Kieran Shannon: Heroes without medals who bring the Project on are All-Ireland winners too
Waterford would not have made it to the last game of this season if they couldnât draw on the reservoir of confidence that came from contesting the final game of the 2017 season, a campaign in which Noel Connors won the third of his All-Stars. Picture:Â INPHO/James Crombie
They wonât be in the same seat as Tony Ăg Regan was, given that no one except possibly family members will be able to watch this yearâs All-Ireland finals from the stands, but thereâs a prospect that a few recently-retired Waterford and Mayo players will feel as if theyâre in the same shoes.
In a passage from Damian Lawlorâs fascinating When The World Stops Watching: Life After the Game that also ran in these pages last week, the former Galway hurler recounted the anguish he experienced being in the lower Hogan Stand at half-time of the 2015 All- Ireland when his old comrades were well on top of Kilkenny and seemed likely to finish the countyâs long wait without Liam MacCarthy.
Although Regan had been one of Galwayâs most impressive players when the two counties had clashed at the same juncture in 2012, within a year he had been discarded by the management while still in his 20s and feeling he still had much more to give.
And so while heâd just contributed to Galway winning another All-Ireland already that day in his role as sport psychologist to the county minors, the dread of not being part of a possible success overrode the satisfaction of having been part of a definite one.
âI suddenly felt I had to get out of there,â he explained with searing honesty. âIn less than an hour there was a chance the cup would be presented 50 yards away from where I was sitting, and I didnât know if I would be able to handle it.â
As it happened, when he tried to head for the exits, he got corralled by a couple of the minor team selectors wanting to chat, and before he could make his escape, the teams were back on the field. His chance to leave had passed, just as Galwayâs opportunity had too as Kilkenny turned the screw.
âAfterwards I was so upset with the thoughts in my head. I wasnât ready to contemplate my old team-mates winning and not being part of it and that experience was like a death inside my soul. A 30-second pitch of darkness. There were 82,000 people packed inside that stadium and I have never felt so alone, so sad and isolated.
âThe voice inside my head was saying: âI hope they lose this; I canât bear this.ââ
There were multiple reasons why Regan was so torn, not least because he had been dropped; it wasnât his decision to finish up with Galway. But while he didnât say so, part of it was bound to have been societal too.
We can be very linear and literal and judgemental about if someone has won an All-Ireland or not and who has won an All-Ireland or not.
Twelve months after Reganâs moment of torment, Kilkenny were eventually beaten in the All-Ireland final, by a Tipperary team managed by Michael Ryan who the previous three years had served as a selector to Ăamon OâShea. Paudie OâNeill had also been a member of OâSheaâs management and after the game he had numerous people come up to him almost commiserating with him that he and OâShea had âmissed outâ, that they hadnât been there when Tipp had âgot over the lineâ.
Thankfully OâNeill had the serenity to be bemused rather than irritated or sorry for himself. He was genuinely delighted Tipp had won, not just for the players, but for what OâShea would call the Project.
Earlier that 2016 season, I sat down with OâShea in NUIG only a few months after heâd stepped aside as Tipp manager following his teamâs one-point semi-final defeat to Galway which itself was within a year of Tipp coming within a hawkeye decision of winning the 2014 All-Ireland. âI did everything I could to help us get over the line but it just wasnât to be for me,â he reflected.
âAnd I think you have to acknowledge that. Because sport is sport and you go in and you want to win. Thatâs part of the pain and the beauty of it â the winners takes all here! Thatâs why we do it! That prospect, that chase!
âBut then are you saying that you classify everything you did there in that period as being unsuccessful? No. Because we took a particular view on how the game should be played â the players and myself. We had a project! And I think the players still have a belief system that I know â not hope, but know â will carry them through.
âIâll be blunt with you â for me, the winning of an All-Ireland is still something to behold whether Iâm the manager or not. It [whether youâre the manager or not] does matter on the day youâre beaten. Itâs painful. But for me the most important thing is there is a project there. I think the team is in a really good position.â
He was right about that: from that platform they won that 2016 All-Ireland. And when they did, it opened OâShea to some criticism, indirect or otherwise. Ger Loughnane spoke about Ryan bringing a steel that his predecessor didnât possess. But just as Loughnane may have been correct that they wouldnât have won the All-Ireland without Ryan at the helm that year, the reality is they wouldnât have won it without OâSheaâs influence either, both in the legacy he left from his work with them in previous years and in 2016 itself.
Throughout that summer he had privately continued to individually coach some players, most notably Seamus Callanan, whoâd score 0-9 from play in that final against Kilkenny. If OâShea wasnât so mature or egoless, he wouldnât have volunteered to assist Callanan and put Tipp in a position to win with no sight of him there. But it wasnât about him. It was about the Project. And so for himself and OâNeill, seeing Callanan and the rest of the team get over the line in their absence was still a sight to behold.
Itâs harder for players to see it like that. CiarĂĄn Whelan has admitted â2011 tore my heart outâ and that it took him a few years to look at all he gained and won in football rather than what he missed out on.
Weâve even had players who were part of championship-winning squads claim that they didnât really feel part of it. For a while Roy Keane was of the view that he didnât win a Champions League in 1999 because he didnât play in the final.
But what weâd hope is that if Mayo finally get over the line next Saturday week, players like Keith Higgins and Colm Boyle will be of the view of an Anthony Lynch. For over a decade he was one of Corkâs leaders and prime players before injury deprived him of being able to play in 2010.
But he was still a member of the panel. And as heâd say in an interview with me upon his retirement, he undoubtedly and unashamedly felt like heâd won All-Ireland medal.
Weâd wish too that an Andy Moran, or indeed a Barry Moran or a Brick Walsh who each retired 12 months earlier again in the summer of 2018, would take the view of a Paudie OâNeill or an Eamon OâShea did in 2016; likewise Noel Connors and Maurice Shanahan, even if the way they finished up is similar to how it ended for Regan.
No All-Ireland is won in isolation. Waterford would not have made it to the last game of this season if they couldnât draw on the reservoir of confidence that came from contesting the final game of the 2017 season, a campaign in which Connors won the third of his All-Stars.
Limerick wouldnât have the team culture they have now only for the example a Gavin OâMahony showed in the 10 years before the breakthrough.
An All-Ireland is like a relay race, only more of a marathon than a lap around the track. You may not run the last leg to get over the line. The baton may even have been snatched off you rather than something you passed on. But you ran your leg. The jersey and the Project has been left in a better place because you did.
These All-Irelands will be won by men who wonât even be in Croke Park.
Unlimited access. Half the price.
Try unlimited access from only âŹ1.25 a week
Already a subscriber? Sign in
