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24th October 2017
04:28pm BST

"You’ve got to look at the reasoning behind it and why it was there and the intention was we’re trying to make the team a better team and trying to make sure everyone is united and trying to perform to the best of their abilities so the intentions behind it was right," the St. Brigid's man said. "I’m sure if you went around any club dressing room in January there’d be something similar along those lines. "Personally, I wouldn’t be too keen on that side of things but I think the intention was we were going to try to perform to the best of our ability as a team and as a club and I think that’s the real message to take out of it."The 29-year-old also revealed that Dublin players do not sign player contracts but everyone knows what is expected of them:
"In our own setup everyone there is giving absolutely everything they can it just wouldn’t be an issue we wouldn’t need to sign anything and just do it, I’m sure a lot of county teams are the same. "Like I say, we’ve heard of this before with other clubs and other counties…it's the first time I came across it, with Dublin we’re just there to work as hard as we can and all the players do that. We don’t need anything extra. "As a team (St. Brigid's), all the players knew why it was there. It was just a thing we wanted to do to try and help become a better team and set out a few guidelines and rules. "Maybe it was needed and maybe it wasn’t but it didn’t affect the team, the players were all there to perform the best they could for St. Brigid’s and that was the point of it."Andrews wasn't shy to admit that he isn't one for player contracts but also values the intentions of them, realising that it has a purpose and that was to make St. Brigid's a more competitive team than they had been. The player contract was resurrected under Jim McGuinness, as Colm Parkinson wrote for SportsJOE around the time that the player contract was leaked:
"The Donegal squad were absolute booze hounds and had serious discipline issues that Jim would have witnessed first-hand. Intercounty football had become very professional and Donegal were way behind the rest. It was a unique case and I’m sure part of the reason for the contracts was the psychology of it - to shock the lads into action and make the party boys realise that this is serious business.The original intention was the whip a squad into shape, one that hadn't been realising its potential for so long and there is a clear code of practice and rules that need to be laid out by players at the start of the year but maybe signing a contract can be a bit excessive."Two problems arose from McGuinness’ player contracts. One was that word of it got out and, secondly, Donegal won the All-Ireland the following year. What does every manager in the country do when a team wins the All Ireland?
"Copy them."
Paddy Andrews was in Holy Spirit BNS in Ballymun today at an AIG Heroes event. The AIG Heroes initiative is a programme that leverages AIG’s sporting sponsorships to help provide positive role models and build confidence for young people in local communities.
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