Understanding Why

Talk to people at home about playing G.A.A. in Europe and they smile

patronisingly and give you that look that says, ‘isn’t that cute’. As

well as they try to hide it, the majority of people are dismissive of the whole thing.

Journalists are getting great mileage out of it of late, lauding the

number of non-Irish taking up the game and the increased playing

numbers. They write about it in a social, rather than sporting context and that annoys a little.

Standards have increased a lot since I landed in 2005 but that is

never the focus and without such focus, the game in Europe will never

gain credibility at home.

Against that backdrop, one couldn’t possibly describe or make you

understand the feeling in our camp after winning this year’s

Championship.

To say the week that followed was hectic would be an understatement.

From the Saturday through the following Sunday, the lads were fairly

well on it every day. The banter and planning on the ‘whatsapp’ group

was frantic.

I ended up missing it all on account of work. In truth, if I was

willing to push the boat out, I could have definitely joined a

night or two. I had a strange feeling afterwards though.

The moment we won on Saturday was immense but I was half conscious of

trying to make that feeling last as long as possible. A hangover was

only going to dampen it.

With that said, I also had a feeling of job done, move on. I don’t

mean that in the Roy Keane sense of things. Winning the Championship

this year was like a monkey off the back and to be rid of the monkey

felt like a massive relief and I just wanted to escape the whole scene for a while.

Bar a few months in 2011, I’ve basically been non-stop involved since

we started on March 1, 2008.  There’s no point in hiding the fact I

was fairly intense about the whole thing and that was nearly every day for five years. In that time, it felt like there were far more downs than ups and plenty of times I wanted to pack it in.

Winning in Maastricht and knowing I’d be moving on in January, albeit

temporarily, gave a kind of closure to the whole thing. I was ready

and happy to walk away this year. Winning just made sure I didn’t takeso many frustrations with me.

I did enjoy watching the lads tear the ass out of it though. All along you’d be trying to convince fellas that the feeling they’d get from winning would far outweigh the time and money they’d invest. To see them feeling it and enjoying it to the max was great.

That brings me to my main point. How can something which people at

home find so difficult to understand, mean so much to lads over here?

I’ll start with an easier one though.

A while ago, I was having a chat with Dad about the great spirit and togetherness we have amongst the lads. I was telling him the efforts fellas go to, to keep in touch even after they leave. I’m closer, in the sense of keeping in touch,to lads that I may have only played with for six months here, than lads I would have played with for six or more years at home.

Dad hit the nail on the head when he reasoned that it was because the

group was far more homogenous than the one I’d be playing with at

home.

It’s an easy comparison to make and indeed, it quickly gives the

answer. Playing at home, you could conceivably have lads as far as

twenty years apart in age. Students, tradesmen, professionals,

unemployed. Married, parent, single. It’s a huge range of people and

backgrounds.

The furthest the lads here would be apart is in terms of where they

are from; Belfast and Cork is probably the longest stretch! Generally,

we are all ‘professionals’, in the same age bracket, living away from

home. Few are married and those with girlfriends wouldn’t be so

plentiful. In terms of having family to rely on, as sappy as it

sounds, each of us is a close as we have to it here.

We travel around Europe to tournaments and on an assortment of other

excursions by plane, train and car. Those trips bring the group even

closer. In the end, I guess, you can say we become ‘one’.

That explains the first bit but why does the G.A.A. and particularly

winning, strike such a cord.

Whatever you do, if you take it seriously, invest your time and most

importantly, have to find ways to get the best out of yourselves to

succeed, you are guaranteed to feel satisfied if and when you reach

your goal.

They are the two factors I suppose; togetherness and effort.

What is most pleasing when we have had success is how the whole group

gets caught up in it. The entire panel, Shield and Championship, have

been buzzing for the last few weeks. I can relate to that in the sense that I’d easily rank the Shield win in Limerick last year as one of the highlights of my time here, despite not being involved on the pitch.

The lads will never forget how they felt for the last few weeks.

At this stage, if my issues were my ‘demons’, they are fairly well

dealt with now. On Saturday we will have our end of year dinner. Over one hundred will attend. That should be as memorable a night as any in the last few weeks.

Bring on a final bout of back slapping.