Tipperary official spoke of his concern for young players in the county over burnout risk

A Tipperary GAA official at the recent Tipperary GAA Convention warned that some younger players are being exposed to too many games and we are running the risk of burnout in the future.

Tom Maher, Secretary of the County Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) made the comments in his annual report earlier this month in which he stated that he worries for the players, particularly in grades from U17, U19, and U21 who all play at adult and inter-county level, as well as schools and colleges competitions

“I am worried about the number of games we are putting forward for the younger player,” he said.

“With the split season, all of these have been pushed into the second half of the year, with an amount of time also requiring much the same players for adult championships as well. We seem to forget what our second-level schools are putting into this age grade of people.

“I feel we just can’t sustain this level of games programme and we need to put our own parochial wishes aside and look at the bigger picture. If we don’t, we will burn out this age level of people,” he added.

“The CCC often gets hit with ‘player welfare’ when they schedule games. Player welfare is the responsibility of the people that seek more games for the players and set the structures for competitions and not the committees that had to play the games that they are handed out.”

He continued, “We need to remember that these young players have a life outside of Gaelic games, and we should respect that.”