Mark Gibbons knew he had work to do from the minute he walked in.
The Dublin man had seen that three goalies had been picked before him. He left the Abbotstown meeting room where the trialists gathered and headed in Paul Galvin, Valerie Mulcahy and Ray Silke’s direction knowing what they were about to say to him.
“Listen you put in a good effort and you’ve a great future ahead of you but..,” or something along those lines.
And that’s why he spoke first before they could even open their mouths.
“I am the Underdog, I want to be on this team, so whatever I need to do,” said the Liffey Gaels club man.
Galvin and co. looked at each other and smiled.
Gibbons could have lay down, most lads in his position would have had. He could have just accepted it and went with the coaches’ judgement that his fellow keepers stood out more than he did in the Underdogs’ trials.
Some chance of that.
“The other keepers had more to do, I didn’t get the chance to show you what I can do…I want to make your life difficult,” he continued.
And with that the coaches were thrown. Galway legend Ray Silke called for a time-out to re-assess the whole situation as the stakes and tensions rose up.
After plenty of debate, the trio with the power stuck to their guns and Gibbons’ Underdog dreams were over but at least he’d went out all guns blazing.
Brilliant experience on the #underdogs trials – great bunch of lads & thanks for the advice @pgal10 & @raysilke98 – made for some decent Tv 😁 #TG4 @ADAREtelly #tg4sport pic.twitter.com/CEwCtoMQOS
— Mark Gibbons (@Mark_Gibbons1) September 6, 2018
There were plenty of other interesting cases on the show also. Antrim native Conor McKenna stood out for his commitment to his own club despite its small size. Former Galway under-21 Fintan Ó Cuanaigh impressed as did a Derry man who thought his chance had past him by.
And now the selectors have their panel picked. After trials in Celbridge, in Trim and a final in-house match in Abbotstown, Galvin, Silke and Mulcahy settled on their squad.
A squad they feel will be able to put it up to an inter-county senior panel after a couple of months of training.
Bring on next Thursday.
