Brendan Maher's brief flirtation with professional cricket showed him just how serious the GAA can be.

During his time with Adelaide Strikers as part of 'The Toughest Trade' TV series, the Tipperary hurling captain noticed that there was a more relaxed mood in the cricket camp than is the case for intercounty hurling:

"One of the main things I took out of it is that in most GAA teams, training is very serious," he says in The Irish Times. "Everything is like 'you can't laugh or you can't smile' nearly. And I just noticed that in the warm-ups for the cricket training it was all laughing and joking, very relaxed. And I was thinking 'maybe we should have that approach a little bit more in the GAA', that you bring a little more element of fun into your sessions.

"In hurling, you're also getting yourself psyched up, and it's very intense in the dressing room, where cricket is more tactical and talking about things. So it was something very alien to what I'm used to, completely different to the GAA.

"The whole approach is far more relaxed. Maybe that's the way it is with professional sport. They're at it every day so maybe they're naturally more relaxed anyway.

"Before the game I was at, in the dressing room, it was just all conversations going on. There was no big speech. It was different. So overall a very enjoyable experience."

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