could probably add more to this debate but I wonder how much harm a session a week before a match could really do. It is also a huge ask for young lads, already giving of their time for free, to abstain from alcohol for such a long time.
You also of course have the ridiculous situation of alcohol bans being imposed on club teams to a similar extent as the intercounty teams. I think this is a load of bollox and a lot of the people involved in the GAA need to realise that it is still an amateur game.
I doubt many places impose a blanket 6 month drinking ban?
Personally I stay off the beer for a week leading up to a game, but by “off the beer” I mean I won’t have more that 2 or 3 pints the preceding weekend, and then won’t drink anything to weekend of the game itself, but thats a personal choice. An all out drinking ban is stupid and leads to resentment, but weekend long sessions the week before a big game certainly don’t help. It should be up to each individual fella to make that call though.
Yeah - I do think the key here is personal choice. Banning a heavy session a week before a match probably does make sense in hindsight, particularly at Intercounty Level.
Personally I find the problem is that if I went mad on the beer Saturday night, I’d be fucked Sunday and then tired come time for training on Monday night, and that’s not good the week before a match.
RTT was giving out recently about youngsters on the team going drinking the weekend before a match.
A load of shite generally. That said, the imposition of a drink ban was a crucial part of my beloved Faythe Harriers defeating Oulart-The Ballagh in the 1996 Wexford U16 County Hurling Final. Would we have won the senior in 2001 without that U16 side’s success? Possibly not. A tough one actually.
absolutely not. You have this bullshit filtering down to club now aswell. Its no wonder lads are going off playing soccer, rugby etc. I would be off the opinion that a fews beers a week before championship makes little difference (no doubt kev will contradict this). The problem is that some lads do the dog on it altogether and go on massive sessions. as a result managers insist on a blanket ban to solve this.
At club level it should never come from management, the senior players should be the ones setting the tone and example, although the only need for an alcohal ban at club level is when you are getting towards the end of the year and it is knockout and it helps build up a bit of resolve and togetherness in the side…If the managers sets the drinking ban and a couple of senior players disregard it then it puts him in a very very tough situation
That’s the crux of the matter. More often than not your best players can be around the 21/22 mark. They don’t have the cop on to realise a 3 day drinking binge the weekend before a match does them no favours, which in turns leads to blanket bans.
Firstly comparing anything to professional sports is not fair in this instance, considering the difference in stress, fitness levels etc. I know for a fact that the Irish rugby squad do fuck all drinking these days only after a big big game or off season. Soccer players don’t drink that much either. They I’m generally against bans from managers, but would be in favour of some guide lines. A general guide line we had previously was no drinking whatsoever after the thursday for a weekend league game, no benders within 7 days of a league game and nothing 2 weeks before championship. It works well although i know fellas had fallen off it from time to time, but not much was made of it as long as it wasn’t a regular thing.
Any major drinking 2 weeks before a big game can have an affect. How much depends on the amount and the individual. People generally only think of the game when judging on this, but if your drinking has an effect on training negatively in the last 2 weeks before a game then i think that can cause both bad knock ons for the player and for the team and can lead to disharmony.
Drinking bans have been around in club GAA for years abd years. We won a county in the 90’s and there was a ban for long periods, but we were young, hungry and liked the kudos we got from it i think looking back (although i found out later 2 young players did an amount of drinking close to big games and one of these lads lost his place on both Cork Minor qsuads due to drinking). And when success followed it seemed a great idea. We drank all the way through that winter though and it ruined the team. Classic local small time heros celebrating a Final win 2 years later.
Drinking heavily the weekend before a big game just shows disregard for your team mates IMO.
You’re wrong, a few beers is no problem really i agree, but you can’t say a few to some lads and you can’t have different rules for different guys. There are players i know, some who have played county level, that if they have one then thats it, they’ll have 20.
Playing IC football is a 2nd job and the commitment is at a extremely high level. One of these lads drinking with any kind of volume is a fool as the smallest things at that level can help cause injury or put you off the paste. I can only comment on the local Cork scene, but now Senior & Intermediate Hurling and Football is taken very seriously and it really is a way of life. Teams do alot of what IC teams do and the competitive nature of all the leagues now means you are watching yourself alot more than what would have been the way. You would hear of very little drinking bans and its mostly the players who impose those kinds of things these days. We took 5 weeks off this year for 1st round as the team was seriously depleted and relegation dogfight was a real possibility if we didn’t win the first round. It seemed to have a very positive effect and we beat one of the favourites for the whole thing. There are all sorts of positive and negative examples, but when the players make a certain commitment themselves this is usually rewarded more than not with decent performance at the very least.
The way i see it is this is a positive as the people of the age who play sport drink far too much anyway in this country and its the far lesser of 2 evils to see a guy completely committed to his club and sport (hobby for TASE) than out drinking 3 nights a weekend wasting his money and shortening his life. Nobody ever talks about the runners, triathletes, boxers, cyclists etc who are even more driven and sacrifice even more for their pursuits as amateurs. There is a perception that these managers are taking something away from the players if a ban was in place. Well then, don’t play the sport or drop down a level if you don’t want it to be serious. The guy who doesn’t fall in with his team mates is leaving alot more people down.
Also mentioned it on here before, but there is a growing minority of players coming through now who don’t drink at all and are completely committed to hurling and football.
A friend of mine was club captain with a good Dublin senior hurling team last year. He’s also been a Blue Star nominee. He drinks his head fucking off every week and goes on regular week-long piss-up holidays. Doesn’t do him any harm as he can obviously handle it. He was hammered on Saturday and Sunday night and was a star man last night for a winning team. A blanket ban is ridiculous and I’d say he’d probably give up hurling sooner rather than later if it was brought in with his team, but I’d advocate individuals who can’t hack it and put in below-par performances being told to knock it on the head for their own good. I’d be one of those guys, truth be told. And sure you know. How could you not. Nothing worse than putting in a horrendous training session because you know you were at the beer all weekend.
Drinking of course affects performance though Thraw. Might not affect your friend as much as others and perhaps he can get rid of negative affects quicker than others but going on benders is bound to impact performance.
Interestingly you often see Tour De France riders have glass of wine/champagne regularly enough with their meals each day of Tour.
[quote=“larryduff, post: 609255”]
Drinking of course affects performance though Thraw. Might not affect your friend as much as others and perhaps he can get rid of negative affects quicker than others but going on benders is bound to impact performance. Interestingly you often see Tour De France riders have glass of wine/champagne regularly enough with their meals each day of Tour. [/quote]
I thought you would be up to date on this Larry. Nicholas Roche clarified that it only happens during a birthday or by winning a stage. I think you even posted up the article he mentioned it in.
As today is my 27th birthday, the team will have a celebratory glass of champagne at the dinner table tonight and a slice of cake. There are only two times we are allowed to have champagne on the Tour; either when you win a stage, or when you celebrate a birthday.
That is only with AG2R mac. Appears Astana have glass of wine with dinner each night.
Yeah balbec Schleck Junion and O’Grady were sent home for going on the rip. Stories differed from both sides as to extent of booze consumed. I think your spot on in your assessment of Schleck. Seems brainless at times. Can be very frustrating actually.