Maximising the gain

A lot of our fellas face a challenging couple of weeks to get their fitness back up after their extended summer breaks. Last Tuesday was the first session in nearly a month for some guys. It means they have three weeks to find every possible gain they can get.

Finding ways to maximise those gains will be key. The first thing we did was to put two additional Saturday sessions on prior to the first round of the Championship on September 10th. That effectively gives us an extra weeks preparation considering we normally train twice a week. It means we will have the equivalent of a month’s work done.

Another important point is what lads do when they are not training. I raised this point last Tuesday. If guys want to get the full benefit out of each session they must do the right things in terms of recovery. Of course rest is a part of this but also what we eat and drink will be key to making sure we take as much out of each session as possible.

In days gone by, I’d rant at lads to be doing more on their own. However, the guys who are likely to listen to this are already doing a bit extra and the others fellas are unlikely to take heed so there is no point banging anyone’s head.

What players can do is control their diet a bit better. Cut out the needless two or three Thursday night pints and burger in The Oak or where ever else they may have them. Again, there is no point in lecturing guys, you just have to hope they understand the benefits. And I certainly wouldn’t ask anyone to stay off the booze totally – just pick and choose more wisely.

After that session on Tuesday, I was starving when I got home. There was nothing in the apartment after my holidays, bar two borderline out of date eggs and an English muffin. My default option would be to go back down the stairs and get a take away from one of the many pizzerias on my street.

I did my part though and boiled the eggs and called them dinner. Another thing I did was buy a recovery drink. It’s made by an Irish company called Kinetica and comes in powder form. I’ve long been sceptical about such products because you hear a lot of dodgy stories about them. Some of them contain low quality ingredients and traces of creatine, glucose and other things that can lead a fella to start bursting out of their clothes, and not in a good way.

This one is endorsed by the likes of Mike McGurn and Graham Canty and is made from 100% natural ingredients. The idea behind it is that it helps your muscles recover faster after training and that’s something I welcome with the high training volume at the moment between gym and field sessions.

You have to believe that these behaviours i.e. managing diet etc will make sure that you get as much benefit as possible out of training. I’m convinced you will see a difference even within two weeks. That puts your mental state in the right place and quite often that can nearly be more important than your physical state!

Mission: System Override

With the exception of the Benelux tournament in The Hague, I’ve pretty much been a transformed personality around training and tournaments this year. Gone are the rants and moods. In their place a more jovial character, content with his role as captain and not missing the stresses of management one bit.

Even after Eoin’s departure, I’ve taken the odd session and even if I was on edge when I arrived at the pitch for different reasons, training still provided a great release. The lads have generally kept good concentration levels and we’ve all got on swimmingly.

However, Conan hasn’t been able to offer much support in recent weeks and with Eoin gone, the training responsibilities are meandering more and more into my path. This is certainly not the scenario I want but it’s a case of needs must. One of the sometimes unfortunate aspects of my personalities is that I’m pretty much all or nothing. So after taking a string of sessions in a row, I take a more personal interest in what we will actually do.

The 7’s in Maastricht gave me a lot of hope. On paper, we were maybe the 4th strongest team. However, tactically we got it spot on and each guy bought into that sum of the parts mentality; by and large. The result, as you know, is we came within one score of a draw and two of a win.

In my previous reign as trainer I had all but given up on tactics. There are many reasons. The main two are that you simply don’t get the same guys at training often enough to get the messages across and the other is that not enough guys probably really want to invest the thinking time in understanding and learning the tactics.

The Maastricht experience combined with a discussion with Dad last night on the topic, convinced me to try again. The project started at training today and showed many promising signs. Both teams were given different instructions and we played in five minute bursts. Each team was asked to rigidly stick to those instructions. The first five minutes was pretty good. You could clearly see the plus and minus’ of the different set of tactics. This was the objective of the exercise.

In the second set of five minutes, both teams were given different sets of instructions. This is when it fell apart. The team opposing my team decided to change their direction when they started to lose. In a normal situation, this is commendable behaviour. After all, doing the same thing will only get the same results.

