Sport

Self pride among players is sole driving force in county football

Cahair O'Kane

Cahair O'Kane

Cahair is a sports reporter and columnist with the Irish News specialising in Gaelic Games.

Laois footballer Gary Walsh was cut from the O&rsquo;Moore county panel last week after his reaction to being substituted against Dublin<br />Picture by Margaret McLaughlin
Laois footballer Gary Walsh was cut from the O’Moore county panel last week after his reaction to being substituted against Dublin
Picture by Margaret McLaughlin
Laois footballer Gary Walsh was cut from the O’Moore county panel last week after his reaction to being substituted against Dublin
Picture by Margaret McLaughlin

I’VE never been a particularly good goalkeeper but I was an even worse forward.

Recently I reprised the role in a midweek reserve game down in Ballerin. I only went along to fill out numbers but with the sun shining, I couldn’t resist the last 15 minutes at full-forward.

Come full-time, our joint-manager went around to congratulate a lot of young lads on a job well done. He stopped and looked at me and said: “No harm, but I think you’re the worst outfield player I’ve ever seen.”

In 15 minutes, I’d contrived to miss 2-3. Needless to say I was back in nets by the weekend.

On one Championship afternoon a couple of years ago, I was going slightly better. Up against Doire Colmcille, I’d won and scored a penalty and then netted a second goal soon after, both inside the first 10 minutes.

The game became a bit one-sided but it was the first time my then-girlfriend – now wife – had come to watch me play. I was keen to impress.

Two minutes into the second half, with our half-forward line gone walkabout, our then-manager shouted at me to make a run from full-forward when the ball was on our own 21’.

I shouted back what a bad idea I thought it was. Two minutes later, I was sulking on the bench, taken off for my dissent.

And when I arrived home, Máiréad informed me she’d got lost on her way to Slaughtmanus and missed the first 20 minutes. She’d basically seen me miss a third goal chance and then sit on the bench practically the whole of the second half.

I can’t actually remember if I dissented when I was taken off. I definitely do remember huffing at the corner of an otherwise empty dugout.

I’d deserved to be taken off.

On one other occasion, as goalkeeper, the same manager decided to replace at half-time in a top-of-the-table league game against Doire Trasna. He rightly felt that our other ‘keeper had a bigger kick into a horrible wind.

Of course I didn’t see it that way. There were definitely words that afternoon. And again I was wrong.

No player ever sees why they were taken off. No player ever wants to be taken off. Reacting angrily when you are is not the best course of action but it’s an understandable one.

Most managers are happy enough to see it, provided the protestations don’t cross the line. You’d be far more annoyed as a manager if your players wanted to be taken off.

Laois forward Gary Walsh wasn’t happy when his manager Mick Lillis decided to whip him off at half-time in Nowlan Park last weekend.

Up against Dublin, the All-Ireland champions, it was the game he’d trained for all year, the game you dream of. Just as it was the game that Niall Donoher, who took his place, had trained for and dreamt of.

But four days later, his reaction to being substituted led to him being cut from the Laois panel. His rant on Twitter in midweek claimed that the axe had been wielded over the phone.

For anyone who missed it, he said: “Started training last November with Laois and my year came to an end last night with a phone call? Yes, after 150 sessions, missing one, my commitment to the team was questioned cos I left a few f***s out of me after being taken off against Dublin, which I was wrong to do but at the time I was just frustrated,” he said.

“I’m even more frustrated now as I have given up time with my son, girlfriend and family for the last 8 months to be tossed to the kerb.

“It was like the phone call cost no thought – let’s teach this lad a lesson!! Nothing about the 150 sessions or years dedicated to Laois before that and now I miss the Qualifiers. It doesn’t add up? Gutted to say the least.”

Now, this is only the 166th day of 2016, though no inter-county team actually adheres to the winter ban any more (it actually does still exist).

If you take an October start, that averages between 4 and 5 sessions a week, every week for ten months. No doubt a lot of those sessions were personal ones, on his own in the gym or on the pitch. It adds up to a colossal amount of time given up to an amateur sport.

I’d have a lot of sympathy for him. Walsh has certainly painted a picture of lousy man-management. And his tale of commitment is typical of players right around Ireland.

But equally, no-one forces these men to give up their time play county football. No-one made Gary Walsh give up eight months of his life.

So much of county football is now about self pride.

People ask why county players outside the top tier do what they do. It’s partly for the team, but it’s largely because none of them want to go out in front of 10,000 people and be publicly embarrassed.

Imagine what would have happened to Laois last Sunday if their players hadn’t done those 150-odd training sessions?

You can say what you like about it, you can call it madness, but there are always going to be individuals in any county who will want to better themselves.

Nothing will ever change that. That’s just the competitive nature of sport, and people in general.

And as for cutting back on the number of sessions, how do you persuade lads to play for Laois and train twice a week knowing you’ll be facing the semi-professionals from Dublin in six months time, live on Sky Sports?

How do you tell the lad who wants to get better and stronger that he’s not to be going to the gym on his own, and then watch him go out and get railroaded on a Sunday by someone who is?

I’m sure a lot of players would love it to go back to two nights a week. It would help reprise a game based on skills rather than fitness. It would allow for a social life, and some club football.

There will, however, always be lads who bend the boundaries. There will always be people desperate to find that extra competitive edge.

There is no way for the authorities or anyone else to stop the top counties training the way they’re training. If you tell them to train twice a week, how do you police it?

Even if you try to police group sessions, how do stop lads from doing the programme given to them by the county’s strength and conditioning coach?

You can’t. And so the weak have no choice but to utilise that self pride as best they can.

The alternative is a 40-point hammering on live TV.

But even that won’t prevent disgruntled players like Gary Walsh wishing they hadn’t wasted eight months of their lives.