Drinking in the G.A.A.

With Fianna Fail and the Catholic church in a heap, the G.A.A. has stood tall as the last of those famous three main pillars of Irish society. It is an onerous status to behold and one in which they are merely cast into the firing line rather than being showered with praise.


A simple example is the noise made about Guinness' sponsorship of the All-Ireland Hurling Championship. Never once have I heard anyone complain about Heineken's relationship with the European Rugby Cup and Champions League or formerly Magners' liaison with the Anglo-Celt (?) league. Even in other countries, you have Carling sponsoring the Premiership and the League cup in English soccer and for a period both Celtic and Rangers. The pillar that is the G.A.A. continues to stand so people will continue to try and knock it. It's a sad part of our psyche.


With that said, we cannot deny the sometimes suspect relationship between our players and alcohol. A study last year indicated that G.A.A. players drink more than their non-playing peers. Over half of those surveyed, binge drink regularly (more than six standard drinks). On the flipside, only 8% of players surveyed were smokers which was well below the average in the peer group. Smoking tends to be more frowned upon by players. I think it’s because the most noticeable effect of drinking i.e. the hangover, wears off with a good night sleep. On the other hand, the smoker will experience more consistent after effects such as coughing, shortness of breath etc when training.


G.A.A. is very competitive at every level in Ireland and players’ preparation seems to be greater and greater every year. When I go home now I notice the size of fellas and it's clear a lot more lads are in the gym then when I was last playing regularly at home. Some lads will go off drink for months during the Championship.


I know the situation well myself. I’ve always been a fairly conservative drinker during the season but then when we'd be done and dusted in November, I'd fully enjoy the month or two off season, countering the effects of drinking by playing hockey. We used to have a drink ban two days prior to matches and by and large I respected it but the rest of the week was my own. In accordance with the definition of binge drinking, I certainly fitted the bill. It was a case of all or nothing and pretty much still is but on a less frequent basis.


The extreme nature of a G.A.A. players drinking i.e. either 'on it' or 'off it' has led to some extreme proposals over the years. The one that stands out most for me is a proposal (which I think was discussed at Congress) to drill a hole in the bottom of all G.A.A. cups so as to get rid of the direct association between winning and drinking. Basically it was removing the possibility to 'fill the cup' and pass it around a pub, often into the hands of underage drinkers I guess.


The G.A.A.'s latest initiative is 'Off the booze, on the ball' and it is being rolled out by the G.A.A.'s drink awareness unit ASAP (Alcohol & Substance Abuse Prevention). The idea is to challenge players to have a 'dry' January and in doing so try and raise money for your club i.e. thirty players give up drink for the month and raise €100 each (€3000 collectively).


This initiative will generate publicity about the issue which is probably the main aim of it. However, what do you think will happen on February 1st? I'm pretty sure it will by a fairly impressive exhibition of binge drinking by G.A.A. players all over the country.


On the Monday prior to the Limerick tournament this year, Olof organised a party for Halloween. What I wanted to do was send a volley load of abuse in his direction about doing such a thing so close to the last tournament of the year. I have become better at not trying to entirely impose my ways on players so I resisted. It was a long weekend here and we had had a good in-house game on the Saturday.

To ask lads to not go out is particularly difficult in Brussels as the social dynamic is a bit different. A lot of fellas live on their own or with people they aren't particularly friendly with. Their families are not here. To get some social interaction they need to go out. Because of the way we are built, to go out and not drink, rightly or wrongly, will actually only create tension in someone which is not the way you want them feeling in the build up to a tournament, I know it myself because I struggle on such weekends if I don't have a plan or something to work on.


The Belgians have a very different attitude to drink. It would not be uncommon to see someone having a small beer at 10 or 11 in the morning. They'd drink it like we would drink coffee. At lunchtime, people will often have wine or beer and some workplaces even stock it in the canteen. You'd regularly see tradesmen with a can during a break. It's even common to see a policeman in uniform and in a bar drinking beer. However, it is very rare you will see anyone drunk on the street at night, even in the small hours.

Occasionally our lads may have a beer at 10 or 11 in the morning but not in the Belgian way! It will either be to finish off a session from the night before and kick start a session that day!

I'm not sure is it worth your while setting strict guidance about drinking. You set yourself up for having to make difficult decisions should someone ignore it. I think you can only drill home the importance of preparing yourself properly and ensuring that when the ball is thrown in, your body is in as good a condition as you can get it to.