However, the purpose of the exercise was to clearly see the pros and cons of different tactics. There would be a third five minutes to give more scope for changing. We never got this far though.

Mid-play I pointed out that the other team should return to the original instructions. After it was ignored a second time, I called a halt to proceedings. What followed was one of my more slightly over the top rants, impressive enough to draw a reasonable sized crowd of onlookers. With that, the session came to a close.

There is a train of thought, which I buy into, that you should always finish the session on a positive note. However, there is also a train of thought which says, always finish training with the players wanting more. I backed the second one today.

Ger took the warm down and there was ridiculous tension in the already thundery Brussels air. Having calmed, and recognising I was the cause of this tension, I decided it needed defusing. Normally I would rarely reference any personal experiences when talking to a team but one story illustrates the pain of trying to achieve what we were trying to achieve at the session i.e. impose a style of play on a team.

I’m sure I have told the story in a previous entry so forgive me if you are familiar with it. My dirty secret is I used to play field hockey. For one season we had a coach called George Treacy. He was a former international player and manager with Ireland and the first coach I ever had, bar isolated sessions with the likes of Eamonn Ryan, who improved my technique (there was plenty of scope!) and brought truly tactical insights to our game.

Getting up to speed on his system was a painful exercise. In one of the first games against Cork Harlequins, he hauled myself and Lenny off early in the game. As the the two central midfielders and were not used to sitting in the dugout. We were later reinstalled but the message was clear; stop doing your own thing and buy into my way.

Actually, this is something that is in my make-up. I wasn’t blessed with blinding pace or an exceptional skill set. I trade on determination and an ability to read the game and distribute the ball reasonably quickly and accurately. I also do what I’m told (although many many people my disagree) and have always been happy to play whatever role necessary in the team.

I started to develop this mindset when I was eleven and playing Basketball for St Pius X in Indianapolis, Indiana. In Basketball, the game plan, to put it simply, is made up of a series of predefined plays. Everyone knows where and when to move and where they ultimately want to get the ball too. Your role is clearly defined.

Anyway, back to George and his tactics. He persisted to make myself, Lenny and the others understand. We spent many a cold night on the training pitch in the Mardyke being drilled. It bore fruit. A few months into his reign we played at home to CofI. To put this in context, the Munster Senior League is like the Scottish Premiership. CofI and Harlequins are miles ahead. Back then, they were littered with current and former Senior internationals as well as a host of others who played at U-21 and U-18 level. In fact, I doubt they had anyone in their panel who hadn’t worn a green shirt at some level at the time.

We had Lenny, a former U-18 international, Eoinzy who had played for Leinster U-18 and myself who made a few appearances for the Irish Universities. I should qualify my representative career by mentioning that I wouldn’t have been everyone’s cup of tea. There was a Nordie called Grimes in the management team and he wouldn’t have appreciated the qualities a ‘converted hurler’ brings to a hockey pitch.

Sorry, I’m reminiscing now. Anyway, that gives you the context of the difference in quality of the two teams. Considering we had lost 12-0 to the same opposition in a cup game a few weeks previous, to trail only 2-0 at half-time could have been considered a decent improvement. At the interval, George insisted to stay with our system. We did and got one back quickly.

I’ll never forget the passage of play that led to the second. We progressed up field with the ball and looked to find a gap on the right. Nothing on so we dropped the ball into midfield and looked left. Nothing on their either so back and forth we went. This period of ‘sustained’ pressure was an achievement in itself as you rarely enjoy much of it against CofI or Quins. Our patience paid off when we found Lenny in a gap and he equalised. 2-2.

With time nearly up, Eddie Coogan, a guy who was a third team player at CofI before moving to UCC, even had the cheek to search for a winning goal but a magnificent save denied us a spectacular winner.

Again some context. I’m open to correction, but that is the only time in at least the last fifteen years that either CofI or Quins dropped points to any other team in the league (besides each other).

