Eamon Fitzmaurice and Malachy O’Rourke were bucking trends at the weekend.
Colm Parkinson met up with Alan Dillon recently. On the back of the Mayo man’s retirement, the topic of conversation between the two was the good old days they’d spent playing football. The great times they had on various teams, the successes, the highs, the lows and the journeys.
Ranked at the very top as both of their fondest memories was their college days. Wooly recalled the buses home after winning away games with Maynooth. Those days, the craic, the cans, the teammates from different counties, the friends, the bonds. Those were the best of times for Dillon, too.
Colleges’ GAA is a magic experience for players. It still has a place in the GAA.
Two Kerry players, Jack Barry and Barry O’Sullivan won a Sigerson Cup with UCD on Saturday afternoon. Conor McCarthy, from Monaghan was also a part of the winning team.
This was all of these lads first ever Sigerson Cup triumph. You can bet your bottom dollar on it that it meant a lot to them. You’d better believe the lads were in celebratory mood after their win.
A few scoops, celebrating what they’d achieved. Relaxing for a small bit anyway after they’d achieved their goals. That’s exactly what they did in The Boars’ Head pub in Dublin on Saturday night.
Most GAA players will tell you, there’s no better feeling than that winning feeling. You’re relieved and you’re free to go out and enjoy yourself without worrying about training the next morning. You’re free and you’re proud of what you’ve achieved, that all of your hard work has paid off.
#SigersonCup champions @UCDGAA pic.twitter.com/ilJeSDQTyJ
— The BoarsHead Dublin (@boarsheaddublin) February 18, 2018
Better again was that the whole UCD team were present.
Barry, O’Sullivan and McCarthy could easily have missed out on the fun.
The three lads were named by O’Rourke and Fitzmaurice respectively to start Sunday’s game when the line-ups were released on Friday night.
Imagine how Saturday would have went, then. Instead of lapping it up in the Boars’ Head they’d have probably been foam-rolling in an ice-bath while eating chicken and pasta and drinking out of a two litre bottle of water. Cian Ward would have been raging if that was the case.
“What are they doing it for? What are they playing football for if you can’t celebrate your successes? What is the point? he asked on Monday’s GAA Hour Show.
“What are you doing it for? It’s completely joyless. Why can’t you just go and celebrate the thing?”
They’d have been preparing for a slog in Inniskeen. Sore, tired and probably pissed off because they didn’t even get the chance to celebrate winning this great competition.
Instead they were all given the day off. The night off. And Wooly speaks for all of us when saying his faith in GAA managers has been restored.
“Kerry and Monaghan showed a bit of sense on Sunday, and allowed their player celebrate a huge moment and one they’ll always remember in their GAA lives. It’s a Sigerson Cup, it’s massive for so many players. If you take celebrating that away from players, what are they doing it for? I would have lost my mind if they had played on that Sunday, honestly. I would have lost my mind,” said the Laois man.
The lads will have appreciated it. The managers will reap the rewards that are so often understated of having these lads on their side. Of having them motivated, of having them happy. They are human at the end of the day.
“I think you should enjoy it (a win) together. Sing a few songs on the bus, have that craic altogether and really make that win something, rather than just parking it and moving on,” suggested Wooly.
It’s clear that the UCD lads did just that.
Con O’Callaghan, a man who has won everything there is to win in the GAA in the last year was absolutely gunning to get back involved with UCD for a day like Saturday.
He loves playing for his college. They all do.
“I suppose you’re playing with lads from different counties, and they’re lads that you’re normally battling against in really competitive matches in Croke Park. So it’s nice to be able to play with them and to build that camaraderie with lads from different counties,” he said to Jerome Quinn after the game.
That's why the colleges' competitions deserve way more respect than they got this year https://t.co/qIw8rfgBwM
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 17, 2018
Because GAA players are similar personalities. Most of them are hard-working lads, they’re up for the craic and off the pitch they’ll pal around together.
At times this year, the Sigerson Cup was treated like an inconvenience. Let’s not dodge the truth, Liam Silke and Kieran Molloy lined out for Corofin in an All-Ireland semi-final 90 minutes before the ball would be thrown in for the Sigerson decider more than 90km up the road.
That was a joke. But it’s good to see that the game isn’t gone entirely.
You can listen to this Sigerson Cup chat at the top of Monday’s GAA Hour Show right here.
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