No sooner have the last hurling balls been pucked than the hurling books begin to fly through the air.

This year is a bumper harvest, no doubt. Cork hurler Donal Og Cusack‘s book is certainly the pick of the crop in terms of generating excitement.  His book is due to feature a number of revelations about his personal life and his views on professionalism in the game that will cause much heated debate in the months to come.

All of this is a far cry from the attitude of players in the 1950s. In those days, players simply played to the best of their abilities and did what they were told.  If they got the opportunity to play for their county, then they humbly accepted and were honoured to do so. Their personal lives were nobody’s business but their own and the idea of taking payment for doing what they loved to do – particularly for their own native county – was simply not within the realm of possibility.

As the organisation has developed over the years, so too have the revenues. Expectations from players have been raised accordingly.  Many would say that those expectations are too high, but it must be remembered that demands on players are not the same as they were 50 years ago.

In the 1959 championship, for example, Waterford came through their provincial games unbeaten. There was no need for any “back door” re-test.  Galway were actually playing in the Munster championship at the time (with very little success), so winning the Munster title put them straight into the final.

Games were a whole 10 minutes shorter and, even with the necessity of a replayed All-Ireland final against Kilkenny, Waterford had a minimum rest-up period between games of 4 weeks.  Going into the the replay against the Cats on October 4th 1959, Waterford were the favourites (God be with the days!), yet one of the chief concerns amongst newspapers at the time was that the Waterford players might suffer from “burn-out” after such a “long campaign”!

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.