Gaelic football has gone soft, with the hardmen and old warhorses of the 1970s and 1980s consigned to history. A study into injuries sustained by the Donegal county team over four decades has found the game was "more physical" in the old days, with players sustaining serious injuries more often.
The report on the Donegal panels of 1972, 1982, 1992 and 2002 found that the All Ireland-winning squad of 1992 had the fewest injuries, even though one panel member suffered a ruptured kidney.
In total 20% of the players - one in five - who took part in the study group reported they had been forced into early retirement through injury, while 17.5% had to change their job because of damage inflicted on the pitch.
The study, published in the Irish Medical Journal, was carried out by the orthopaedic department of Letterkenny general hospital in response to the large volume of players presenting for treatment with chronic injuries.
A questionnaire was sent to 64 players who played in the four panels, with 63% responding. The results showed that two players from the 1972 panel were forced to quit the game because they needed reconstructive knee surgery, while 10 players had minor surgery for injuries including facial and nasal bone fractures.
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Chronic injuries after retirement from the game included locked knees, ankle and hip pain. The 1982 panel had the most serious injuries, with eight players undergoing surgical procedures. One player from the panel had to have an epidural to deal with chronic back pain, while two players from the 1982 squad were awaiting hip replacements. Four players were forced to change their careers, and five were forced to quit the game early.
Anthony Molloy, captain of the 1992 All Ireland-winning team, has had nine operations on his left knee, culminating in a knee replacement. Molloy, who began playing for the county in 1982, said he "ate painkilling tablets" throughout his career "to get through training and matches".
"The tablets I took aren't on the market any more, so who knows what damage they did," he said. "Boys now wouldn't even tog out if they had the type of injuries I used to play with week in, week out."
Molloy believes that the game has now become too soft. "You can't look at a guy now without a free," he said. "You used to see two- or three-men tackles that are automatic fouls now. A challenge with a closed fist is also a foul now. There is more scrutiny, so players can't get away with any fouls off the ball."
The study found that "more physical contact was permissible in the past, with the rules of the game not strictly enforced and open to interpretation". It also put some of the injuries in 1972 and 1982 down to a "lack of warm-ups".
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Brian McEniff, who won an All Star playing for Donegal in 1972 and managed the county to an All Ireland in 1992, blamed poor pitches and a lack of physical preparation for the huge number of serious injuries in the 1970s and 1980s.
"In 1972 a county minor told me that he had pulled a hamstring and I didn't know what he was talking about - I had never heard the phrase before. The culture was that you played through injury," he said. "There was no stretching before a session, no sports clinics or masseuses either."
McEniff said that rule changes had speeded up the game but made it less physical. The former player and manager pinched a sciatic nerve in his lower back in 1975 while soloing a ball before warming up properly. "I lost a yard of pace after that and I never recovered it," he said. "I tried everything, including yoga, but nothing really worked."
McEniff also damaged his thumb when he was kicked by a player wearing steel studs. He attributes many of the knee injuries sustained by Donegal players to the hard pitches in the county, due to its coastal location.
"There also used to be a lot of injuries to teeth which don't happen as much any more because of gum-shields."
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The report highlights how players in the 1970s and 1980s mostly funded their own medical expenses without recourse to the GAA insurance scheme. Some 13 players who sustained serious injuries received no GAA insurance in the 1972 and 1982 panels, while all but five of the 1992 panel received cover from the GAA and none from the 2002 panel were left to pay their own medical bills.