After a successful first series, AIB’s The Toughest Trade returns to Irish screens tonight for a second series.
The series aims to highlight to viewers the dedication and gruelling hard work that GAA players put into their training in preparation for the AIB GAA Club Championships. The two-part documentary series was launched by AIB last year as part of their #TheToughest campaign.
Last year, Rothco co-produced its very first TV documentary for AIB which saw two professional GAA players swap jerseys with two professional international sport stars to show viewers just how tough and disciplined GAA is as a professional sport.
The campaign saw a professional baseball player swap with an amateur hurler, while a professional footballer player traded teams with a Gaelic footballer.
This year, the series will take a new angle, looking at how other professional sports compare to the amateur AIB GAA Club Championships. The sport stars going to ‘trade’ with each other are Tipperary hurler Brendan Maher and Mayo footballer Aidan O‘Shea.
Maher will swap his national game for cricket and the Adelaide Strikers, with Ashes winning English cricketer, Steve Harmison, giving hurling a go for the first time with Maher’s club Borrisileigh in Tipperary.
O’Shea will trade sport and country with ex Miami Dolphin Roberto Wallace as he tries American Football while Wallace travels to Breaffy GAA Club in Mayo.
With the making of the documentary, AIB wanted to prove that amateur Irish GAA players were tough and versatile enough to take on professional sports and different disciplines, while also proving the realities of claims that competing in the GAA Club Championships is the toughest club-based sporting challenge in the world.
The Toughest Trade airs tonight on RTÉ 2 at 9:55pm.