If you have it, why wouldn’t you flaunt it?
If you make county minor, or you’re knocking around the under-21 panel, there’s no doubt about it that college is going to be that little bit easier for you.
You’ve worked hard all the way up along your juvenile career. On the nights when others are off gallivanting on the town, you’re more often than not stuck in the gym or going to bed early.
The lads will give out to you, call you dry as sand, but those are the sacrifices you have to make in order to keep your place.
Sacrifice leads to reward and your commitments to the inter-county panel will be beneficial to you in many ways, throughout both school and college, but more so college.
You deserve to be rewarded for your sacrifices, and if you play your cards correctly you can milk it to the very last.
Because whether you like it or not, a county player immediately generates a higher social status for themselves than the rest.
1. Snapchat
You’ll get to know a few people in your course, many of whom come from other counties to you. These people may not be aware of the status you hold in your own county, so it’s absolutely positively crucial that you let them know.
County stars are divils for gathering Snapchat contacts and sending commitment related snaps. We’re all well accustomed to the snaps from the gym, where the grind happens, the snaps documenting the long commute home for training, the new gear the Wexford under-21s have gotten.
It’s a rite of passage, really.
2. Half-zips and skinny tracksuits
The Tipperary minors got the new O’Neill’s round-neck jumpers at training on Wednesday night and you will know all about it for the next few weeks.
The boys will don their pride and joy around the college with bristling pride and a booming chest. If we’re being honest about it, they didn’t give a damn about being known as a full-kit wanker because they’ll just wear the skinny trackies to compliment it, just in case people weren’t sure.
You’ll rarely, rarely see these lads sporting the jeans or glad-rags, sure then people wouldn’t know.
3. Gym bands
The lads are county, their college may have had to lure them with a scholarship, one of the perks will be the elite gym membership band.
In colleges like DCU, the elite membership is distinguished from the standard membership by a black band instead of a yellow one. The majority of yellow band holders will keep theirs’ modestly in their gear bag.
The elite boys, that band is glued to their wrist at all times.
4. Two-litre bottles of water
At the ready at all times. Hydration is key for a high level athlete, and they will be guzzling the H20 into them as quick as Bobby Boucher can say ‘waterboy.’
It’s a good way of showing off to people that you mean business, that you’ve training or a gym session coming up later.
Keep the two liter bottle of Volvic in the paw, keep slugging away county boys.
5. Absence makes the heart grow fonder
A county player won’t make as many of the college training sessions as the other players, and understandably so. They have county commitments, gym sessions and programmes to complete, and whether college managers like it or not, county will always take precedence.
College managers will be very lenient with them, though, and will reference the commitment these boys are making in many team talks.
The lads will miss training session after training session without being questioned, and when they come back, and watch on from the sidelines in their county tracksuits, they are the messiah.
6. Gym gear / county programme
The gym is where the county stars stand out the most. They will usually hunt in packs, county packs.
The newest county training tops will be dotted around the weights room in the university gym. The county boys will always have some extra equipment than your normal Joe soap in the gym
Speed bands, foam rollers and gym programmes galore.
7. The sacrifice-emphasising Insta caption
Is there any county minor or under-21 who doesn’t draw the curtain on their season with an Instagram of them in action, accompanied with a caption like, “what an unbelievable year it’s been with a great bunch of lads,” or “Not the ending we were hoping for.”
In fairness, the people need to know.
Never change, county stars.
