Beer Bans

[william wallis]

Most probably dont care too much about the intermediate level, but I heard over the weekend, there is uproar in the Raheen camp. Seemingly half the team were on the beer the night before the Birr game. I would fancy Clonbollogue to sneak out of the group based on this.

Beer Bans.
I know the Gooch got dropped for Kerry for having a few pints during the week for the Antrim game, and I know putting the Gooch and any Offaly team in the one sentence is farcical, but when does beer have a dramatic effect on a footballers performance in a GAA match?
I believe that to achieve a very high level of football (Gooch standard) beer consumption has to be reduced to very small levels throughout the year. I also think that sometimes a player needs to relive stress etc. and a few pints should not be frowned upon either.

I think this is the only level that beer bans should be in place.

Players commit on average ten hours a week already to their clubs. I know our club puts in place a beer ban the weekend of the match and the week leading up to it and it is sufficient.

Just wondering what other clubs are doing round the county?

[Georgio1]

Beer bans are really only effective in the 2 weeks leading up to a championship game at club level.
How do you really enforce them otherwise? Clubs struggle beyond their top 15, and if you are overly strict on this you would lose 2/3 key players at a minimum.
Probably it should be more, but I would say in Offaly most teams would be happy enough if they got a two week committment, with a solid application to training throughout the year.
Strangely enough the biggest problem we had was a couple of lads turned a plot of turf the day before an important mtch a couple of years ago and were crap the next day. The hamstrings were like boards!! The Bog should be off the menu for at least a week as well !!!

[offalyman]

To be honest,i wouldnt be a big fan of beer bans at all,four to five days before a game is plenty long enough to stay off the beer...teams now nearly want a junior club player to stay off the beer for the hole champ,a load of crap in my book...lads work hard enough and that during the week,jaysus that there allowed go out and get a few pints on a saturday night and maybe get a grab at some young one,while there at it.....go on the lads thats what i say.

[Lone Shark]

I think the ideal solution is that you have a group of players who are responsible and who ensure that their body is in the best possible condition for match day. For a 22 year old, that might mean no drink for three days before the game, but for a 32 year old a bit more abstinence might be needed. The problem is that clubs can't "enforce" that kind of thing so you end up with one size fits all solutions which aren't really solutions at all and a lad has something forced on him which is excessive for his needs.

Interesting point by Georgio by the way - in that a lot of clubs focus on beer, but ignore countless other things that are equally if not more important. I wonder how many players think they're doing their bit by giving up the sauce, but still eat Dominos the day before the game, or don't reach the 2.5 litres of water per day minimum that you should be on for the three or four days beforehand? The bog is another aspect of this, though in fairness with the summer the way it is, you could hardly blame lads for taking advantage of the few hours that the sun does peek out from behind the clouds.

[offalyman]

thats a very good point also...getting carried away with the beer,what about lads that smoke should the club not enforce a no fags ban to...its every player to himself whatever he feels fit to do....end of story...just remember lads it never hampered our great hurling team of the 90's who we all know they all liked a few pints...the gave me my best days as a offaly fan some great days in croker and thurles....it just comes down to this...if your good enough your good enough...

[Thereorthereabouts]

Yes I would have to agree totally with the above sentiments listed above.

Yes lads should take care of their bodies if they want to do themselves justice in big championship games.

Taking care involves proper diet, resting and intense training sessions. Drinking is a part of this but it is not the crucial part- Resting (includes not working the day of the match), eating properly, putting into practice what you have trained at on the day are way more important.

Sometimes I think the older lads on teams think that just because they stay off the beer it is going to win matches. Wrong, what wins you matches is talent, fitness, belief on the day, and doing as close to 100% on the field the way you have trained all year for will do it.

Warm ups are also over rated in my opinion. These warm ups that are more like half a training session are a load of nonsense.

A 8-10 minute high intensity football orientated warm up is loads. Then a few kicks of the ball. And game on.

Get out and do it within the 60-70 minutes your on the field. Lads running their hearts out before a game starts and then shying behind their man for the game isn't worth a s**t to anyone.

[turk]

Excellent points here, particularly about lads giving up beer and then swanning about. I am against beer bans

[the weasel]

I think its not just about the effect of the alcohol on the player but its also about their commitment. If a player cant stay off the drink for a week for the team, then he's not showing that he's very commited to the team.

[Lone Shark]

I think its not just about the effect of the alcohol on the player but its also about their commitment. If a player cant stay off the drink for a week for the team, then he's not showing that he's very commited to the team.

Up to a point. Certainly a week is not a huge ask and I don't think it was week long bans that are really the bugbear of players' lives so much as managers (or sometimes other players) deciding in May that no player is to touch a drop between then and the end of the championship, whether that be in July or October.

