SOME dogs, no matter how hard you push them, just don’t want to learn new tricks. But Slaughtneil captain Francis McEldowney has embraced the challenge.
At 35, he has fulfilled a role this season that would have been as uncharacteristic for certain. Renowned as a dogged, hard-tackling corner-back all his days, he still bears the number two on his back.
But in the era of opposition teams playing two men inside, his spot as a man-marker in there has gone. Between Brendan Rogers, Karl McKaigue and Paul McNeill, the opposition’s dangermen are accounted for.
McEldowney’s job has been to instead push right up the park, on to whatever player the opposition drops back from its forward line.
The new role has led to him popping up in scoring positions more than once this season, but also displaying a composure on the ball that might not have been expected from a man who spent more than a decade locked on his own 21.
“It’s changed a bit. Paul and Karl are playing in the corners at the minute so I’ve been pushed out a bit. I suppose people see you getting up the pitch but it depends what way the other team sets up.
“Mostly a man drops back and you’re following your man. Sometimes you can find yourself up the field in a bit of space.
“I’ve been a defender all my life, I’ve never played as a forward. I am enjoying it.”
More than playing at corner-back?
“Um…I probably am, yeah. If you’re in there, you’re the last line of defence and any slip at all, it’s curtains. It can be very costly.
“But it doesn’t matter where you are, you just want to be playing anywhere. There’s 15 jerseys there and if you can get any of them you’re happy.”
His age has been no barrier. But it's as well that he did reinvent himself. Since reaching the All-Ireland final, he's seen fellow veterans Barry McGuigan and Padrig Kelly move to the fringes of the team as opposed to being week-in, week-out starters.
When Mickey Moran selected him to captain the club, the quietly-spoken former Derry defender couldn’t have imagined that he’d climb the steps of Celtic Park three times, and lead his men to an Ulster title.
The Slaughtneil squad is largely a self-motivated group, but as John Kearney says, there are still a few standout leaders among the pack.
“Very much so. Patsy [Bradley] and Chrissy [McKaigue] and Frank,” says Kearney, referring to the man who is known only as ‘Frank Twin’ around home.
“Frank drives up the field and puts a lot of effort in as team captain. He drives the team on. Chrissy’s a good leader, Patsy’s a good leader. They’re all leaders because they all do their job and do it very well.
“They’re leaders by what they do and by what they say before they go out on the pitch and at half-time. They lead by example on the pitch and that’s a big plus. There’s plenty of people can talk a good talk; you must walk the walk.”
Even in the most successful of clubs, there are nights when spirits need lifted. The dual status of so many of their players means there are plenty of nights for the football-only players when they don’t have a full hand for training.
McEldowney, who did hurl for the club up until 2006, says that it’s something they’ve just had to learn to get used to.
“You’re still getting 20-odd men there and the training is good. It’s happened the last two or three years and people just get on with it. You don’t think too much about it.
“You know you’ll have them the next week and boys have to keep themselves up to speed as well. It’s definitely a disadvantage because you’re training every other week without your dual players but we manage it alright.”