As I said, to get to that place was painful. Players play to instincts or habits and overriding those in-build systems is a massive challenge. It’s not just one player you have to do it with either, its 11, 13, 15 or however many you have on your team. Today, we made a start. The pain we went through was part of the process. If we/I can convince guys of the value of buying into a system, we will definitely achieve. Despite the couple of misdemeanours, there was enough to suggest guys could see the bigger picture.

Comment; People shouldn’t think that tactics are regimental and box everyone off. Every team needs an x-factor. However, consider Barcelona. Messi is their x-factor but they clearly play as a team and Messi is an integral part of their system. The point is, don’t think a system can’t allow for an x-factor but don’t think the x-factor can be exclusive of the system.

Good times in Kinsale

Timmy was telling me that when Cork played Sligo in the All Ireland Junior Football semi in Croke Park a couple of weeks ago, it was the first time a Kilmacabea man appeared in HQ in the club’s history. His name was Daniel O’Donovan.

It wasn’t a first for Kinsale but with Richard O’Sullivan lining out at centre back and Brian Coughlan taking station at wing forward, we were will represented. The lads helped Cork to last weekend’s final and through extra-time to claim a third All-Ireland in three years at this grade. Richard also played in the last triumph.

It was another success in an eventful year for Brian who claimed a Sigerson medal with UCC as well as a Munster U-21 football medal with Cork. He started the U-21 semi-final against Galway but unfortunately the team failed to live up to the high expectations.

I also noticed an O Finn coming on for the Cork Ladies in their All-Ireland quarter final against reigning champions Dublin. I’m pretty sure it was Orla Finn from Kinsale. Her point contributed to a magnificent comeback to shock the champions and book a semi final place against Laois.

A little further afield, Cian Quigley is captaining the Irish Aussie Rules team down in Oz. They’ve qualified for the final of the World Cup.

Whilst people may think Kinsale is a big town, it doesn’t translate into big numbers in the club. With rugby, sailing, soccer and a host of other sports (not to mention a lively nightlife) to compete with, the G.A.A. has struggled to hold its own.

In recent years , a lot of the lads have worn a County jersey; Niall Mac, Gearoid O’Leary, Alan Gould and Derry O’Callaghan are some of the young players driving the Intermediates run to the quarter final of the championship which takes place this Sunday night in Pairc Ui Rinn. With a semi-final in the South-East hurling also pending, the year is beginning to take shape.

Hopefully the lads’ success will rub off on the rest and a good year for a few individuals can translate into some badly needed collective success!

Maiden, double, triple, quadruple

Champions for a fourth year in a row is deserving of more than a paragraph at the end of the lad’s report. Our ladies dominance of the European Championship is unquestioned. It can be argued that they simply have the best players but that would ignore their relentless commitment to training. I can remember more than one occasion trying to get the full pitch off Caoimhe for a night and being rejected because they couldn’t possibly miss a training session!!

It’s a case of what next now for them. It must be difficult for other clubs to keep going when they are facing such dominant opposition. Our girls can’t do much about that though but they need new challenges or new teams to emerge.

Travelling to 7’s tournaments in Dublin or London would give them that but it would add more expense and time to an already taxing calendar. It’s a tough situation as you sense many of them could improve even more if they had more regular competitive games. Hopefully things will take a swing in Paris or Holland in the coming months and they can build themselves back up. Maybe even Iberia could combine their talents to force a challenge.

The girls were dominant again on Saturday despite missing their defensive lynchpin Grainne. Sinead Fitz led from the front with her usual ‘hustle’ and even cracked a smile when she picked up the Player of the Tournament.

So a fourth successive success, claimed with three tournaments left. The trophy will sit nicely alongside the 2011 Camogie Championship until well into the new year.

Not quite 7th Heaven, but a good day

7’s football. I’m growing to like it. We had a bad start in Dubai 2009 when the hosts gave us a lesson in the semi-final. We had a good team and high hopes but the nuances of the game were lost on us. Our opponents were hiding balls and playing keep ball, much to our frustration.

