GEAROID McKiernan is enjoying life outside the inter-county bubble more than he expected and may miss part of Cavan’s return to action due to his wedding in October.
The Cavan Gaels midfielder was leading the Breffnimen’s renaissance in Division Two before the Covid19 pandemic halted the action in early March.
McKiernan, who transferred from Swanlinbar to the Gaels last year, has found a different perspective during lockdown.
“The first week or two was a bit of a novelty but as time went on it probably got more difficult,” he said.
“At the same time, I actually enjoyed the time off and the time away from the football in a strange kind of way.
“Once you step away from it, you realise that you are in a bubble and you think there is a lot more to life. You just realise how much more you can do and you get to spend more time with family and friends. That’s the main thing I’ve enjoyed over the last few weeks.
“Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to going back to play when it does start back up. I’m getting married around October so I don’t know what way things will go. You can see things are picking up a bit… I’ve missed the games - not so much the training and the time that goes into it.”
Opinion among managers and players appears divided on whether or not the truncated National League programmes should be completed before – or during - the rejigged inter-county Championship that has a proposed start date of October 17.
Initially, GAA President John Horan stated it was unlikely the Leagues would be concluded but the GPA appears to favour playing the outstanding games, or at least those of consequence.
Despite Cavan still being in with a chance of promotion back to Division One, McKiernan will be just glad to be playing football again.
“You could argue for both cases, no bother,” he said. “At this stage you’re probably thinking where would you get those two weekends to stick the League in and finish it. If the League was scrapped, I don’t think you could really hold much begrudgery; we’d be just happy to get the Championship up and running.
“I suppose the teams that are up there who are pushing for promotion, you can see why they’d want to finish the League and they’d be disappointed, but at the same time knocking it on the head in these circumstances I think would be understandable.”
McKiernan’s participation in Cavan’s Championship campaign may be affected due to his wedding plans. Like many GAA players, they plan outside of the inter-county and club calendar, but nobody envisaged the Championship kicking off in October.
“I don’t feel I’ve been deprived of a year of my career because I’ve played for Cavan for 10 or 11 seasons, but this is probably one season that could be taken away from you,” McKiernan acknowledged.
“But there’s a lot more important things than a football season. You can maybe take the hit for one season if it helps you play an extra two or three years. That’s a positive spin to it.”
Approaching his 30th birthday, McKiernan has enjoyed playing under boss Mickey Graham despite the team getting off to a dreadful start in Division Two against Armagh back in January.
Graham, though, managed to get the new-look Breffni side back on track and recorded successive wins over Westmeath, Laois and Fermanagh before suffering a surprise home defeat to Clare on March 1.
“I’ve definitely enjoyed working with Mickey. He’s enthusiastic and he’s a real players’ man. You can go to him about anything and if you put in the effort he’ll back you to the hilt.”
Cavan currently sit third in Division Two, a point behind joint leaders Armagh and Roscommon, with games against Kildare (a) and Roscommon (h) still unplayed.
“That Armagh game was one of the worst days I’ve had in a long, long time with Cavan but after that we regrouped well and reassessed the thing and targeted six points to try and stay safe. Unfortunately, we lost our last game against Clare, so we were in a sticky position where we could go up or down. It’s kind of hard to know where the rest of the year was headed.”
