Former Kildare star Dermot Earley believes it is inevitable that the careers of inter-county footballers are going to be considerably shorter in the years ahead.
It’s a view shared by many, who feel the demands of the modern game just makes it too difficult for players to sustain a long career. Earley himself wore the Lilywhite jersey for over 15 years.
“I would suggest that the county lifespan is going to seriously reduce,” he told RTÉ Sport, reflecting on the inter-county scene two years on from his own retirement.
“It’s inevitable that it’s going to shorten. When I started out, it was still your two or three nights a week training and you still had time to socialise and time to live your live, go to college and enjoy it.
“I just think the way it has gone, it's now 24/7, especially when you're in the height of the season.
"I can't see players doing it for more than seven, eight years. That would be the max."
In the close season, Dublin’s Bryan Cullen and Aaron Kernan of Armagh both retired at the age of 30 and Earley feels that could be the norm now for players as they try to juggle work and a playing career.
“It’s quite difficult now at any elite level to even hold down a job that suits and train,” he added.
“I was lucky enough in my own job that I got a lot of support, that I was able to have a long career.
“That’s going to be a big question. Do you sacrifice a career to play football or do you work away in the background to make sure that by the time you are finished you have something to fall back on?
“In fairness to the GPA, that is something they are trying to educate the players on, that is - not to neglect their personal development so that when their careers are finished they have something to fall back on. Educating them younger is important and it is something they are really focusing on."
Earley also cast on eye over the fortunes of his native county, who have begun 2015 with consecutive defeats in Division 2 of the Allianz Football League.
"I would never panic in February to be honest." was Earley's initial response. He is, however, hopeful that Kildare have the resolve to summon a positive response when they resume against Westmeath on 1 March.
"We realised at the start of the year we needed to get back into Division 1, that’s where you want to be. The All-Ireland will be won by a team from the top division and if you want to win Leinster you are going to be playing Dublin a couple of times during the year and you can try and improve off that.
"The chance isn’t gone, we can win the remaining five games and get back up but certainly those two games were very important to get that ball rolling.
"The three-week break, I would have felt in the past that Kildare haven’t kicked off from that like other teams do.
"So it will be interesting to see how they react in the first weekend in March because other county teams do use those weeks to push on and Kildare haven’t in the past and they need to do that this time."
Dermot Earley is an ambassador for Topaz’s ‘Cash for Clubs’ community promotion.