Then I went to Dublin last year for the Men’s 7’s in Judes. We learned as the day went on and our performances improved. In the end we bowed out to the Cork County Junior Champions, Glanworth, after a right ding dong battle.

A week later I was back for the Ladies 7’s and I was becoming more fond of the tactical side of the game. The girls put in some gutsy performances and we exited with our heads held high.

This year, Maastricht G.A.A. club decided to host a 7’s event alongside the Ladies Euro Championship round. With such a gap between the end of Benelux and the start of the Pan-Euros, it was a rare opportunity for football.

To an outsider, it’s hard to explain what Brussels is like in August. The city, well, the part of the city around the EU, literally empties. Restaurants and shops often close for the month. With so many involved (I hasten to use the word working) in the public sector, training numbers dive. We had +/- six in the week prior to the tournament.

Some urgent action was required so I re-launched my soccer career. It proved fruitful as I plucked 39 year old Enda from G.A.A. retirement. Evan, a friend of injury dropout Colm, joined up and on the eve of the tournament, a Kerry man called Micheal Duggan was on the blower to Colin saying he had just landed in Antwerp and was up for it. We had 10 and would need them all.

The format of the day was gruesome. We would play 6 group games and if all went to plan, a semi and final on top of that. The pre-match shaping suggested Lux, Amsterdam and The Hague looked strong. Maastricht, Dusseldorf and Munich would be the unknowns.

It was Maastricht up first and they were a combination of lads from different teams. We had a head start on the tactics front from our previous experiences and that gave us the edge. Lux came next and our disciplined defensive formation kept them at bay. Darragh struck the crucial penalty to separate the sides.

In what is a rarity in International G.A.A., we had a set of brothers on board; Colin and Tiernan Byrne. Tiernan has spent the last two summers working in Dev’s and I’m sure he will have enjoyed Saturday, topping his hard work with a sweetly struck point.

We played The Hague in the third game and had identified this as the toughest assignment. They led by 1-3 in the second half and we had a difficult decision to make. When you get a lead in 7’s, you can run the clock down by using your keeper as a spare man. We could burn energy chasing shadows or stand back, let them kill the clock and concede defeat. Looking at the bigger picture, we let them have the ball and didn’t even press in the closing minutes.

Next up was Munich and an atrocious run of individual errors saw us cough up a series of points in the first half. It was our worst performance of the day. We rallied in the second half but it was too little too late. Conor Mescall saw red for striking. It was a frustrating one as the guy was clearly blackguarding when he went down holding his head. He managed to drag himself off the field to have a good laugh about it on the sideline as a last ditch strike at goal struck the bottom of the post with the last kick of the game. We lost 0-5 to 0-3.

It put the pressure on as we faced undefeated Amsterdam next. Our objective now was to finish 2nd/3rd in the group and so avoid The Hague until the final. We conceded a goal early and then lost Tiernan to a nasty ankle injury. His loss, following on from Conor’s suspension, meant we had to do battle with just eight players. Battle we did though and Ger, Micheal, Evan and Co worked like dogs to get us back in the game. We pulled an unlikely win out of the bag to keep us on track.

Dusseldorf provided opposition for our last group game and they were probably the weakest team on the day. They saved their best for last though and we were unconvincing two point leaders at the interval. We pulled away in the second half and then quickly exited to see the final placings. Third meant a semi against second placed Amsterdam.

This fixture is beginning to cause Udson a few issues. He has recently moved to the Dutch capital and is training with the lads up there. However, he is committed to seeing out the rest of the season with us. His form on Saturday, combined with the fact he has a lot more training under his belt than most of our lads, puts him in a strong position in the selection stakes for the upcoming Belgium tournament.

Back to the semi and a carbon copy goal gave Amsterdam an early lead again. Their panel was bursting at the seams and their freshness was running our ragged legs into the ground. Somehow, we stayed in touch but when the ref indicated there was thirty seconds left and we were two points down, it looked like we’d be better off shortening the road. We pointed but all that Amsterdam had to do was to keep the ball.

