Tyrone County secretary Dominic McCaughey has used annual report to the Tyrone County convention on Tuesday night to question the cost of training a side for what amounts to sixteen games per year in some instances.

“Where the major transformation has occurred – and only in the last quarter of a century – has been in the coaching and training of players”.

“Most of this has been worthwhile, beneficial and educational; some has been innovative and there can be no doubt that it has provided the Association with products that are highly marketable in the Summer months”.

“However the price that is being paid for this has become too great, as the Association can now easily be described as a training & coaching industry – not a games’ association; some clubs commence ‘fitness-testing’ of their senior players in early December and start training in January – all for games commencing in mid-April.”

“Three / four collective training sessions per week with a requirement of two / three personal training sessions per week are now considered to be the norm. Early-morning sessions, lunchtime sessions and evening / night-time sessions are all standard fare. At the most basic level, of two training sessions per week over the period January to October – when official competitions have concluded for almost all teams – a senior Club player will have endured a minimum of 80 training sessions and will have played in 16 games, a simple ratio of 5:1. For a team that enjoys league or championship success there is, of course, a greater number of games to be played together with a disproportionate increase in training sessions, resulting in an enhanced ratio of training to playing games. Many coaches do not seem to realise that talent can never be created by increasing the number of training sessions”.

“While it is acknowledged that some players are satisfied with this situation and are happy to use their membership of a panel to gain or maintain fitness only, many are beginning to ask whether this is what the Association should be about. If the great majority of players want to participate in games rather than in training sessions, it is they who should convey this message to the coaches or the managers; as a group or a panel, the players should be determining what they want for their team and from their Club, rather than allowing an individual coach or manager – often coming in from a neighbouring club or county – to tell them what is best for them”.

“There is a lot of merit in the view that the team coach / trainer should come from within the Club and that, with his local knowledge, he should be better placed to know what the realistic targets for the Club’s teams are, in a given season; also, that there should be a restriction placed on Clubs in the use of coaches / trainers from outside units. For those who argue that their Club doesn’t have the personnel to do so, it can be pointed out that every county and province is providing excellent coaching courses for Club members to avail of – let each Club train, and retain, its own Club Coaches”.