STOP ME IF you think that you’ve heard this one before.
Marathon runner Jerry Kiernan made headlines after he publicly slammed GAA players and questioned their training regime — in a newspaper interview back in 1988.
Kiernan caused controversy last month when he told Newstalk’s Off The Ball that Ireland’s GAA stars do not train hard enough to warrant government grants.
Players hit back in response and labelled the Kerry athlete, who competed at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, “uninformed”, “an ill informed moron” and an “angry man”.
Now it has emerged that Kiernan made similarly disparaging comments in a piece published by The Kerryman 25 years ago, reprinted by the paper in February.
At least he’s consistent:
Kiernan, now 34, makes no secret of his belief that Gaelic footballers do not train properly.“They train so little for such great lengths of time,” he said.
“They come back in May for the championship and do five or six weeks of concentrated training which their bodies aren’t able to handle.
“A lot of the footballers in this country are 15 to 20 pounds overweight and they sustain a lot of injuries, relating to ligaments and tendons principally and to knees as well.
“Really, they have no concept of what training is all about,” though he did admit that there were exceptions to this rule and he mentioned to O’Keeffes of Tralee in this regard.
