Ballintra Races

Glamour Ladies Lorraine McGee and Mary Kerrigan

Winner ‘Barrick Boy’ in the parade ring

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We need footballers who want to play for Donegal - not just be
on the county team!

OPINION

Tom Comack’s ‘Talking Points’ in the Tuesday Demo should make sobering reading for our county players, their mentors - and County Board. He quotes what the great Kerry player, Paudi McSé, said when asked what he would seek in picking a county player “I would look for a player who wants to play for Kerry, as opposed to a boy that wants to be on the Kerry team”.
Tom continues, ‘On the evidence of last Saturday, and other recent disastrous outings, we seem to have a few players that want to be on the county team, rather than bust a gut to play for the county’.
Since 1992, the game of Gaelic football has changed immensely. The level of fitness, both physical and psychological, bears no comparison to the accepted norms of fifteen years ago. It is the same in other games. Players who want to be successful know that they must adapt to an almost professional code of training and, alongside that, desist from the style of recreational behaviour that is deemed acceptable in this country. In other words, as Tom says “They have to put their lives on hold and live an almost hermit-like existence for the summer months at least!”
On the morning after the Tyrone match, around 6.45am, I watched as six young lads staggered out of a pub near the Diamond. As they came closer, I realised that five of them were county players, part of a team that had been trashed by the Red-Hand county the day before. They roared and shouted their way through the town centre, falling and being dragged up again by their companions, and ended up chanting and jumping up and down on the Diamond. It was only when they copped I was taking photos that some level of caution entered their befuddled brains. This unedifying scene was witnessed by at least half a dozen local onlookers - and a sprinking of tourists who must have thought this was some peculiar Irish ritual performed by the cream of our youth in the early hours of the morning.
This is not picking out these particular players. It is the way we are! We drink to excess in victory - we drink even more in defeat. A Kerry person, who also witnessed the drunken scene, told me. “In the Kingdom, players have only one date in mind and that happens in September. All matches in between are regarded as a means to an end. If that type of behaviour was noted by Kerry management, those players wouldn’t don a green and gold jersey again that year - as much because they are letting their fellow players down as for any conduct that could affect their own levels of fitness”. But, except for a few, fellow-players in Donegal probably wouldn’t mind - many of them were probably themselves over-imbibing that night.
I love sport - as much for the mind games as for physical endeavour. If the mind is not right - the body will pick up on this and respond accordingly. All players on the county scene have achieved a high level of fitness - the only difference in two teams running on to the field is natural skill and the desire to play their hearts out for county, town-land, parish, - and self-pride. We don’t have a surplus of naturally skilled players - so it all comes down to determination and positiveness. Brendan Devanney was quoted in the Boast as saying “there’s more to life than football”. Well there is - but players would need to consider that before they commit.
Many players do well in outside life because of their association with county teams. And probably, as in other spheres, it is the people that focus, graft, and take pride in their participation that will succeed best in work and business. Football and sporting prowess has been good to a lot of people. There are other things in life - but the high level of athletics skills now possessed by most counties dictate that potential players must make a choice at the start of the season. The rewards are there - but not without hard work and much sacrifice!
I watched the hurling quarter-finals a couple of weekends ago and marvelled at the pace and skill. I reckon those boys would put their lives on the line for their counties.
Donegal is going nowhere until the whole mind-set changes. Being a county player is an honour that most young lads can only aspire to. The top 25 or so who make up the county squad must want to play for Donegal - not just desire to be on a county team. They must realise that once they make themselves available for the squad, their lives for the next year will change immensely - and they must be prepared to enter fully into the training and deprivation associated with a dream - a dream of marching out in Croke Park on the third Sunday of September. They must be prepared to cast aside anything that comes in the way of this.
There are few poor football counties now. Everyone on the squad is trained to the hilt, physical fitness is on a par - the difference between teams is mostly in the head. Potential players must ask themselves Paudi’s question - do they want to play for the county, or do they just want to be on the team?
We will now be moving forward with new management - let us hope it is capable of distinguishing the difference!
Tom finishes his article “of course, if we want to carry on with our carefree attitude and approach, then continue as we are - but don’t set our sights too high. For one thing rule out a quick return of Sam”.