We put the press on and it worked. Amsterdam lost composure momentarily and a wild clearance fell straight to Enda. He directed the ball towards Darragh who proceeded along the end line only to look like he lost possession and it had gone dead. The umpire ushered play to continue and the ball was in the back of the net moments later. The final whistle followed. Amsterdam were devastated. We were elated. It was a harsh end to their day as they were clearly better than us in that semi.

It was a true never say die performance out of us and came about through a collective determination. That was one of the most pleasing aspects of the day. Considering we nearly always have two teams, it creates a division in the panel. It means some of us never get to play together but there was no such division on Saturday. I saw the qualities of Conor in much closer proximity and Ger and Tiernan got on a lot more ball than they usually do. We had a clear system and everyone bought into it, which is something that we’ve struggled to do over the last few years.

Back to the final and our old friends The Hague. They were strong with some of their main sharpshooters in their ranks. We had the defensive set-up down to a tee but needed another attacking option up front, so we pushed Darragh a bit further up as there was no point in him providing me another option alongside Udson for the kick-outs. We went toe to toe for virtually the whole game.

Trailing by three points late on, I went for a point but took too much time over it and was blocked. Regaining possession, I took off along the end line. There was a possible appeal for a penalty but with the momentum, advantage was given. I’d been forced onto my left foot though and my goal attempt flew over the bar. It was our best and last chance.

There were no arguments with the result. We had maximised our potential on the day. Darragh reckoned we were probably 5/1 at the start so to get so close was satisfying. I was very happy going home and if the lads’ focus and discipline spreads to the others at training, we’ll hope to make the necessary improvements to challenge in the Shield and Championship this year.

Ramping Back Up

Normally we would train throughout the summer and battle the weariness brought on by the massive gap (two months) in the fixture list. We went against that habit this summer and after the last regional up in The Hague, we decided to take a two week break. It allowed the hurlers just hurl and the rest have a few weeks to do whatever else they do.

Returning last week gives us a six week run-in to the first round of the Pan-Euros which is a nice manageable amount of time to build up your fitness and maintain your focus. The break also draws a line under the Benelux phase and creates a new starting point for the season. That’s especially necessary this year as we have lost so many lads.

We didn’t manage to win Benelux but that was more down to the fact that we were mixing up the teams a bit. We won two of the four tournaments, the ‘A team’ winning one and the ‘B team’ winning another. We weren’t too concerned about this point as the purpose was to unearth a few new lads.

The likes of Paddy Cassidy, Ross Church, Darragh Cotter and Colm MacEoin were those to shine most often and should bolster our panel going into the Pan-Euros. There’s a few more knocking on the door but they were the ones who performed most consistently.

Benelux was at its most competitive in years. Den Hague and Lux both won a tournament whilst Amsterdam proved the nearly men. They appear to be a coming team and their ambitions lie in the Championship this year which signals their intent.

Personally I was happy enough with the four tournaments. When we went to Lux back in April I was still struggling badly with the back and played in goal. In the following two tournaments I played outfield and some good ‘game time’ management by Conan and Eoin allowed me get through both tournaments. I was still in second or third gear though, focussing on my defending rather than contributing going forward. I’d been thinking prior to the last tournament in The Hague that I’d made maybe four or five breaks up field in those tournaments. That was purely down to trying to make sure I’d get through the day.

I started in similar fashion up in The Hague and was letting ball in early. Then I heard Giller - who falls into the Sunday Game category of analysis at times - roar at me to start carrying the ball more. Considering it to be such a rare, specific comment, I felt obliged to take note and started to get forward. It cost me in the end though as all the games were tight, meaning I had no rest time and the tank was running on empty in the last game. I wasn’t unduly concerned as the goal all year was to be fit enough for the Pan-Euros.

