Ignorance is bliss for Kiernan | Padraig Martin

Jerry Kiernan managed to cause quite a stir during a recent appearance on Newstalk’s Off the Ball radio show. The former Irish Olympian took a swipe at the fitness levels of inter-county GAA players during a discussion on the distribution of Irish Sports Council grants. Earlier, a few Irish athletes had taken to Twitter to vent their frustration at a €900,000 deal struck between the Irish Sports Council and Gaelic Players Association.Kiernan branded inter-county GAA players overweight and unfit, before going on the back-foot and stating that he was talking about the weaker counties (despite the fact that early on in the interview he said that he saw a photograph of four Kerry players whose physiques’ suggested they hadn’t spent much time on their fitness).“I wouldn’t (give GAA players a grant), I think the GAA is the richest sporting association in the country, and they should be well able to look after themselves. I don’t particularly like the GAA; I don’t like football in particular, there’s not much to it… but I watched bits of the games over the weekend and what struck me was how unfit the players were… there’s absolutely no comparison (between athletes’ training regimes and that of inter-county players). I believe that the GAA people live in a cloistered world and they don’t think beyond what they do themselves, and they tell themselves that they are training hard.”Several high profile Gaelic footballers and hurlers were quick to rebuke Kiernan for his comments among them UCC graduate Eoin Cotter: "I thought Jerry Kiernan's comments were ill-advised and unfair on all inter county players. He obviously does not understand the level of training commitments required to play GAA at the highest level. Prominent GAA officials don't comment on the physical appearance of athletes. Likewise I don't think Jerry's comments are welcome, productive or helpful.”What was obvious from the language used by Kiernan was that he has a deeply rooted hatred of Gaelic games; possibly as a result of the lack of attention his own sport is afforded in comparison. Throughout the interview Kiernan continuously rattled off a series of outdated clichés and contradicted himself.Kiernan’s remarks completely ignore the fact that different sports require different physical attributes. Marathon running - to use his own turn of phrase – doesn’t have much to it, whereas hybrid sports such as GAA require a mix of endurance, power, strength, speed and skill. Yet despite his poor delivery, at the root of Kiernan’s irrational rambling lies a fundamental point. The money allocated to the GAA comes to about €400 per player. Would it not be better to divide this money out among international athletes instead of using it in what is clearly no more than a token gesture to recognize the elite status of GAA players?There is undoubtedly a need for serious debate on this issue. Top amateur boxers can make six figure sums fighting in the World Series of Boxing whilst still availing of sizeable government grants, yet top amateur MMA fighters are completely overlooked. According to Stewart Dollery of the MMA Clinic, fighters like Sean Tobin train twice a day, six days per week, putting in a minimum of twelve to fourteen hours in that timeframe. “Ireland has two MMA World Champions, Aisling Daly and Conor McGregor, yet MMA is not even recognized as a sport. Sport should be for all and not just for the sports that certain bureaucrats support.”Of course, as Clare great Jamesie O’Connor pointed out on the same Newstalk show that Jerry Kiernan appeared on, there is a real argument to be made against spending any taxpayer’s money on sport when the economy is in dire straits. One thing is for certain: whichever way the pot is divided, the government and Irish Sports Council will never mange to please everyone.