Rehabilitation

Tough week. Defeat in a G.A.A. match or tournament in this case, always seems to hit harder.. You play soccer or hockey or whatever. They tend to be long seasons, anywhere from 18 to 26+ games. One defeat is a set-back but rarely an end. There is always time to claw it back.

Not so with Hurling or Football. Munich was a massive blow to reclaiming the European Championship. Fellas took it fairly hard. We've all invested a huge amount of time, money and effort into the football this year. Our preparation has been as organised as most things I've been involved with at home. We've trained consistently since January, gone through the running months with no ball, reclaimed our sense of belief in the Benelux rounds and then played out a highly competitive intra-club league.

It all came crumbling down in Munich though. We lost guys in the week before, Enda was gone after five minutes, even before the bus could unravel it's GPS mess to deliver the other half of our panel. The day was played out against a backdrop of rows and shouting matches. Still, the disagreements were sidelined when the ball was thrown in but maybe it had all taken its toll on the minds and we were fragile. Maybe too much of the energy was exerted on issues outside the core.

Training Tuesday night and we had about 18. It was fairly positive. Some lads like Shane were buzzing around the place. The lads who played in The Shield have hope that they are turning a corner. The lads in The Championship were still extremely deflated though. Sometimes things need to be said, other times they don't. I thought this time they did. There were a series of exchanges between fellas on Wednesday. No apologies as such, just a recognition of what happened, the different points of view and that mistakes were made. Time to move on.

Organised press nights mean every journalist is feeding off the same quotes when generating stories pre-All-Ireland. There's never much said anymore but I've lifted some of Conor Counihan's words that basically sum it all up for me.

"It's just small things, about patience and composure and confidence, and hopefully that bit of steel when the going gets tough,.....That comes from a certain level of experience and confidence and it comes from within the players themselves.....It doesn't happen overnight. We've tried to develop it in some ways, by spreading around various tasks, but, at the end of the day, the guy has to stand up himself and make the decision that 'I'm going to make a difference'."

We've worked all year on patience and composure on the ball. Experience is so much a part of that. Having been in the situation before and knowing where the backdoor is. Getting lads more football is key to this. He talks of steel; it's so important. Guys with this do whatever is necessary to take the momentum out of the oppositions play to turn the tide.

"I'm going to make a difference." That's what it all boils down to though. For the next eight training sessions and the tournament down in Budapest, that is all that any of us need to say.

I'm going to make a difference.