Kerry minor football boss Wayne Quillinan has backed the GAA’s move to stop TV interviews with players straight after games.

Last week, the GAA informed TG4 – who have the TV rights to minor championship games – that interviews with players are no longer permitted after games.

The Association has also reinforced the rule which precludes victorious minor captains from making acceptance speeches.

The rule was introduced in 2010 to relieve the burden of public oration from young players, but wasn’t enforced strictly in recent years. However, the Kilkenny and Mayo captains didn’t make speeches after their respective Leinster MHC and Connacht MFC final triumphs on the weekend before last after Croke Park reminded provincial councils of the rule.

“I think it’s daunting for them,” Quillinan told the Kerryman ahead of his side’s All-Ireland MFC quarter-final against Roscommon in Ennis on Saturday.

“You want to be with your team-mates, you want to be celebrating with them, you don’t really think about talking to the media, or anything like that. You shouldn’t have to either, because that’s the innocence of the whole thing.

"Even after the Munster final, Ronan Carroll or Gearóid White or Ben Murphy, they were shell-shocked. They didn’t realise that they were going to be interviewed.

“That’s tough at any level, never mind guys that are 15, 16, 17 years old. Do they like doing it? I don’t think so. I’ve never spoken or addressed it, and because that has come out now [from the GAA], I don’t have to address it with them.”

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