Former Kerry manager Jack O'Connorlooks at player burn-out

The Under-21 football championship finished at the weekend. It is a much maligned grade of activity, and in recent years there has been a lot of easy talk about getting rid of it.

But disbanding the competition would be a serious mistake. It is hugely important in the development of players. I was involved in some shape or form at Under-21 level in Kerry from 1993 to 1999 and again in 2002 and 2003.

Sure, once in a blue moon we see players go straight from a minor team into a senior team. There are exceptions, in every generation you'll find one. Johnny Culloty won a senior All-Ireland back in 1959, in his first year out of minor. Jimmy Barry Murphy was 19 in 1973 when he won with Cork. The Gooch went straight into the senior Kerry side at 19 and won an All Star.

Geniuses like those guys don't come along too often. Even a genuinely great midfielder like Darragh Ó Sé needed two successful campaigns to develop properly. He won Under-21 medals in 1995 and 1996, but it was 1997 before Darragh was truly ready for the big boys.

The grade gives huge value. One of the main reasons Kerry have won four senior All-Ireland championships in the last 10 years is the success at Under-21 level from 1995 to 1999. During that period we won five consecutive Munster championships and three All-Irelands. That meant a stream of confident young players coming through. The same with Cork in the late 1980s. They reached four All-Ireland senior finals in a row and won the last two. They were backboned by three successful All-Ireland Under-21 teams.

What is worrying in Kerry now is the lack of success at the level. We haven't won a match in two years. We haven't got out of Munster since 2002. Cork have won four in a row in Munster and now an All-Ireland. This will manifest itself at senior level. On Saturday Cork had four or five players who look senior material. That's how it should be done.

Putting young players in too early can be detrimental. Look at Donie Brennan in Laois. A county senior two years ago but not on the panel now. He's a fine young player who should make it if he bulks up. He was too light for senior football at the time.

There are gradual stages to reaching senior football status. Under-14. Under-16. Minor. Under-21. Progress is meant to be gradual and planned.

Ask an 18-year-old to jump straight into a senior scene with physically mature 25-year-old is usually unrealistic and potentially dangerous.

Irish rugby has successfully planned the physical development of players from an early age. The game has a cohesive national development programme supervised by Dr Liam Hennessy. The physical preparation in underage academies has been nationally streamlined to ensure that young players achieve the maximum benefit from training programmes. We can learn from this.

Contrast rugby with GAA's unco-ordinated approach where every Tom, Dick and Harry does his own thing. Some are doing laps, more are doing this, that and the other. Players do too much of the wrong things.

Training regimes at minor, Under-21 or senior in a county sometimes bear no resemblance to each other and don't even complement each other.

For instance, strength training, especially weights, should be progressive from Under-16 on. Learning the technique at an early stage lessens the risks of injury and increases the strength gains later on. For us in Kerry the importance of weights in physical preparation for the last few years was paramount.

Our trainer, Pat Flanagan, put more emphasis on this than any other form of fitness work. Pat would see running and laps as being counter-productive to high-intensity performance on the pitch.

The bottom line is that the problem isn't with the Under-21 grade. It's with cohesion and planning. County boards need to appoint one development officer with sole responsibility for implementation of a co-ordinated physical programme at all age levels. This would end the disjointed approach and the à la carte attitude that exists among managers and trainers at the moment.

Generally, everyone in the GAA looks for short-term gain. A proper development officer would rule that, in the long term, it is important that the players play with their age group and go back to the seniors when they are ready.

It is important in the development of any county down the line that the Under-21s get fair play. Ideally the competition should be played off in the autumn. In spring, fellas train with colleges, are off to county Under-21 managers and maybe four or five are in with the seniors. They are being pulled in all directions. Wrong.

And Another Thing . . .

Speaking of young players, burn-out is a related issue. A player welfare committee is reviewing the demands placed on players in the modern era.

A variety of things which, when combined, can lead to player burn-out.

Too many games, not enough of the proper type of training and poor recovery periods.

There are psychological reasons, too, like unrealistic pressure to win even from a young age. Nowadays Gaelic football at senior level takes over a player's life completely. This isn't sustainable or advisable in the long term, and could well explain why intercounty careers which extend beyond the age of 30 are now the exception.

Professional demands are placed on amateurs and the inevitable result is burn-out. Last year Declan O'Sullivan certainly suffered. Declan had played to nearly the end of December for three years in a row. Each time he was playing again in January. In hindsight, it was my fault. The manager should supervise things like that. Sometimes you leave your heart rule your head though. If the player is enthusiastic, you let him at it. The player suffers later on.

In soccer, Alex Ferguson will occasionally send off one of his stars to Dubai or somewhere for a week. That's not for the crack. It's for scientific reasons. They need to psychologically chill out for a while. I've seen young players who should progress stall because they have played too much underage. They haven't the time to train properly. Playing matches and not training, the body weakens. You don't deposit. You withdraw all the time. That catches up.

Look again at rugby. How few matches they play. They have a long pre-season of eight or 10 weeks. We have too many games and not enough time to recover or train. We need a good pre-season with no matches. Do the stamina work and then a maintenance programme during the season.

In college football they are doing heavy-metal work on heavy pitches and still trying to play matches in late winter or early spring. Lads are trying to do a bit of study on the side. There is no proper structure for the season.

We need real leadership. County development officers need to pinpoint who the stars of the future are. Take it out of a player's hands. Protect them. Say no for them.

Young fellas want to play. They are mad for the road. It's not in their best interest though. They need a structure, proper advice on lifestyle and diet and weights from an early age. Treat them as elite athletes.

That's a quantum leap, but if we want to flourish that's the way we have to go. At this point players are coming through despite the system, not because of it.