School Tour Syndrome

Arseing about before training is one of my pet hates. Fellas strolling in late, chatting about EU politics (because 90% of the time it’s eurobrats) and generally distracting each other from getting togged and ready for training. It was like the lads were preparing for a school tour last night, all giddy and full of yap.

The mindset shone through in the first drill but after that we rattled nicely through the session and the focus turned to Munich. It concluded six of our best weeks of preparation we have had for any tournament. Training was well structured to rebuild the fitness levels after a summer of pure ball and then the transition to ball work weaved in nicely to the last two weeks.

I missed training Tuesday and only caught the last fifteen minutes of it but the lads were moving well. We’ve come a fair way in our footballing ability in the last couple of years and on Tuesday we had a good look about ourselves. The gap between the weakest and the strongest is closing which makes selection all the more difficult.

It’s not all roses though as we’ve had a few more blows to the panel this week. Shane Griffen pulled out yesterday with an injury. He is possibly one of our most competitive players; very strong, quick and physical. Defence and Midfield on the A team is the most congested area selection wise and he has been unfortunate to be just on the outside but his attitude has never waned and in The Nations Cup he showed his worth.

A few more lads are carry stuff but with everyone vying for places, they are staying very quiet. Despite the absences, we have a travelling party of 26. The pressure is on both to get results and to put individual cases forward. We’ll be back to full strength in Budapest so that should be added incentive for lads to perform.

The A panel has had a bit of a facelift since the last outing in Luxembourg with half the panel turned over. Brendan Lynch steps up to take the goalkeeping position which releases Timmy out the field. Paul Gavin returns as does Enda. Up front, Colin Byrne and Alec make the cut, bringing some versatility to the panel. Finally, there will be a debut for Corkman Andrew Shorten who has shown plenty of energy and guile in recent weeks.

I got an email off the Strasbourg lads this week. Four of them are down there for the week on work duty but brought a ball and a few cones. They trained twice on their own in the last couple of days. Music to my ears. They’ll head from there today whilst the rest of us leave from Brussels by plane and mini-bus.

I haven’t looked forward to a tournament as much in a long time. It will be a massive challenge for us to be successful in the Shield and Championship competition down there but that’s what fellas should want. It’s just a case now whether we can step up to it.