Broadening horizons by trading places in The Toughest Trade

Jackie Tyrrell never heard of Giancarlo Stanton, baseball's $325 million man, until he met him, face-to-face, at the spring training camp of the Miami Marlins. Tyrrell was impressed, although not in the lasting sense.

Aaron Kernan never got to play a Premier League match with Sunderland, although he was impressed by what he saw. They don't call it the beautiful game for nothing, even if he will always prefer his own game.

And David Bentley never played any Gaelic football before, although he felt right at home with Crossmaglen Rangers. If professional soccer had somehow retained some of its amateur ideals he may have lasted a little longer in his own club, but there is clearly no going back now.

Interesting viewing

As for these various club games somehow being tougher than the other there is no definitive answer – at least not according to

The Toughest Trade

, a one-off TV documentary airing this week to coincide with the conclusion of the AIB GAA club championship. It makes for interesting viewing nonetheless, with Kernan’s exchange with Bentley, the former Tottenham Hotspur and England international, proving particularly insightful.

For Kernan, who recently retired from the intercounty stage with Armagh, partly due to work and family commitments, the weekend spent with Sunderland certainly helped remind him of what he had and, as tough as the life of a Gaelic footballer sometimes can be, there are extra pressures of being a professional footballer that he’s glad to have gone without.

“In one way it’s definitely tougher,” says Kernan, of his time with Sunderland, “in that they are picking from the whole world now, and it’s obviously a much bigger pool. But is it tougher to get yourself in top condition to perform as an intercounty footballer? I’d say it is.

“Because that’s their job, and everything is laid on for them. Whereas we can get to the same fitness level, same endurance level and all that, we don’t have the same time to put in. We’re pushing ourselves really hard to get to an elite level. So for me, the GAA has come out of it really impressive.”

In some ways Kernan also envied the young players, only 15 or 16, who were part of the Sunderland academy, although in other ways he feared for them: “Because every one of them there knew that only one or two of them were going to make it. That’s the stats, maybe 1 in 200 might make it, and I see the skill level, the work ethic, and that’s a completely different pressure than what we have. Because we have our work to go to.

“So I don’t think the GAA will ever go professional, in that sense. I don’t think it’s viable, and I wouldn’t like to see it. The only thing I would like in the GAA is to see everybody get the same opportunity to perform at the top level.”

Increasing disillusionment

For Bentley, who walked away from football nearly two years ago due to increasing disillusionment with the professional game, there was something enlightening about his time with Crossmaglen: “I was there for a week, and loved the training and being part of the life, what they do. Balancing their life with their jobs, their family life and obviously playing at an elite level. So I’ve got great respect for what they do, and the commitment they show. It was nice for me obviously because I had problems with the way football, soccer has gone. I say soccer now, because I still love playing soccer. It’s my life.

“But I had a problem with the direction it went as a job. The whole social media, and the impact it has on your personal and family life, your relationships, it breaks you down. To come here, it was great for me to see the togetherness. What they have here is what I fell in love with so to be a part of that for just a week was really good for me. Again, I loved it.”

So to Tyrrell, the seven-time All-Ireland winner with Kilkenny, who spent a five days with the Miami Marlins, while former Major League Baseball standout Brian Schneider came here to train with Tyrrell’s club, James Stephens.

“Getting to meet their superstar, Giancarlo Stanton (who signed the biggest contract in American sports history last year, a 13-year, $325 million extension), was certainly eye-opening, a great experience,” says Tyrrell. “Stanton certainly had an aura about him. I was thinking to myself afterwards, ‘here is this guy, 24 years of age, an elite athlete with all the money in the world, what is going on in his head?’

“The only thing I could think of is that in every GAA player, there’s that burning desire to be the best. He could walk away from the sport at any time and I wonder what was it that made him tick. That’s all I could think of and it’s the same thing with us if you’re a GAA player with Kilkenny or Dublin, hurler or footballer or baseball player, ultimately everyone wants to be the best.

“And I actually took to baseball pretty quickly. After the first day, I was really struggling. By the end of it, I’d progressed nicely on it. But I wouldn’t swap places, no. I love hurling, I love the buzz of the game, the big games, putting yourself up there against the best. And there is no physicality in baseball, at all.”

The Toughest Trade airs on Thursday evening, March 12th, at 10pm on TV3.