Kicking On

Busy week G.A.A. wise, which maintains the suspicion that the action is about to start.

Tuesday

Players meeting upstairs in The Oak. We had no such meeting last year and one of the bits of feedback we got from the lads was that it would be good to sit down prior to the Benelux tournaments and again before the Pan-E ones. We took heed but rather have it back in January we decided to do it this week, two weeks before the Amsterdam tournament.

On Monday we sent out the player pack which was put together with the help of Conan, Colin and Rochey. Included in it are key points/expectations regarding training/tournaments, feedack summary on last year, gym dos and donts, hydration & nutrition tips, training schedule, directions to all the venues we drive to and one or two other bits. Its v1 and we will hopefully add to it and improve on it. By sending before the meeting it helped set the tone.

The agenda had many items ranging from communication to membership to training to gear. Colin and Conan led most items whilst i dealt with the training and captaincy. Attendance was around twenty with a good few other lads out of the country or with other reasonable excuses. The clobber was mind boggling. Its the first time I was at a G.A.A. players meeting where the majority of the attendees were in suits!!

We have a good bunch of lads and I probably don't get the balance between barking at them and praising them right. Everyone who spoke thought about what they had to say and delivered it well. Ruairi and Johnny's enthusiasim to get a second team up and running was well noted. Enda always brings some sense to these type of meetings and his input was valuable.

One main thing to report out on was the Captaincy. Last year it was simple, Emmett was the stand out option. I didn't know him as well as I do now but I knew enough to know he would have the right traits to help get the show on the road. This year we have alot of lads missing from the first tournaments so it was tricky to decide. We decided to gather some opinion from the players and four names kept coming back.

Crusher and Rochey were two, they are heart on the sleeve type of characters and lead by example both at training and at tournaments. Olof was another, I've said enough in previous blogs for you to understand why he would be chosen. The final man was Kevin Keary. Time keeping issues aside, he is a good man to lead also. Keary goes about his business quietly and efficiently. Probably our best man marker, he nullified many a danger man last year. Being from Galway he is a bit of a footballing purist which leads to myself and himself having the occasional clash of opinion on how to play the game. Anyway, a good choice. With four stand out candidates and four Benelux tournaments, we decided to let each captain the side for one. Crusher, fresh from leading us to the Brussels Invitational win will take the honour to Amsterdam.

One of the final points made at the meeting was about positivity. My big thing on this one is the tone of voice. Word for word, you can say exact the same thing, but whether you say it in a negative or positive tone will determine the impact it has. Another thing is winding lads up about about missing chances or playing poorly. You should never do anything that puts your teammates confidence in danger and such comments can jeodardise that. Of course, there remains an option for the trainer to get cranky from time to time.

The meeting came to a halt at about 20h30, after a good 1h15m discussion. A good few stayed for a bit of grub and a few pints after, no doubt to ponder the value of positivity.

Thursday

Fitness test. It had been six weeks since the first one and the intention was to do monthly so we were a little behind. We had the bones of 16 and it proved as testing and trying as always. Eoghan Kelly again finished top in the running and press-ups. Rochey was not far behind and Ollie showed well in his first attempt at it. We lost Giller after the running, the poor devil was only a shadow of himself afterwards! A simple handpassing drill and a possession game was all we had time for after.

I'm a big fan of suffering together and believe its the best thing to bond a team and also gives a psychological boost which can be called upon when you have to dig deepest in challenging games. As I was injured I had not participated in the training so was well placed to observe the encouragement and effort the lads demostrated. It was fantastic. If you could bottle this and feed it back to them during the year you would have a very healthy team.

Saturday

Original plan was to have a training match but heavy rain in Brussels this week meant the pitch had alot of surface water. So plan B was to have a mini hole opener. From the lads point of view the idea would have been a bit out of left field. I had shared much drinking time with them Friday night in Place Lux and i don't think they had an inkling of what was coming. It wasn't too severe and everyone got through the muck and sh1t to finish the runs. Conan is putting in great effort this year and its not easy for him having been on the injured list for long periods.

Crusher's 3am Friday night finish didn't help his cause and despite repeated requests for punctuality during the week, Keary, Olof and Dominic sauntered in a tad on the late side. Numbers peaked at 18, Alan Rowan came, togged out, did some runs, got dizzy and went home, which knocked one off. In the end we did play a match sectioning off the waterlogged stretch in the centre and not allowing anyone take possession of the ball in that zone.

It was a reasonable game considering the conditions. I left them to start with no instruction and much ball was kicked away. Eventually they began to realise the futility of this and started to keep possession much better. When we broke at half time this was pointed out and further improvement was seen after the break. A necessary kick around given our indoor confinement of previous months.

All in all a good week. If the attitude and numbers are maintained then we'll be ok.