Former Ireland international Stephen Hunt has defended his weekend column on how GAA players would cope in a professional environment.
Hunt's article in the Sunday Independent was a response to recent comments from GAA analyst Joe Brolly, who said that soccer players are not role models in modern society.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport last night, Hunt defended his questioning of hurlers' and footballers' mental strength, compared to that of soccer players, if it ever came down to being a professional player.
The Ipswich Town winger insists it was not his intention to insult GAA players, saying: “No certainly not and from a GAA point of view I’m probably one of the biggest fans, in terms of being a soccer player towards the GAA, and football and hurling, for sure.
“But, obviously I started the article, probably on Joe Brolly’s comments, ‘could we be like heroes and stuff like that to children.’”
He added: “Listen, there are good pros and bad pros in any game – amateurs or pros or whatever you want to say, but for sure sometimes we’re tarnished with the wrong brush I think.
“He (Brolly) doesn’t know Monday to Friday what we do for the local community and stuff like that and how we deal with people, one or two people you have that can be quite rude to people and they want autographs and stuff like that, but generally there’s a lot of good guys that spend time with people and sign stuff and do things that would make children and adults happy for that matter.
“If hurlers and footballers turn professional, which would obviously be great in five or six years, if it’s going to go down that route, they would require rest. Because for one, training intensity would go up because they’d be training most days.
“Then their bodies might not be able to deal with it, pretty much like mine.
"In terms of the ratio of people that have come from Ireland to England at a young age on a professional level, thinking it was going to be rosy, 95% go home with their tail between their legs thinking it wasn’t for me and it was too tough for me.”
Listen to the full interview from Game On on 2fm below:
