AS a player, I hated everything about football in January. Travelling to Armagh on the cold dark nights, to put yourself through some intense pre-season training was never ever a great thought, but you just had to grin and bear it and get yourself through it.
Don’t get me wrong, there was always a great sense of satisfaction walking off the field after having your face slammed in the mud by McNulty or Bellew during one of Paul Grimley’s tackling grids, but for that half hour driving down the road, motivating yourself was always one of the most difficult aspects of the session.
Coaches and managers love these types of sessions, knowing exactly the pain they are going to put their players through, but I only ever loved them walking off the field afterwards.
If that was not enough of a headache, we had team fitness trainer, John McCloskey standing over us in the dressing room and timing us in the freezing cold ice baths, to make sure our recovery from one gruelling session was going to be sufficient enough to get us through the next gruelling session.
Do I miss pre-season training in the heavy pitches and the gutters? Absolutely no chance.
What I do enjoy though now as a fan, is getting the chance once again to watch games and to see if any new players are equipped to make a breakthrough for the season ahead.
The Dr McKenna cup was never ever top of the priority list in my playing days, but there is definitely more interest in it now as it gives us a reason to get out of the house and attend a game. Tyrone have been the masters of the McKenna Cup for some time now, and it seems to always give them a good platform to be competitive for the commencement of the League and while I don’t believe winning the McKenna Cup is overly important, it’s hard to argue with the success that Tyrone have had on the back of good McKenna Cup campaigns. Winning is never a bad habit to be in, as it breeds confidence in a team, and creates a good team spirit.
Most managers do look at it as an opportunity for new players to emerge and from an Armagh point of view, that is what I would like to see.
We already know what the likes of the O’Neill brothers, Jarly Og Burns, Niall Grimley and Rory Grugan can do, so can one or two new or fringe players come out of the pre-season tournament, having impressed the management team enough to give them a chance in the more competitive nature of the National League?
That is exactly what I would be hoping for, and that should be the incentive for any player right now with aspirations of making the breakthrough.
Opportunities won’t come around too often, and when they do, you must grasp it with both hands.
As a sports fan, most evenings over the festive period were spent watching the PDC World Darts Championship.
The standard in darts now, compared to 20 years ago is just insane. The amount of 180s and 100+ checkouts hit per game is ridiculous and this is down to the endless hours of practice each player puts into their game now. Yes, there is a much greater prize fund in darts now and this is enough of an incentive to put the hard work in, but there is a great skill in what they do and the accuracy and consistency that these players play at has to be admired.
Of course, they aren’t blessed with the six packs of the modern game Gaelic player, or their training regimes and eating habits aren’t in line with what you would expect from someone on top of their game, but like any sport, they prove time after time that the more you practice and put into a sport, the more you will get out of it in return.
Looking ahead in 2022, it’s already going to be a strange type of year with the World Cup final being played on December 18, and the All-Ireland hurling and football finals to be played in July.
This has to be the first time ever that our own finals take place ahead of the World Cup final so let’s hope the strange aspect to this continues, with Armagh winning the Sam Maguire. We live in hope.
