‘The welfare of players has to be No 1’ – Galway star Conor Whelan happy to see end of pre-season competitions

The Central Council’s recent decision to scrap pre-season competitions on a trial basis from next year onwards has drawn a mixed reaction, but you won’t hear Whelan complaining, as the Galway skipper feels third-level championships will now get “the respect that they deserve”.

Whelan reckons overload injuries at that frenetic time of the year will be reduced, while it will also “allow for the return to play to be later because you’re not under pressure to be fielding teams for official games”.

“I’m in favour of getting rid of the pre-season competitions,” Whelan told the Irish Independent. “Firstly, the Fitzgibbon, Sigerson, Ashbourne and O’Connor Cups, it gives those competitions the space and the coverage that they deserve really.

“It allows players to maximise their potential playing those games and not focus on a Walsh Cup game at the weekend and not overload themselves from a welfare perspective.

“The second is the amount of specific games that you’re asking that cohort of college students to play and the risk of injury that you’re putting on players. When you’re competing between finances coming into each province against welfare, the welfare of the players has to be No 1.”

Whelan – a two-time All-Star forward – feels something has to give, with the culling of pre-season competitions being the obvious solution.

“My PhD research is on elite GAA student athletes, and it focuses in on that and definitely training levels and conflict from the academic perspective. What people also forget is that those competitions are around when students are mainly preparing for end-of-semester exams.

“From a welfare perspective, both from the Fitzgibbon aspect and allowing them [the players] to excel academically, giving them the space to be able to compete to the best of their ability but also to engage in their studies as best as they can and prepare for exams is huge.

“The welfare of players is most important and giving them the best chance to be the best that they can be. Most of the people getting opportunities during the pre-season competitions are already in the shop window playing for their colleges and sometimes they’re being asked to play on a Thursday with their college and on a Sunday with their county.

“Give them the space to be able to compete for their college and on the back of that, they’ll get opportunities in the league. There are seven games in the group stages of the league next year, there was five this year, so you could argue that they have just taken two Walsh Cup games and put them into the league.”