Some boys might never know football the way it should be.
This isn’t a whinge about conditioning or tactics, more an observation that fewer and fewer footballers play with this sort of unhinged freedom.
Back home in my own club in Derry, we have the most committed set of athletes you’d ever come across. Some of them are fine, fine players too but none of them compare to the mystique-like presence of an older man from Down who joined the club a decade ago and is still featuring for the senior team at 38 years of age.
He bounces around like a teenager still and he plays with no inhibitions, like anything is possible. Because of that, he produces magic in every single game; a senior game, a reserve game, a training match, whatever.
He still might learn a thing or two from Stephen Gildea who has so much football genius oozing out of him, it’s almost sexual. Ardara lost in the Donegal reserve championship semi final to Gweedore 2-9 to 1-10 but Gildea hit the moment of the match with the sweetest of strikes from a bold free kick on the 21′.
Stephen Gildea, 43 years old, showing class is permanent! pic.twitter.com/tFubu5ndob
— Frank Craig (@FrankCraig13) October 16, 2016
Boys like Gildea – a former soccer player with St. Catherine’s alongside a teenage Seamus Coleman – see opportunities with every kick of a ball. Boys like Gildea don’t sweat; excess talent just drips off their skin.
Unfortunately, the Donegal Twitter account underegged his finish just a tad.
Ardara goal Stephen Gildea free hits the net, 12 minutes gone its Gaoth Dobhair 1.01 Ard an Rátha 1.00
— CLG Dhún na nGall (@officialdonegal) October 2, 2016
But if you’re more for the thunderous, piledriving, devastating finishes, you might like Shane Nallen’s in the Mayo intermediate championship at the weekend. The Belmullet man lifted an unstoppable effort like a destructive backdraft, a fireball if you will, right in under the crossbar with men on the line.
That too was a thing of beauty for very different reasons.
Despite this absolutely amazing Shane Nallen strike, @BelmulletGaa are out of the Mayo IFC. pic.twitter.com/lqvwgC5MZT
— Cormac O'Malley (@cormacpro) October 15, 2016
Please try these at home.
The GAA Hour podcast is out every Wednesday. Subscribe here on iTunes or listen on Soundcloud.
