Every Single Ball

With our first big day out in Lux tomorrow, I've spent a share of my week thinking about football. Three things in particular came to mind.

The first relates to the nature of what we do. Playing hurling and football has to be more than a recreational hobby. Aside from the time, money and energy we invest, the goal of the whole thing is to play to the best of your ability (ideally a little beyond) and enjoy it. You would hope that maximising your ability will bring you to victory and we all enjoy winning. So they go hand in hand; win and you will enjoy yourself. It also works the other way around, if you are enjoying yourself you are likely to be playing well and giving yourself the best chance to succeed. They are intertwined.

However, you should remember that to achieve the above you must have the right mindset, which is a competitive one. It's never a jolly or a road trip that you try to knock a bit of craic out of. That would make it recreational sport. This is different so the competitor in fellas must burst out of them on Saturday and every other day that they go out to compete.

The second thing I have been thinking about takes me back to last year. We went about our business with the mantra 'no excuses'. We had found comfort in them in 2009 but needed to kill that mentality. I think it worked with a lot of guys as it changed their mindset. Excuses can make you feel better and hide the real reasons for your shortcomings. Of course you should understand why things go wrong but you should focus on how to solve the issues rather than seek protection from excuses.

This will be especially prevalent tomorrow. If things start to turn against us, people can easily comfort themselves in the fact that we have split the panels. This would be a total cop out though. One of the points of splitting the panels, I'm guessing, is to see who would stand up and lead. I was critical mostly of myself towards the end of last year for not contributing enough in the Pan-E phase of the season. Of course, when I wrote the entry about it, I wanted it to register with guys that they should be deeply analysing their contributions and be totally honest with themselves.

The first two things I mentioned so far (being competitive and a no excuses mindset) are all well and good but how can you take something tangible from them? They are a bit vague. So then my thoughts turned to how to relate that to the game situations. 'Every single ball'. That is how and that will be my mantra for the year.

‘Every single ball’ means that every ball/possession counts, in every minute of the game and of the day. That gives you a clear focus. There are no times to rest. Work, work, work and a little more work. Chase and harry without the ball and make sure you are always creating options when you have the ball. When in possession make sure you decision making is on the money. It's a simple idea but its a mindset that you have to buy into.

How you contest each ball is how people will judge you but more importantly how you should judge yourself.