Shapers are going to shape.
It’s different strokes for different folks on a GAA pitch. Some lads won’t give a damn what they look like while others can only play well if they look good and feel good at the same time.
But those lads who commit to it better be ready to being called soft, fancy Dans and fair weather players if things start to go wrong. You’re an easy target in fairness and the critics can hop onto it and they’ll hop off you, complaining that you’re more concerned about your appearance than how the game actually goes.
The reality is quite the opposite and it’s, for the most part, just a case of players getting ready for the game in different ways. With the margins so fine at the highest level of the game, it does all really, come down to your head at the end of the day.
And the lads who fall into this category are just preparing their heads in a different way. These ‘shapers’ are the lads who only love to stand out from the crowd and any criticism they do receive will motivate them and will feed into their egos even more. Any abuse roared at them from the sideline will acutally drive them on instead of bog them down because they’re now motivated by shoving it in these lads’ faces.
The bottom line is that they’re confident enough to not really care about what anybody else says about them. That’s why they do things like this when they know the backlash is going to come.
It started off with the white boots and then came the white socks over the GAA socks. The tape around the wrist even though that lads’ wrist was right as rain soon followed.
This shaping is all part of the mental preparation.
It seems Donegal’s Patrick McBrearty and Kerry’s James O’Donoghue are onto a new one. Two of the best corner forwards in the game, the pair are famed for their swagger and for having a bit about them.
It’s no surprise then, that the pair are behind one of the newest shaping trends in the GAA.
If you watch both lads kicking their frees, they will pull their shorts up higher on one side of their legs, as follows.
There’s arguments that it’s part of their free-taking routine, that it’s a way of showing off their big quads to the galleries, but whatever the plan is, it all boils down to the same thing – their mental preparation.
“My theory on this is that Ronaldo does it,” said Colm Parkinson on Monday’s GAA Hour Show.
“Alexis Sanchez does it. This is the next on from taping your socks, taping your sleeves and taping your wrist. It’s some sort of a fashion statement,” said Wooly.
Cian Ward agreed with Wooly, and claimed his former Meath teammate also loved a pair of short shorts.
“He wants to show off his quad muscles. Plenty of lads used to roll up their shorts. Anthony Moyles used to roll up his togs, he’d roll the top band down so the shorts would be shorter, short shorts.”
Will it take off?
You can listen to the GAA’s new shaping trend and much more from Monday’s GAA Hour Show here.
