“The more energy you put into external cues for how good or indifferent you are, the less beneficial it will be to the team.”
We often talk about the internal things around the GAA that have changed the game in the last decade or so, such as tactics and systems, but externally, there are constantly new challenges and obstacles for the modern player to face too.
Back in the day, if you wanted to read about how you played in a game, you had to hand over your cash to the local shopkeeper and see it in black and white, before it became tomorrow’s fish and chips packaging.
Nowadays, a player will get instantaneous feedback from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, news outlets, online sports pages and websites, even when they’re not looking for it.
Speaking on the GAA Hour, Colm Parkinson compared this social media culture to what it was like in his playing days.
“I remember in our time, if I had a good game, I would buy three of the papers, read about it and be delighted with myself. There was no social media, no Facebook and no online.
“Maybe you can lose the run of yourself a little bit. Paul Donaghy had that brilliant game against Donegal and he hasn’t been great since, and he said he tries to block all of that out because it’s only a distraction and you can see things popping up on Facebook.
“I would say right now, if I had a good game, there’s enough places to read about your good game; you could be two or three hours lauding in your brilliant performance.
“You need a lot of maturity to block that out.”
Former Dublin star Ger Brennan was also on the show and is currently part of the coaching team with Carlow. He believes that the added stress social media provides is yet another factor managers have to deal with.
“The generation that’s there now, they’ve grown up with social media and it must be incredibly difficult to build those habits of not checking in on everything that pops up on the screen.
“Whereas in our day playing, it was a case of actually physically getting out of bed, putting on your shoes, and going down to the shop and buying a few papers.
“With the few good games that you would have, you would sneakily go in and buy the paper, and you would be hoping that no one would see. You don’t want anyone to see you reading about yourself.
“It must be very challenging, but as a manager if you’re looking after 30-odd elite guys, you have to allow some characters who will probably enjoy and feed off the positive feedback from the news report.
“Generally speaking, as a rule of thumb, the more energy you put into external cues for how good or indifferent you are, the less beneficial it will be to the team and you can only get sidetracked.
Former Donegal star, Brendan Devenney would have often filled the newspapers’ back pages with dazzling performances and rave reviews. However, during his county game tenure, online forums or message boards were also a popular form of praising or criticising players.
“I remember my sister saying one time, do you ever go on them message boards?
“And I know by the way she said it, she meant, ‘don’t go on them’ and I never have.
“I don’t even know if they still exist but whenever things went wrong, you would be getting absolutely cut to shreds on them.”
You can listen to the full discussion on the GAA Hour now.
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