However while some players are the type that need to be led, others are able to think for themselves, and it can be a bit frustrating for a player to get grief for going out on a Saturday night two or three weeks before the game and taking three or four drinks, particularly when the lads giving him grief might themselves be off the drink but still carrying weight from bad diet, or not putting the work in at training but instead showing up and trundling around, or indeed not giving up smoking or whatever. There are players out there who need a guiding hand, but there are others who know their own bodies, who know what it takes to get themselves absolutely right and who know that there's little point in commitment for the sake of commitment.

Again, it's a personal thing, but every team has lads who are pure zealots, lads who are committed and lads who are hanging in there, or maybe not even. Of course alcohol is one issue, but it's one of several and I think GAA clubs, due to the fact that drink is a huge social problem in Ireland, tend to focus on that one to the exclusion of several others.

Actually, even within the alcoholic range there are others. I know one top level athlete who would be careful about going into restaurants becuase he won't know where the food has come from or what hidden fats might be gone into it, and he certainly wouldn't drink pints or smirnoff ice, but if he felt like a drink, then he'd have no problem with neat vodka - zero calories. Anything up to three weeks before a big race, and no problem.

[the Untouchable]

A few pints the week before a match is no problem....its really only an issue if its the night before a game that lads are out drinking!!!

If you expect lads to give up drinking when it comes to championship time....then what about the lads who smoke 10 or 20 cigerettes a day?

At the end of the day giving up drink never made a bad footballer in to a good one, so long as players are responsible then it should never be an issue!!!

[the bare biffo]

This is just further evidence of the unhealthy attitude in this country towards alcohol.
Demonisation of drink due to some deep seated puritanical guilt complex.

Prohibition just doesnt work, managers should set guidelines for acceptable behaviour, leave it at that and then make their judgements based on a players performance in training and on match day.

In an amateur passtime what a player does in his own time is no one elses business.
Judgements should only be made on performance.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Below are two extracts from Cyril Farrell’s book The Right to Win on the subject of discipline and drinking. While published some fifteen years ago, these are some interesting comments on those areas. Ghosted by Martin Breheny, the book is one of Breheny’s better works.

Despite my own attitude to drinking, I have never found it difficult to cope with drinkers. Many team managers impose a strict policy on drinking and try to impose it on their players. It is very easy to lay down a rule which states that drinking is out in the run-up to the championship but how are ypu going to enforce it? Start going into pubs to see are players there? Besides, is it really necessary?
I have always held that discipline cannon be imposed on teams. It must come from within. Yes, the management can lay down guidelines but you are going to win nothing with a team which has to have discipline hoisted on it. So if a player wants to take a few drinks, that’s fine, provided he has the inner discipline to decide when enough is enough. If he hasn’t, the chances are that he is no use to you anyway.

It’s absolutely pointless making rules if they cannot be kept. It’s equally futile to make an ultimatum. What if you do that and your bluff is called? What if you make a rule to say that no player can miss training under any circumstances and somebody doesn’t turn up, citing a reason which you don’t think is satisfactory?
The choice is clear. You either drop him off the panel or climb down. Either way you lose, simply by having a rule which cannot work. That’s why a coach should never create a situation where he is left standing at the top of the cliff. The alternatives are to jump or back off. All in all, not a sound policy. I would always prefer to have discipline imposed from within. The trick is to make every panel member feel that if he misses a session, he is letting his colleagues down. It works well, if you j=have a dedicated, ambitious squad. In fact, it’s one sure way of deciding what sort of squad you have.

[Bord na Mona man]

Below are two extracts from Cyril Farrell’s book The Right to Win on the subject of discipline and drinking. While published some fifteen years ago, these are some interesting comments on those areas. Ghosted by Martin Breheny, the book is one of Breheny’s better works.

Surely it was Cyril's writings and not Breheny's?
Ghost writers should be kept away from biographies.
I can imagine what the initial transcripts versus the final output.

Cyril: BANG! back of the net.
After Breheny's editing: A powerfully struck and emphatic goalward shot that left the goalkeeper with no chance of saving.

Cyril: Getting to know one another
Breheny: Some early robust off the ball exchanges in which both players attempted to assert their physical superiority and lay down a marker for the remainder of the game.

Cyril: A lovely wristy hurler
Breheny: One of the finest exponents of some of the defter skills of the game of hurling, generating the momentum in his shots from the carpal region.

[Plain of the Herbs]

But . . . that would preclude the illiterate from bringing out autobiographies.

Surely it was Cyril's writings and not Breheny's?
Ghost writers should be kept away from biographies.
I can imagine what the initial transcripts versus the final output.

[keenonsport]

I think the whole "drining" thing is blown out of all proportion these days. At the end of the day its only an amateur sport and this shouldn't be forgotten. There are far more important things to be worrying about than whether players are on the beer. Fair enough, maybe if lads weren't to drink for a week before a game I think that's perfectly acceptable. Just look at the most successful team in Offaly over the last 10-15 years, Birr, and you can clearly see that it doesn't cause them any problems. Of all the clubs in the county they're probably the biggest drinkers. It's about getting 30 lads into the field twice a week to give 100% and then let them have their few pints.