Kilkenny were big winners against Cork on Nowlan Park on Sunday as they took the NHL Division 1A points and booked their place in the league semifinals to boot with a 0-20 to 2-12 win.

Cork have their sights set on All-Ireland champions Kilkenny according to selector Kieran Kingston after they showed real character to snatch a 2-12 to 2-12 draw against Galway in the NHL Division 1A game in Salthill last Sunday.

The New York Gaelic Athletic Association will operate in 2013 with the same panel of officers who guided the body through 2012.

The Gaelic Athletics Association (GAA) has announced that there could be just 13 hurling teams competing for the 2016 All-Ireland hurling championship. However this will only happen if a proposal from the GAA is approved.

Liam O’Neill who is President of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) elaborated to the media on comments he made last week that overseas football and hurling players would overtake players in Ireland.

Top GAA officials in Ireland have expressed major surprise after Dessie Farrell, head of the player’s representative group, revealed that many players have gambling addictions.

Gambling is a major problem among GAA players say Gaelic Players Association
 
Football and Hurling players begin to come forward seeking professional help for their gambling and alcohol addictions
 
DARA KELLY
 
More and more Gaelic games players are coming to the Gaelic Players Association seeking professional help with gambling problems, according to Dessie Farrell.
 
The Association’s boss, Farrell, said the addiction is “like a steam train coming down the tracks.”
 
In the past year, three inter-county players have availed of the GPA’s services. Farrell says more are now “coming out of the woodwork.”
 
“In the last six months, this whole issue of gambling has taken us by surprise,” said Farrell.
 
"It's that severe and that widespread. But we're starting to ask more questions about it now. Gambling is so accessible. You can have fellas on a coach going to a Championship game and they're on the iPhone, making bets. It's become a big, big problem. We're trying to get people who are dealing with these mental health/addiction issues back on their feet and give them a plan.
 
"But we're finding that a lot of players are on this merry-go-round, just ghosting through their lives. They mightn't necessarily be the extreme cases where there is depression or alcohol abuse, but a lot of them are on this carousel and don't know what it is they want to do or where they want to go. There's this chaos in their heads and it's camouflaged by their inter-county career."
 
Speaking to the Irish Independent, he explained that now more GPA members are seeking help for their problems.
 
He said, “The extreme level is where players have to engage with our counselling service.
 
“We have a network of clinical psychologists around the country, which our players can access free.
 
"Some very extreme cases might require hospitalization or access to patient treatment clinics. In the last year, we've put three players into treatment centers for gambling addiction. Well, one was gambling/alcohol.
 
"But they're all coming out of the woodwork now with serious problems and the issues that stem from gambling, like significant debt and the upset in the home. There have been a lot of cases of that.
 
"This is going to hit us like a steam train coming down the tracks, that's how serious it is. We're actually talking to our counselors now to see what we can do about putting together an education programme around this."

Election of Officers

The 2012 All-Ireland champions Donegal lead the way with eight awards on this year’s GAA GPA All-Stars awards, sponsored by Opel.

The GAA/GPA All-Stars sponsored by Opel have announced Henry Shefflin (Kilkenny) and Michael Murphy (Donegal) as the Players of the Month for September in Hurling and Football respectively. Both selections, chosen by the inter-county playing body, recognise the outstanding individual contributions both players made during their All-Ireland Finals last month.

Legendary Kilkenny forward Henry Shefflin looks set to win his third Hurler of the Year award after a magnificent championship campaign that saw him finish leading scorer as well as winning a record breaking ninth All Ireland medal.

READ MORE ]]>