The attacking instincts are still alive and well in Galway’s Aidan Harte.
With a daisy-cutting rasper from 40 yards, a man with the number four on his back knocked Tipperary out of the 2020 championship. It wasn’t your typical corner back’s contribution but then again, Aidan Harte isn’t your typical corner back.
As an underage player you see, the Gort club-man was always the dangerous forward who had the potential to make a breakthrough for Galway. At 19, he was brought into the Galway panel by Ger Loughnane, as a forward, and by 2010, he was playing League games in the forwards.
Harte couldn’t quite nail his position in the front six however and as the years passed him by, he was becoming more of a utility man. Midfield here, back to the bench there. A move from his club manager in 2014 brought him back into the unfamiliar surrounds of the half back line and the sheer freedom of facing the ball helped to re-invigorate Harte’s career.
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“Coming into 2014, I started playing wing back with the club under Gerry Spellman and I just grew into the position. I just loved facing the ball and had a bit of pace to get back if I made a mistake. Back in 2008 as well, I used to play a bit in the backs under Ger Loughnane in training and down in college in UCC too. Sometimes, when you’re versatile, you can end up struggling but it was great then to settle as a wing back or a corner back," he says on The GAA Hour in an interview with Colm Parkinson.
Good players can play anywhere, especially in this modern, free-flowing game which Harte admits poses its own challenges.
“If you were playing corner back 20 years ago, you wouldn’t even be looking at the goalie pucking it out. But yeah, it’s all change now, working it through the lines and that kind of style. The real test of you character and skill is whether you can do that in those pressure times. In training, the drills could be flying but the difference between the winners and losers is if you can do it under pressure. I suppose for myself, I didn’t at the end of the game against Limerick and that’s something I’d be looking to improve on this year.”
Harte mis controlled a stick pass late on in that semi-final and the thoughts of it are driving him on this winter.
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“I’d be taking the more prudent approach. Personally, I’d have been disappointed with my own performance against Limerick. You kind of look at your own mistakes and think they were the only mistakes…a lack of composure from myself helped put them two up near the end.”
“As a player, winning the All-Ireland seems a long, long time ago. It’s back to the drawing board, both personally and within the team, and trying to improve from there."
Planning is futile at the moment but Harte is just trying to keep the body and the mind focused.
“A bit like last year, everyone’s a bit unsure. I suppose you’re just trying to get that base fitness level in place and shed a few pounds after Christmas. You just have to do the best you can given the lack of facilities.
