Former All-Ireland winning Derry star Joe Brolly became embroiled in a war of words with the head of Sports Science at Dublin City University Niall Moyna on RTE Radio One this morning.
Joe Brolly got embroiled in a heated debate with DCU manager Niall Moyna over player welfare in the GAA.
Moyna called in to the show in relation to Brolly’s comments made earlier in the week about modern players being ‘indentured slaves’.
Brolly said many of the top GAA players in Ulster had no profession because of the demands of the game.
Brolly said that the GAA had adopted professional practices into an amateur community-based game and that it was no longer sustainable for players.
He said the professional practices adopted and the extensive training levels required were affecting players welfare, in his opinion.
However, Moyna hit back and said Brolly deals in anecdotal evidence, but that he’s a scientist and that he deals in facts.
Donegal captain Michael Murphy was dragged into the row when Brolly spoke about the training methods undertaken by Murphy when he was a student at DCU.
Murphy disclosed details of his schedule earlier this week, in which he revealed he trained three times a day when he was at DCU.
Brolly then recalled a Glenswilly GAA presentation dance he attended in 2013 when Murphy and his other Glenswilly teammates involved with Donegal were sipping water at the function because they had strength and conditioning training the next morning.
Brolly said, “I read Michael Murphy’s DCU diary that he wrote while he was in DCU during the week, he was training three times a day and he went straight from DCU into a regime where he was twice a day.
“I was at the Glenswilly medal presentation when they won their first Donegal championship in January (last year).
“Michael and the other Glenswilly boys on the Donegal panel were sipping water because they had weight training at 8am the next morning.
“This situation is becoming intolerable. The reason being, is that we have imported professional sport practices into an amateur, community-based scheme.
Moyna hit back at Brolly and defended his handling of Michael Murphy.
Moyna said, “Michael Murphy, in four years, did no strength or conditioning training at DCU and I should know.
“We have stopped all our conditioning because all we were doing was duplicating what the counties were doing.
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