The term 'call of duty' is just three words thrown together and it sounds good.
Most management in any walk of life would probably love to put the person first over the product in every single interaction and decision but the reality is that most management jobs can't afford to look beyond the short-term and, because of that, a coldness sets in.
There's still the hope there that, behind the instrument you've developed to garner results, there's a person who's happy with life and happy with the environment they're in but it's too often just a hope. It's an afterthought. The 'how's everything' question is just small talk to get in or out of a meeting that's usually about performance. It's just something you're conditioned to say, not to actually talk about.
In today's world, there are more and more GAA managers that are opening their hearts and minds to the person at the core of their player and the by-product of actually giving a toss about those people you're spending so much time with and who are giving you so much time to you is that you garner better results.
https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/854126846115500032
If you're not sold on the moral crusade of actually caring about people, the small investment of human-to-human interaction helps your ability to manage. But, in such fast-paced times, it's difficult to look beyond the next deadline or the next game and it's easier to lump more pressure on to force out results in the immediate future.
Longford GAA haven't lost sight of the long term - not for the people who give up their lives for Longford and not for the players who will one day appreciate everything Longford has done for them.
As the pressure ramps up on the GAA season and this only January, as the fixture crisis gets more and more severe with the condensing of the inter-county calendar, there's a backlash coming from the public and the wider media about the demands being placed on players. Every other week you'll read an article about what so and so has to do to make training, or how many times they actually trained or how that whole county is in the middle of a 47-month drinking ban.
The GAA can take over your whole life if you let it but then you go to a random club and you see lads busting themselves three nights a week to make themselves fitter than any professional athlete and they're just doing it because they're mad for it. At the heart of it all, there really is a love for the games there but only when the games aren't weighing down on top of everything else in your life.
So Longford have stepped in to cater for that everything else.
In any team, the range of ages and responsibilities are going to vary something fierce and, sometimes, it's too easy to forget that there are just teenagers involved with a very real stress in their lives. Junior Certs and Leaving Certs can be scoffed at by the thirty-somethings but everyone was once there and only the young players trying to fit training and recovery and eating around study, school and exams would really appreciate how much it can get on top of you.
Longford are helping out.
https://twitter.com/OfficialLDGAA/status/953360172965081089
The county are putting on Irish and Maths and pure Maths session for the footballers who represent Longford. After training, they can sit in the grounds, well-fed, and they can do their work right there with the full support of the county.
It helps them and, do you know what, it's going to help Longford too.
https://twitter.com/OfficialLDGAA/status/953761889388986368
It seems like such a simple initiative but one which far too few are offering their players. It takes a county like Longford to really go the extra mile to show that the genuine call of duty is something which should have the person at the very core of its thinking.
Longford care about people. Other counties - hell, every single team in Ireland - should follow suit.
