Blog Influences Attitude?

I write many blog entries complaining about various things unaware of whether the intended recipients of the message will ever see it. Occasionally, I’ll write about something and it will appear the message has been taken on board and lads have taken action.

Tonight was one of those nights. After the debacle that was last Thursday, I was delighted to see fellas actually on the field, togged out well before the appointed time, tackling the first two of my irritations. Immediately though, we faced the cone issue but understanding Rome wasn’t built in a day, I took a deep breath and built a bridge.

I reckon we had around 28 out in the BSB tonight and with me sitting out the session things went much more smoothly as I was more concentrated on the job in hand. For all my ranting and raving, there is a great sense of satisfaction that we’ve kept everyone aboard the train for the last ten months. We travel in record numbers to Maastricht on Saturday and go there in fine fettle.

From a Championship point of view, there is no escaping that attendance has not been up to scratch. Everyone from Bob to Crusher, to O’Shea and even through to Collins and Sheanon have missed around half the sessions since Budapest.

However, there was plenty of evidence of the enthusiasm that ran through the group earlier in the year. The likes of O’Shea and Johnny O were very tuned in and vocal tonight. Collins got the finger out once the games started and Timmy is doing everything we hope he will do at the weekend.

One lad we need tuned in on Saturday is Crusher. He’s lost a bit of interest in the last couple of months and maybe his performances dipped. He showed all the signs of his old self down in Buda though and I’d expect him to improve again at the weekend.

The fire has kept burning also because of the carrot that is the Shield. Johnny P’s lads will be in a right dogfight this weekend with 15 teams competing. They’ll do so without their midfield duo of Ross Church who is home for his graduation and Keith Stephens who is home on the campaign trail. We need to nail the panels tomorrow but it’s going to be more troublesome than ever. We’ve been discussing for a week but still can’t get consensus.

One night left now and for all the moaning we’ll all miss the trips out to BSB and will need to find something to fill the void in the winter. One lad who won’t be part of that is Carlo as he heads for a new job in Basle.

I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like Carlo when he arrived. He was clearly from Northern Ireland so the name Carlo was what first raised suspicion. Then I got a friend request from him on facebook and left it sitting there for a couple of weeks as it was from Carlito Brigante or something. I hadn’t a clue who it was until I asked a few of the lads who I saw he had virtually befriended and they confirmed it was Carlo.

I couldn’t figure him out initially. He always wore an Irish rugby jersey to training which was a bad start. He bounced around cracking bad jokes and generally looking dodgy. When you’d speak to him, he’d kind of cock up his chin, say ‘aye’ and giggle before he’d get any words out.

He turned out to be alright though; got on the bandwagon, trained well and didn’t muck about. It’s hard to pick out his Belgium G.A.A. highlight, maybe better to ask the ladies! He did score an excellent point in a tight game against Copenhagan down in Budapest, he was on the bus to Munich and he had a collection of horrendous trench coats (the cream one being the worst). I suppose that’s enough though, he was only here a couple of months.

Anyway, turns out the Parliament was closed today so that’s why they were all on time. Another broken dream.