Sport

Danny Hughes: Tyrone, Down and Armagh all finding momentum in Allianz League quest

Down's season has really taken off with back-to-back wins over Meath and Derry Picture by Margaret McLaughlin
Down's season has really taken off with back-to-back wins over Meath and Derry Picture by Margaret McLaughlin Down's season has really taken off with back-to-back wins over Meath and Derry Picture by Margaret McLaughlin

IT is still very much up for grabs in all divisions of the Allianz League. Another win for Tyrone, Donegal and Monaghan will lead them into a strong position to push into the semi-finals, while Cavan will be lucky to escape relegation.

The only thing holding back Tyrone at this stage from a semi-final place in Croke Park would perhaps be the mileage being paid out to get there, as it would be considered a bit of stretch from a county board’s perspective (couldn’t resist that one).

The Down players deserve huge credit for the way they have responded since the beating in Clare a few weeks ago.

A more experienced team, with players returning to the starting 15, has helped settle things, but the management will know that the hardest games are yet to come.

I was surprised Derry rolled over so easily and it seems to be a bit of Jekyll and Hyde every week with Derry. There seems to be no consistency with their results.

With a resurgent Armagh team starting to rack up big scores, the landslide win against Offaly could well spark something in them which will help them build momentum going into their May meeting against Down.

Of all the Championship games, I think this is the one which I would be looking forward to most.

They will be evenly-matched and in a similar place when we consider the pecking order as Ulster Championship contenders.

After an opening day win, Fermanagh seem to be struggling and perhaps have been unlucky in that they have played probably two of the best teams in the division in the last two matches.

They will have to win the next game if they want to avoid relegation.

Meanwhile, Antrim look as if they will be fighting to stay up, but Offaly and Laois appear to be worse still so all is not lost from a Saffron perspective.

Dublin’s dismantling of Mayo may be only in a League match, but the Dub machine seems to be purring without fault.

Dublin know that they can beat Mayo on the biggest day of all (All-Ireland final replay day) and although it was tight, you can’t underestimate the confidence one gets from achieving this feat.

Unless something special happens, Jim Gavin (inset) and his men look to be on course for the double again.

Mayo have sought to lay the ghosts of the past to rest.

Unfortunately, though, those ghosts continue to haunt the sidelines.

When Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly decided to speak out against Mayo players they deemed responsible for their

‘Et Tu, Brute?’ moment, the focus was always going to fall back on how the players would respond on the field.

And therein lies one of the problems of ousting a manager or managers. Unless you back those actions up with cups and medals there are serious questions to be asked of a squad.

I HAVe been party to a fair bit of criticism over the years when I played. As a player I learned early on that I didn’t need a sports psychologist to highlight the fact that dissenters are everywhere.

I always relied on my closest friends, a handful of close confidants and my family as the best people to go to when I needed a lift or some counsel.

I don’t care who or what you have done in football, no-one is immune to self-doubt.

On the outside you put this face on, a mask so to speak. You stick your chest out, develop a swagger and you appear on the outside as self-assured, confident and fully in control of your role on the field.

You will work particularly harder to control this exterior appearance when you are losing more games than you are winning, when the doubts really begin to roll in.

I have watched games back and thought to myself, ‘Are we really that bad’? I battled self-doubt my entire life. My friends and family were still going to be there whether I played rubbish or not.

The difference is that when you come from a large family as I do, football talk dominates family conversation and that fancy word ‘sledging’ was quite brutal, especially concerning bad performances, in our house. So you had to have a thick skin.

But I never stopped doubting myself and this only finished when I quit playing club football from a participation perspective.

I don’t understand why any county (or indeed club) footballer would visit a forum or internet site, as is common nowadays, and actually seek to engage in conversation with fellow users or read what anyone thinks of them as a player or their perception of the team.

I heard plenty of people criticise me to my face. Why anyone would want to seek this type of stuff out in writing is alien to me.

The same goes for a lot of county boards now. You will hear them going to town on ‘keyboard warriors’ as they are called.

I’m thinking to myself, ‘well if you believe in what you are doing, or you believe in yourself, who cares what they write?’

I wish I’d had the experience I have now when I was 19 or 20.

I think the biggest battle in life will be the battle against yourself and your own self-doubt. (I’m beginning to think I sound like Enda McNulty).

I would try where possible to stop questioning myself and relax and enjoy the experience a lot more.

A lot is made of the lack of enjoyment in the current playing environment. The strait-jacket nature of tactics and playing styles.

But when you think about the game, ‘fear’ and avoidance of ‘risk’ has been implanted into the psyche of children from a young age, coached to within an inch of their lives.

We should really be working on encouraging more style, more expression from players early in their careers and ridding players of self-doubt. This is the foundations in building long lasting enjoyment in the game.

Do that and you can solve a great deal of your problems in a football career.