Here it is, the best example of a stereotypical, old-fashioned Irish society that you’re ever going to see.
Don’t draw attention to yourself. Don’t perform. Don’t try to be anything other than a footballer.
Don’t say anything, don’t do anything and do not even think about going on f**king holidays.
There’s an old Vince Lombardi quote that I used to love and I still think there’s something in it:
“There’s something good in men that really yearns for discipline…”
It’s not complete bullshit. You could be in the middle of four sets of full-pitch sprints and you’d look around at the cold air being filled with what looks like some lads’ final breaths. You knew it was a bit mad and you knew you could probably be doing something else with your time – something you might even enjoy a little more – but you liked the punishment too and the fact that you were going through it together.
Mostly, you liked the fact that you were going some place together – at least it feels that way back in January.
Unfortunately, there’s a generation gap in the GAA and there’s something bad in Irish men that really yearns to do the disciplining now.
Pressure and doom forced on club GAA players is a joke – no wonder young lads are quitting, writes @ConanDoherty https://t.co/QG8WZzvPCd
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 17, 2016
Two disgruntled former managers come out and have a snide pop an old player – one who both won them the Connacht championship and the quarter-final against Donegal – and suddenly everyone is back on the ‘Aidan O’Shea needs to get a grip’ wagon.
Aidan O’Shea’s not doing anything. He’s away playing basketball minding his own damn business and just because Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly decide to speak up 14 months after they were ousted from the county role doesn’t mean that the player is fair game again.
He wasn’t fair game anyway in the first place – not for these cheap, pointless pot shots.
Holmes recounted the story of O’Shea being signed up to do #TheToughest Trade TV show in Sunderland and how the manager acted himself to pull him from the production, with seemingly no consultation with the player. Holmes told that story as if he was the one being screwed over. He told that story like he was being hard done by. It’s madness.
The backlash against Holmes and Connelly takes a passionate turn https://t.co/moGZ1uucoF #MAYO #GAA
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) December 21, 2016
Colm O’Rourke reacts with a piece in the Independent and says Aidan O’Shea must put “football first”.
Who says he must? And who the hell says he wasn’t putting it first anyway?
He’s the one who trains for Mayo night after night. He’s the one who lifts all the weights and eats right and goes to bed whenever’s necessary. He’s the one that gets fouled and fouled and then he’s the one that listens to criticism then when he goes down and wins a penalty. He’s the one with everything on the line and yet people make out that he has some sort of commitment issue with his county?
They make it out because he uses social media. He’s said he can’t focus because he does a TV show.
It’s absolutely ridiculous to think that a man cannot have a life outside of football. When you go to training for 90 minutes or whatever it is, why can’t the balls he busts there be enough? Why does he need to go away and think about it afterwards and live in solitude until his career is over? Why would that even help?
For Jesus’ sake, even the professionals have no problem dissociating sport with life outside of that sport.
You can’t do it if you’re Irish though. You can’t do it if you’re in the GAA.
Keep your head down, keep your focus right and don’t get ahead of yourself. Who do you think you are? Focus on your football.
What does that even mean? What is Aidan O’Shea losing from wasting 140 characters of his life outside of thinking about football? What’s he losing from enjoying himself and trying to boost his profile and his career?
What are other people losing from watching him do it? There’s no reason for telling any of us to stop doing this and that. Stop going out, stop writing on social media and stop booking weekends away. Focus, for Christ sake’s.
It’s just an old-fashioned way of life with nothing to back it up other than the idea that discipline is good. Even for the sake of it.