The back is as good as it’s going to get now so it’s full steam ahead. The first two sessions back weren’t excessively hard but the legs were still hurting a bit so there will be no layoff for the next five weeks. Myself, Crusher, Johnny O and Colin are heading for Slovenia next week but I’m not sure they know what they’ve signed up for. I’ve a handsome new pair of blue Puma V1.10’s courtesy of Johnny’s new employers and will be eager to try them out down there.

July and August are terrible months in terms of attendance at training here. Most of the EU institutions shut up shop and that means from around mid-July until the last week of August, guys are scattered all over the place. I can’t imagine many of them will put training high on their agenda of holiday activities so they will be in for a serious dose of catch-up upon their return.

One can only look after your own house in this regard. There are ten team sessions between now and the first round and those combined with a bit of gym work and the odd running session should ensure I have no excuses come Championship.

A tale of two personalities

Grit v flair, arrogance v modesty, maverick v conservative, controlled and measured v wild and unpredictable, intense v relaxed, team player v individual, back v forward. I could go on but I wouldn’t dare try and separate these attributes between myself and Eoin Sheanon. However, I know for sure that if I was black, he was almost always white. Nearly every facet of our individual personalities opposed each other. Still, somehow it worked, in the end. The only explanation is because it had to.

Eoin spent a bit of time working at Toyota when he first arrived and landed at my desk one day. It was our first encounter. He wanted to know what the story with the football was. We had only just started the team properly but had played one tournament the previous year, taking a few unmerciful hidings. Displaying all the usual preseason bluster of a Dub, he declared, on the basis of no relevant info, that we should be trying to win the Championship.

And win it we did, with the defining moment coming in the final at the last tournament in Maastricht. Eoin dispossessed his man after a short kick-out and laid off to Collie B to goal. Champions at our first attempt and a highlight in all our GAA careers.

It wasn’t all plain sailing that year and ‘managing’ Eoin had already offered some challenges. In the week up to the Budapest tournament he had no flight booked. He sent me a mail banging on about getting a bus through the night to get down there. In the end we switched Bull’s ticket at the very final hour. He won Player of the Tournament that day.

It was the season of 2009 when we hit one of our rockiest patches. Eoin and a few of the lads missed a fair chunk of the first half of the season as they were on the Euro election campaign trail. He was irritable when he returned and becoming more frustrated with me. I was getting crankier as the season went on and we were on course for a clash.

It came one night in June of that summer. Time keeping, discipline and diligence in doing drills would be high on my list of priorites. Eoin knew well how to push my buttons if he wanted to piss me off. That night he sauntered in late and was dragging his ass in the warm-up. We had a quiet exchange just after I explained the first drill. Eoin, by choice, headed for the gate. We didn’t see him for weeks.

He would have felt I was too demanding of lads in terms of what I expected in terms of commitment. I unapologetically look at this aspect of things through my own lenses and my opinion on what guys need to do still hasn’t changed, even if I do not drive home the message as much as I used to. The initial success of the football was built on creating a set-up that was as organised and as ‘professional’ as possible to make sure we could attract and keep players.

We survived 2009 just about and headed for 2010 a bit deflated. I needed Eoin on the same page as me. The fact that I would ask him to be captain surprised everyone (because of our relationship, not necessarily his credentials). It was the only way I could make sure that we stay somewhat aligned. Ownership and all that.

Team selection remained my responsibility but Eoin would have significant input. He could be a bit of a nightmare in this regard, coming up with some outrageous selections and totally disregarding circumstances like attendance at training! He would become more measured in his approach when he took the reins but at the time I’d regularly get lectured about ‘ruthlessness and conviction’ with regard to selection.

We had another blow-up in the intra club league. He had picked the panels and robbed Munster of the Clare lads and gave me a panel with some lads who weren’t even active. I took things into my own hands and did a bit of recruitment which infuriated everybody, basically only because we were hammering them!!!

