Wexford's O'Hanlon wants GAA to sign off on contact hours policy

Wexford hurler and GPA co-chairperson Matthew O'Hanlon says that the solution to the current impasse between the players group and the GAA could lie in a policy document compiled in January.

Last January, separate to the charter negotiations, the GPA’s Player Welfare Manager Colm Begley discussed a working document with the GAA’s Sports Science Group looking at the area of contact hours.

Within the document, recommendations are made on the required number of sessions a player would train at each stage of the season.

The GAA's willingness to pay expenses for a maximun of four sessions per week is at the core of the current GAA-GPA row.

"This policy concept was proposed to the GAA charter negotiating team on 16 December via a memo as a means of using sports science to identify the required number of sessions per week as it varies from pre-season to in-season and from Rookie to late career players," O’Hanlon said in a statement released today.

"It would not just be done by picking an arbitrary number like three out of the air and then moving that to four at a whim last week. For clarity, the working document outlines situations where five sessions a week might be needed in pre-season. During the playing season and a de-load week for example, sports science indicates three sessions a week is adequate for performance.

"As part of the negotiations with the GAA, the GPA proposed that this is the policy that should be used as the means of regulating sessions, rooted in sports science and with player welfare actually to the fore. It’s our view that all parties, players, managers and county boards, should then sign off on a contact hours policy that indicates the optimum number of sessions allowable for all players on the squad. The