We all think we’re class.
We all think our club team are unreal. We all think our clubmates that rip it up in training sessions have the ability to do the exact same thing in a game against any club team in the county. We all think those players that can do something special in our training sessions are freaks. We all think that other clubs don’t have them.
They often do.
We’ve grown up playing alongside these lads. They’re the best players in the club. Every one player that makes the club’s starting fifteen is the best the club has for that position. Therefore, they must be decent.
Neighbouring clubs have the same situation. Most clubs have the same situation, but we all fall into the traps.
And it’s not just senior clubs. Junior clubs are the same in their own grade.
“This is going to be our year for sure.”
Sometimes it is. More than likely it isn’t.
The GAA Hour Show host Colm Parkinson used the example of Moorefield. The Kildare champions won the Leinster championship in 2006. This young team were tipped to go on and dominate the Leinster club scene. Instead, the Dublin clubs took over. Portlaoise took over.
Moorefield make their first Leinster final appearance since 2006 on Sunday when they take on St. Loman’s. Daryl Flynn, who has been through it all with the Kildare club feels they had the potential to do so much more. That their team was good enough to dominate. Other clubs felt the same. Other clubs were probably just better.
“We probably took it for granted, and then we lost a few,” said Flynn at the AIB Leinster finals day last week.
“Portlaoise bet us a few times as well. It just shows, if you don’t have your eye on the ball, what it can do,” he added.
Colm Parkinson was a member of that Portlaoise team. He feels Moorefield just mightn’t have been good enough to kick on. But they’re not the only ones who over-estimate themselves. And they won’t be the last.
“Everybody convinces themselves that the team they’re on is much better than it is anyways, because to me, Moorefield wouldn’t have expected to be winning Leinster titles against Portlaoise or the Dublin champions, who were the two best teams in the country,” began Wooly.
He convinced himself the same way when he joined Parnells.
“But I remember when I joined Parnells, I had myself convinced that I was going to win an All-Ireland club with Parnells, with the team we had. I just went, ah he’s a great player in that position, and he’s a great player. I was like this is a fantastic team, we could easily put it up to Portlaoise,” he added.
Everyone does the same thing.
“Sure you’re fooling yourself. Players just fool themselves into thinking that teams they’re on are much better than they are. This is across the country, this is nationwide,” added the GAA Hour Show host.
“You think every player in your club is better than they actually are. They’re not the best player for another club,” he said.
Conan Doherty couldn’t have agreed more. And if you don’t, you’re probably only fooling yourself. Again.
“I’d say everybody listening is probably resonating with what you’re saying there, you do, because as well, you’re involved with this team for 15 years, and when somebody a bit better comes in, you’re like, Jesus, now we do have it made, and you’re not really appreciating what’s outside,” said the Derryman.
You can listen to this discussion and much more from 54″00′.