Anyway, it came to the Munster Dublin game. I started full-back to mark Sheanon but instead he started midfield and put Johnny O in on me with the clear tactic to try and expose the height difference. Soon Eoin wandered in and I kicked a point after our first exchange. Naturally this pumped me up more and coupled with his growing frustration at his teams’ performance, his pot began to boil.

There were a few stray arms and fists flying about and he took offence to some of my challenges, as did I to his. Then there was a volley of verbal abuse, focussing on me being a cheating so and so and going to extremes to win. It was personal and heated. We shook hands at the end although I took some convincing.

No story would be complete without mentioning the Munich fun bus. The story is not short of airtime at this stage. In short, the lads got lost the morning of the tournament and arrived late after some jolly phone calls explaining their predicament (which had followed on from the previous evening’s calls about lost jerseys etc). I didn’t try and get the game delayed and instead started with a mix of the A and B team. The lads arrived at half-time and I refused to bring any of them on. We lost narrowly.

Mostly our rows have been behind closed behind closed doors but Sheanon went loopers after the game and we had probably our most public and vicious exchanged of words. To this day, that incident with the bus can ruin the night when we are all out together, such is the feelings the incident provokes.

There were plenty of more blow-ups along the way and I often thought about how much more interesting the blog would be if I could have told people about them.

On a one to one level, the majority of our meaningful communication was done by email. We operate in an environment of self-rule where we must respect the input and decisions of lads around the same age. It’s not easy. At home there was always an ‘adult’ who had distance from us. Here our lives are intertwined.

There have been very few lads who would have given either of us direct feedback. Some may think I can’t take it but if you read the blog regularly you should know I am my biggest critic. What I won’t listen to is one liners picked up off the Sunday Game. Sheanon often provided me feedback and I valued it and reflected much of it to my approach. He would be less acknowledging of mine i.e. not respond (it was normally done by email) but I think some of it got through.

His best tournament last year in my opinion was down in Maastricht and I sent him a mail before that, questioning what he had been bringing to our game and what I thought he needed to do. I presume he read it but I can’t be sure if he listened. Much of his game that day reflected those points though. I particularly refer to his increased assists!!

It was time for a change this winter and I handed over to Eoin. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I enjoyed watching his painful transition to management. For three years he thought I gave out too much at training. Now, he was at the helm and you could hear his ranting and raving all around the VUB complex. He probably understands a lot more about me and my approach after his six month in charge. He also asked me to be captain this year, highlighting his acknowledgment that we needed to be on the same page. Not quite keep your friends close and your enemies closer but some similarities to the sentiment!!

To say we were never friends wouldn’t be right though. We were team-mates but we were never overly close off the pitch, despite both of our closest friends being the same people. We’d struggle to hold a conversation or look each other in the eye during normal day to day chats! We wouldn’t exchange non-GAA related texts or emails. However, give us a few pints and we could converse about hurling and football for hours with little or no confrontation. As team-mates the relationship was strong and he was always the go to man when I had possession or needed advice.

Those conflicting personality traits I mentioned at the beginning were no doubt the blocking factor to our relationship being anything more. I’d often say that if we were in the same club at home we probably wouldn’t have got on at all. We’d have been marking each other at training and our style would have conflicted to such an extent that I’m guessing the hostilities displayed in the intra club league would have boiled over more than once or twice. We needed each other more here because we had to take bigger roles than we would have at home.

We shook hands on last Thursday night and he thanked me for everything. I did likewise. It’s been a hell of a journey with him. The impact we’ve had on each other’s existence in Brussels has been significant. We probably wouldn’t have survived this long without the G.A.A. and both of us have made our marks on it in our own way. He’s truly old school Belgium G.A.A. and there is not many of us left; one less now.

I wish him luck with his next challenge. We may not have been best friends but I think I know him reasonably well. He needed to move, especially after the guys he would have spent the most time with have moved on. His head was elsewhere. I wouldn’t rule out him coming back at some stage though. Brussels was a home to him and he probably realised in the last few weeks that, despite so many guys moving on, there is still plenty here for him should he decide to come back some day.