Pressure, pressure, pressure.
Chrissy McKaigue and Andrew Trimble were the guests on SportsJOE Live on Wednesday night. Comparing the expectations and demands placed on a GAA player with those placed on a rugby player was an interesting topic on the night.
The Gaelic footballer feels GAA players have it tougher. He plays for Slaughtneil. He lives in Slaughtneil. GAA is everything in Slaughtneil.
“As Gaelic footballers, yes we have jobs, but we’re also among our supporters, we’re amongst the people that go to the games and watch. We can’t really get away from it. It can get very, very demanding,” began McKaigue.
“If I walk down the street, someone will probably start talking to me about football or hurling,” he said.
People in the area love the GAA. They have great intentions, wishing players the best of luck, asking about training or the team, but the players have been training, they’ve played the game. When they’re away from that atmosphere, they just want a break from it, their minds want a rest.
“Sometimes there is no getting away from it – which is the beauty of the GAA as well I suppose, but there is sometimes when, maybe you’ve a bad game or if you’ve a big game coming up. The last thing you want to be talking about is the actual game or a bad performance or whatever, so I would say the Gaelic players sometimes have it tougher,” said the distinguished half back.
Most players have this obsession with their game. They’ve gone over a win or a loss loads of times in their own heads. The last thing they want to do is talk about it all over again.
“There are players struggling for balance, and I suppose that’s because of the general expectations going through the roof,” he continued.
Ulster and Ireland winger Andrew Trimble feels that despite rugby having a much wider audience, he’s still obligated to his neighbours, to his supporters to have a good game.
“There’s times Belfast seems like a small town as well, and if you don’t go well of a Friday night, there’s times you’re walking out of your house on Saturday morning – hood up, thinking, ‘Everybody hates me’. There is that responsibility to your supporters,” began the 33-year-old.
Players have different ways of preparing themselves for the mental warfare of a game. Trimble gets worked up, and people outside of the team don’t understand it – not even his wife.
“I worry a lot about performance, and I dread match-day, because it feels like the longest day ever. I could be hanging out with my wife or friends, and they think I’m odd or weird. I could be having lunch with my teammates and it’s different, because we’re all in it together, we get each other. I’m normal with them and I’m weird with my wife,” he said.
That’s part of the business, according to McKaigue. The mental preparation is often tougher than the game itself.
“If you aren’t suffering, or you aren’t feeling that way, you’re probably in the wrong environment, because to play competitive sport, you have to suffer. Part of that suffering is that mental preparation before it,” said the Derryman.
Crazy sacrifices makes the reward so much sweeter.
“I can relate to what Andrew is saying there, because the bigger the game, the bigger the pressure, the bigger the suffering, but once you get that elation of winning with your teammates after, it’s just unbelievable, that’s what you play for,” said the two-in-a-row Ulster hurling and football club champion.
McKaigue is fond of a Saturday night game. He hates waiting the whole weekend for a Sunday throw-in. You overthink things, your mind is fixated on the game. Rugby players are better off with their Friday games, he believes.
“Anytime you’ve a game on a Sunday, it’s hanging over you for the full weekend. On a Friday night, it’s probably not as bad because the weeks okay, when you can actually train.”
He has his own ways to distract himself. To put himself at ease. It’s a journey away from Slaughtneil to have a meal, to take it all in and let it all out.
“I just go to the meal with two or three of the boys usually, it just cuts down the nerves. That’s became a ritual. We go away somewhere, the night before a game and have a meal out of the public eye.”
Out of the Slaughtneil eye.
For Trimble, he just doesn’t talk to his wife.
“I don’t speak to my wife on matchday. I don’t spent time with the wife or kids,” he quipped.
That’s the environment. That’s the nature of the beast.
You can watch the entertaining, engaging episode of SportsJOE Live right here.
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