Mayo’s O’Connor sounds warning on players quitting jobs to play
The Mayo All Star forward, who attended the Belfast launch of the Allianz Leagues yesterday, was reacting to Darran O’Sullivan’s admission that he has left his job with Ulster Bank to concentrate on playing for Kerry.
O’Connor, six years O’Sullivan’s junior, wonders what might lie in store for inter-county players of the future if they are unable to balance their professional and GAA careers.
“I would always say that football is optional for everyone, there are huge time constraints with it but it is a choice,” he said.
“There are no contracts and players aren’t tied down to it, and there are many men in Mayo who would jump into my position if I opted out.
“So I don’t want to seen giving out about playing inter-county football when it is a privilege and you’re representing hundreds of thousands of people.
“I would wonder, though, how sustainable it is in the future when you hear of players selecting careers to suit their football, or quitting jobs.
“That sounds like a short-term solution and I don’t think it is a good message to be sending to young people or potential footballers, to disregard your career to play for your county.”
O’Connor, 22, is undertaking a masters in sports exercise and psychology at University of Ulster and hopes to secure a job in teaching.
Already he has huge demands on his time – Sunday he plays for Mayo against Kerry in Killarney in an Allianz league opener before lining out for Jordanstown in the Sigerson Cup next Wednesday, followed by a league game against Tyrone on Sunday week. And he accepts there will be even greater demands on his time once he enters the work-place.
“Most players I know are definitely conscious of the need to get off work early on Fridays to travel across the country for training, or taking a day off to have an operation.
“People are factoring these things in when they’re selecting their career paths and it’s a dangerous precedent to set for young footballers.
“If they see older fellas quitting the bank or quitting their jobs, they’re going to think ‘I need to do that, I need to forget about academia, that’s what you need to do to play football’.
“It’ll be fine for a few years but I don’t know how sustainable it is.”
O’Connor already has two Young Footballer of the Year accolades and an All Star in his locker, and while he’s bound to have tired of questioning about that elusive All-Ireland title, he appears full of positivity about 2015.
With the All-Ireland semi-final replay defeat to Kerry in Limerick consigned to the history books, the new management team of Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly has injected a new sense of direction and morale is good.
“Everyone was sad to see James (Horan) go after the progress we made in four years but at the same time, maybe the silver lining is that we have a fresh voice and fresh ideas and even that in itself will have a positive effect.
“No-one is sure where they stand entirely, which you might think is a bad thing, but I think it is a good thing because you need to impress all over again. It’s a good environment to be in. The fact there’s a new management team in means the baggage from last year is zero because they’re just looking at 2015 and beyond. There’ll be no fear of dwelling on last year.”
